On a summer night in 1981, Debra Sue Corr, a 26-year-old female officer with the Aurora Police Department, was on patrol when she conducted a traffic stop at East Colfax Avenue and Moline Street. It was a stop that would turn fatal, marking a tragic first for the city's police force. Having served on the force for just one year, Officer Corr became the first Aurora police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
During the attempt to arrest the driver of the vehicle, a struggle ensued.
The suspect, Joe Michael Ervin, managed to break free and gain control of Officer Corr's service weapon. He then fatally shot her with her own handgun. A passing Aurora Police Explorer Scout, Glen Spies, witnessed the struggle and stopped to offer his assistance. In the ensuing chaos, Spies was also shot in the back and wounded by Ervin.
Following the shooting, Ervin fled the scene. He was later apprehended at his home as he was attempting to saw off the handcuffs that Officer Corr had managed to place on one of his wrists during their struggle. A few days after his arrest, while awaiting trial in the Adams County Detention Center, Joe Michael Ervin took his own life on July 1, 1981.
For decades, the story of Officer Corr's murder was a tragic but seemingly closed chapter. However, advancements in DNA technology would eventually reveal a more sinister and extensive criminal history for her killer. Between 2013 and 2018, Denver police were able to link evidence from four unsolved homicides that occurred between 1978 and 1981 to a single, unknown suspect. Through the use of genetic genealogy, investigators identified a relative of the suspect in Texas. This breakthrough ultimately led them to Joe Michael Ervin. In late 2021, Ervin's remains were exhumed, and DNA evidence confirmed that he was not only responsible for the death of Officer Corr but was also a serial killer who had murdered four other women.
The four other victims were identified as 33-year-old Madeleine Furey-Livaudais, 53-year-old Dolores Barajas, 27-year-old Gwendolyn Harris, and 17-year-old Antoinette Parks, who was pregnant at the time of her death. The revelation brought a bittersweet sense of closure to the families of these women, who had waited decades for answers. It also cast Officer Debra Sue Corr's final act in a new light, as her attempt to arrest Ervin unknowingly stopped a serial killer from claiming more victims.
