AURORA, Colo. — Aurora Police said they are investigating a homicide-suicide that started with a report of a woman who went missing while working her job as a housekeeper.
"I don't think the family will ever get closure unfortunately, but certainly this is just the beginning of this investigation," said Matt Longshore, Public Information Officer with Aurora Police.
The Arapahoe County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Elena Vonfeldt. She was 62 years old.
According to Aurora Police, Vonfeldt's son told officers his mother was expected to arrive by 7 a.m. to a condo located in the 18300 block of East Kepner Place in the Tollgate Overlook neighborhood.
Her son told police he hadn't heard from Vonfeldt and she missed other appointments throughout the day. So he came looking for her, according to police, finding her car in the parking lot instead.
He called police and reported her missing.
“We were notified around 11 o’clock is when we responded out there," Longshore said. "Officers knew which location, the son pointed it out to officers because he knew his mother was in there, supposed to be cleaning it."
Aurora Police say officers arrived and attempted to make contact with the person inside.
"Officers made the decision to force entry into the condo at which point there was a gunshot that was heard inside the house," Longshore said. "Officers went into the house, found a 30-year-old Aurora man now suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
He was taken to a nearby hospital and later died. His identity has not yet been released.
Inside the condo, Longshore said officers immediately knew something bad had happened.
"Based on what they observed, some of these crime scene and major crimes detectives described this as one of the most disturbing crime scenes they've ever been on," Longshore said. “As officers were clearing the house, they were met with a lot of disturbing things. They found portions of a dismembered body inside of the condo. They continued their search which led them outside to a dumpster where they found the remaining dismembered body parts in the dumpster in the back parking lot."
Aurora Police said it isn't immediately clear whether Vonfeldt and the suspect had known each other prior to meeting on Wednesday or why he would want to harm her. They're also trying to determine what happened in the hours between her arrival and the suspect's death.
"There's obviously a big time gap, 7 a.m. is when she was supposed to get there, 11 p.m. is about the time the son notified us," Longshore said. "Investigators have been working to try to put together a timeline, figure out if this man left, where he might have gone, searching through video evidence."
Aurora Police said they have a long investigation ahead of them but they're hopeful they'll be able to bring Vonfeldt's family answers about what happened.
"Certainly our hearts and prayers and thoughts go out to that family," Longshore said. "Here was a mother that was trying to make a living by cleaning houses and was met by violence."
APD said they're asking neighbors in the area with doorbell cameras or surveillance footage from Wednesday to double-check that video to see if they might have caught something on camera.
“If you live there, please review your footage from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. yesterday. If you see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, please let investigators know,” Longshore said.
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