On a Christmas morning in 1975, the holiday peace was shattered in Denver's West City Park neighborhood. In the back yard of a residence in the 2000 block of Lafayette Street, the body of Michael Bailey, a 24-year-old Black male, was discovered. The Denver Police Department responded to the scene and quickly determined that Bailey's death was not of natural causes.
The investigation revealed that Michael Bailey had been shot to death.
Residents in the area recalled hearing gunshots earlier that same morning, piercing the usual quiet of the holiday. Despite the reports of gunshots and the discovery of the victim, the circumstances surrounding his death remained unclear. The case was officially classified as a homicide.
Decades have passed since that Christmas morning, but the shooting death of Michael Bailey remains an unsolved cold case. To this day, no arrests have been made in connection with his murder, and no suspects have been publicly identified. The Denver Police Department continues to list the case as open, awaiting any new information that might finally bring a resolution to the long-standing mystery of who killed Michael Bailey.
