CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. — A Doberman breeder in Clear Creek County who was found deceased on his property last summer denied selling the murder suspect a puppy, according to a preliminary hearing held Friday morning, where authorities also shared grisly details about the discovery of his body.
Denver7 listened to the hearing on Friday morning, which was held in Clear Creek County court.
During a preliminary hearing, a judge must listen to witnesses' answers to questions presented by the prosecution and the defense. At the end of these hearings, a judge will decide if there is sufficient probable cause to believe the defendant committed the crime. If the judge finds this, the case moves forward. Preliminary hearings are not trials.
In this case, Judge Cynthia Jones found enough probable cause on all six counts.
Friday morning's case was focused on Sergio Ferrer, 36, of Georgetown, who is accused of murdering 57-year-old Paul Peavey, covering his body, and stealing items from his trailer last summer, with as many as 20 European Doberman Pinscher puppies missing. A search party acting on a missing persons report found Peavey's body near his trailer in Clear Creek County on Aug. 24, 2024, a few days after the report was made.
Ferrer, who was then considered a person of interest, was arrested later that afternoon on an unrelated warrant out of Nebraska. Shortly after, he was formally charged with first-degree murder in connection with Peavey's death, as well as felony murder, aggravated robbery, tampering with a deceased human body, second-degree burglary and theft between $20K and $100K.
Denver7 reported on Ferrer's arrest the day it happened — you can watch that breaking story below.
During Friday morning's preliminary hearing, the prosecution had two witnesses and the defense did not call up anybody.
Clear Creek County Sgt. Joel Buehrle was the first witness to speak. He recalled receiving a call on Aug. 24, 2024 from another sergeant about a "headless body" in connection with a missing persons case on Virginia Canyon Road, which leads north of Idaho Springs. The man's body, which was facedown a short walk away from his trailer, was missing most of the head and was partially covered with branches and rocks, Buehrle said.
Peavey had lived in a trailer on a mining claim on the undeveloped property.
The unofficial leader of the search party that had found Peavey's body told authorities that one of Ferrer's daughters had been trying to sell Doberman puppies on social media, though Buehrle said he had not seen the exact advertisement. The search party leader said he had gone up to check on Peavey after he couldn't get in touch with him since the evening of Aug. 18, 2024, and saw a lot of his belongings — including cash and puppies — were missing, Buehrle said.
After responding to the death, Buehrle called Jon Gaskins, who was the Georgetown Marshall, about trying to track down Ferrer. Gaskins told him that he was also looking for Ferrer for an unrelated warrant out of Nebraska. Gaskins went looking for Ferrer that day, and arrested him on the Nebraska warrant.
A search warrant was executed the day after the arrest, on Aug. 25, 2024. Authorities seized hand wipes, four metal detectors (that matched ones missing from Peavey's property), a bag of jewelry, phones, an air rifle, a handgun and a safe containing an antique derringer, which is a single-shot or double-shot pistol often seen in old Western movies.
As part of the investigation, Buehrle said he spoke with people who had previously purchased Doberman puppies from Peavey. They confirmed the cost of each puppy was $4,500 and all were microchipped before they were handed over.
Buehrle obtained a list of microchip numbers for the missing dogs from the veterinarians that Peavey used. A vet in the Denver metro area, who had seen the news of Peavey's death, called authorities after a client brought in a Doberman puppy that was about the age of the missing dogs. The dog owner told authorities she had purchased it for $775 over CashApp from a man who matched Ferrer's description, Buehrle said. A screenshot of the transaction, which included Ferrer's name, was entered as evidence in the courtroom.
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The second witness on Friday morning was Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Agent Gregg Slater, who supervises a team of agents in the major crimes unit.
He explained that rural jurisdictions, especially rural ones in need of more manpower or experience, will sometimes ask CBI for help on a case, or ask that they take the lead on it. In this case, the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office wanted to remain the lead investigators, but asked CBI for assistance.
Slater said Peavey's body was found in a wooded area of the property, down a steep incline from his trailer. Part of his body was covered with brush and rocks, but Slater said there was obvious trauma to the top of his head. He later recalled the man's head was “blown apart, basically" and when prosecutors asked if Peavey's "brain was present at the scene," he replied, "No, it was not."
The CBI agent said blood, which was invisible to the naked eye — was found on the side of Peavey's car near his trailer. That was sent to a lab for examination, but no results were available yet.
Slater learned about Peavey's business, which he said was very serious and involved a lot of vetting — including interviews — before Peavey would sell his puppies to a buyer. The leader of the search party that found Peavey's body told law enforcement that Ferrer had contacted Peavey in late 2023 or early 2024 about buying one of his puppies, but Peavey had deemed him an "unsuitable candidate," Slater said.
