Monday, April 11, 2011

Pueblo, CO: Deaths are murder-suicide, police say

Posted: Monday, April 11, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 12:56 am, Mon Apr 11, 2011.
 A man reportedly killed his girlfriend in her Pueblo home and then committed suicide by driving off a cliff at the Royal Gorge in Fremont County early Sunday, police said.
  Roseanna A. Vigil, 42, died from multiple gunshot wounds, Pueblo County Coroner James Kramer said.
  Brian John Wiersema, 37, of Pueblo West, died after driving his 2011 Chevrolet Camaro into a 240-foot ravine near the Royal Gorge, Pueblo police and the Fremont County coroner said.
  Pueblo police Sgt. Eric Bravo said the couples' deaths are being investigated as a murder- suicide.
  Wiersema's body was discovered about 3:50 a.m. when the OnStar system in the car was triggered in the crash, Bravo said. Colorado State troopers were then able to locate the car through its global positioning system.
  Vigil's body was discovered about 11 a.m. when her brother went to her home at 1703 Oakshire Lane.
  "She was supposed to attend a family function (Sunday) morning in Rocky Ford. When she didn't show up, her brother went to check on her and found her inside," Bravo said.
  Wiersema and Vigil worked together and had dated for about a year, Bravo said. "Some of the co-workers we talked to said he was obsessed with her," he said.
  The couple was involved in arguments the night before in her home, Bravo said, and Vigil's brother  "actually talked to him and told him to not have any issues with his sister."
 Bravo also said the brother "called his sister to see if everything was fine. And she said she was OK."
  Inside Vigil's town house police found a handgun on a kitchen counter and three spent shell casings in a bedroom where Vigil died.
  Police collected evidence from the home and a neighboring vacant town house that was pierced by bullets.
  Bravo said the Camaro belonged to Wiersema but was driven primarily by Vigil.
  The state patrol said Wiersema was driving south on Fremont County Road 61, which is just west of the county road that provides access to the Royal Gorge Bridge on U.S. 50,  and drove off the road edge of the road and over a cliff.
  "The Chevrolet collided with several boulders, coming to rest on its roof at the bottom of the ravine," a news release said.
  According to Kramer, Vigil's death is the eighth homicide in Pueblo County so far this year.

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