United States Fire Administration
Technical Report Series
The Grems Case:
How an Arson Case Was
Solved and Prosecuted
in Colorado
Federal Emergency Management Agency
United States Fire Administration
National Fire Data Center
United States Fire Administration Fire Investigations Program
The United States Fire Administration develops reports on selected major tires throughout the
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bring to light new knowledge about fire - the effect of building construction or contents, human behavior in
fire, etc. In other cases, the lessons are not new but are serious enough to highlight once again, with yet
another fire tragedy report.
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The United States Fire Administration wishes to acknowledge the support and cooperation of the
Aurora, Colorado Fire Department who alerted us to this interesting and informative case. In particular we
wish to acknowledge the cooperation of Aurora Fire Chief John Speed and Lieutenant Marty LaRusso,
Supervisor of Aurora’s Fire Investigation Bureau.
For additional copies of this report write to the United States Fire Administration, National Fire
Data Center, 16825 South Seton Avenue, Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727.
The Grems Case:
How an Arson Case Was
Solved and Prosecuted
in Colorado
Report by: Hollis Stambaugh
This is Report 047 of the Major Fires Investigation Project conducted
by TriData Corporation under contract EMW-90-C-3338 to the United
States Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Federal Emergency Management Agency
United States Fire Administration
National Fire Data Center
The Grems Case:
How an Arson Case Was
Solved and Prosecuted
in Colorado
Reported by: Hollis Stambaugb
Primary Local Contacts: Fire Chief John Speed and
Lieutenant Marty LaRusso
Aurora Fire Department
Aurora, Colorado
(303) 695-7110
With assistance from
case documentation
prepared by:
Deputy Sheriff Joseph Dempsey
Deputy Sheriff Scott Linne
Arapahoe County Sheriffs Department
Investigator William Jones
Aurora Fire Department
Detective Katherine Reis
Captain Bruce Goodman
Sergeant Dale Goetz
Boulder County Sheriffs Department
Detective Greg Neal
Westminster Police Department
FORWARD
For many years the United States Fire Administration has been
making available to practitioners, researchers, and students of fire
protection, timely reports on our nation’s most critical fires and hazardous
materials incidents. It is under the Major Fires Investigation Report Series
that important lessons are documented and shared with the fire service so
that we all can learn the best approaches for controlling fire loss and for
enhancing firefighter health and safety.
This report was researched and prepared for inclusion in the Fire
Investigations Report Series because of USFA’s concern over the ominous
trends in our country’s arson experience. Those trends include an increase
in the percentage of residential fire deaths caused by arson, the growing
problem of juveniles and their proportionate over-representation among
arsonists, the use of explosives in set fires, and the ongoing struggle to
coordinate investigation duties between police and fire agencies. Any fire
investigation unit which has recently completed and closed a particularly
noteworthy arson case is encouraged to notify the United States Fire
Administration by contacting the Major Fire Project Officer at
(301) 447-1271. Here the development of the arson case is what is of
interest (more than the magnitude of the fire) including investigation
approaches, interagency coordination, prosecutor support, and the specifics
that led to the final outcome of the case.
CASE CAPSULE
Three juveniles, friends since childhood, stole explosives from a
mine; blew up part of a high school, three vehicles, and a gas station; and
set four elementary school fires while eluding fire and police personnel
from a region in Colorado for two years. Nicknaming themselves “Grems”
after the movie Gremlins, the three often donned camouflage or military
fatigues while carrying out their planned “missions.” Evidence sent to the
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms lab in San Francisco, California and a
taped interview of a juvenile who identified his acquaintances and their
crimes, and the sharing of information among fire investigation agencies
combined to give officials a break in the case, and ultimately led to
unusually stiff sentences for the threesome.
YOUTHFUL MISCHIEF TURNS TO SERIOUS CRIMES
Joel, Chuck, and Gary were above-average in intelligence boys
who spent much of their free time together. As kids, they planned war
games and acted out super hero roles. Later in their teens, they went
camping, sometimes near the site of the John Jay mine above Boulder,
Colorado, that was owned and operated by Gary’s father. Using a
duplicate key he had made from his father’s key, Gary would gain access to
the explosives bunker and, together with his friends, would steal explosives.
At first they experimented by blowing up rocks and ant hills. Soon they
graduated to real property, thus crossing the line from mischief to felony.
