A body found just off Interstate 70 in Garfield County has been identified as a 38-year-old Aurora woman who had long complained of domestic violence.
Janine Ann Johler was last seen at a home in Aurora on May 1. When Aurora police asked for the public’s help in locating her, she was described as having a diminished mental capacity, according to a 9News account.
Over the past few years, she had filed three requests for restraining orders.
In each case, records indicate she was asking judges to keep Thomas Gordan Burns, 51, away from her. Burns, who has a lengthy record of arrests, several for misdemeanors involving violence, dating back to 1994, was in jail at the time Johler was last seen.
Holly Hopple, Garfield County sheriff’s spokeswoman, did not name any suspects in Johler’s murder. Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the case along with Aurora police, she said.
Burns has been in the Arapahoe County Jail since Jan. 18 on numerous charges including domestic violence. State computerized records available Saturday do not name a victim in that case.
No estimate has been given of how long Johler’s remains had been in an apple orchard where they were found June 12 in a decaying bag that may have been torn open by animals.
A teenage orchard worker found Johler’s body just off Canyon Creek Road, 5 miles west of Glenwood Springs. The dismembered remains were under tree limbs 20 feet off the road and about a quarter mile from Interstate 70.
Johler had been in a car accident and was disabled, said Tena Joslin, 49, of Seabeck, Wash., who is related to Johler’s former boyfriend.
“She was a nice girl,” Joslin said. “She didn’t work because of her disability. She limped.”
Johler and her boyfriend broke up about seven years ago, and she moved to the Denver area where her family lived, Joslin said.
She had a minor criminal record, including a 2001 conviction for prostitution in Denver, according to court records.
Johler obtained a permanent restraining order against Burns on April 25, 2008, according to computerized court records. Nine days later, he was charged in Aurora with violating a restraining order, kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault and domestic violence. Most of the charges were dismissed in a plea in which he served a two-month sentence beginning in August for domestic violence, according to state records.
On Jan. 18, Burns was charged on fugitive warrants from Lakewood and Aurora on four cases totaling 14 charges including theft, resisting arrest, violating a restraining order and domestic violence. He is being held in the Arapahoe County jail on $310,000 bail.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
