Editor's note: Denver7 Investigates will have this full story on Denver7 at 6 p.m. today.
AURORA — More than two years have passed since thousands of pounds of metal from an HVAC system came crashing down inside the pool of the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora on May 6, 2023. Denver7 Investigates has been pressing to find out why the public has no answers on why the system fell.
Six people in total were injured, including two seriously. One of those who had life-threatening injuries was John Markiewicz, who spent 17 days in the hospital and underwent multiple surgeries. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and several fractures to his vertebrae, ribs, shoulder and arms. A 13-year-old girl was also severely injured, suffering a broken pelvis, shattered hip and internal bleeding.
"I don’t think we will ever understand,” John’s wife Patti Markiewicz told Denver7 Investigates, adding that she didn't know if her husband would make it. “I was in shock. In a million years … I wouldn't have expected anything like that to happen... My daughter is down on the ground with my husband holding his head together and there’s blood everywhere and there’s soot all over them."
The Markiewicz family and six other plaintiffs have brought a 48-count lawsuit against the hotel and 15 other defendants — as Denver7 Investigates reported in June 2024 — accusing them of “gross negligence.” And more than two years after the incident, there are still no answers and no publicly disclosed third-party investigation into what caused the HVAC system to collapse that day.
Denver7 Investigates spoke exclusively with victims and family members who were at the Gaylord Rockies Resort on May 6, 2023. Watch our report from June 2024, when the lawsuit was filed, below to hear from them.
The lawsuit states that “due to failures in the design, construction, material selection, maintenance, and monitoring of the HVAC system in the Pool Building, numerous components of the HVAC system, including hangers, cables, and clamps, corroded to such an extent that their structural integrity was compromised less than five years later.”
The resort opened in 2018.
RELATED: 11-year-old boy describes narrowly escaping HVAC system collapse at Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora
Jon Alvino, an expert in installation and construction of duct work for air conditioners and business manager for the Smart Local Union 9 Sheet Metal Workers, told us that he believes the incident was avoidable.
“Something happened here that could have been prevented,” he said. "We shouldn't be here talking — that’s my opinion on it.”
To date, Alvino said he has not seen any evidence of a third-party investigation into what happened that day. Denver7 Investigates also reached out to more than 30 attorneys representing the 16 defendants. They did not provide any information on a third-party review. Some did not reply to inquiries, while others declined to comment.
“There's no way of knowing if we can get to the bottom of this, get to the bottom of the root cause, without a true third-party independent investigation,” Alvino said. “If it is a design flaw, installation flaw — that needs to be known in the public's best interest.”
In the days following the collapse, Alvino wrote a letter to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the City of Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, demanding a third-party investigation “in the interest of public safety.”
He said, so far, he’s heard nothing on that end.
“It’s mind-boggling. That makes no sense," Alvino said. "To me it makes no sense why a real investigation didn’t happen at the city level or the state level.”
Denver7 Investigates contacted the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, City of Aurora and Governor’s Office. In their responses, none provided any information regarding a third-party investigation.
Aurora Fire Rescue responded to the incident in 2023 and cared for the injured people, but the City of Aurora told Denver7 Investigates on Monday that the fire department is "not equipped and would not have had the authority to determine the cause of the structural failure that occurred."
Ryan Luby, spokesperson for the City of Aurora, said Aurora's Building Division in Public Works is also limited in its authority to investigate incidents on private property. However, the division had completed more than 60,000 inspections at the resort before its 2018 opening. Ongoing maintenance is the property owner's responsibility, Luby said.
"Consequently, it was the property owner’s responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation involving professional engineers and other experts to understand what caused the structural incident," Luby added. "The city did not and would not have any authority to conduct its own investigation or call for a third-party investigation to take place on private property."
Patti Markiewicz called the situation “one big epic failure,” and said it could have been prevented. Her attorney, Michael Burg, said he believes the defendants are covering up the reason for the collapse.
“They didn’t want a true investigation,” he said. “There’s no other reason.”
Burg also told us that the third-party investigators tried to gain access to the facility to look into the incident, but the hotel did not allow it, saying it was private property.
RELATED: City of Aurora says investigation into HVAC system collapse will fall solely on Gaylord Rockies
Since filing the lawsuit last year, Burg said his team of investigators have uncovered new evidence, raising concerns about the impact that corrosion in and around the air ducts may have played in the incident.
He said his experts believe that the hotel brought in crews to try and clean up the mess and knew of corrosion issues months before the collapse.
The Gaylord Rockies opened in 2018 after receiving more than $80 million in tax breaks from the state and $300 million in tax incentives from the City of Aurora.
But in the 26 months since the incident, Alvino and the Markiewicz family both wonder why there has been no warning to other facilities with similar duct work and no public disclosure of a third-party review.
“We know no more today than we did a year ago,” Alvino said.
“I’m still asking what happened,” Patti Markiewicz said.
Patti’s husband, John, continues therapy, but his injuries are life-changing and lifelong. The lawsuit is set to go to trial in January with a hearing scheduled in November.
Denver7 Investigates also learned that Gaylord Rockies has replaced the metal air ducts that fell to the ground with a new cloth-like system. Alvino said those ducts are much lighter than what fell two years ago.
