AURORA, Colo. — The Aurora Police Department has launched an internal investigation after 30 boxes of investigation material were found under the floorboards of a retired detective's home.
During a press conference Thursday, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said this incident began in March during a review of a 1997 case. Chamberlain said his detectives were unable to locate certain materials — both the physical copies and digital copies — that were part of the investigation.
The current detective reached out to the original detective in the case, who served in the Major Crimes Homicide Unit from 1996 until 2011, when he was assigned to the District 3 Investigations. He retired from Aurora PD in 2022 after 41 years with the department.
The retired detective said he still had some of the investigation material at his home. On April 10, Chamberlain said the retired detective brought a plastic bag to Aurora PD headquarters, which contained "numerous documents," VHS tape, photos and "some other material" connected to the investigation.
"Immediately, we knew that we had something that we needed to look at deeper, get more involved with it, and try to bring more clarity to what we were dealing with," Chamberlain said.
- Watch the full press conference below
Detectives began questioning the retired detective and learned that he was "in possession of material that related to multiple homicide cases he had worked during his tenure as a Major Crimes Homicide investigator."
The retired detective consented to a search of his home. During the search, investigators found 30 boxes under the floorboards of the crawlspace that contained "binders, reports, photographs, VHS tapes, handwritten notes and other documents" related to 35 cases he had worked on.
According to Chamberlain, investigators did not find physical evidence inside the boxes. The police chief defined physical evidence as DNA, blood and fingerprints.
Instead, the retired detective kept notes, documents, videotapes of interviews, and "things of that matter," according to Chamberlain. The material was mostly "redundant material" and "copies of materials on cases that he had."
"What we found is a detective who spent a lot of time on these cases felt that he had the right to take bits and pieces of these cases that he committed himself to and worked through, and, for whatever reason — again, I'm not in his mind — he wanted to retain these documents," Chamberlain said. "It's unacceptable. Again, we cannot have somebody taking those things and putting them in their own home."
A day after discovering the boxes, Aurora PD notified the 17th and 18th Judicial District Attorney's Offices, as well as Aurora's independent monitor.
Chamberlain said his department applied for an additional search warrant for the retired detective's home on April 18. That application was denied on April 24 "based upon probable cause," according to the police chief.
A few weeks later, the retired detective consented to an additional search of his home. Chamberlain said no additional items were found during the second search on May 9.
- Aurora PD provided the following timeline of their investigation into the incident
Chamberlain said investigators secured all of the recovered material inside an Aurora PD conference room that had been rekeyed. According to the police chief, the 17th and 18th Judicial DA's Offices have access to the recovered material.
"They also have a complete connection to all of our investigators that are reviewing the information, and they can come and go and look at any of the cases that we have at any time, and be able to review if and when, how it is possibly impacted, any situations that they're dealing with," Chamberlain said.
Detectives have also been working to cross-reference the recovered items with any open or previous investigations "to make sure that none of the information that was gathered in the retired detective's home was pertinent, was impactful, or involved any type of conflict whatsoever."
According to Chamberlain, there is "no indication" that any of the recovered material compromised any prosecutions.
"There is no information at this point that there is anybody that was tried, anybody that was held accountable, any case or any victim, any suspects that were impacted in any way by any of the material that was located in that retired detective's home," he said.
During his press conference, Chamberlain repeatedly asserted that his department acted as soon as it became aware of the situation.
"I'm not going to turn away from this," the police chief said. "We are in the process of organizational transformation. A huge part of that is accountability and transparency."
He said Aurora PD is not only working to ensure accountability but also to create a plan so this type of situation does not happen again. The 17th and 18th Judicial DA's Offices are also conducting their own internal investigations.
The police chief acknowledged the "legitimate concerns" this incident brings up and said he "completely [embraces] that."
"I embrace the good of this agency, and I will also take on the bad of the agency," Chamberlain said. "We are in, without question, full transparency, and we wanted to bring this to the community."
He called the incident "without question, poor record keeping," and said Aurora PD is looking to "modernize, to move forward, to use technology in a way that has not been done before." Many of the cases involved in this incident predated such technology, according to Chamberlain.
"This is, without question, an outlier, and getting in the dynamics of why or what — why anybody would want 30 boxes of this stuff under their floorboards, I don't know, I really don't," Chamberlain said.
The police chief concluded his press conference by saying the investigation into the incident is ongoing and his department remains in "very, very close coordination with both the district attorney offices, and as we learn more, we will continue to put out more information and more details related to this."
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