Local family frustrated over lack of progress in relative’s homicide
A month after a mother of three children was found brutally slain, some of her relatives in Colorado Springs want to bring more attention to the case.
Police have released few details about the death of Avis Pitts, 35. Her body was found the night of Dec. 19 in her room at the Pacesetter Motel near Interstate 225 and Colfax Avenue in Aurora.
Pitts’ relatives said she was sexually assaulted and her throat was slashed. They said she had lived at the motel for several months.
Relatives are upset that it took police a long time — nearly two weeks — to release information about the killing.
“We learned she was dead the same day of her funeral, so we missed it,” said Catrina Johnson, Pitts’ cousin and one of several relatives living in Colorado Springs.
Johnson said that Pitts grew up in Colorado Springs before moving to Aurora as an adult, and that she’d been addicted to cocaine and in and out of jail.
“She loved to dance,” said Angela Johnson, Pitts’ aunt. “She loved to smile and have fun. She was funny and very friendly. That’s why we can’t understand why someone would kill her.”
Rhonda Pitts, the victim’s older sister, who lives in Aurora, distributed fliers in the area around the motel, hoping to gather information.
“No one wants to come forward to talk because of the code of the streets,” Rhonda Pitts said. “But I’m told the person who supposedly did this, lived here and she knew him, and he’d been giving her trouble that whole day.”
Pitts said she received a cryptic call several days ago from a motel resident.
“He said the (man) who did it, knocked on his door, was covered in blood and asked to wash up in his room,” she said.
Pitts said she shared the information with police, who have no arrests, suspects or leads in the case.
Police declined an interview Wednesday but have made a public appeal for more information, and Crime Stoppers has offered a reward of up to $2,000 for more information.
The Pitts killing was one of three homicides in Aurora during the week of Christmas, police said.
