Denver Police have made an arrest in the murder of 49-year-old Jeanna Leslie at her Stout Street apartment earlier this week.
Terry Dunford, 40, was taken into custody late Friday night in connection with Leslie's murder, authorities confirmed Saturday afternoon.
DPD had put out a Crime Stoppers alert with pictures of Dunford Friday evening and credit tips from the community as helping them find him.
He's being held on a charge of first-degree murder.
Leslie's body was found in her apartment in the 1500 block of Stout Street during the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day.
A man called police saying Leslie was the mother of his children on February 13 and told them he hadn't heard from her in over a week and that she was supposed to pick up their kids for a Nuggets basketball game that night but didn't, the warrant said.
When DPD arrived at Leslie's home at 11:30 that night, the first thing they noticed inside it was the overwhelming smell of decomposition.
The warrant said officers found bloody clothing and blood stains on the carpet and walls of the entryway. They found more blood as they searched the apartment.
Officers found what looked to be a deceased white woman on the floor in the bathroom, the warrant said. Her body had multiple stab wounds and was taken to Denver Health. She was officially pronounced dead just after 1 a.m. on Valentine's Day, the warrant said.
During their investigation, officers noticed many of the blood stains around the apartment looked like someone tried to clean them. They found four different knives throughout the house - two with blood on them.
Investigators also found men's clothes in the apartment and a custody report from the Wheat Ridge Police Department on top of a laptop with Dunford's name, date of birth and description. There were also several cans of Guinness and Corona beer in the apartment.
Inside a shopping bag in the bedroom, police found a wallet with a VA card issued to Dunford, a Hawaii drivers license with his name and picture, and a Denver Rescue Mission card with his name and picture.
Detectives found a receipt with a date and time stamp from a nearby liquor store in a pair of blood-stained pants in the entryway. The warrant said officers went to the store and pulled surveillance footage showing Leslie with Dunford at the store. They were seen leaving together.
Based on that, a print pulled from a butter knife and surveillance footage from Leslie's apartment complex, detectives requested a warrant for Dunford's arrest.
9NEWS spoke to Leslie's 20-year-old daughter, Audra Leslie, one of her four children. She said the family was still in shock.
“We’re just trying to understand that, get past that and try to think about memories, all the good positive stuff to keep going,” she said.
“My mom was unlike any person that I've ever met, she's a really unique character, super free-spirited, she loved to learn, she loved to teach,” Audra continued. “She was always teaching us about anything like flowers, classical music or the next book to read. She was so much fun and full of life and loved to dance, didn't care what anyone thought about her.”
Not too long ago, Audra’s mom did what many aren't brave enough to try. She quit her job, sold her house and traveled for six months, taking her four kids along.
“She took my brother and sister out to like Norway, France, Italy. Me to London, we went to Ireland. She traveled everywhere. Had a huge blast. I'm so glad she got to do that,” she said.
Leslie recently moved to Denver to be closer to her two younger kids.
“She wanted to spend like the rest of her life being with family, as close to family as possible,” Audra said.
While Audra's still trying to wrap her head around what happened to her mom, she says she feels bad for the killer.
