GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—A Grand Junction man who originally reported his girlfriend missing now faces murder charges in the case of a woman found dead near Colorado National Monument.
David James Norman, 44, was charged Friday with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence, The Daily Sentinel reported ( ).
Norman has been held at the Mesa County Jail for allegedly violating parole since July 2, when the body of 49-year-old Kathy Fortner was discovered near the west entrance of the Monument.
Norman reported Fortner missing on July 2, telling police she left after an argument. Norman claimed she’d left without her purse, money or identification, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Deputies had earlier noted a faint odor of bleach in the apartment. They also saw blood in the bed and on the rear bumper of a pickup truck parked outside. Gathered for DNA testing, the blood later proved to be Fortner’s.
Tourists found Fortner’s body later that day. She’d suffered multiple blunt-force injuries primarily around the head, Mesa County Coroner Dr. Dean Havlik said.
Havlik concluded Fortner was killed elsewhere and left just outside the west gate.
Turning to surveillance video at the Monument, a camera captured a pickup truck at the west entrance in the pre-dawn hours of July 2.
Roughly an hour after the truck was initially spotted, the camera spots the same truck stopping near where Fortner’s body was found, the affidavit said. Other cameras capture a man behind the wheel of the pickup and its license plate number.
A half-hour later, Norman is seen on another surveillance camera at a North Avenue car wash where he spends about 15 minutes washing the truck, “appearing to pay special attention to the truck bed,” before throwing away several other items, the affidavit said.
A witness told investigators Norman had confided fighting with Fortner over money problems.
Norman was serving parole stemming from a 2002 assault arrest in Summit County. He was also convicted in 1993 of receiving stolen property in California and sentenced to two years in prison. In 2000, he was convicted of carrying a firearm with a prior felony conviction in Oklahoma.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
