In the rural landscape of Burlington, Colorado, the story of James Irvin 'Jim' Plance, a 54-year-old man, came to a tragic end in 1980. Plance, who worked on the McCormick farm as either the cook or foreman, became entangled in a dark series of events that would only come to light years later. His death was not an isolated incident but part of a larger, more sinister narrative of violence alleged to have occurred on the farm.
The chain of events leading to the discovery of Plance's fate
began to unfold in 1986 when Mike McCormick, the son of the farm's owner, Tom McCormick, came forward to law enforcement. In a startling confession, made in exchange for a reduced sentence for his own involvement, Mike implicated his father in several murders. He recounted a specific incident involving Plance, claiming that Plance had broken into his trailer to steal from him. Upon catching Plance, Mike alleged that he called his father, who then dealt with the supposed thief, resulting in Plance's death.
Based on Mike's initial detailed testimony, which included pointing investigators to the location of another victim's remains, Tom McCormick was arrested in 1986. The prosecution's case, however, began to unravel as Mike's story started to change. During subsequent interviews and a preliminary hearing, significant inconsistencies emerged in his accounts. He began to implicate other family members, casting doubt on the reliability of his testimony against his father. Despite the initial arrest and the grim picture painted by Mike's early statements, the search for other bodies on the McCormick property was eventually called off due to funding issues and changes to the land, leaving many questions about the full extent of the alleged crimes unanswered.
