The skeletal remains of Ryan Eugene Guitron from Fort Collins, missing for six years, have been found in rural Kimball County, Neb., and a multi-jurisdictional investigation is under way since last Monday.
According to investigators, the remains of 30-year-old Ryan Eugene Guitron were found in a woodpile on an abandoned farmstead. A former roommate of the man is in custody.
Guitron, an oil field worker, was last seen in Fort Collins about midnight Oct. 14, 2003. He was supposed to go to his girlfriend’s Fort Collins home, but never arrived.
The break in the case came earlier this month when the police responded to a domestic disturbance in Cheyenne, Wyo., and arrested Vencil Leo Ash III, 38. During the investigation, it became clear that Ash was a former roommate of Guitron.
Ash has not yet been charged in connection with the Guitron slaying. He is being held in Scottsbluff, Neb., on the federal firearms violation. Authorities think Guitron was executed after being taken to the farmstead. A single gunshot wound to the head was discovered. On April 14, dental records showed the remains were that of Guitron. Guitron was known to associate with people involved in making and selling methamphetamine. Authorities suspect drug activity might have played a role in his disappearance.
Ash has a lengthy Colorado criminal history. He was sentenced to four years in state prison in 1998 after pleading guilty to felony assault and vehicular eluding police in Morgan County, according to court records. Other charges from the 1998 incident, including arson and using a gun while drunk, were dismissed, court records said.
An unidentified friend was arrested on unrelated charges in November 2003 and many of Guitron’s belongings were found in the friend’s possession according to the newsarticle.
Read more about the way polife was alerted to Ash here.
UPDATE: Ash and his girlfriend Kelly Meehan were charged in the murder of Guitron. Ash is to be arraigned Nov 1, 2011. No date has been set for Meehan.
Ash was sentenced by Federal District Court Judge Clarence A. Brimmer on January 13, 2011, for two counts of a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of a felon in possession of ammunition. Ash received 180 months of imprisonment, was ordered to pay a $300.00 special assessment and upon release from imprisonment will be placed on two years of supervised release. This case was investigated by the Cheyenne Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.