In the summer of 1986, the three boys went joyriding and broke
some windows in a Westminster, Colorado elementary school. They left
the scene, drank beer, and drove back to the school where they then threw
1 Names have been changed for the sake of this report.
2 Name suppressed for this report (not “John Jay”).
Page 2
lighted molotov cocktails through the broken windows. Over the course of
the summer, Chuck, Joel, and Gary repeated this pattern of arson
bombings in two other elementary schools; they also returned to the
original school and ignited it a second time. The three boys began calling
their planned fire setting, “missions,” and donned camouflage clothing
before embarking on their sprees They agreed to wear tennis shoes
instead of Army boots, however, to keep down the “clumping” noise that
would be associated with heavy boots.
A year passed. During the summer of 1987, the three boys again
made plans to steal and use explosives. They bombed a high school in
Arapahoe County. A gas station in Boulder County was another target.
Also in Boulder, two of them, Gary and Joel, blew up a Ford Mustang and
a Ford pickup truck A 1966 Mustang parked in a townhouse complex in
Aurora was bombed too.
Following is a synopsis of the investigation of each incident. A map
depicting the location of these incidents and of their proximity to the mine
is presented in the appendix
SYNOPSIS OF INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS
Incident #1 - Boulder County Vehicle Bombings, May 17, 1987
At 0240 hours on May 17, 1987, the Boulder Regional
Communications Center (dispatch) of the Boulder County Sheriffs
Department received numerous telephone calls from citizens reporting an
explosion in the area of the Habitat Apartment Complex at 6255 Habitat
Drive, Boulder County. Boulder Sheriffs Lieutenant Philip West arrived at
the Habitat Complex at 0250 hours with units from the Boulder Rural
Volunteer Fire Department. Lieutenant West observed a crowd of people
near the southeastern parking lot where two cars had exploded.
The exploded vehicles were subsequently identified as a brown 1979
Ford XLT truck with Colorado license plate 008ILU and a silver 1977
Ford Mustang with Colorado license plate FND911.
Witnesses interviewed by the officers and by fire department
personnel at the Habitat Complex stated they heard two or three
explosions. Some witnesses reported smelling something like burned
gunpowder or burned firecrackers following the explosions, and of seeing
flashes.
Page 3
On May 19, 1987, and on June 1, 1987, Boulder Sheriffs Detective
Phil Raznick and Sergeant Dale Goetz interviewed the owners of the
vehicles. The owners stated that they moved to the apartment on March
16, 1987, and they had no problems with anyone before or since moving.
They knew no motive for their vehicles being bombed.
Sergeant Goetz, who responded to the bombing scene, stated in his
written report that from the direction and pattern of the explosion it
appeared one bomb was placed under the front left comer of the Mustang,
and another bomb was placed on the passenger side of the pickup truck
He found six strands of orange safety fuse -- three to the Mustang, two to
the pickup truck and one adjacent to the vehicles in the grass. Sergeant
Goetz and Detectives Phil Raznick and Rick Ferguson collected evidence
from the cars and the bombing scene for laboratory processing.
On June 2, 1987, Sergeant Goetz shipped the following evidence
from the Habitat bombing to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (BATF) laboratory in California requesting analysis including the
identity of the fuse manufacturer and the manufacturer of the blasting cap
and the type of explosive: 1) length of woven fabric sheath; 2) unburned
safety fuse; 3) burned safety fuse; 4) vehicle components; and 5) metal,
paper and foil fragments.
Incident #2 - Boulder County Gas Station Bombing, June 2, 1987
At 0237 hours on June 2, 1987, the Boulder Regional
Communications Center received numerous phone calls reporting
explosions in the area of Arapahoe and 55th Streets, Boulder County.
Investigating Sheriff’s officers found that the A&A Amoco service station,
closed for the night, at 1595 Arapahoe Street was damaged by multiple
explosions. Boulder Sheriff’s officers interviewed witnesses who stated they
heard from two to ten explosions, saw flashes and smoke, and smelled
smoke.
The A&4 Amoco owner told the detective the only possible motive
he could offer was a recently terminated employee. Another Amoco
employee, who had worked at the station until 0015 hours on June 2,
reported to Detective Rasnick that he knew of no motive and that there
were no problems at the station that night.
Sheriffs Sergeant Dale Goetz came to the bombing scene and
directed the collection of evidence at the station. He details in his written
reports that one explosion occurred at the base of the diesel pump, one
explosion at a premium gasoline pump, one explosion at the base of the
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pump west of the premium gasoline pump, one explosion at the base of an
unleaded gasoline pump, two detonations on one propane tank, one
explosion near the second propane tank, and one explosion next to the
small building adjacent to the main station. Expended orange safety fuse
was found all around the scene. Sergeant Goetz found one unexploded
cartridge of Dupont Tovex explosive next to the small building. He
reported that the blasting cap fell out of the cartridge and failed to cause
the Tovex to explode.
