In the spring of 1987, the quiet, rural landscape of Douglas County, Colorado, became the scene of a grim discovery that would haunt investigators for decades. On April 1, a passing motorist traveling along South Perry Park Road, south of Sedalia, spotted something unsettling down an embankment. It was the body of a young woman, later identified as 30-year-old Rhonda Marie Fisher. An investigation quickly determined that she had been brutally sexually assaulted and strangled to death.
Authorities learned that Fisher was last seen alive on the night of March 31, 1987, walking north on Monaco towards Leetsdale in Denver. In the weeks leading up to her death, she had been staying with various acquaintances, a transient lifestyle that presented challenges to the investigation from the very beginning. One of these acquaintances was initially considered a person of interest but was eventually cleared, leaving detectives with few solid leads.
For years, the case of Rhonda Marie Fisher grew cold, a painful and unresolved chapter in the annals of Douglas County crime. Detectives tirelessly pursued every possible angle, even investigating potential links to multiple serial offenders who were active in the Denver metropolitan area during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Despite extensive efforts and periodic reviews of the case file, a suspect remained elusive. As forensic science advanced, so too did hope for a breakthrough. In 2017, evidence from the case was submitted for DNA testing, but unfortunately, no complete DNA profiles could be generated to identify the perpetrator. The case once again returned to the shadows, a frustrating puzzle with a missing piece. The investigation, though inactive, was never truly forgotten, waiting for the one clue that would finally bring clarity and justice.
The break in the long-stagnant case finally came in early 2025, nearly four decades after Rhonda's death. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit decided to reopen the investigation, undertaking a comprehensive review of all the evidence that had been meticulously preserved. In a move that would prove to be pivotal, investigators resubmitted several items for a new round of advanced DNA testing. In late October of that year, they received the news they had been waiting for: a match through the Combined DNA Index System. The DNA was recovered from a place investigators had hoped would hold a clue—paper bags that had been placed over Fisher's hands at the crime scene to preserve any trace evidence. This crucial sample matched the DNA profile of Vincent Darrell Groves, a man considered to be one of Colorado's most prolific serial killers. Groves, who was linked to at least a dozen homicides, had died in prison in 1996 while serving time for other murders. Though he could never be prosecuted for the murder of Rhonda Marie Fisher, the DNA evidence definitively named him as her killer, bringing a long-awaited resolution to a case that had remained a mystery for 38 years.
