BOULDER — Chilean immigrant Diego Olmos Alcalde said he wasn’t in Boulder when University of Colorado student Susannah Chase was raped and beaten to death with a baseball bat in 1997. But if he had, he would have fled back to Chile, he told investigators.
Authorities linked Olmos Alcalde to the crime last year through semen found on Chase’s body and a DNA sample he gave after a kidnapping conviction in Wyoming.
His arrest led to an outcry from the Chilean media. They say Boulder authorities, stung by the unsolved 1996 killing of JonBenet Ramsey, were looking to solve Chase’s slaying by pinning it on a hapless immigrant 10 years after the fact.
Olmos Alcalde faces murder, sexual-assault and kidnapping charges. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will begin presenting evidence after opening statements that are expected today.
The Associated Press
