No arrests decades after 4 women found dead in Weld County

Yvonne Rabb's case was one of five priority cases assigned to Kastilahn, who was hired as the first full-time cold case detective at WCSO in 2020. The cases were identified due to their age and potentially workable leads.

Rabb, a mother, was last seen on Nov. 14, 1981, out with friends at a bar in the Five Points area of Denver. At the time, the bar was called Big Al's Bar.

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"We had some information by some witnesses that she was last seen walking down an alley with some men, one who had a shotgun," Kastilahn said. "The witness said they heard a shotgun blast. And that was the last time she was seen."

While the witness identified Rabb as the woman in the alley, they could not ID the men who were with her, according to Kastilahn.

The next day, Rabb's body was found in a ditch near Weld County Roads 8 and 11, not far from Dacono. She had been shot and killed.

"There were names that had been brought to the investigation," Kastilahn said. "They were investigated and nothing came of that."

Vincent Groves, a convicted serial killer who died in prison in 1996, was one of the names.

"He was looked into for the Rabb and [Robin] Nelson cases, but there wasn't any substantial evidence, and, of course, we can't interview him because he's passed away," Kastilahn said.

There was also talk that someone had put a contract out to have Rabb killed.

"We didn't have a name," he said. "It sounded like it wasn't like drugs or money –it was somebody got angry at her and wanted to kill her, but I couldn't find anything to substantiate that other than the claim."

Robin Nelson, 22, lived in the 1400 block of Adams Street in Denver and was last seen alive around 12:30 a.m. on June 7, 1988, according to WCSO.

On that morning, she left her child at a friend's house to work as a sex worker on Colfax Avenue, the agency said.

At around 1:30 p.m. on June 12, 1988, Nelson's body was discovered at Weld County Road 8 and the Interstate 25 West Frontage Road near Dacono.

"She might not have been intentionally murdered," Kastilahn said. "But obviously she was dumped."

Investigators believe Nelson died of a drug overdose. However, the Weld County Coroner was unable to determine an official cause or manner of death.

"It could have been an intentional drug overdose to kill her and then dumped, or accidental and the person panicked and dumped her," Kastilahn said. "Either way, if that was the case, that person would still be liable for her death and should come forward and tell us what happened."

Kastilahn has been in contact with Nelson's husband and daughter, who described a man associated with a brown van who worked at a restaurant on Colfax Avenue. 

"He was very much into doing drugs with her," he said. "So a pretty good suspect for possibly if they had gone out and she overdosed and panicked and took her somewhere to get rid of her."

So far, he's been unable to learn much more about the man.

"I'd like to talk to him, identify him," he said. 

"Losing her the way we did and to not know who did it, initially for me was rough," Valerie Meeks' daughter Idrissa Meeks said. "I was really afraid, just to be there, just to be outside, just to be around and not knowing what happened to her.”

It was Idrissa Meeks, then 19, who reported her mother, 36-year-old Valerie Meeks, missing to Aurora Police on July 3, 1991.

"I remember talking to my grandmother and her saying that she hadn’t talked to my mom. And I started to worry," Idrissa said. "When my grandma said that she hadn’t heard from her, then I called and filed a missing persons report with the police department.”

About two weeks later on July 17, Valerie Meeks' body was found in a field near Weld County Roads 4 and 5, just outside Erie.

“She was the sweetest person. She was very giving, very loving," Idrissa Meeks said from her home in Missouri. "Everybody knew her and loved her.”

Valerie Meeks was found with a plastic bag over her head, and her cause of death was determined to be suffocation. She was a known sex worker along Colfax Avenue in Denver, according to the sheriff's office.

"We had some names but no good evidence to prosecute," Kastilahn said. "That's another case that I'm going to look into the evidence to see if maybe we can get some DNA evidence that would break that case."

Two convicted killers were looked into as potential suspects, Kastilahn said. They included Richard Paul White and Billy Edwin Reid.

White appeared to fit the M.O., Kastilahn said. He's currently in prison in Colorado after confessing to killing five people, including four prostitutes. 

He would have been about 19 when Meeks was killed but would have been too young when Rabb and Nelson went missing to be considered a viable suspect in their cases, according to Kastilahn.

White agreed to sit down for an interview with Kastilahn from prison.

"He was pretty forthcoming with me. He admitted he had pleaded guilty to those murders," Kastilahn said. "He said that if he had killed them he would’ve told me.”

Kastilahn also interviewed Reid, who was convicted in 2008 of killing Lanell Williams and Lisa Kelly. Both women were found dead in the foothills of Jefferson County in 1989 and eventually linked to Reid through DNA, according to prior 9NEWS reporting. 

"He just said he was not guilty," Kastilhan said about Reid. "They’re both in prison for life, both convicted, but Billy said he was adamant that he was innocent of everything.”

Groves, who was looked at in other cases, was already in prison when Valerie Meeks was killed.

At one point, Idrissa Meeks said, she had given up hope that she'd ever find out what happened to her mom. Ultimately, though, she hopes her mom's killer is identified.

“For me, it would mean a lot because to me to finally know who – it would just kind of be a relief and maybe some type of closure," she said. 

"To kind of have an idea of who did, and if we knew the person, or if she didn’t know the person. You know, just to kind of get closure to know what happened, it would be a relief.”

Finding Valerie Meeks' killer could also bring justice to another family waiting for answers.

Tammy Cheeks, 24, was sweet and loving but got mixed up in the wrong crowd, according to her stepmother Judy Reneau. She said she raised Cheeks since she was a toddler and thought of her as her own child. 

On Nov. 15, 1992, Cheeks' body was found by hunters in a concrete irrigation ditch at Weld County Roads 20 and 51, near Hudson. She had been reported missing about a week earlier, according to the sheriff's office.

Like Valerie Meeks, who was found dead in Weld County the year before, Cheeks had a plastic bag over her head. Due to the condition of her remains, a cause of death could not be determined, according to WCSO.

“Both having the plastic bags, both in the timeframe, and like I said, they had friends in common," Kastilahn said.

She was also a sex worker who was known to frequent East Colfax Avenue and the Five Points area of Denver. Cheeks was also an acquaintance of Robin Nelson, who was found dead years earlier in Weld County. 

Groves was already in prison when Cheeks was killed, so could not be connected to the case.

Cheeks has two sons and one of them now helps care for Reneau, who still lives in the Denver metro area.

Kastilahn hopes he can bring them and the other families justice.

"The technology for DNA and any crime scene evidence that we have has advanced more now, and it's broken old cases before," Kastilahn said. "Any tips would be very much welcome. That’s a big reason why I like to do these interviews, to let people know that we are investigating these cases. You never know who might know something.”

Anyone with information about these cold cases can call Kastilahn directly at 970-400-2827.

This story is the first in an ongoing series dedicated to the coverage of cold cases across Colorado. If you know of a case that should be featured, email ColoradoUnsolved@9news.com

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