Accused baby killer in decades-old Fremont County cold case was a suspect from the start

FLORENCE, Colo. (KRDO) - KRDO learned new details about the 86-year-old man arrested for killing a 14-month-old baby girl in the 1960s. According to archived news clippings, the man had been a suspect in the killing from the beginning.

According to an article from the Cañon City Daily Record dated Nov. 21, 1967, Keith Emmanuel Smith was questioned weeks after Roxanne Arcuheltta was found dead. However, a jury ultimately ruled Archuletta's death was an accident.

More than half a century later, Archuletta's body was exhumed on Feb. 28, 2022. A renewed autopsy from March 2022 found the baby suffered blunt force to her back, causing her spine to break.

The current Fremont County Coroner ultimately ruled Arcuhletta's death a homicide. The coroner considered previous testimonies and coroner reports and saw the damage to the child's spine himself in his ruling.

This determination led authorities back to Smith, whom they had spoken to all those years ago.

A grand jury indicted Smith in early September, on a 2nd-degree murder charge for the baby's death. 

Smith is now out of jail, but if convicted on the 2nd degree murder charge, he faces up to a 48 year prison sentence.