Who killed Jessica? In the winter of 1988, a 22-year-old white woman named Jessica Arredondo became the victim of a brutal and still officially unsolved murder. On the day after Thanksgiving, November 25, 1988, Jessica was last seen in Glendale, Colorado. She had dropped her boyfriend off at a bar and was driving her cherished red 1988 Mustang convertible. Later that evening, her car was found abandoned a short distance away, showing signs of a minor accident.
Witnesses at the scene reported a harrowing
sight: Jessica being forcefully taken from her vehicle by several unidentified men. It appeared that her car may have been intentionally struck as a ploy to get her to stop. The following day, her nude body was discovered about 50 feet from a highway near Estes Park in Larimer County. An autopsy determined that she had died from blunt force trauma to the head. Though investigators believe she was sexually assaulted, forensic evidence to confirm this was not found. Her clothing was found scattered along the highway near where her body was dumped.
Despite the presence of two sets of footprints in the snow near her body, suggesting more than one perpetrator, and the creation of composite sketches of two men seen at the abduction site, no arrests were ever made in Jessica's case. Her murder officially remains a cold case.
Years later, law enforcement identified a prime suspect: Robert Eliot Harlan. This came after Harlan was convicted for the 1994 abduction, rape, and murder of Rhonda Maloney, a crime that bore striking similarities to Jessica's case. Investigators in Larimer County have publicly stated that they believe Harlan is responsible for Jessica Arredondo's death, calling him their only suspect. However, evidence directly linking him to her murder was not presented during his trial for the Maloney case, and he has never been formally charged in connection with Jessica's death. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office continues to seek information from the public regarding her unsolved homicide.
