BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder police have arrested a suspect exactly 200 days after a young woman's body was found wrapped in blankets on a bike trailer last July.
The suspect was identified as 52-year-old Jimmy Leroy West, Boulder Detective Commander Brannon Winn said during a press conference Thursday afternoon. West was arrested on a murder charge on Thursday morning.
This case started in the late afternoon on July 14, 2024, when officers with the Boulder Police Department responded to the 1800 block of Goss Street after neighbors reported an "unusual bike trailer" that had been there for several days with flies and maggots around it, according to an arrest affidavit. When detectives arrived at the scene, they found what appeared to be a small, homemade trailer piled with blankets and tarp-like materials, the affidavit reads. Wrapped in those items, detectives found the decomposing remains of a woman. The case was labeled a suspicious death.
Detectives believed the body had been there for several days. Under the intense summer heat, the body was badly decomposed and it took three days to identify her, Winn said.
She was ultimately identified as 19-year-old Zaria Hardee by a medical examiner, who said she died of "blunt force head injuries with probable asphyxia." At the time, she was just under 5 feet tall and 87 pounds, the affidavit reads. Police said she was unhoused at the time of her death and they believed there was some sort of relationship between Hardee and her killer.
In the days after the discovery, Boulder police began to retrace her last steps and talk with people she may have known. Winn said the physical nature of the evidence, paired with the effort required to find unhoused members of the community to interview, took time, but the department investigated every available lead.
For months, little to no updates were publicly available as that investigation continued.
But that changed on Thursday, when Boulder authorities scheduled a press conference to announce an arrest in the case. Winn, Police Chief Stephen Redfearn and District Attorney Michael Dougherty were all in attendance.
You can watch that full press conference below.
Chief Redfearn explained that earlier this week, the police department drafted a warrant for a suspect on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with this case, and it was signed by a judge Thursday morning.
“This morning, two of our sharp-eyed officers located that suspect and put him under arrest," he said.
That suspect was identified as West. He was arrested near the Boulder Civic Area, the police chief said.
Denver7 obtained West's arrest affidavit on Thursday afternoon, which contained more information about the discovery of Hardee's body and West's arrest.
According to that document, officers learned that Hardee was brought to a camp north of 1631 17th St., which belonged to West. This is about 500 feet from where her body was found.
Investigators interviewed West on July 17, a few days after Hardee's body was found. He told authorities he last saw Hardee a week and a half before then and that the trailer had been stolen from him two weeks prior. He said his bike and blankets had also been stolen, according to the affidavit.
In the interview, West said Hardee left the camp on July 10 and described what she had been wearing. Investigators said his description matched almost perfectly with the clothes she was wearing when her body was found, and that surveillance footage of Hardee being escorted to West's camp on July 10 show her in a different outfit.
Because he was the last known person to have been with the victim, West's camp was searched. Detectives found rope that matched evidence found at the crime scene, and tent material that was an exact fit to the tent material that Hardee's body had been wrapped in. The tent piece contained West's DNA despite him saying he did not own a tent, the affidavit reads. Tape found at the camp also appeared as possible matches to a strip found on Hardee's mouth and lower face. His DNA was also found on her body.
Authorities also spoke with Hardee's boyfriend at the time of her death, who admitted to "selling" her to West, "likely accepting drugs as payment on the last day she was seen alive (7-10-2024)," the affidavit reads. The boyfriend was questioned, but provided an alibi that was confirmed by law enforcement.
West has an extensive criminal history, the affidavit said.
The prosecution's work is now getting underway, District Attorney Michael Dougherty said at the press conference Thursday.
He also stressed that Hardee should be alive today.
"She was 19 years old. Nineteen. And she was living unhoused in our community," he said. "To me, that should give everyone pause. I recognize homelessness is a complex issue and there are people with views on all sides of it, but I think every single person would agree that a 19-year-old woman should be living somewhere with a home, with support and not be subjected to the violence that ended her life far too early. It is a tragedy."
Chief Redfearn expressed similar sentiments, saying the case "exposed a tragic reality that we, as a society, need to do better."
"It is entirely unacceptable that this young woman lived and ultimately died on our streets. Something must change," he said.
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