The Colorado Bureau of Investigation on Friday announced the agency finished reviewing the Boulder County investigation into CU student Megan Trussell’s death and determined the local response was “reasonable, substantial and supported by the available evidence.” Family members, however, said they have more questions than answers about the 18-year-old’s death.
Trussell was after leaving her campus dorm, Hallett Hall, the night of Feb. 9, 2025. Rangers found her body in hard-to-reach terrain near the Elephant Buttress trailhead in Boulder Canyon the morning of Feb. 15.
The Boulder County coroner’s office ruled her death a suicide as result of the toxic effects of amphetamines and hypothermia.
Trussell’s family and petitioned the state attorney general’s office for an outside investigation. The CBI started looking into Trussell’s case in January after her parents, Joe Trussell and Vanessa Diaz, requested the review under a 2022 law that requires the state to review certain types of cases involving Indigenous people.
“No administrative review can undo the profound loss experienced by the Trussell family or answer every remaining question,” CBI Director Armando Saldate III said in a statement.
The review process ensures every piece of evidence was looked at “with the utmost seriousness, rigor and respect,” Saldate added.
“We offer these findings with deep compassion for Megan’s grieving loved ones and a commitment to continuous improvement in law enforcement practices,” he said.
CBI did not release a copy of the state-level review Friday but said it included looking at the entire investigative record, including digital evidence, cellular analysis, campus access records, body-camera video, search records and forensic files.
The review team presented the case to the agency’s cold case review team July 21, which included about 40 prosecutors, investigators, toxicologists, analysts, victims advocates and forensic pathologists and scientists.
“Based on the totality of the record, and with input from Cold Case Review Team experts, the CBI concluded that the original response and investigation by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office and partner agencies were reasonable, substantial and supported by the available evidence,” state officials said Friday.
According to the CBI, the review showed there was no evidence to support Megan Trussell’s death was a homicide or that she was physically assaulted or that an uncompleted step in the investigation would have changed the finding that her death was a suicide.
Medical experts “strongly supported” the coroner’s finding that her death was caused by elevated amphetamine levels and severe cold exposure. The review also found the initial search response after she was reported missing was extensive and appropriately expanded despite severe terrain and adverse weather that hurt visibility and made it more difficult for dog teams and drones to search Boulder Canyon.
In a statement released through a spokesperson, Megan Trussell’s family said CBI officials appeared disorganized and unprepared while meeting with the family on Friday and gave answers that “were often contradictory and patronizing in nature.”
“CBI did not know basic facts about the case until today, including that the family was the source of locating Megan’s phone and key video evidence,” the family said in a statement. “Today did not bring closure. It reinforced why we are still fighting for real, complete answers about what happened to our daughter.”
Megan Trussell’s family is still trying to obtain a complete autopsy report and photographs, the statement said.
“We deserve the opportunity to have that evidence reviewed by an independent expert with no connection to the agencies that have already reached conclusions in Megan’s case.”
