A registered sex offender in Jamestown was officially named the suspect in a rape and murder that occurred three days before he committed suicide in September.
Thomas Altimus, 35, was named the lone suspect Tuesday in the death of 30-year-old Solange Haik kala on Sept. 10. The autopsy found she was sexually assaulted and died from blunt-force trauma to her neck.
DNA later linked Altimus to the sexual assault.
Friends told investigators that Haikkala had been afraid of Altimus for some time and that they had attended the same party the night before she was killed. She declined when he offered her a ride home and left with another person, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department said in a release Tuesday.
She was found dead the next morning in her home at 18 Ward St.
Investigators were looking for Altimus when he was found dead in the Jamestown woods Sept. 13.
“Neighbors indicated that Mr. Altimus appeared to be upset when he heard sirens on the morning that Ms. Haikkala was found dead,” the Sheriff’s Department said. “He was seen near his residence with a gun and was last seen walking toward woods where a single gunshot was heard later that afternoon.”
