Gone, But Not Forgotten
The Cold Homicide Cases of Linda Benson and Kelley Ketchum
By D.A. Brockett
Linda Benson, courtesy GJPD
It was
a monstrous scene: mother and daughter found stabbed multiple times in their 21st
Street apartment on July 25, 1975. Blood and carnage brutally intruded upon the
domestic landscape — stunning even seasoned investigators because a child was
involved. Members of 1975’s Grand Junction Police Department will never forget
that day, especially since the murders of 24-year-old Linda Benson and her
5-year-old daughter Kelley still remain unsolved after nearly 34 years.
But this year that injustice may be corrected, all because House Bill
07-1272 passed two years ago. This bill required the Colorado Bureau of
Investigations to collect information on cold cases statewide, prompting the
GJPD to sift through their old files. Given charge of this, Commander Greg
Assenmacher remembered a prior conversation with retired police lieutenant Ron
Smith. He’d led the investigation into the murders of Linda and Kelley Benson.
After a visit with Smith,
Assenmacher took the extensive files home and read until 3 a.m. By the time he
had finished, he felt sure modern technology could solve the case.
Knowing the police department’s mission of excellent service and
commitment applied to the past as well as the present, Assenmacher attempted to
obtain funds for a cold case squad. Funding being scarce, the grant was denied.
Undeterred and driven, Assenmacher brought the Benson case to long-time friend
and retired police officer Larry Bullard. After perusing the files, Bullard
enthusiastically volunteered to research the case.
On April 8, 2009, a
64-year-old Longmont resident, Jerry Louis Nemnich, was arrested as a suspect
when he drove his commercial truck across the Colorado-Utah state line.
This extraordinary event hadn’t transpired easily.
Gathering dust on the GJPD’s shelves are 15 unsolved murders dating
from 1975. The longer these cases go unchecked, the less likely it is that a
suspect can be found and prosecuted. As time passes, witnesses are harder to
find, memories become foggy, and chances increase that the suspect is deceased.
And even though file boxes were documented correctly decades ago, it takes
extensive effort to bring an investigation to current standards. Larry Bullard
had his work cut out.
Like all cold case investigators,
Bullard has maintained a Peace Officer’s Standard and Training certification,
which allows him full access to police databases and resources. He also has more
than 35 years of law enforcement experience, beginning with 20 years in
Albuquerque. Included in his resumé is a post as crime scene director for a
fully funded lab. He retired in 1993 as a commander and moved to Grand Junction.
Not one to sit around, he worked with the GJPD and the sheriff’s office for
the next 12 years. Upon his retirement from the SO in 2005 as a lieutenant, he
began part-time employment with the Mesa County Coroner’s Office.
Bullard dove into the Benson case. Under the supervision of Commander
Assenmacher and assisted by retired FBI agent Phil Walter, he spent hundreds of
hours reorganizing, cataloging, and indexing evidence, files, and photos;
interviewing available 1975 investigators; and locating and interviewing
witnesses. The first few weeks, Bullard camped at the police department,
operating out of a box and utilizing any empty office, unoccupied computer, and
unmanned telephone. Eventually he moved into a small office and adjusted to
cramped quarters.
Bullard understood investigation techniques applied in 1975 (he’d been
on the Albuquerque force for two years by then), but he needed to understand
what Grand Junction was like that year and how the police department was run.
Interviewing the original team proved fruitful, creating a corporate knowledge
of the case and the era.
One thing Bullard learned was that in a small town where violence was
rare, 11 murders had occurred by December’s end. These included a woman whose
disappearance would be tied to Ted Bundy and a college coed raped and strangled
in her bathtub. Even more disturbing, little Kelley Ketchum was the first of
three children murdered that year. The police department was tired and
overwhelmed. The victims’ families and friends were traumatized, and so were
Grand Junction citizens. They were buying guns and barricading their doors
against a possible serial killer.
Hardly a day passes that Ron Smith
doesn’t think of Linda and Kelley, longing to bring their heartbroken family
closure. He welcomed Bullard’s questions and recounted every disturbing
detail, as did James Fromm and Doug Rushing, who’d assisted in the original
investigation. Smith’s reconstruction of the case, his understanding of why
some leads were pursued and some not, and knowing where evidence originated
brought clarity and helped Bullard tie things together.
It took 13 months for a break, and
immediately an official task force was formed. Mustering at the new CBI
headquarters in Grand Junction, representatives from the GJPD, the CBI, and the
Mesa County District Attorney’s Office soon made an arrest. Assenmacher
credited strong teamwork, a shared goal, and professionalism in the achievement.
The case is ongoing, and those
involved have a gag order in place. Team members have said that they feel great
satisfaction and hope closure will finally come for Linda and Kelley’s family
and the Grand Junction community.
As for Larry Bullard, he’s up for more cold case investigating and hopes other recently retired, certified law enforcement officers will join him. Commander Greg Assenmacher is preparing another grant proposal and feels confident that one day the Grand Junction Police Department will have an official cold case squad. He wants the families of victims to know their loved ones have not been forgotten.
Larry Bullard, chief investigator CCS Ron Smith, Greg Assenmacher, Mike Nordine 4-20-09 at GJPD Jerry Nemnich mug shot 4-8-09
Murdered July, 1964
The Colorado Department of Public Safety lists numerous arrests for Jerry Nemnich. Most are for violent and sexual offenses, but an early arrest was for check fraud in Grand Junction on August 13, 1964. This was just a month after 18-year-old Patti Haywood was shot twice in an alley near her home, only blocks away from where Linda and Kelley were later murdered. Patti’s murder shocked the city and is still remembered by citizens. Police began an intense investigation, but the crime remained unsolved. Ron Smith assisted with that case and added his expertise to a more recent look at it. He hopes her remaining family will one day know what happened.
The Daily Sentinel July 1, 1964 article
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