The small building, the gasoline pumps, and the one propane tank
were damaged to the extent that they required removal or replacement.
The unexploded Tovex cartridge displayed a date ship code of
85AP2OX which was relayed to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms agent Roland Gilbert on June 2, 1987, to initiate a records search
to determine who purchased Tovex with that code number. Agent Gilbert
reported to Sergeant Goetz that 99 cases of DuPont Tovex with that date
ship code were sold by DuPont Chemical Company to the Buckley Powder
Company of Grants, New Mexico. The Buckley Powder Company sold
thirty of the 99 cases to Fatima Minerals, Inc. (owner of the John Jay
Mine) of Jamestown, Colorado on June 26, 1985.
Three days later Sergeant Goetz shipped the following evidence
from the Amoco station bombing to the BATF laboratory in California,
requesting analysis including the identity of the fuse manufacturer, the
manufacturer of the blasting cap, and a comparison of these materials with
the evidence from the Habitat Apartment Complex bombing: 1) burned
safety fuse; 2) debris from gas pumps; 3) piece of a blasting cap; and 4)
debris from the propane tanks.
On June 9, 1987, authorities from Boulder County met with the
manager of the John Jay Mine, Tim Hurtle.3 Mr. Hurtle showed them
the powder magazine in which the Tovex was stored. They observed
Tovex with the date ship code of 85AP2OX in 19 sealed cases, one
unsealed case containing 50 tubes, and 23 tubes in a bucket. Fuse type
blasting caps were at the mine, and Mr. Hurtle said those were no longer
used. He showed them the log in which explosives’ use was documented.
Detective Matthews found the log to be very inaccurate and to be a record
from which it was impossible to compute inventory. He said that as many
as 49 sticks of Tovex were unaccounted for.
3 Name has been changed for the sake of this report.
Page 5
Mr. Hurtle told authorities that since August 1985, no Tovex had
been used in the mine. He said locks to the powder magazine were
changed two years prior and that only he and his partner had keys. He
stated that no keys were kept at the mine.
On September 17, 1987, approximately three months after evidence
from the vehicle bombings and the gas station bombings were sent to
BATF, reports of the chemical tests showed the presence of “major
constituents of DuPont Tovex watergel explosives.” The lab further
identified the fuse as “similar in construction to Apache (Coast Fuse)
Orange Sequoia fuse.” Two weeks later in a written report, BATF
concluded that “the materials involved in this investigation are properly
identified as explosive bombs.”
Incident #3 - Aurora Car Bombing, August 8, 1987
On August 8, 1987 at approximately 0114 hours, the Aurora Fire
Department responded to 3765 South Danube Circle in the City of Aurora,
(County of Arapahoe) Colorado, regarding an explosion of a 1966 Ford
Mustang. Investigator William Jones of the Aurora Fire Department’s Fire
Investigation Bureau, responded to the scene, along with police officers and
fire crews from the City of Aurora. Investigator Jones arrived at the scene
and observed the following:
n An intentional explosive was placed in the rear of a 1966
Ford Mustang convertible. The vehicle was parked directly
in front of 3765 South Danube Circle and was white in color
with a black convertible top.
n Then vehicle sustained total damage to the rear half with
fragments of the car found in excess of 240 feet away.
n The explosive forces from the device that was placed in the
Mustang also damaged two neighboring vehicles. The
damage to the two neighboring vehicles, a 1965 Volkswagen
and a 1985 Honda Civic, consisted of scrap metal scraping
the vehicles and broken glass.
n The explosion site was located in a townhouse type complex.
Occupants were in the 3765 South Danube Circle address,
located approximately 25 feet away from the front of the
Mustang.
Page 6
n Investigator William Jones contacted the Fire/ Explosion
Bureau supervisor, Lieutenant Douglas McBee, who
responded to the scene and assisted Investigator Jones in
assessing the explosion damage to the Mustang.
n Lieutenant McBee and Investigator Jones utilized their past
experience and training in the area of explosive scenes, and
readily identified that a high order explosive (i.e., dynamite,
Tovex, military explosives, etc.) was used on the Mustang.
