The Denver Police Department said the deaths of two men and a woman whose bodies were found near Interstate 25 and South Broadway Thursday morning are being investigated as a homicide and no suspects have been identified.
"I mean, I've seen homeless people around before you in the little areas, but to hear someone got killed is, it's scary," Charles Juarez, RTD commuter, said.
The area where the victims were killed is right across from a bus RTD Park and Ride underneath I-25 at Broadway. Juarez says it's no longer automatic that he will park there.
"It's just scary," Juarez said. "It's something we'll have to talk about at home."
The three victims, who have not been identified, appear to have been homeless, DPD Division Chief Joe Montoya said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. Investigators could not say how the three people died or why their deaths are being considered suspicious.
"We are stepping up all of our security measures not only in this area but we are going to be doing outreach with our community partners with the transient community," Joe Montoya, Investigations Division Chief, said.
Police will contact people like Brad Meuli, who runs the Denver Rescue Mission.
"Really, everybody in the community is as shocked as I am," Meuli said.
He says mission workers expect the shelters to be more full tonight after the killings.
"I don't care what the weather is like or the situation," Meuli said. "You're always safer inside of a shelter."
There is a 20-year-old man in custody in relation to a stabbing that occurred early Thursday morning near South Santa Fe Drive and I-25 about 500 feet from the location of the homicides.
"We are obviously going to be investigating to determine whether or not there's any connection between that incident and what happened here overnight," Montoya said.
That stabbing was reported at 4:36 a.m., according to Montoya. Kyle Cuffe was arrested a short time later. The victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition. What motivated the stabbing was not released.
A passerby found the bodies of the three transient homicide victims near Broadway and East Ohio Avenue at around 11 a.m., Montoya said.
It’s unclear how long their bodies had been in the area. Montoya said police are working to get in touch with their families.
At this point, officers are looking at surveillance video from near the crime scene. Montoya said DPD plans to increase patrols both at the light rail station near the crime scene as well as in the transient community nearby.
New Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen was on hand to oversee the investigation personally.
"We want to make sure that all people in Denver, our most vulnerable community members that they are treated with the respect and dignity and that the investigation is just as thorough for them as it is for anybody else in this city," Pazen said.
