DENVER — Four days after he was arrested at his Denver home, a former professor at Regis University appeared in court while shackled at the wrists and ankles and heard a judge advise him of his new charges.
Nicholas Myklebust, 44, now officially faces a first-degree murder charge along with a felony charge of tampering with evidence.
On Monday, investigators found his wife, Seorin Kim, 44, severely beaten in their home in the 3200 block of Syracuse Street. Doctors pronounced Kim dead at the hospital while the couple’s 2-and-a-half month old daughter was found dead in the home.
On Friday, the Office of the Medical Examiner said Kim died of “blunt force injuries” while the baby’s manner of death is still pending an investigation.
Court documents indicate Myklebust called 911 just before 7 a.m. Monday and said to the operator he “just found his wife on the ground with blood coming from her head” and that he also found their infant daughter “not breathing.”
During an interview with police, investigators noted Myklebust had scratches on his body and blood and bruising on his knuckles, according to an affidavit. When asked how his wife died, Mycklebust told police “that he was sleeping and that she must have fallen off the step ladder in the bedroom.”
During the interview, Myklebust revealed to officers that the couple “both have depression since the death of their first child in 2021.”
The Office of the Medical Examiner also revealed on Friday that the couple’s first child died at 9 days old in 2021 after being rushed by ambulance to Children’s Hospital and that cause of death remains “undetermined.”
A Denver prosecutor said in court on Tuesday that the couple’s first child had a “cranial fracture” at the time of death in 2021.
Police wrote in their affidavit that the numerous injuries to Kim’s body were inconsistent with a fall, while noting it appeared Myklebust was involved in a “physical altercation.”
On Friday, a spokeswoman for Regis University confirmed Myklebust is no longer associated with the school, where he studied the English language during the middle ages.
Myklebust is in custody under a $5 million bail pending his trial.
