Police: Kansas women were in Denver prior to their deaths
Investigators in Colorado and Kansas have confirmed that two women from Emporia, Kansas, were in Denver days prior to their bodies being found in Kiowa County.
A five-day search through western Kansas and eastern Colorado concluded Sept. 20 when authorities located Linda Estrada, 39, and Amy Ford, 44, on Sept. 20 south of Eads.
Estrada was reported missing by family members in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, according to a press release from the Emporia Police Department.
The two women had been in Colorado the previous weekend. In fact, EPD asked officers from the Denver Police Department for help in locating them.
"We do have information the women spent time in Denver before their deaths," Emporia PD Capt. Lisa Haynes told CBS News Colorado. "Specialty units within the Denver PD assisted us in getting security video."
A spokesperson for Denver PD confirmed officers assisted in the case. Those officers responded to a Denver location but did not find the women.
Neither department released the specific location in Denver where the women were believed to be, nor a specific location where their bodies were ultimately found. But an extensive resources were used to track them. According to Emporia PD, its searchers used K9s, airplanes, drones, personnel on foot and in vehicles, and cell phone technology during the search. Emporia PD thanked several businesses (namely truck stops and convenience stores), the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with nearly 20 law enforcement and government agencies and missing persons organizations which contributed to the search effort.
Among those law agencies was the Kiowa County Sheriff's Office. That office, according to an Emporia PD spokesperson, has now taken over the investigation into the two deaths.
Thursday, Kiowa County announced a warrant had been issued for the arrest of a man already held in the Lyon County (Kan.) jail on unrelated charges. KCSO intends to extradite Phillip Lieurence, 36, on charges related to the homicide investigation. However, the department did not specify what those specific charges are, nor do any charges or case show up in an online search of court records.
Lieurence, in fact, is not found in a nationwide search of online public records.
KVOE, an Emporia radio station, stated in a report that Lieurence was jailed on 13 charges including aggravated battery and driving under the influence following a police pursuit and crash near Emporia the day before family members went to police about Estrada's disappearance. That report says the women were last seen in Denver on Sept. 8 and that Ford's family reported her missing Sept. 13.
"While Linda and Amy's deaths are not the outcome we'd hoped for, the men and women of the Emporia Police Department offer our condolences to their families and want you to know how many people cared about finding them," Emporia PD stated in its press release.
