DENVER ( KDVR ) — Two men have been sentenced to prison in the 2021 kidnap and murder of Rachel Holeman, 29.
Holeman’s body was found along an embankment off South Parker Road by Douglas County law enforcement after Fort Collins Police Services first began investigating her disappearance. Authorities learned she had last been seen in Aurora, prompting searches in Douglas County.
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According to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Holeman was in Colorado with Casey Childers, 41, of Casper, Wyoming, and co-conspirator Shantel Edlund, 45, of Sheridan, Wyoming, to distribute drugs.
Fort Collins police turned the investigation over to Aurora investigators, who learned Holeman was kidnapped on Nov. 6, 2021, by Childers and Edlund, plus a third co-conspirator, Leo Vanbuskirk, 25, also of Sheridan, Wyoming, near Colfax and Victor Street in a Chevrolet Malibu.
The Chevrolet Malibu was captured on a dashcam of a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deputy responding to an unrelated burglary call on Nov. 7, 2021, and ran the sedan’s license plates. Later, investigators were able to connect the car and the location to Holeman’s disappearance.