Douglas County Sheriff’s office seeking help to solve 43 year old cold case
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -A marijuana transaction gone wrong.
Nearly 43 years ago Jim Ihm and others were meeting in Woodland Park to finalize the sale of a large amount of weed, but a couple of months later the Douglas County Sheriff's Office found Ihm dead in unincorporated Douglas County.
Off Highway 24 in Woodland Park lies a shopping center but back in the day, it looked a whole lot different. The Brazenhead Inn used to be there.
According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, Ihm planned to meet Rick Eastridge and others at the Brazenhead Inn in Woodland Park back in 1981. They planned to meet to finalize the details of Ihm’s sale of a large amount of marijuana.
They were going to travel to a secluded area to complete the transaction. Then, a couple of months later, Ihm’s body was found in unincorporated Douglas County near Fern Creek Rd, about one mile East of Colorado Highway 67.
In November of last year, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office cracked a portion of the case. They arrested Eastridge for his participation in the 1981 murder of Ihm. The arrest was a result of numerous witness statements, evidence recovered in 1981, evidence analyzed in 2023, and Eastridge’s confession. He implicated himself and others who planned to rob Ihm of a large amount of marijuana, which ultimately resulted in the murder. While out of custody on bond, Eastridge took his own life.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is asking the public for help bringing this case to a final close. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office cold case unit.
