Clear Creek Sheriff Matt Harris said he was disappointed by failures within his department after initial calls came in regarding a missing person report that was first filed last week.
Paul Peavey was found dead three days after that initial report when a group of residents located his body after a brief search.
“Somebody called our department asking for assistance and we didn’t investigate it thoroughly,” Harris told Denver7 Investigates on Wednesday. “It’s very disappointing, but it is what it is. We failed and we didn’t handle it correctly. … As humans, we often learn from mistakes and this is certainly going to be a learning experience for our agency.”
Harris released a statement Tuesday nightacknowledging to the community that new information he discovered during the past 72 hours exposed those failures within his department.
He wrote: “Unfortunately, during our initial assessment upon the report of a missing person last Wednesday, our response failed to meet our professional standards.”
“Our initial response was unacceptable,” Harris told Denver7 Investigates. “For lack of a better phrase, we blew it off and didn’t investigate it thoroughly.”
However, despite these early failures, Harris is confident in the murder investigation and his department’s ability to catch the killer.
“Despite the missteps on the front end, the investigative work thereafter and since then has been excellent, has been top notch. The community will be proud of the work we are doing,” Harris said.
Harris was sworn in as sheriff in December 2023, taking over a department reeling from the June 2022 shooting death of Christian Glass that saw multiple deputies charged in the killing.
In trying to rebound the department’s approach and reputation, Harris has pledged transparency and accountability from the sheriff’s office.
“I made a commitment to the community, to the public, to our commissioners when I was appointed as sheriff that we were going to bring accountability, integrity and professionalism to the county and to the department,” he said.
Watch Denver7 chief investigate reporter Tony Kovaleski's report in the video player below.
