In May of 2024, a man was fishing in the area of Park County’s Deer Creek campground when he found a shallow, frozen grave near the water. This resulted in the discovery of male skeletal remains, still with clothing and with a gunshot wound to the skull.
While the identity of the person the remains belonged to was initially unknown, DNA evidence was ultimately used to identify the remains as those of John Cizek, a 71-year-old from Newark, California who was the victim of homicide in June of 2016.
In order to use DNA from the remains to identify Cizek, officials first used the DNA to determine that the remains were those of someone with Czechoslovakian ancestry. Suspicious the remains could be those of Cizek, authorities confirmed his ancestry with his 85-year-old sister in Illinois and then compared the DNA of the unidentified remains with DNA from a shirt that had been collected from Cizek’s home in California. The DNA matched, and almost 10 years after Cizek was killed, it was confirmed that his body had been found, per a March 2026 announcement from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The 2016 homicide case involving Cizek stems from the arrest of David Little, a suspect in a sexual assault on a child case, who was taken into custody with John Cizek’s identification and credit cards in his possession. Further investigation revealed that Little’s dog was in an RV trailer that was found in Jefferson County and owned by Cizek, prompting additional concern about Cizek’s well-being and whereabouts. Additional investigation of the RV revealed what authorities described as a “cleaned crime scene” consistent with foul play and complete with blood evidence and a bullet hole…