WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. – A man who had been arrested in the death of a 31-year-old woman in Wheat Ridge is out of custody Friday after the district attorney’s office declined to file charges in the case for the time being.
First Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Pam Russell told Denver7 that the deadline to file formal charges against Randy Allan William, 64, had passed Friday, but that the investigation remains active and ongoing.
Court records and Jefferson County jail records showed Friday morning that William was out of custody.
He was arrested early last Saturday morning after 31-year-old Jennifer Myers was found dead inside of his Wheat Ridge home late last Friday night. William’s arrest affidavit carried murder and tampering with evidence charges, and court records indicated earlier this week that he faced investigation for first-degree murder.
According to the affidavit for his arrest, William and Myers had both been drinking at the Thunderbird Bar on Friday evening. Employees at the bar told officers that Myers had been cut off and asked to leave the bar around 6:30 p.m., and she left with William, according to the affidavit.
It’s unclear what happened over the next four-plus hours, but at 11:21 p.m. that night, William called 911 to report that his “girlfriend” was bleeding from the face and was drunk, though he said she was conscious and breathing, according to the affidavit.
But Arvada Fire Protection District first responders who arrived to the scene found Myers and noted she had “an apparent gunshot to the head” and was “obviously deceased.”
The affidavit says that officers “did not observe a gun in the immediate area of the body.”
William told police he went to a gas station to buy cigarettes, and said when he got back, he found Myers injured inside and called 911. He later told officers he didn’t know Myers’s name, but said they’d had consensual sex after going back to his house after the bar.
And officers noted that some of the blood at the scene appeared to have been wiped across the scene, and that there was also blood on the walls and ceiling that officers couldn’t explain how it got there.
Further, police reviewed a neighbor’s home surveillance video and discovered that William was walking in and out of his home in the 10 minutes before he called 911. In one of the instances, police wrote that William had two rifle cases in his hand. An officer believed he heard a gunshot in one of the videos, according to the affidavit.
William denied carrying the rifle cases and denied shooting Myers, though the affidavit indicated that police recovered a rifle on the side of his property.
Russell told Denver7 Thursday evening she couldn’t comment further as to why prosecutors were declining to file formal charges at the moment.
“I know this is difficult for the family, but while we are not filing charges at this time, investigators are still working on it,” she said.