A 41-year-old man in Colorado will spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping and killing a 29-year-old woman, executing her with a bullet to the head in what prosecutors called a “calculated and cruel” act of violence. District Judge Natalie Stricklin sentenced Casey Childers to life in a state prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Rachel Holeman in 2021, authorities reported on Thursday.
Childers was sentenced after a jury found him guilty of one count of first-degree murder after deliberation, second-degree kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping.
“The evidence shows this defendant senselessly murdered and left her body in a remote part of the county where he thought no one would find her,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Corrie Caler said in a statement. “Fortunately, an alert deputy responding to a different call took the time to run a plate which helped narrow down the search area for Rachel.”
According to a news release from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Childers and two others kidnapped Holeman in early November 2021, took her to an isolated location, and shot her in the head. According to prosecutors, Holeman and those convicted in her murder were in Colorado “distributing drugs.” Childers’ two accomplices, 46-year-old Shantel Edlund, and 23-year-old Leo Vanbuskirk, were convicted of criminal charges in connection with the case.
Investigators established that Holeman was last seen alive on November 6, 2021, in Edlund’s Chevrolet Malibu automobile at Colfax Avenue and Victor Street in Aurora, Colorado, approximately eight miles east of Denver.
Deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office were responding to an unrelated burglary complaint on November 7, 2021, when they drove past the Chevrolet Malibu on South Parker and Russellville roads, some 40 miles south of Aurora. The Chevrolet Malibu was spotted by one of the responding deputies and filmed on his dashcam.
That deputy later ran the license plate of the Chevrolet Malibu, which authorities say assisted investigators in linking the vehicle and the area to Holeman’s disappearance.
Nearly two months later, on December 29, 2021, police in Sheridan, Wyoming, pulled over Edlund’s Chevy Malibu and arrested Childers, Edlund, and Vanbuskirk on unrelated warrants and narcotics allegations.
“Based on statements made by Edlund along with the dashcam footage, the Aurora Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, and Douglas County’s Search and Rescue Team flew a drone over the surrounding area and found Holeman’s body,” according to the press release. “The coroner’s report determined the victim died from a gunshot wound to the head.”
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Childers was later identified as the individual who shot and killed Holeman.
Edlund pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and received an 18-year sentence in the Department of Corrections. Vanbuskirk pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping. His sentence hearing is set for later this year.
“This was not a hastily committed crime; it was deliberate, calculated, and cruel,” District Attorney John Kellner stated. “Casey Childers deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars.”