YUMA COUNTY, Colo. — A man accused of the 2023 murder of 25-year-old Britani Meek on the Eastern Plains of Colorado will go to trial on all charges, a judge ruled Friday.
Clifton Clayton Boggess, 63, was in court Friday for a preliminary hearing. He is facing multiple charges, including first-degree murder, connected with the death of Meek.
District Attorney Travis Sides made clear in court that a plea deal is “off the table.”
Meek was reported missing in October 2023 from Yuma. Nearly one month after she disappeared, on Nov. 22, 2023, law enforcement found her body but did not immediately reveal where or how they found her.
While few details were released by authorities in the immediate aftermath, Denver7 Investigates continued to receive calls from sources in Yuma, who shared the community's suspicions about who was responsible.
Eight months after her body was found, law enforcement announced Boggess’ arrest. He was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals on July 29, 2024, in Lake Placid, Florida.
Denver7 Investigates obtained Boggess’ arrest report, which showed that Meek's body was found on private property. According to the document, multiple people who knew Meek repeatedly mentioned Boggess' name to investigators.
The arrest report also detailed surveillance video that investigators obtained from the night Meek was seen alive. It reportedly showed the outside of a loft, where Meek frequently stayed. The report described several hours of footage during which three people entered the loft, but only two came out. The document claimed the video showed what "appears to be a body" thrown over a ledge.
The documents revealed Meek's family told investigators she was "probably" using drugs and potentially trading sex for drugs.
Investigators searched the rural property in Yuma County where Meek's body and vehicle were found, and found blood on the property and in the vehicle. Her autopsy report outlined "unique" results that were "not what was suspected," the affidavit reads.
- Denver7 Investigates has been closely following this investigation. Watch our March report below:
Weld County Coroner Michael Burson was the first to testify during Friday's court hearing. He ruled in his report that Meek died from complications of methamphetamine, and her cause of death was “undetermined.”
“I don’t see things to say this was definitively a homicide," Burson testified. "I see things that say definitively that it’s not natural."
Sides asked Burson how many overdoses he investigated where the deceased was “found buried in a shallow earthen grave with a ligature tied around her wrist.” Burson responded that this was the first time.
While testifying, one investigator recounted an interview with a woman who was supposedly dating Boggess, who told her, “It’s my fault that girl is probably dead,” referring to Meek.
The woman had informed investigators that she had told Boggess that Meek would be blackmailing Boggess’ boss, who owns a farm in the Yuma area and the property where Meek’s body was found.
Investigators stated that the woman said Boggess’ boss and Meek were having an off-and-on sexual relationship and that Meek was going to inform his wife of the affair. The woman had allegedly told Boggess to “take care of it.”
Denver7 Investigates looked into Boggess' criminal record and found he has a violent past. He was convicted of multiple felonies in Florida after he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a car and shooting her in the head twice when she tried running from him in 1997. The woman survived.
A cold case detective in Florida also told Denver7 Investigates that Boggess is a person of interest in the disappearance of Heather Riggio, a woman who has been missing since 2007.
