By Erica Meltzer and Ryan Huff, Camera Staff Writers
Boulder Daily Camera
A 36-year-old woman and her 46-year-old ex-husband were shot and killed inside a Broomfield home Saturday morning, according to Broomfield police.
Three boys under the age of 5 and an acquaintance of the woman were inside the home — located at 2791 Calkins Place — at the time of the incident, police said.
Police are investigating the shootings as an act of domestic violence, Broomfield police Sgt. Mark Goodell said.
Goodell said police could not say whether it was a murder-suicide until they processed the crime scene but as of Saturday night, they were not looking for any other suspects. Officers believe the crime was contained inside the house, and the acquaintance is not considered a suspect.
“The neighbors do not need to be worried about someone being at large,” he said.
The police department received a 911 call — placed by the female victim's acquaintance — around 11:20 a.m. Saturday for a domestic disturbance.
Police said the victims' names would be released by the Adams County Coroner's Office later this week. Jodi Samuels is listed as the owner of the house, according to Broomfield property records. Police said the female victim lived at the home, but her ex-husband did not.
Goodell said the couple's son was home at the time; the two other kids who were present are children of the acquaintance. Police would not say whether the acquaintance lived at the home or how he knew the victim. The children were unhurt. The victims' son is being cared for by Broomfield County Health and Human Services.
Goodell said the couple divorced sometime within the past year. He said he could not say if police previously had responded to domestic disturbances at the home.
Court records show that the home's owner, Jodi Samuels, and Darryl Stricklin filed for divorce in August 2008.
Samuels took out restraining orders against three other men for domestic abuse in 1996, 1998 and 2004, but an initial search did not turn up any restraining orders against her ex-husband.
Stricklin was charged with assault and property damage as part of a domestic violence incident in December 2008. Court records show prosecutors dismissed the charges, but the court imposed a protection order. The court records do not name the alleged victim.
Stricklin was charged again in January with violating the protection order and harassment. He pleaded guilty to the harassment charge. Prosecutors dismissed the other charge.
Ron Bisbee, who lives across the street, said he frequently heard yelling coming from the house. He said he saw police at the home at least once, though he never thought the fighting was so bad he needed to call police.
“I would hear them yelling, sometimes late at night, sometimes during the day,” he said. “I wouldn't describe it as arguing. It just seemed like she was, I don't know, upset a lot, almost hysterical. She would just be yelling at him, and he was the really quiet one.”
Greg Sobanski, whose backyard fence backs up to Samuels' house, said he occasionally heard yelling as well.
“They had their discussions like any family does, but nothing I would worry about or I thought twice about,” he said.
Sobanski said the woman's ex-husband was around the house on a semi-regular basis.
Bisbee said the man was at the house two days before and took his son on a walk to the park. He said he had never seen the acquaintance or the other two children before.
Police brought the three children to Bisbee's house after the shooting.
“They weren't crying or anything,” he said. “I think maybe they were in shock. They were acting really good.”
Samuels' house is located in Broomfield's suburban Willow Run neighborhood, about a mile southeast of the Paul Derda Recreation Center.
In May, just a few hundred feet away from the recreation center, 58-year-old Howard Blair Kepler shot and killed his wife, Leigh Landskroner, inside their home at the historic Westlake Schoolhouse building. The victim's mother called police as the husband and wife got into an argument.
Kepler shot his wife as police arrived. He then turned his pistol toward officers, who shot and killed the suspect, according to police.
Landskroner's mother and the couple's two daughters, ages 10 and 8, were home at the time.
Two other domestic violence incidents in the Boulder area have turned deadly in recent months.Former firefighter Philip Frank DiLeo, 61, fatally shot his wife, Elizabeth Schwarzenbach-DiLeo, 63, and their son, Philip Christopher “Chris” DiLeo, 23, in their Boulder home on Memorial Day, before killing himself.
And in April, Robert Oakley, 39, killed himself after fatally shooting his ex-wife, Katelin Oakley, 30, in the Boulder home they had shared when they were married. ¶
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