The Washington Park worker figured the guy was just one of the many long-haired hippies who stayed up too late partying and was sleeping it off in the park.
Michael Thomas, 19, of Golden. Photo courtesy Denver Police Department
The sleeping bag the man was in was beneath a large pine tree near East Mississippi Avenue and Lafayette Street.
It was 4:30 a.m., Saturday, June 23, 1979.
The worker didn’t think anything of it. He kept on making his rounds.
Hours later though, when the worker made another round, he noticed that the person inside the sleeping bag still hadn’t moved.
He walked over and shook the man’s shoulder. As he did so the flap of the sleeping bag fell back and the worker saw blood.
The man had been shot in the head.
Someone apparently crept up to the sleeping man, put a gun to his head and fired.
If anyone saw any kind of a confrontation that morning they didn’t come forward.
Denver Det. John Weber investigated the shooting, according to an in-depth article by Philip Reed of the Rocky Mountain News.
An Denver Coroner’s Office investigation determined that the victim was Michael Thomas, a 19-year-old man from Golden.
Weber interviewed many of Thomas’ friends, tracking the murdered man’s steps the last day of his life.
If someone killed Thomas because they thought he was a homeless man they were wrong, according to the investigation.
