Who murdered Harold Cohen in 1949?
In the autumn of 1949, a 38-year-old man named Harold Murphy Cohen, known to his friends as 'Murph,' vanished from the Denver area. A white male, Cohen was a familiar figure in the city's gambling circles and also worked as a fight referee. His disappearance was officially reported to the Denver Police Department in November of that year. The last time anyone recalled seeing him, he was attending a ceremonial dinner at Gaetano's restaurant. He was dressed in a goldish-brown cardigan-style jacket, a pearl-gray sleeveless sweater, grayish-blue trousers, brown shoes, and a brown hat.
Months went by with no sign of Cohen, leaving his fate a troubling mystery. The search came to a grim conclusion on February 11, 1950, when his body was discovered in what was then known as Blue Lake, situated south of Highway 58 at Indiana Street in Jefferson County. The serene waters, now on the property of the MillerCoors company, had concealed a dark secret. Investigators found that Cohen's body had been deliberately weighted down, a clear indication of foul play. However, it had become caught on a ledge, preventing it from sinking to the bottom of the 90-foot-deep lake.
The discovery of Harold Cohen's body launched a homicide investigation that has now spanned decades, turning his case into one of Jefferson County's long-standing cold cases. Despite the circumstances of his death pointing to a deliberate act of murder, no suspects have ever been publicly identified, and no arrests have been made in connection with the crime. The story of what happened to the gambler and fight referee after he left the restaurant that night remains untold, locked away in the silence of the past. The case remains open, a lingering question for law enforcement who still seek information that might finally bring a resolution after more than seventy years.
