Denver police have arrested 30-year-old Lavar Sillemon on suspicion that he killed his mother, Denetta Mills, who was found dead Wednesday afternoon inside her north Denver home.
Neither police nor the coroner’s office have released Mills’ cause of death, but officials said this afternoon it would be released after the completion of the autopsy.
Sillemon was taken into custody a few blocks away a short time after her body was discovered, Denver police said.
Mills was 49 years old. Relatives or friends asked police to go to her home at 1900 E. 35th Ave. Wednesday afternoon and officers discovered her dead inside. The case was immediately classified as a homicide.
Police spokesman Sonny Jackson said there were numerous witnesses and several people were taken into custody for questioning Wednesday evening. Sillemon was named as a sole suspect in the homicide this morning.
He is being held without bond in the Denver County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Public records show he has been arrested numerous times in Denver and Jefferson counties on assault charges, including a 1998 assault-while-in-custody charge. A month later, he was charged with assault on a peace officer.
In 1999, he was sentenced to eight years in prison to cover several convictions or pleas, records indicate.
Court records show Sillemon uses the alias Little Rain Man.
Mills had lived in the home since 2009 and was widowed in 2008 records show. She previously had lived in Lakewood, Aurora and Chicago, records show.
