Oakey 'Al' Kite

Case background and investigation

Oakey Albert "Al" Kite Jr., 53, was an engineering consultant who lived alone in a townhome at 2002 South Helena Street in Aurora, Colorado, according to Solve the Case. In May 2004 he advertised for someone to rent his basement. A man calling himself Robert Cooper, who said he was moving from the East Coast for a technology job, met Kite on May 18, 2004, paid a deposit and part of the rent, and moved in, according to Solve the Case and Oxygen.

On May 24, 2004, co-workers became concerned when Kite did not come to work and called Aurora police, Denver7 reported. Officers found his body in the basement. He had been bound, tortured and killed with his own kitchen knives. Solve the Case, citing the case summary, places the attack on the evening of May 22. According to Denver7 and Oxygen, the killer cleaned the scene and left knives and other items he had handled in a sink filled with bleach.

After the killing, Kite's debit card was used at a nearby Wells Fargo ATM by a man wearing a mask and gloves who was driving Kite's pickup truck, Denver7 reported. Oxygen and Solve the Case report that about $1,000 was withdrawn. Investigators found that every detail "Robert Cooper" had given Kite was false, according to Solve the Case, which also reports that a prepaid phone he used had been bought weeks earlier. Witnesses described him as a white man with dark curly hair who used a cane.

A drop of blood from an unknown man was found on the basement stairs and entered into the FBI's CODIS database without a match, Oxygen reported. In December 2017 Aurora police released a composite image produced by Parabon NanoLabs through DNA phenotyping, estimating how the man might have looked at age 25, Denver7 reported; the analysis suggested brown eyes, brown hair and southeastern European ancestry. In 2019 retired investigator Paul Holes reviewed the case for the Oxygen series The DNA of Murder, and the DNA was submitted for genetic genealogy work with the FBI's help, according to Oxygen.

No one has been identified or charged. According to Solve the Case, the investigation remains open with the Aurora Police Department, and Denver7 reported that police continue to ask anyone with information to contact the detective assigned to the case.