DENVER – The Longmont postal carrier who was shot and killed Wednesday was in the midst of a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend, who was arrested and accused of killing him, according to court documents.
Police arrested Devan Schreiner, 26, Wednesday evening for investigation on a first-degree murder charge. She had been set to make his first court appearance Thursday afternoon, but the hearing was rescheduled for Oct. 19.
According to an affidavit for her arrest, a resident called police to a home in the 2000 block of Sicily Circle in Longmont just after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday reporting that the letter carrier had been shot in the driveway and that a person wearing a dark hoodie and blue mask was seen running from the area.
They found the postal carrier dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to his face. He was working at the time, according to the affidavit. Video from the scene indicated four shots were fired, according to the document.
A friend and coworker, Trey Smith, identified the victim Thursday as Jason Schaefer. He had not been formally identified by the county coroner’s office as of early Thursday afternoon.
When the postmaster arrived at the scene of the murder, he made a comment asking, “Did the baby mama do it?” the affidavit says. Investigators found Schreiner and Schaefer have a child together and that court documents had been filed on Monday in which Schaefer asked to have parenting time modified – documents that Schreiner was supposed to be served with.
Those documents show the couple have a 5-year-old child and that they entered into a parenting plan for the child in June 2018 in which the two shared equal time with the child. But the documents also show that Schreiner was not giving Schaefer her new address, was changing pickup times and locations, and that the child had been injured several times and exposed to COVID during Schreiner’s time with the child.
The custody document, filed by an attorney for Schaefer, claims Schreiner refuses to coparent the child, was not communicating about taking the child out of therapy and would not enroll the child in kindergarten. Schaefer’s attorney asked the court to give Schaefer the majority of the parenting time and sole decision-making responsibilities. Court records also show prior divorce and custody cases involving the two.
According to the affidavit, a camera captured Schreiner’s vehicle driving near Sicily Circle about a half mile away from the scene of the shooting about 30 minutes before the shooting occurred, and a resident nearby said they believed they saw a vehicle matching her vehicle’s description back into an access road in the area.
Investigators went and talked to Schreiner’s sister and found out that Schreiner also worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Longmont, but had been fired about two weeks ago because of “an incident,” according to the affidavit. She then started working for the USPS in Loveland.
According to the affidavit, Schreiner was working Wednesday. GPS tracking of her and her postal vehicle done by the USPS showed the device pinging at an address in Loveland from between 11:06 a.m. and 1:28 p.m., and analysis by a postal inspector showed that her device did not move between those times before it started again and returned to the Loveland post office around 4:30 p.m.
The affidavit says Schreiner called Longmont police from her home in Fort Collins just before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and drove her personal vehicle, which authorities believe she was driving in the time period her tracking device was not moving and at the time of the murder, to the Longmont Police Department, where she spoke with detectives. Other detectives saw a blue face mask and black hoodie inside her vehicle, according to the affidavit.
When she talked to detectives, she said she had gone to someone else’s home in Loveland — whose identity is redacted in the affidavit — before noon and ate pizza rolls, then argued with the person and gone back to her postal vehicle and cried before going back to work.
The deputy chief of the Longmont Police Department said in a news release Thursday morning that officers and U.S. Postal Inspection Services searched the home of an acquaintance of Schreiner’s and her apartment. They had also obtained a search warrant for her vehicle.
“Although the investigation is still in its early stages, the teamwork has generated a lot of progress in the short period of time since the murder,” Longmont Deputy Police Chief Jeff Satur said in an email.
Trey Smith, a coworker and friend of Schaefer’s, said coworkers at the Longmont USPS branch were struggling with Schaefer's death on Thursday.
“Everyone is pretty much a mess. They can’t wrap their head around that,” Smith said. “It’s just crazy because, like, I lost a brother. And I know he’s not blood, but he’s family in a way.”
“He was just a great, loving guy who would do anything for anybody,” Smith said of Schaefer. “So, this goofy guy that always put a smile on anyone’s face he was around.”
Jackie Thornie, a resident who knew Schaefer in his capacity as a letter carrier, said his murder was heartbreaking.
“I spoke to him several times just in passing – jokes here and there,” Thornie said. “They do become a little part of your life and you kind of expect them to be there. …. I feel very saddened by the whole thing.”
Longmont police and U.S. Postal Inspection Services continue to ask any witnesses or people in the area of the shooting who have surveillance cameras to call Longmont police at 303-651-8501. You can also submit video here.