DENVER – A man has been arrested in Natalie Bollinger’s death, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office said late Thursday evening.
The sheriff's office is holding a news conference on the case at 1:30 p.m. Friday. It will be streamed live in the player below.
Joseph Michael Lopez, 22, was identified as the man arrested Thursday by Adams County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
The Adams County Sheriff's Office made an arrest of Joseph Michael Lopez in connection with the Natalie Bollinger case. Mugshot will be available tomorrow.#ACSOproud
— Adams Sheriff's Page (@AdamsCoSheriff) February 9, 2018
Officials provided no further details regarding the arrest, only saying they would provide a mugshot of the suspect on Friday.
Broomfield woman’s death remains a mystery
Bollinger’s death continues to be shrouded in mystery more than a month after her body was found off Riverdale Road in unincorporated Adams County on Dec. 29, 2017.
A Boulder Police Department arrest affidavit has described her death as a homicide, and a person of interest has been already taken into custody on unrelated charges, but Adams County investigators have been reluctant to reveal any more details in the case.
It’s unclear how Shawn Schwartz, 42, is connected to the 19-year-old, but court records show Bollinger had been granted a protection order against him weeks before she went missing.
Back in Jan. 3, Adams County Sheriff Mike McIntosh said officials were “pretty convinced” they knew what Bollinger’s cause of death was, though authorities have yet to release that information.
He also said at the time that though investigators had been following up on several leads and have interviewed “a lot” of witnesses, he was “not ready at this point to call anybody a suspect,” including Schwartz, who he called a "piece of our investigation."
Bollinger’s body was found in unincorporated Adams County on Dec. 29, a day after she was reported missing by a family member.
The sheriff’s office and Broomfield Police Departments, which are handling the investigation, ask anyone with information to contact them at 303-654-1850 or 303-288-1535.