On the night of July 3, 2025, Rylee James Ferari, a 24-year-old White/Caucasian male, was found deceased in a vehicle pulled over on the side of Highway 85/87 near Main Street in an unincorporated area of El Paso County, close to Fountain, Colorado. Deputies from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office discovered his body after responding to a 911 call that came in around 10:45 p.m. reporting a robbery in the vicinity. Inside the vehicle with Ferari was another victim, 16-year-old Kaegan Wellman, who had also been fatally shot.
The investigation into the double homicide was quickly taken over by the Major Crimes Unit of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. As investigators processed the scene and gathered evidence, the highway was closed for several hours. The El Paso County Coroner's Office later confirmed the identities of both victims. While Ferari was publicly identified, the name of the younger victim was initially withheld due to his age, though his family later identified him as Kaegan Wellman. News of the violent deaths sent ripples through the Fountain and Security-Widefield communities.
In the days following the discovery, detectives identified 23-year-old Eddie LaCharles Jackson as a person of interest in the killings. The investigation led authorities to Denver International Airport, where they located Jackson. With the assistance of the Denver Police Department, Jackson was detained at the airport. Following interviews with detectives from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, Eddie LaCharles Jackson was arrested and booked on two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Rylee James Ferari and Kaegan Wellman. He was subsequently held at the El Paso County Jail on a $500,000 cash-only bond. As of late summer 2025, court proceedings were pending, and authorities had not announced any other arrests or publicly identified any additional suspects in the case.
