On a summer afternoon in Denver, the course of a welfare check would uncover a tragedy that has remained a mystery for decades. On July 9, 1981, members of the Denver Police Department were dispatched to a home in the North Park Hill neighborhood. Their purpose was to check on the well-being of one of its residents, 25-year-old Valerie Murphy, a Black female.
Upon entering the residence, the officers discovered a grim scene.
Valerie Murphy and her roommate, Clarence Harris, were both found deceased inside their home. The cause of their untimely deaths was later determined to be gunshot wounds. The case was immediately classified as a homicide, launching an investigation into the double murder that had shaken the community.
Despite the efforts of law enforcement, the trail of the killer or killers grew cold. To this day, the case of Valerie Murphy and Clarence Harris remains unsolved. There have been no arrests made, and no suspects have been publicly identified in connection with their murders. The passage of time has not yielded the answers that the friends and family of the victims have long awaited, leaving their story as an open and painful chapter in Denver's history of unsolved crimes. The Denver Police Department continues to seek information from the public that might bring a resolution to this long-standing cold case.
