BOULDER — An anonymous tip sent to Boulder police in 2001 contained the subject line “girl that was killed with baseball bat” and the misspelled name of suspect Diego Olmos-Alcalde.
But it went unconnected to the baseball-bat beating death of University of Colorado student Susannah Chase three years earlier, and was lost inside a box at police headquarters, investigators testified in Boulder County District Court on Tuesday.
Olmos-Alcalde, 39, who was arrested in the case in 2008 after his DNA matched crime-scene evidence, is in court all week for motions hearings. The hearings resumed Tuesday with defense attorneys questioning detectives about the tip, which was submitted to Crimestoppers and forwarded to Boulder police on Jan. 9, 2001.
The tip, which investigators have since learned came from one of Olmos-Alcalde’s former girlfriends, indicated that “Diego Ivan Olmos Alcalad” had hit a man with a black-handled, blue baseball bat. The description matched the bat used in the Chase homicide on Dec. 20, 1997, but the tipster never referenced the case or mentioned Boulder.
“At one point, she had seen something on TV about the Chase homicide and had called Crimestoppers,” Sgt. Kerry Yamaguchi said.
Yamaguchi, who was in charge of the investigation for the first 10 months, testified Tuesday that the tip indicated “Alcalad” had been arrested by Denver police in 1997 or 1998 on assault charges.
The tipster wrote that police should “see if there is a connection.”
It’s unclear how Crimestoppers knew to send the tip to Boulder, police said.
Olmos-Alcalde’s defense attorney, Mary Claire Mulligan, asked why police didn’t follow up on the tip or make the connection to Chase.
Read more about the 2001 tip that came up in court testimony .
