On the evening of August 4, 2023, what initially appeared to be a single-vehicle accident in Pueblo West, Colorado, soon unfolded into a homicide investigation. Authorities discovered the body of 32-year-old Larry Derrick Maes, a White male, inside a white SUV that had crashed in the 1700 block of Tenderfoot Lane. While the scene was first treated as a suspicious death related to the crash, the nature of his demise quickly became the central focus for the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office.
The Pueblo County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy and determined that Maes had died from a single gunshot wound. This critical finding officially reclassified the investigation into a homicide, prompting detectives to delve deeper into the circumstances leading to his death. The case progressed for several months as investigators worked to piece together the events that led to the fatal shooting of the Pueblo West resident.
In a significant development months later, on April 12, 2024, Pueblo County Sheriff's detectives, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals, made an arrest in connection with the murder of Larry Derrick Maes. Loren Casados, 33, was taken into custody without incident on a no-bond warrant for second-degree murder. Casados was subsequently booked into the Pueblo County Jail, marking a pivotal turn in the investigation into Maes's violent death.
