2023-04-28 15:04:13
By David K. Li – NBC News
The three teens accused of throwing a rock and killing a young woman driving on a Colorado highway took photos of the deadly scene and then swore “blood brothers” to secrecy, according to the Jefferson Sheriff’s Office.
Nicholas Karol-Chik, Joseph Koenig and Zachary Kwak, 18, have been arrested on suspicion of murder. The arrest warrant affidavit paints a grisly picture of the death of Alexa Bartell, a 20-year-old girl who was driving along a lonely stretch of road in Jefferson County between Denver and Boulder.
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Bartell was on the phone with a friend, Jenna Griggs, at around 10:45 p.m. on April 19, when she suddenly stopped answering, according to a statement from Detective Daniel Manka.
Griggs used an app to locate her friend’s cell phone, which led her to the car, with its windshield smashed, where the young woman was with “a significant head injury” and was “not moving,” according to the statement. sworn.
Griggs called Bartell’s mother and 911 911. A Broomfield officer responded to the scene and took the victim’s pulse. His arm was “cold to the touch,” the affidavit said.
Investigators found “biological matter” in the car and a large blood-stained “river rock” on the side of the road.
Several motorists also denounced that same night that stones had been thrown at them in that same area. Sheriff’s deputies analyzed cell phone data from four nearby antennas and discovered a phone that had been used in “the same area where the victim had been just when she stopped answering.”
The phone was linked to Koenig, according to investigators.
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The other breakthrough in the investigation came when detectives found a friend of Koenig’s, 20-year-old Joseph Bopp, who said he had been with the three suspects at a Walmart shopping center on April 19. The young man assured that he saw the three detainees “picking up rocks from the edge of the parking lot and placing them in the back seat” of Karol-Chik’s truck.
“Joseph said he knew something bad was going to happen, so he insisted they take him home, which they did,” according to the document.
Karol-Chik told detectives that Kwak threw the rock that hit Bartell and then Koenig pulled the truck up to look at the damage. “We have to go back to see this,” Kwak told them, according to Karol-Chik’s account with authorities. “Joe slowed the vehicle down so Zach might take a picture of it. Mitch might tell he felt ‘a touch of guilt.’” , According to the document.
Kwak first told detectives that he might not remember the events of that night, but later “reviewed his statement” when confronted with Karol-Chik’s account, according to the affidavit.
Kwak said the impact sounded like a “cannon” and that he took a photo of the devastation because he “thought Joseph or Mitch would want it as a souvenir,” according to the affidavit.
He also told detectives that “Joseph and Mitch were talking regarding how they were now ‘blood brothers’ and that they might never talk regarding this incident,” according to court documents.
“In addition, Zachary said that Joseph met with him the next day and tried to clear up their stories” so they might deny involvement, according to the affidavit.
A judge ordered the detention of the three without bail. Lawyers for him might not immediately be reached Thursday.
Court documents and sheriff’s deputies have not said what might have motivated the youths to throw the rock that killed Bartell. Bopp told officers that “Koenig is frequently destructive” and “that he likes to create ‘chaos.’
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