FORT COLLINS — Dogged police work and new scientific evidence helped Larimer County sheriff’s investigators close one unsolved murder and produce an arrest in another, Sheriff Jim Alderden said Monday.
Earlier Monday, deputies arrested David Hehn, 46, on suspicion of first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping in connection with the brutal killing of 17-year-old Gay Lyn Dixon of Fort Collins.
Dixon’s body was found 2 miles east of Stove Prairie near mile marker 16 on County Road 52E on Jan. 30, 1982. She was beaten, had a broken jaw and three gunshot wounds to her head.
Alderden declined to say what linked Hehn to Dixon’s death. He did say Hehn lives two doors down from Dixon’s parents. Hehn did not surface as a suspect until 2008.
The case is still under investigation and the arrest affidavit is sealed, he said.
But, Alderden said, there is finally some measure of justice in the case even though it came many years late.
“I think it gives us all satisfaction that justice could finally be served,” Alderden said.
Dixon had worked at a local restaurant and had attended a large birthday party of about 200 people the night before she was killed.
Months of intense investigation and appeals to the public failed to turn up any evidence in the case after her murder, Alderden said.
The investigation was reopened in 1999 and again in 2008, he said.
Hehn had an extensive criminal history, including domestic violence and third-degree assault.
In another cold case, Alderden said both his office and the Larimer County district attorney on Friday officially cleared the 1982 murder of 94-year-old retired Longmont teacher and librarian Orma B. Smith.
Alderden said DNA evidence linked Smith’s death to John Agrue. Agrue died at his residence in Illinois last year of alcohol intoxication at age 62.
Smith’s body was found July 9, 1982, in a stream in Big Elk Meadows east of Estes Park. DNA testing performed on evidence found in Agrue’s apartment confirmed his involvement in Smith’s death, Alderden said.
Agrue became a suspect in Smith’s murder several days after her body was found when he attacked a 26-year-old woman from Boulder with a knife.
At the time of Smith’s slaying, Agrue, then 34, was on parole after serving 15 years for fatally stabbing his 14-year-old sister-in-law in 1966 in Illinois.
Cora Amey — Agrue’s niece — told The Denver Post earlier this month that Agrue hinted to her that he killed Smith.
Agrue had befriended Smith, and she let him make calls on her telephone. He often drove her to appointments in his car.
During the past 28 years, Larimer Sheriff’s Lt. Darrell Frank continuously monitored Agrue and stayed in contact with his family in hopes of breaking the case, Alderden said.
“Hopefully his hard work and the work of others, will bring some comfort to her (Smith’s) family,” Alderden said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
