Returning a skull to the family of a victim is the last remaining task before authorities once again close the investigation in the McCormick Ranch mass-murder case.
The investigation into the killings of up to 17 former ranch hands was reopened three years ago when Michael McCormick, 53, was released from prison after his murder conviction in a separate case was overturned.
Volunteer investigator Linda Wheeler-Holloway said a series of recent searches at the 2,800-acre ranch near Stratton on the Eastern Plains were fruitless. Since reopening the case, she had found the previously exhumed skull of James Irvine Plance.
She couldn’t immediately return the skull to Plance’s family because no one had ever filled out a death certificate, she said. Kit Carson County Coroner Anthony A. Olaiz will complete the document, and the Plances will finally get the remains 24 years after they were recovered from the ranch.
Kit Carson County District Attorney Bob Watson said Jefferson County officials asked him in 2006 to consider filing charges after Michael McCormick was released from prison.
In the early 1980s, McCormick, and his father, Tom McCormick, who is now dead, were suspected in the disappearances of as many as 17 homeless men who were recruited from a Denver church mission to work on their ranch.
Mike McCormick was convicted of murder at trial in 1987 after leading investigators to the bodies of four men, including three on his family’s ranch. Mike McCormick told authorities of at least six he thought were buried there. But he always denied involvement, blaming his father for the murders.
He was charged in one of the killings, of a man dumped in a field in Adams County. He was convicted and sentenced to life. But he won an appeal, convincing a court that his trial attorney was ineffective. He was headed for a new trial in 2005 when he entered into a deal with Jefferson County prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for his release.
Watson said he was hoping a new burial site could be found on the ranch and provide evidence that could lead to more charges.
“With the death of the father, it makes it really tough,” Watson said.
No charges were filed in the 1980s because father and son pointed fingers of blame at each other, Wheeler-Holloway said.
The case will be reviewed every year to see if any new evidence warrants reopening the investigation again, Watson said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
