DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — A Douglas County jury found Casey Childers, 41, guilty on Thursday of the kidnapping and murder of Rachel Holeman, 29, in 2021, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Childers was convicted of first-degree murder after deliberation, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was also convicted of second-degree kidnapping, for which he was sentenced to 32 years in prison. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping as well, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on that offense.
Douglas County Sheriff's Office deputies found Holeman's body more than month after her disappearance in 2021 along an embankment off S. Parker Road.
The coroner determined Holeman's cause and manner of death was a gunshot wound to the head, the district attorney's office said.
Fort Collins police first got a report that Holeman was missing. Interviews with those who interacted with Holeman led investigators to believe she was in Colorado with Childers and someone named Shantel Edlund to distribute drugs, the district attorney's office said.
Upon further investigation, Fort Collins police tracked her last-known location to Aurora, the district attorney's office said. The Aurora Police Department then took over the investigation, finding evidence that Childers, Edlund and someone else named Leo VanBuskirk kidnapped Holeman in November of 2021, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
When Douglas County deputies were called to an unrelated report of a burglary, they drove past the same make and model of the car believed to be used in Hoelman's kidnapping. Running the license plate helped investigators connect the car and location to Holeman's disappearance.
By the end of December, police in Wyoming stopped the same car and arrested Childers, Edlund and Buskirk on unrelated drug charges.
Based on what Edlund said to police, she ultimately led investigators to Holeman's body.
Childers was identified as the shooter.
Edlund eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and was sentenced to 18 years in the Department of Corrections.
Van Buskirk pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping. His sentencing is scheduled for later this year.
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