GUILTY CO - Danice Day, 19, Monte Vista, 9 Jan 2002

[PonderingThings]

Danice Lea Day

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

# Missing Since: January 9, 2002 from Monte Vista, Colorado
# Classification: Endangered Missing
# Date Of Birth: May 8, 1982
# Age: 19
# Height: 5'6"
# Weight: 105 lbs.
# Hair Color: Blonde
# Eye Color: Hazel
# Race: White
# Gender: Female
# Distinguishing Characteristics: Pierced ears
and left eyebrow.
# Clothing: White blouse, black jeans.
# Jewelry: Toe ring, earrings, rings on several
fingers, eyebrow ring.
# NCIC Number: M-036425021
# Case Number: 002-02

Details of Disappearance
Day resided on a ranch in the 3900 block of Larait Road in Monte Vista, Colorado. She lived with her boyfriend, Victor Braun, who is the father of Day's young daughter. She also has a son from a previous relationship.

Day was employed as a server at Dos Rios Restaurante. She was last seen departing from work after her shift on January 9, 2002. Victor told authorities that Day returned to their residence shortly afterwards.

He claimed that she planned to leave the ranch with an unidentified male individual. Victor said that he and Day argued because he was not familiar with the man. Victor told investigators that she departed with the individual and has never been heard from again. Day left all of her personal belongings behind at her home, including her vehicle, keys, wallet, cellular phone and clothing.

Day's father reported her as a missing person on January 12, 2002, three days after she departed from her residence. Her family members stated that it is uncharcteristic of Day to leave her children behind. Foul play is suspected.

 

[PonderingThings]

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1138001710/5

Joint bone found in investigation dig
The probe brings up a 4-year-old case.
By ERIN SMITH
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

MONTE VISTA - Rio Grande County Sheriff Brian Norton said Sunday a dig this weekend at a newly excavated site that used to house a gas station has yielded a joint bone found in a grease line.

Norton said the blackened bone will be sent to a laboratory to determine its origin.

Speculation by some was that the dig may be connected to a 4-year-old missing person case. Danice Day, 20, was reported missing Jan. 9, 2002, and has not been located since.

Saturday the site on the newly cleared lot north of U.S. 160 at the east edge of Monte Vista was covered by a tent and surrounded on three sides by yellow crime-scene tape.

Sunday the tape had been removed and a backhoe was being used at the site to expose a concrete foundation.

Several Rio Grande County Sheriff’s vehicles remained, but the Alamosa County Sheriff’s mobile emergency command post was gone.

Norton supervised the scene and told the Chieftain he wanted to make a thorough investigation.

Rod Day, Danice Day’s father, was seen near the scene Saturday, but was not present Sunday.

Danice Day went missing after going to her Lariat home from her job in Monte Vista four years ago, and allegedly told her boyfriend, Victor Braun, that she was going out with a friend, Norton reported at the time. Norton said he was told the friend picked up Day and she has not been heard from since.

Four years ago, officers followed up a number of leads. They dug for a body, used cadaver dogs and searched the nearby San Juan Mountains, without success.

Norton confirmed Sunday that the investigation site was on property that once had belonged to Braun's family.

 

[PonderingThings]

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/health/6393159/detail.html

According to a statement made by former sheriff J. Desi Medina at a Rio Grande County Commissioners open meeting on Feb. 27, 2002, when Day arrived at the home she shared with Victor Braun, she told Braun she was leaving him and he struck her, killing her. Despite that statement, Braun was never arrested or charged in the case.

"It was just two old farts talking to each other," Medina said after the commisioners' meeting. He said he thought he was talking with the commissioners off-the-record. "I said it in confidence as to how I think he did it, not in the capacity of sheriff."

Also officials are denying that the bone they have found is human... they just don't know yet. It may take 6 months.

For more about the search, and this case please see link.

 

[Otter]

Came across this today:

MONTE VISTA - A bone fragment, a chair and a hidden trapdoor may lead the Rio Grande Sheriff's Department to answers about a woman who's been missing since 2002.


Danice Day disappeared from Monte Vista in 2002. She was 19 years old with two children.

Recently, the new owners of a home that Day's boyfriend’s parents' had owned, moved a shed to build a fence. Beneath the shed, they found a hidden trapdoor with an 8-feet by 5-feet by 4-and-a-half feet hole.
"It appears to be a trash pit," said Rio Grande Sheriff Brian Norton.
Sheriff’s investigators took nearly four hours to sift through the hole. They found a chair, a rusted step ladder to get into the hole, a missing poster of Danice Day, a newspaper article from September of 2002 and a bone fragment.

Day disappeared on January 9, 2002.