This was determined by examining the metal which had been
ripped and tom away from the Mustang and scattered over
the 240 foot radius from the car. This type of explosion rips
and tears metal, blowing it over a wide area, in contrast to a
low order explosive which generally “pushes” the metal but
rarely rips or shrapnels it in the area of the explosion.
n Lieutenant McBee and Investigator Jones requested
assistance from the Denver Police Bomb Squad in the
investigation of the explosion scene. Detective David Haley
of the Denver Police Bomb Squad arrived and confirmed that
a high order explosive indeed was used on the Mustang and
agreed with Lieutenant McBee’s findings.
One of the officers at the scene canvassed the area and spoke to
witnesses. One witness had observed two males running away from the
explosion site; another had come close to being hit on his bicycle as a
vehicle leaving the area of the explosion raced away. That same car was
observed by a Battalion Chief while responding to the scene.
The Mustang was placed into Police impound and towed to the
Aurora Police Evidence Bay. On August 9, Lieutenant McBee,
Investigator Martin LaRusso (Aurora Fire Investigations Bureau) along
with Investigator Dempsey (Arapahoe County Bomb Squad) began an
indepth investigative analysis of the vehicle. Swabs were taken from the
tom metal areas for analysis by the BATF lab in California. A section of
time fuse was analyzed and found to be orange in color. It also was sent
to the lab.
Lab results later showed the following:
“That a high order explosive was used to blow up the Ford
Mustang and that the explosive was identified as Tovex This
particular type of explosive is sealed within a plastic type sack
and is in a gelled compound. The explosive has the
Page 7
appearance of a sausage and is generally white in color and
has to have a blasting cap to detonate it. A fuse was used
with the explosive thereby revealing that possibly a nonelectric
type blasting cap was used to initiate the detonation.”
Incident #4 - Arapahoe County High School Bombing,
August 30, 1987
Arapahoe County dispatch notified Deputy County Sheriff Dempsey
to respond to a suspicious explosion at Eagle Crest High School. It was
0230 hours on August 30, 1987. When he arrived at the school,
Investigator Dempsey spoke with an investigator from Cunningham Fire
Protection District and an investigator and senior serviceman from Public
Service Company. The three men expressed concern to Dempsey over
damage to a 3-inch gas pipe that came from an emergency generator inside
the high school. They agreed that damage was not consistent with a
natural gas explosion.
Dempsey observed that an 18 by 20-inch hole was blown into the
wall. He found a section of orange time fuse eight feet from the hole.
The section of pipe remaining in the wall had jagged, sharp edges,
consistent with a high explosive charge being placed close to the top of the
Pipe-
At that point, Dempsey called additional personnel to the scene
from the Denver Police Bomb Squad, the Aurora Fire Department and the
Arapahoe County Sheriffs Department. The call to Aurora was made
specifically so that their investigator could compare this explosion to the
bombing of the 1966 Mustang three weeks earlier.
The investigators and detective divided investigation tasks among
themselves: evidence collection, scene sketching, debris analysis and
photographing the scene. They agreed that a high order charge had been
placed on top of the gas line closest to the building. The lit fuse detonated
the main charge and the resulting explosion damaged the gas pipe,
ultimately causing $l0,000-$15,000 in damage. They noted that the blast
residue had a sweet odor.
Investigator Dempsey placed samples from the scene into evidence
and submitted the samples to the California BATF lab. Five months later,
a BATF report dated January 29, 1988 identified the fuse as “similar in
construction to Apache (Coast Fuse) Orange Sequoia safety fuse...” The
report went on to list the chemical components of the sample, concluding
that “these are the major components of DuPont Tovex watergel
Page 8
explosives.” A metal fragment was found to be of aluminum, consistent
with a blasting cap shell.
The day after the high school bombing Investigator Dempsey
received a call from the Boulder Sheriffs Department informing him that
Boulder County had experienced four high order explosions recently. The
Sheriff’s Department noted the car bombings and the gas station explosion
where they found orange time fuse and unexploded Tovex 220. Two other
minor explosions also had indications of a high order explosion. They
discussed the following similarities among the Arapahoe County, Aurora,
and Boulder County explosions:
COMMON FACTORS
n Orange time fuse was found at all four sites.
n All of the explosions occurred after midnight in the early
morning hours.
n The explosions involved nonelectric type blasting caps,
initiated by orange time fuse.
n Placement of the explosives indicated a similar modus
operandi -- an attempt to get a flammable vapor boost from
the explosion to help create a large fireball.
n Masking tape or duct tape was found at all four scenes.
n The explosive used was Tovex.
