BROOMFIELD — A three-month mystery about the whereabouts of a 13-year-old girl who never returned from a 15-minute walk was tragically solved Friday with the identification of a body found in a ditch next to Lowell Boulevard.
Broomfield police said Kelsey Shannon’s decomposed body was found Wednesday about eight-tenths of a mile southwest of her parents’ home.
She had been reported by her parents as an endangered runaway on Oct. 14.
Kelsey had a disagreement with her parents about her friends and told them she was going for a walk, according to a Broomfield police report. She was wearing blue jeans, a gray sweater and Ugg boots at the time.
She was last seen at a convenience store at 5:15 p.m. that day.
Police have been investigating the case since then, authorities say.
Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon on her parents’ porch, Kelsey’s sister, Angela Horne, said: “Our family has lost a beautiful little girl.”
She said her sister was “spirited, loving and full of fun.”
“Kelsey is a 13-year-old girl who one evening asked her mom for her favorite dinner, went out for a walk by the golf course and never had a chance to return home,” Horne said.
Eight detectives are now working on the case, but authorities say they do not know whether the child was the victim of foul play, said Sgt. Mark Goodell, Broomfield police spokesman.
He said police are trying to determine how long the body had been next to Lowell Boulevard in a well-traveled area next to a golf course.
Two passers-by called police independently Wednesday about the body, which was in an area where the grass was about 6 feet high, Goodell said.
“It’s a possibility it’s been there all this time,” he said.
The Adams County coroner is trying to determine the cause of death.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