Following Ferrer's arrest, authorities seized his phone and obtained a search warrant to examine calls, texts, social media and other data associated with the device. A few online exchanges were brought up in court, which showed messages going back and forth about purchasing Doberman puppies.
On the day the body was found and Ferrer was arrested — Aug. 24, 2024 — Slater interviewed the suspect, along with an investigator, for about two and a half hours.
In that interview, Ferrer said he had purchased a puppy from Peavey for his daughter. He denied having any involvement in Peavey's death, or even knowing about it. In the initial interview, he said he gave Peavey a $1,000 deposit in June for the dog, went to Peavey's property to pick out a puppy after the litter was born, and later met Peavey at a local gas station to pick up the dog and pay the remaining balance, Slater said.
Ferrer's story then changed, as Denver7 reported in late August when we obtained the arrest affidavit.
In that same initial interview, Ferrer said he had actually gone to Peavey's property on Aug. 19, 2024 to give Peavey the remaining balance for the dog, but when he arrived, he saw the trailer door was open, the trailer was a mess and Peavey was nowhere to be found. Ferrer admitted he saw items in the trailer that "he liked," and took some of them, Slater said.
In between this first interview and a second one, Peavey's autopsy was completed by the Boulder County Coroner's Office on Aug. 28, 2024. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was ruled a homicide, Slater said.
The coroner's office brought in Dr. Diane France, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, to analyze Peavey's skull. Slater said the upper back part of the skull, as well as part of the front, were missing, and bone fragments had been found near his trailer. France was tasked with determining if those fragments fit the missing parts of the skull. She was able to piece together many of the bones, Slater said, and found an "entry defect" on the back top part of his head, indicating a bullet wound.
Based on damage to the front of the skull, Dr. France believed that the bullet had exited the front of his face.
After the completion of the autopsy, authorities again sat down with Ferrer for a second interview on Aug. 29, 2024.
Slater stated that Ferrer again denied being involved in Peavey's death. Ferrer said he was scared and "this was much bigger" than Peavey's death, adding that Peavey was part of the Los Zetas Cartel and had recruited him to help distribute cocaine and fentanyl, Slater said. Ferrer said he had gone to Peavey's property to pay him the balance for the puppy, but before he left, Peavey demanded money related to drugs that Ferrer had lost, Slater said. Ferrer claimed Peavey then fired one shot at him with a derringer handgun, and Ferrer shot back, striking Peavey.
The FBI and DEA both confirmed to Slater that they had no record of Peavey being involved in any investigations that they had done.
In this second interview, Ferrer said he took the derringer, jewelry, a BB gun, and mental detectors from the property, then moved Peavey's body to a place where he felt animals could not get to it, but also where somebody would find it. He then covered the body with brush and rocks, Slater recalled Ferrer saying. Ferrer initially denied taking any Doberman puppies from the area, but then admitted he returned to the property the following day to look for cash and said he may have taken one or two puppies, but did not intend to sell them.
During a cross-examination by the defense, Slater confirmed that Peavey's ex-wife had reported a domestic incident that was part of the reason she eventually left him.
The defense also asked Slater about the property owner of the mining claim, where Peavey's trailer was parked. There was an agreement that Peavey would earn some of the proceeds when the owner sold the land, Slater said. He had interviewed the property owner, who said Peavey helped maintain the property, since he rarely visited it. However, the owner said he did not know Peavey was living on that property until May 7, 2024, Slater said.
At the end of the hearing on Friday, Judge Jones said she found probable cause for all six counts against Ferrer, meaning the case will progress.
Ferrer's next court date was set for March 10.
Of the multiple missing puppies, only three have been accounted for as of Friday, the Clear Creek Sheriff's Office confirmed to Denver7.
On Aug. 28, 2024, a few days after Peavey's body was found and prior to Denver7 obtaining the affidavit, Clear Creek County Sheriff Matt Harris apologized in a statement for not doing enough to search for Peavey after the initial missing person’s report. Denver7 Investigates spoke one-on-one with Sheriff Harris.
“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.”
Watch Denver7 Investigates' August 2024 interview with Sheriff Harris in the video below.
Peavey was first reported missing after he hadn’t been heard from for 48 hours, Harris said, and while a deputy called the reporting party back, they did not go out to Peavey’s property.
The next day, the reporting party called again and spoke to a different deputy who entered Peavey as a missing person in state and national databases, went to Peavey’s property, interviewed several people, pinged his cell phone location and requested a welfare check in the county where Peavey was planning to move. Harris said his office should have searched the property more thoroughly, shared information on social media and took part in the search.
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“Somebody called our department asking for assistance and we didn’t investigate it thoroughly,” Harris told Denver7 Investigates. “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.”