Thirty-seven-year-old Ricky Espinoza was a fun-loving individual, always ready for a party and well-liked by pretty much everyone. He had been working as a server at various hotel banquets in the Denver, Colorado area, but at the end of June 2001 was unemployed. He was staying with his mother in Colorado Springs, and apparently, on the weekend of June 23rd, 2001, he had attended a relative’s wedding with some of his other family members.
Later that night, Ricky decided to go out, and reportedly told his mother that he was going to an adult bookstore called the Eros Arcade, a popular hangout and pickup spot for gay men. It is unknown if Ricky ever arrived at the bookstore, but he did call his mother very early on the morning of June 24th to tell her that he was staying overnight at J’s Motor Hotel on North Nevada Avenue. A witness later reported seeing him walking along South Nevada Avenue, but after that, Ricky completely disappeared.
Four days later, on June 28th, Ricky’s body was found by workers at the local landfill. Presumably, his body had been placed in a dumpster, and subsequently collected and deposited at the dump.
Strangely, a cause of death could not be determined. Ricky had not been shot, stabbed, nor beaten, and there was no trace of drugs found in his system. A blood alcohol level of .20 was recorded, but other than that, there was no sign that Ricky was anything but a healthy young man who had come to a terrible end.
Authorities did not believe that Ricky had been the target of a hate crime, since there was no violence done to the body, but instead assumed that someone he had picked up for a date had killed him and dumped his remains. As far as motive was concerned, one local bartender who knew Ricky as a customer told authorities that while Ricky was a very gregarious and likeable person, he also had a tendency to get “mouthy” when drinking, and had been involved in so many fights that he had been permanently banned from at least one bar in the area.
Ricky’s temper, however, may not have had anything to do with his death, though investigators at this point seem to be no closer to solving the tragic homicide, more than twenty years after it occurred.
Crime Immemorial 