INFORMANTS PROVIDE CRITICAL BREAK
For approximately one year there were few new developments in the
cases. One unrelated incident, however, ultimately led to key testimony in
the “Grems” case. A number of juveniles who attended Smokey Hill High
School took up the hobby of manufacturing pipe bombs. One of the
youths, Sheldon: was caught with homemade devices in the trunk of his
car. Since it was a first offense and the youth appeared truly contrite,
Aurora Fire Investigator Marty LaRusso requested leniency for Sheldon in
the juvenile courts. In return, Sheldon agreed to be the Department’s eyes
and ears on the street and to report any information about actual bombings
or arson fires.
4 Name has been changed for the sake of this report.
Page 9
Sheldon was as good as his word. Early in the evening of January 4,
1989 he contacted Investigator LaRusso explaining that he knew who was
responsible for bombing the high school in Arapahoe County and the gas
station in Boulder.
Aurora investigators contacted Boulder and Arapahoe County
investigators to assist in the interview of Sheldon. This was done
specifically to have the agencies verify facts only known to them about their
Cases.
Three hours later Sheldon and a friend of his were relating valuable
information to Aurora fire investigators and to an investigator from the
Arapahoe County Bomb Squad. Sheldon’s friend told of seeing explosives
in Chuck’s possession in the summer of 1987; and related that Chuck had
bragged about “blowing up” the high school, going on missions in Boulder
with Gary and Joel, burning four schools in Westminster, and stealing
explosives from a mine near Boulder. Both Sheldon and his friend were
able to provide details about the crime scenes that were not public
knowledge.
Lieutenant LaRusso contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (BATF) on January 5 and related what had transpired the prior
evening. Aurora’s investigator requested that BATF conduct a name
search of the employees of the Fatima mine -- the mine to which
unexploded Tovex from the gas station bombing had been traced. The
name search revealed the identity of the owner who the Aurora
investigator and an BATF Special Agent interviewed the following day.
When asked if he knew the three suspects, the owner admitted that one of
them was his son Gary, who was in the U.S. Navy stationed in port at
Norfolk, Virginia, and that the other two were longtime friends of his son.
Later that same day investigators interviewed yet another informant who
corroborated the earlier reports and elaborated on the description of the
explosives. He also provided details on the cases based on what one of the
suspects had told to him.
THE ARRESTS
A few hours after midnight, on January 7, authorities from the cities
of Denver and Aurora and from Arapahoe County took Chuck into custody
from his residence in Denver. He was later released on bail. Later that
morning Joel was awakened at his home in Westminster and questioned by
officials from Aurora and Boulder County. He admitted to helping steal
Tovex and to participating in missions. Joel told investigators that he got
nosebleeds whenever he entered the mine or touched the explosives. He
Page 10
also acknowledged that he helped bomb the high school, the gas station,
and vehicles; and that he was involved in setting fires in four elementary
schools.
Over the next few days, Joel cooperated with authorities, making
further statements and filling in many details about the bombing and arson
incidents. With his attorney’s assistance, Joel then turned himself in to the
Arapahoe County Jail and Justice Center, and he was placed in jail.
The U.S. Navy was informed that an affidavit of arrest awaited Gary
in Colorado. He was held for extradition in Norfolk until arrangements
could be made to turn him over to authorities in Colorado. He too was
placed in jail.
THE ROLE OF INFORMATION SHARING
The initial sharing of information occurred as part of a conversation
between two investigators from different jurisdictions who compared notes
on recent cases and found the similarities with the Grems’ incidents. In a
short time, investigators were personally helping each other on several of
the scenes suspected to be linked to the same perpetrators.
It is often pointed out that arsonists do not necessarily limit
themselves to the particular boundaries of a single jurisdiction. The Grems
case is a perfect example of how criminals repeat the same crime in
neighboring communities. The initiative taken by a few investigators to
communicate with their colleagues and with BATF about the explosion and
the lab results was critical to putting together the related pieces of solving
the cases. It is for this very reason that county-wide or regional arson task
forces are so often a sensible approach.
While a formal task force was not operating at the time of this case,
the investigators from at least four different agencies established a network
of communication and in some cases assisted each other with the
preliminary scene investigation. At least one investigator from the agencies
of Aurora, Arapahoe, Westminster or Boulder were involved with
interviewing the informant and suspects. This assisted the investigation
process by having the scene investigators ask questions specifically known
to them and strengthened cooperation among agencies. Reports were
required to be turned in to the Aurora Fire Investigations office and were
redistributed as an overall case summary.
