The two brothers who died in a murder-suicide in Parker last month were facing a slew of lawsuits alleging they defrauded people of more than $4.4 million — and skipped a federal court hearing in one of those cases hours before the shooting, court records show.
Grant Brunner, 48, and Gregory Brunner, 55, died Nov. 28 in what Parker police said was a murder-suicide near the Holiday Inn on Cottonwood Drive, the Douglas County Coroner’s Office confirmed Tuesday.
Police spokesman Josh Hans on Tuesday declined to say who carried out the shooting, and would not offer any details about how the incident unfolded, citing an ongoing investigation.
But the Brunners faced at least eight open lawsuits in the last four months from 12 people who claimed the brothers failed to pay back $4.48 million in business loans, court records show. Generally, the lawsuits allege the brothers, through their company SRE Capital LLC, solicited loans from people they knew — largely friends or social connections — on the promise they’d pay back the loans with interest or profit after some business dealing, usually in real estate.
The brothers then failed to pay back the money, the lawsuits generally allege. One lawsuit likened the Brunner’s business model to a “Ponzi scheme.”
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