In the summer of 2019, an argument fueled by alcohol and family drama culminated in the tragic death of 48-year-old Christopher Michael Grau. On July 5th, Grau was at a home in Lakewood with his girlfriend, her brother Kenneth Hoschouer, and Hoschouer's wife. The evening took a dark turn when Hoschouer, who had been drinking heavily, became enraged upon learning that his teenage daughter was in a relationship with a 22-year-old man.
He directed his anger towards his wife, blaming her for not disclosing the relationship to him.
Christopher Grau attempted to be a peacemaker, intervening in the escalating argument between Hoschouer and his wife. In an effort to calm the situation, Grau managed to get Hoschouer out of the house and drove him to his motorhome located in Firestone on Weld County Road 28. Tragically, this act of de-escalation would be his last. At the motorhome, Hoschouer shot and killed Grau. The following day, July 6, 2019, Firestone police discovered Grau's body on the ground outside the motorhome. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head, and thirteen shell casings were found near his body.
The investigation led police to Kenneth Hoschouer. He was arrested in September 2019 after authorities, with the help of an HVAC service company, located the murder weapon concealed within a vent in Hoschouer's residence. In November 2021, a Weld County jury found Kenneth Hoschouer, then 40, guilty of second-degree murder for the death of Christopher Grau. He faced a potential sentence of 16 to 48 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. However, in a later development, an appeals court ordered a new trial after determining the judge should have allowed the jury to consider a self-defense argument, citing evidence such as a pocketknife and a blood-stained wooden board found near Grau's body that suggested a struggle may have occurred.