In a similar fashion, the prosecutors from the three counties
involved (Adams, Arapahoe and Boulder) had to cooperate in order for
Page 11
the cases to be tied together and prosecuted in one county. This was done
under a plea bargain arrangement, whereby secondary charges were
dropped (burglary, trespass) with the stipulation that the trio plead guilty
on the remaining charges in Arapahoe County courts.
(During the investigation, the three juveniles also admitted to setting
fire to several residences that summer. Interestingly, when their
confessions were checked out, it was discovered that all of these residential
fires were indeed on the records, but that each one had been “determined”
to be accidental.)
STIFF PENALTIES
The Grems case had an unusual conclusion. It was unusual because
the court system and the judge took the bombings and arson fires quite
seriously. Even though the band of three had not caused any casualties
their actions did jeopardize the safety of people living within the
immediate vicinity of the vehicle bombings and the damaged buildings and
cars. Nevertheless, given the lack of casualties, few would have expected
the young men to receive much more than a slap on the wrist.
The State of Colorado recognizes mandatory sentencing. Anyone
convicted of three or more Class 4 or higher felonies is considered to be a
“habitual” offender and the rules of mandatory sentencing are applied. The
three young men admitted to committing at least three crimes rated Class 4
or higher. In return for agreeing to a mandatory, fixed jail time, a plea
bargain was constructed that contained these provisions:
n Immunity from prosecution if found to be involved in any
other fires over the same time period.
n Requirement that they identify the location of any other
explosives that they had stolen. They would then be provided
with immunity from prosecution if connected to any other
explosion in the same time period.
n Requirement that they cooperate with authorities after
sentencing to show how they carried out their crimes, for the
sake of training purposes.
Chuck, the youngest, was tried as a juvenile and received the
maximum term for juveniles: incarcerated for 18 months plus five years
probation. He has since served that time and is now serving his
probationary period. Joel received a jail sentence of eight years; he will
Page 12
serve half that time if he demonstrates good behavior. Since his
incarceration he has been a model prisoner and has earned the right to
weekend leaves. Gary became verbally abusive with the judge and with
one of the Aurora investigators; he was sentenced to 18 years in jail, nine
of which will be served. Currently he is serving his time at a medium
security penitentiary. All three are responsible for restitution.
LESSONS LEARNED
The Grems case provides several lessons on fire investigation and
arson.
1. Be aware of people observing the scene. near the scene. or fleeing
from it. If oossible. take pictures or videotape the spectators.
Fire setters often want to watch the results of their efforts and to
observe public safety officers working at the scene. The “Grems” watched
each bombing and each arson fire from spots near the crime scene. In the
case of the gas station bombing, they drove to a small hill overlooking the
gas station to get a good view of the explosion and of arriving police and
fire equipment. While they were there, a police officer stopped her vehicle
near to them, got out of the car, opened the trunk to remove binoculars,
and watched the scene using the binoculars. She noticed the three
juveniles dressed in camouflage and their car, advised them not to loiter
and continued to observe the scene looking for clues!
A Battalion Chief en route to the Aurora car bombing observed the
defendant’s car speeding away near the site. His observation later
contributed to the case against Gary, Joel and Chuck.
2. Inter-jurisdictional information sharing is extremely valuable in
identifying common modus operandis and targets.
Because there was inter-jurisdictional information sharing, not only
were investigators able to help each other but also when the case went to
prosecution, prosecutors had the overall picture of the seriousness of the
crime spree. The cases against the Grems would have been weaker had
the incidents been divided and tried separately. Separate cases (without
benefit of outside agency reports) would have probably diminished the
sentences.
Page 13
3. Informants often are a critical factor in identifying suspects.
In this case Sheldon’s information was the break in the case that
authorities needed to connect the crimes to the perpetrators. It was not
until authorities questioned Gary’s father (the owner of the mine) a second
time and could name actual suspects that they were able to deduce that the
owner of the mine was also Gary’s father. It was the informant who
provided these names and the information that the boys were stealing their
explosives from the Boulder-area mine.
4. Planning and cooperation between agencies were the keys in a
timely cohesive investigation.
The investigators who were regularly briefed during the investigation
kept all agencies updated with the information that was received. Reports
written from the interviews were centrally received and redistributed in
case summary “packets” so that all prosecutors had the full picture.
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APPENDIX
Location of GREMS’ Incidents
1487-8-8-91.1
Rll-4.91