More at link.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=101424&catid=339

That's so creepy. They don't know yet if the bone fragment is even human, let alone Danice. The above has a link to her family's website, they've never stopped looking.

 

[PeaHen80]

Any news on the bone fragment?

 

[chicagofa13]

That is so horrible. Signs are really pointing to the boyfriend. Hope the family gets an answer soon. I read a fiction mystery recently with a pit, chair, ladder... Very scary.

 

[capoly]

Body found in Arizona may be missing woman who had Colorado and Wyoming ties
http://www.kdvr.com/news/sns-ap-co--missingcoloradowoman,0,5558252.story

 

[Mazama]

No results yet. :frown:

http://www.alamosanews.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=75&story_id=13680

Her family website, also has updates:
http://www.daniceday.com/

Maz

 

[Fairy1]

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/21086804/detail.html?iref=werecommend

DEL NORTE, Colo. -- Human remains retrieved from a barrel in an Arizona lake are that of a Colorado mother who disappeared from Monte Vista more than seven years ago.

Officials in Rio Grande County held a news conference Tuesday to announced that DNA tests confirmed the remains were that of Danice Day. The test results came back on Sept. 18, after analysis at the El Paso County Coroner's Office.

Day was 19 when she disappeared from Monte Vista in 2002. Her boyfriend, Victor Braun, said she was going out with friends and she never came back. Investigators said she left her car and cell phone at the home the two shared. http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v...;~aopt=2/2/1b62/0;~sscs=?http://www.rmhp.org/

The remains were found in a barrel in Arizona's Lyman Lake, near St. Johns, in June after Colorado authorities were directed there.


RIP Danice.....I hope her beautiful babies are in a safe place and being well cared for.

 

[thefragile7393]

Wow. Someone really didn't want her found

 

[Tonia]

Norton said Day’s former boyfriend, 33-year-old Victor Braun, was in custody in Rio Grande County on unrelated charges when he divulged the location of the barrel and the body of water in which Day’s remains were found.

After the El Paso County Coroner identified the remains, Braun was charged with manslaughter.

In Colorado, manslaughter is a Class 4 felony that carries a punishment of two to six years in prison, a fine of $2,000-$500,000 or both.

Norton said Braun was charged with manslaughter and not first-degree murder due to mitigating circumstances.

Braun is in custody and awaiting an appearance in Rio Grande County District Court on Nov. 3.

http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2009/09/22/news/doc4ab9a6be238e2281127957.txt

 

[lindylou]

Danice is featured on a Disappeared episode so I came here to see the update.
I was happy to hear there was a resolution for the family. I logged on to her website and it has not been updated. I am glad the family has closure.

 

[bearfossils]

After watching the ‘Disappeared’ episode for Danice Day, it feels very bittersweet to know the outcome of this case. It's criminal the way that some members of LE behaved at different stages in this investigation; this surely could have been done better, allowing for a stronger case to be made with the chance of a potentially longer/more severe punishment.

I am glad the boyfriend finally acted with some flicker of a conscious, but it is a very bittersweet feeling knowing he is going to do only a fraction of what he should. Danice's story is sadly yet another all-too-familiar heart-wrenching case of domestic abuse/violence. Women who have been abused by a partner are at the highest risk for being hurt or killed by the partner when the victim tries to escape the relationship and become independent. Danice should have had a safety plan for her escape, and the help of others to implement that plan and keep her safe as possible from her ex. Not saying in any way that what happened to her was even remotely her fault or a result of anything she did or did not do; just including the information for anyone else who may be in, or know someone who is in, a similar solution.

Despite all they had to go through, I really hope her family has some peace now; some bit of comfort or reprieve from the pain. I can't even imagine...I hope they all have a great amount of safety, love, and some bit of justice. Danice was such a beautiful girl who had overcome so much...she deserved to have her freedom to begin to find herself and her place in the world. Her father loved her so much – you could tell just by how he spoke about her; I hope he has some kind of peace now. His baby girl will always be alive in his heart and memories. :therethere:

 

[OkieGranny]

From 2009:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13991041

A southern Colorado man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the death of a young mother last seen almost eight years ago...

Braun agreed to tell police where Day's body was hidden in exchange for pleading to manslaughter.

 

[Deleted member 269000]

I just watched the Disappeared episode. Does “mitigating circumstances” mean a negligent investigation? How does a man who likely beat his girlfriend to death get 12 years? The only explanation I can think of is that due to squandered investigatory opportunities, the Sheriff’s Office was nowhere near having enough evidence to go to trial until VB pled. If LE is going to call assert that “mitigating circumstances” can excuse killing a woman in a domestic dispute, it is my opinion that they have a moral duty to explain those circumstances.