Sheriff's office closes 1975 Boulder murder case
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John Curtis Patterson was found dead on Sept. 29, 1975, in a north Boulder gas station. Photo: Boulder County Sheriff's Office
Boulder County detectives closed a 50-year-old murder case using new technology to link a deceased suspect to the crime scene.
State of play: The Boulder County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday announced that Louis Jess Locicero could be "conclusively" tied to the 1975 stabbing of John Patterson at a north Boulder gas station.
- Detectives said Locicero, who was 32 years old at the time of the murder, died in Idaho in March 2024.
Patterson's siblings put out a statement Thursday thanking the Sheriff's Office, particularly Detective Don Dillard.
- "After so many years, we finally have the long-awaited answers and a sense of justice our family has hoped for."
What they're saying: Dillard, at a press conference Thursday, said he felt it was important to close the case even after discovering Locicero died.
- "I still have a victim's family that needed answers," the detective said.
- Dillard added that when he first reached out to Patterson's family on taking over the case three years ago, "they thought John had been forgotten."
The big picture: Colorado's cold case database had 1,993 cases, including 1,401 unsolved homicides as of February, according to the Colorado Cold Case Task Force.
- Dillard, who took over after the previous cold case detective, Steve Ainsworth, retired, credited the Sheriff's Office with prioritizing cold cases and allowing detectives the time and resources to "think outside the box."
- "We are very proactive in trying to solve these cases and come up with an ending to them … I want to be able to give our families some closure," Dillard said.
Flashback: Patterson, 20, was found fatally stabbed on Sept. 29, 1975, at a gas station where he was a cashier at the 4500 block of Broadway. Detectives believed the murder was committed during a robbery, as the gas station's cash drawer was found open.
- Witnesses at a nearby motel led detectives to identify Locicero as a suspect shortly after the incident. He was arrested and held for three days but released without charges, and his name was not released at the time.
The latest: Dillard said last June new technology analyzed the bottom of the bullets found at the crime scene and connected them to Locicero's rifle.
- The detective also learned when he took over the case that an apparent miscommunication between the sheriff's office and the FBI at the time meant some information and reports were never sent to Boulder.
- Earlier this year, Dillard submitted the new evidence along with previously gathered information to the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, which determined last month that Locicero would have been charged had he been alive.
By the numbers: Boulder County has seen a rise in homicide rates over recent years, with an average of about 10 cases annually since 2022, according to coroner data.
- Four of the 18 deaths ruled as homicides in the county since 2023 happened in the city of Boulder. Neighboring Longmont had nine cases.
- Between 2004 and 2021, Boulder County did not see more than eight cases in any given year, according to state data.
Caveat: The coroner's office also qualifies police shootings as homicides even if no charges are filed.