In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on March 8, 2017, the life of Kelly A. Pease, a 37-year-old White/Caucasian female, was tragically cut short. A mother of five and a dedicated nursing student at North Idaho College, Pease was discovered in her car in a parking lot of Kootenai Health, where she was doing her clinical rotations. An employee of the hospital found her and attempted CPR, but Pease had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Her death was the culmination of a history of domestic violence she had endured.
The immediate focus of the police investigation turned to her former fiancé, 61-year-old Steven T. Denson. Court records revealed a turbulent and violent relationship. Just months prior, in January, Denson had been arrested and charged with attempted strangulation and domestic battery against Pease after a violent assault where he reportedly choked, punched, and stabbed her. Following the incident, Pease secured a no-contact order against him. However, Denson violated this order in early February, leading to another arrest. He was released on bond. On the very day of her death, police had been actively searching for Denson to arrest him for another violation of the no-contact order.
The manhunt for Steven T. Denson came to an end the following day. After a citizen reported spotting his vehicle, Kootenai County Sheriff's deputies located his white Nissan Pathfinder on a rural road. As a deputy positioned his patrol car and waited for backup, a muffled gunshot was heard from inside Denson's vehicle. When officers approached, they found Denson deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The investigation concluded that Denson was the sole suspect in Pease's murder. Her children remembered her as the "absolute glue" of their family, a woman with a dream of buying a farm, a dream that was violently stolen.
