6+ years after gruesome death of Fremont County grandmother, family presses for answers

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - A Fremont County murder case is now nearing the seven year mark.

It involves the brutal killing of 74-year-old Loa Kennedy who died in a remote community about 15 miles southwest of Cañon City.

Family members tell KRDO13 that they're still awaiting answers from the sheriff's office who's admitting to a far from perfect investigation.

Gary Kennedy, the son of Loa Kennedy, gives his take on how his mother's death, "They treated it as an animal attack and an animal don't cut people's heads off because that's what they did. They cut her head off."

According to 74-year-old Loa Kennedy's death certificate, she died on June 24, 2018 due to "homicidal violence to include chop force injuries and decapitation with perimortem animal predation."

The Fremont County Sheriff's Office is now investigating her death a homicide.

Though nearly 7 years after the tragedy, the Kennedy family is still awaiting answers as to who did it.

"It just seems like they're, you know, trying to kind of sweep it under the rug because they messed up and they know it," Cindy Kennedy said.

Later in 2018, Allen Cooper was elected as Fremont County Sheriff. He says this case is one of three that he inherited.

"Quite honestly, I've seen better investigations," said Sheriff Cooper.

So, he assigned it back to investigators.

"When we took a second look at this case or in my case, my first look, there were deficiencies in pretty much all of those areas," Sheriff Cooper said.

Areas such as the processing, packaging, and submission of evidence.

He adds, "Any time a case goes south on you, it just pretty much continues that way until you can put some skids on."

Sheriff Cooper says his investigators are doing just that, but because it is an active case he can't add much more except for this: "I can tell you that some of the things that we're taking a hard look at is the forensic evidence and there's a sizable amount of that."

If you have any information regarding the case of Loa Kennedy, you're encouraged to call the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office at (719)276-5509.