Denver police have arrested a 31-year-old suspect who they believe is responsible for two separate fatal shootings along the South Platte River Trail last week, officials announced Friday.
Tanner Fielder was arrested Thursday in Black Hawk on suspicion of first-degree murder in the deaths of Lluvia Robles-Banuelos, 31, and Jeremy Hutcheson, 43.
Robles-Banuelos was found dead Sept. 6 on the trail under Interstate 70 near North Washington Street, and Hutcheson, 43, was found dead Saturday near the intersection of South Platte River Drive and West Florida Avenue, the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner reported Tuesday.
Both bodies were discovered just after midnight with multiple gunshot wounds.
Denver police say they identified Fielder as a suspect after officers patroling near the South Platte River Trail heard shots fired shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday in the area of West 13th Avenue and North Zuni Street.
The officers saw someone leaving the area, officials said. They established a perimeter, but couldn’t find the person. Detectives, however, found unspecified evidence left behind that the Denver Police Crime Laboratory connected to the two homicides, police said.
That led to the identification of Fielder as a suspect, and he was taken into custody by Black Hawk and Denver police.
Investigators did not explain how the evidence was linked to the shootings or Fielder.
The motive for the shootings remains under investigation, police said.
Police previously have said they believed both victims were experiencing homelessness.
Jay Hutcheson, Jeremy Hutcheson’s father, disputed that in : “I need to make it perfectly clear that he was not homeless,” he told the station.
Yet following the release of the victims’ IDs, a spokesperson for the Denver Police Department reiterated that investigators believed Hutcheson “was unhoused at the time of his death.”
Neither victim was found near an encampment.
Early findings in the investigation showed the deaths were connected, police said, but they declined to release any more information.
Court records show Fielder’s mother, Rochelle Fielder, filed for a protection order against him in 2018 after a fight related to his gambling addiction. The order includes her concerns about Tanner Fielder’s mental health and that she believed he was a danger to her and to himself.
Rochelle Fielder asked for the protection order to be dismissed in April 2021, according to court records, citing her son’s mental health and stating that she is the only family he has and she wanted to help him get treatment.
When reached by phone, Rochelle Fielder declined to speak with a reporter.
Tanner Fielder’s bail was set at $5 million in Denver District Court on Friday, according to Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Matthew Jablow.
Reporter Katie Langford contributed to this story.
