GRANBY, Colo. — Authorities made an arrest in connection with the murder of a Wheat Ridge man whose body was found near a trailhead in Jackson County last month.
Christopher Thomas Corcorran, 33, of Granby was taken into custody last Thursday on an arrest warrant for first-degree murder, according to a news release Monday from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Corcorran is accused of the stabbing death of Dustin Bryant, 42, whose naked body was discovered near milepost 27 along Colorado Highway 125, near the trailhead for Snyder Creek Loop. A passerby found the body near the road on May 30.
Authorities believe Bryant and Corcorran knew each other and that the victim was killed in Grand County and his body dumped in Jackson County.
An autopsy showed Bryant was stabbed three times, possibly with a knife with a 5-inch blade. One of the stab wounds pierced Bryant’s heart, causing the victim to hemorrhage, according to an affidavit obtained by Denver7 Monday.
The victim’s vehicle, a 2015 Kia Sportage, was found in Clear Creek County on June 1, parked at 83 County Road 308, just off Interstate 70. Clear Creek County authorities said the vehicle was found with “a large amount of blood in the backseat area,” the documents read. Photos of the interior of the Kia appear to show stab marks in the upholstery, police said.
Corcorran told investigators that the two men met online and arranged to meet for sex the night of the 26th or the 27th of May, according to the court documents.
Surveillance video shows Bryant was seen May 29 inside a Safeway store in Fraser, where the victim’s mother told police his credit card was last used. Bryant's mother reported her son missing on June 1.
Corcorran told investigators he and Bryant were in the victim’s vehicle and drove to a campground parking lot on Cottonwood Pass to engage in sex and smoke meth. At some point during the night, Corcorran said Bryant became “angry when they ran out of drugs, and became ‘demanding,’” the affidavit states.
During an interview with police, Corcorran denied any involvement with Bryant’s murder and said the meeting did not turn physical. He told them that after the Cottonwood Pass meeting with the victim, he told Bryant to drive him to his grandmother’s house in Hot Sulphur Springs, where he said he was dropped off.
The suspect told police that Bryant then drove off, and he never saw him again, according to the affidavit.
Corcorran initially said that he went to a friend’s home and then called his brother to drive him to Denver. The suspect told investigators he needed an “alibi for his wife, who does not approve of his sexual interest in men nor of his drug use,” the affidavit states.
However, when investigators contacted the suspect’s brother, he told them he hadn’t recently given a ride to Corcorran or was asked to provide an alibi for the suspect’s wife.
Corcorran is being held without bond at the Grand County jail. His advisement on formal charges is slated for July 1.