Christina Rose Furber, a 26-year-old White woman, died on September 9, 2014, following a dramatic overnight search in Pueblo West, Colorado. Online records identify Furber as a Pueblo West resident rather than a Denver resident. The events leading to her death began shortly before 10 p.m. on September 8, when off-duty Pueblo Police Sergeant Shelly Taylor, who was still wearing her uniform but driving her personal vehicle, saw Furber driving a red sports car at a high rate of speed and in a
manner Taylor considered erratic. Taylor suspected the driver might be impaired and followed the vehicle to the Pueblo West home where Furber lived with her parents.
Taylor followed Furber onto the property near a horse barn and attempted to contact the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office. Taylor directed Furber to sit near a horse trailer while she called 911. According to law-enforcement accounts and later federal court records, Furber initially identified herself and offered to retrieve her driver's license. The encounter became increasingly tense when Taylor reported that Furber was not cooperating and ordered her to stop reaching into her purse. When Taylor attempted to handcuff her, a physical struggle began. Investigators said Furber produced a revolver from her purse, and gunfire was exchanged between the two women. Neither Furber nor Taylor was struck. Later reports stated that Furber fired three shots at Taylor before fleeing the property on foot.
Pueblo County deputies responded and launched an extensive search of the surrounding neighborhood. Deputies, a K-9 team and tactical personnel searched through the night but were unable to locate Furber. Authorities treated her as wanted in connection with the confrontation, with contemporary reports stating that she was being sought for attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer. Residents in the area received reverse-911 notifications, and the search affected the opening schedules of nearby schools.
The search ended the following morning when a resident in the 1000 block of Shenandoah Drive went into his garage and discovered Furber inside the trunk of an unlocked car. The location was less than half a mile from the earlier confrontation. Reports indicated that the homeowner had heard a noise during the night but had not investigated it at the time. Investigators believed Furber had entered the garage through a dog door and then climbed into the vehicle. She was found with a single gunshot wound to the head, and a revolver similar to the weapon described during the confrontation with Taylor was recovered with her.
After examining Furber's remains and the circumstances at the scene, the Pueblo County Coroner determined that the fatal gunshot wound was consistent with suicide and officially classified her death as such. Because Furber had died before she could be arrested or prosecuted, there was no criminal trial or conviction arising from the alleged shooting at Sergeant Taylor. Authorities did not identify another person as a suspect in Furber's death, and no one was arrested or criminally charged with causing it.
Furber's family later disputed aspects of the official account. Her father, Charles Furber, acting as the representative of her estate, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Sergeant Taylor, the City of Pueblo and Pueblo County Sheriff's Captain Don Leach. The lawsuit alleged that Taylor had improperly entered the family's property and unlawfully seized Furber without a warrant. It also advanced an alternative explanation for the fatal shooting, contending that Furber may have been attempting to hide in the neighbor's vehicle when the revolver accidentally discharged as she climbed into or tried to close the trunk. That claim did not change the coroner's official determination that the death was a suicide.
The federal district court dismissed the civil claims, concluding in part that even if a constitutional violation were assumed and the gunshot were assumed to have been accidental, the alleged conduct by Taylor was not legally the proximate cause of Furber's death. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit later upheld the rejection of the damages claim related to her death, while addressing other portions of the case separately. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to review the case in June 2018. The litigation remained a civil dispute over the circumstances preceding Furber's death; it did not result in criminal charges against Taylor or anyone else in connection with the fatal gunshot.
