Wife betrayed, coworkers victim of former El Paso County deputy facing fraud, theft charges
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- After missing former El Paso County Sheriff Deputy Kevin Sypher turned up in jail, KRDO13 Investigates uncovered complaints about his professional background and now is learning details about his personal life.
The day Sypher first walked out of his Parker house on April 27, 2023, his second wife at the time learned their marriage was invalid. According to court documents obtained by KRDO13 Investigates, the two married on March 26, 2023, in Parker, but a month later she learned he didn’t divorce from his first wife like he had told her.
That same day, Sypher was seen walking out of his Parker house with two trash bags. He was located safely two days later and was in contact with the Parker Police Department. However, the next day on April 30, Sypher disappeared into the Rocky Mountain National Park. Crews searched for him for days but never found him, ending efforts on May 5.
During the investigation into his disappearance, the Parker Police Department contacted Sypher’s first wife in California, who he claimed he had divorced from. However, that wife said they had been married since 1989 and never divorced. Parker Police found no divorce proceedings in either California or Colorado.
On May 31, while Sypher was still missing, his second wife filed a petition for a declaration of invalidity of marriage, stating Sypher never dissolved his previous marriage with his California wife.
As KRDO13 Investigates previously reported, Sypher’s second wife was the same woman he tricked his friend and former coworker into telling he had cancer.
On March 6, 2023, he asked a volunteer of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, and a friend since 2010, to participate in a role-playing exercise that would be used for crisis negotiation training.
“The scenario that he talked about was one in which I would make a phone call to a Douglas County sheriff's deputy and read from a script and basically talk about a person's medical condition, who had cancer, who would need surgery and treatment, but had a high likelihood of being cured,” the former volunteer said.
However, the volunteer later learned the call wasn’t role-play for a training exercise. The person on the other line, who was Sypher’s soon-to-be second ex-wife called back the next day, saying she was confused and the doctors at the hospital didn’t know what cancer she was talking about.
That’s when the volunteer filed an Internal Affairs complaint with EPSO.
“In the course of this alleged ‘scenario’, I was used to convey medical information to whom I now believe was either his wife or girlfriend under false pretenses,” the complaint said. “As a Colorado licensed physician since 1984, my integrity has been potentially compromised by this hoax that was foisted on me. Also, as an active and serving Colorado POST-certified reserve law enforcement officer, my integrity has also been potentially compromised by this series of lies and deceptions.”
He also claimed Sypher asked EPSO employees for donations to treat his apparent cancer. The Sheriff’s Office told KRDO13 Investigates they investigated the complaint but couldn’t say if it was related to the criminal charges against Sypher. However, EPSO told KRDO13 Investigates that many of the victims in the case are Sheriff's Office employees.
After missing for almost a year, Sypher was arrested Tuesday by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for theft, charitable fraud, and official misconduct. He is being held in the Teller County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
“It confirmed some suspicions I had, But to see someone who was a friend at one point, particularly somebody, a former law enforcement officer, get jammed up in this sort of situation, it's very sad because of what he's facing,” Sypher's former volunteer said.
KRDO13 Investigates reached out to both wives for comment but we never heard back. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office didn’t answer many of our questions because the case is active.
