Jessica Ridgeway

On the morning of October 5, 2012, 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway left her home in Westminster, Colorado, to walk to Witt Elementary School, a route that took her toward a neighborhood park where she typically met other children. She never arrived at school. When the school notified her mother that afternoon that Jessica had been absent, the family alerted authorities, and a large-scale search quickly began across the Denver metropolitan area.

Early signs pointed to an abduction. On October 7, investigators recovered Jessica's backpack, water bottle, and eyeglasses roughly six miles from her home in Superior, Colorado. The discovery intensified fears for her safety and drew hundreds of volunteers, local police, and the FBI into the search. On October 10, 2012, human remains later identified as Jessica were found in Pattridge Park Open Space near Arvada, about nine miles from where she had disappeared. Authorities disclosed that the body had been dismembered, and the case was formally classified as a homicide.

The investigation led police to Austin Reed Sigg, a 17-year-old resident of Westminster who lived near the park where the backpack items had been found. On October 23, 2012, Sigg's mother, Mindy Sigg, called 911 to report that her son had confessed to the killing. Officers arrested Sigg at the family home that night, into the early hours of October 24. Investigators also connected Sigg to an earlier attack: on May 28, 2012, he had attempted to abduct a 22-year-old woman who was jogging near the same lake; she fought him off and reported the assault, though the case had remained unsolved at the time.

Because Sigg was under 18 at the time of the offenses, prosecutors charged him as an adult but could not seek the death penalty. On October 1, 2013, in Jefferson County District Court, Sigg pleaded guilty to all charges against him, a total of about 15 counts including first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, sexual assault, attempted kidnapping, and sexual exploitation of a child. During the proceedings he acknowledged responsibility for luring, killing, and dismembering Jessica.

On November 19, 2013, District Judge Stephen Munsinger sentenced Sigg. For the first-degree murder count, committed as a juvenile, he received life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years, reflecting U.S. Supreme Court limits on mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles. The judge then imposed an additional 86 years for the remaining counts, to be served consecutively, effectively ensuring Sigg would spend the rest of his life incarcerated. Sigg remains in the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections. The case, which shook the Denver suburbs and prompted widespread discussion of child safety, is considered closed with a conviction.