Finger pushing
weather icon 54°F


Denver police ID man they say committed 4 cold-case homicides between 1978 and 1981

Authorities have identified a man they believe killed four women between 1978 and 1981 in Denver and Adams County, police announced Friday.  

Joe Michael Ervin is suspected of killing Madeleine Furey-Livaudais, 33, Dolores Barajas, 53, Gwendolyn Harris, 27, and Antoinette Parks, 17. 

“We can finally have peace, knowing who did this to my little sister,” said George Journey, one of Parks’ brothers, at a news conference Friday. He was joined by his brother Carl, Parks’ only siblings still living.  

  • Furey-Livaudais was married and had two children. She grew up in central Florida and traveled to Africa and Europe for her work as an editor at the children’s magazine Ranger Rick. Ervin killed her on Dec. 7, 1978 in her northeast Denver home after forcing his way inside. 

  • Barajas was married and had children and grandchildren. She did not live in Colorado, but had spent the summer of 1980 visiting family in Denver and working at a downtown hotel. She was attacked in the 500 block of East 17th Avenue walking to work on Aug. 10, 1980. 

  • Harris also had children and was described as “bright” and “soft-spoken. She had last been seen the night before her death at the Polo Club Lounge, then at 15th and Tremont streets. She was killed at the corner of East 47th Avenue and Andrews Drive on Dec. 24, 1980. Investigators discovered Ervin lived within a block of where Harris was killed. 

  • Parks went to Gateway High School in Aurora but grew up in Denver. She had five siblings and loved children, and her family believes she would have made a career in childcare or education. Parks was six to seven months pregnant at the time of her murder. She was found dead around 64th Avenue and Broadway in Adams County. 

All four women were stabbed. 

Ervin died by suicide in jail in 1981. He had killed an Aurora police officer, Debra Sue Corr, who had been trying to arrest him for a traffic violation. He would be 70.  

Molly Livaudais, one of Furey-Livaudais’ daughters, thanked Denver police for not giving up on her mother’s case. She also expressed gratitude for Corr’s sacrifice, saying it stopped Ervin from killing anyone else. 

“With her sacrifice, she prevented him from killing anyone else. And it’s clear that he wasn’t going to stop on his own,” she said. 

Molly Livaudais described her mother as a young woman with a bright future who wrote for major magazines, published a book and loved the natural world. 

The families of Barajas and Harris did not speak at Friday’s news conference . 

Matt Clark, Denver police’s major crimes division commander, said the four cases were initially investigated as unrelated incidents. But DNA evidence helped link them together between 2013 and 2018.  

Once the investigations turned cold, “that potentially could have been the end of this story, had it not been for the diligence and tenacity of the investigative team of detectives and forensic scientists who re-examined each case over the past two decades,” Clark said. 

012922-news-DPDcoldCaseSuspectPresser03.JPG

A board with photos of four previous cold case murder victims sits behind Denver Police commander of major crimes Matt Clark during a press conference announcing the identification of a suspect, now deceased, in the murder of these four victims on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, at the Denver Police Crime Laboratory in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Gazette)






Investigators identified a biological relative of Ervin in the summer of 2021, and later in the year exhumed his remains in Texas to get DNA samples for comparison to crime scene evidence. Investigators officially confirmed Ervin as the suspect this month.  

Clark said the killings had a sexual component, but declined to elaborate. As far as investigators can tell, Ervin did not have any connection to the victims and they have not identified a pattern by which he chose his victims, according to Clark. 

“While the perpetrator cannot fully be held accountable for his despicable actions, we hope that knowing who was responsible can bring some peace to the families,” said Denver police chief Paul Pazen. He said the cold case unit’s motto is “We will never forget.” 

012922-news-DPDcoldCaseSuspectPresser06.JPG

Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen speaks during a press conference announcing the identification of a suspect, now deceased, in the cold case murder of four victims, as seen on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, at the Denver Police Crime Laboratory in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Gazette)






About a dozen law enforcement agencies contributed the investigations over 40 years, according to a news release, including Denver police’s cold case unit, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the FBI’s Denver division and the Texas Department of Public Safety. 

Sign Up For Free: Weekly 7

Catch up with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

function subscribeSuccess() {
var nsltrform = document.querySelector(“#nsltr”);
var nsltrSuccess = document.querySelector(“#successnsltr”);

nsltrform.classList.add(“hideblock”);
nsltrSuccess.classList.remove(“hideblock”);
}

function validateEmail(email) {
return String(email)
.toLowerCase()
.match(
/^(([^()[].,;:s@”]+(.[^()[].,;:s@”]+)*)|(“.+”))@(([[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}])|(([a-zA-Z-0-9]+.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
);
}

function validateEmailAddress() {
const result = document.querySelector(“#result”);
const email = document.querySelector(“#email”).value;

result.innerText = “”;

if(validateEmail(email)) {
newsletterSubscribe(email);
} else {
result.innerText = ‘The email entered: ‘ + email + ‘ is not valid :(‘;
result.style.color = “red”;
}
return false;
}

function newsletterSubscribe(email) {
fetch(“https://services.gazette.com/mg2-newsletters.php?action=subscribe&site=denvergazette.com&emailPreferenceId=69&email=” + email, {
method: “POST”
}).then(res => {
console.log(“SUCCESSFUL POST”);
subscribeSuccess();
});

}

#nsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: #2076b3;

background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/dg%20weekly%207.png);
background-size: cover;

}

#nsltr-header {
color: #fff4f4;
}
#nsltr-body {
text-align: center;
color: #ffffff;
}
#nsltr-button {
margin-top: 5px;
}
#successnsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: green;
text-align: center;
color: white;
}

#successnsltr a {
color: white;
}

.hideblock {
display:none;
}

h6 a {
color: black;
text-decoration: none;
padding: 5px;
background-color: #bbccdd;
font-weight: 600;
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 768px) {
#nsltr {
background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/dg%20weekly%207.png);
background-size: cover;
}
}

Tags


Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests