Florence, Colorado, residence where Keith Smith was arrested (KRDO screengrab)
After 55 years, an 86-year-old Colorado man is under arrest and accused of murdering a 14-month-old girl who died of broken spine in 1967.
Keith Emmanuel Smith, a decades-long resident of the “great little town” of Florence, was arrested at a home on East 3rd Street near Pioneer Park more than half a century after he allegedly broke 14-month-old Roxanne Marie Archuletta’s spine and murdered her.
The news of the cold case arrest was stunning in itself to locals, who found it chilling that an alleged murderer was living among them for decades. One mother told local ABC affiliate KRDO she has a 14-month-old daughter and found it “terrifying” Smith was living right near the park where her kids play.
The Canton City Daily Record, citing cemetery records, reported Roxanne Archuletta died on Nov. 3, 1967, from an “unknown” cause. The report said the victim’s parents lived in a Florence home at 700 E. Main St., which is roughly a 12-minute walk away from the suspect’s home on East 3rd Street.
11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley announced Thursday that Smith was indicted two days earlier for second-degree murder.
According to the DA, Jeff Whorley and Alex Wold, two detectives with the Florence Police Department, started looking back into the case again in 2021. Now, after two years of resumed investigation in the more than 55-year-old case, Smith is under arrest.
“Although we are still very early in the process, we are excited to be able to utilize the grand jury in our attempt to solve this cold case and bring justice to the victims,” DA Stanley said.
True crime followers may recognize Stanley as the head of the office that brought and then dropped murder charges against Barry Morphew in the presumed death of his wife Suzanne Morphew, whose body was never found after she vanished during a bicycle ride on Mother’s Day in May 2020.
Read Related Also: ‘Senseless, calculating, and cold’: Man already wanted for murder now indicted for slaying of beloved elderly Lyft driver
After charges were dropped, Stanley was named as a defendant, along with numerous state and federal investigators, in a civil lawsuit for “irreparably” tarnishing Barry Morphew’s “name and reputation” with a “conspiracy to violate his state and federal constitutional rights.”
Stanley, who faces reelection in November 2024, has reportedly been the subject of multiple complaints with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. In August, Stanley sat for an interview with KRDO and made “very blunt” statements on camera about a boyfriend and girlfriend that had not yet gone to trial for the Motel 6 murder of a 10-month-old baby boy.
“Without the caring factor, without the love factor, the baby is a pain in the ass,” Stanley said during the interview, commenting on her view of the allege motive of the case.
“I’m going to be very blunt here. He has zero investment in this child. Zero. He’s watching that baby so he can get laid. That’s it. And have a place to sleep,” the DA also said of the boyfriend. “I’m sorry to be that blunt, but honest to God, that’s what’s going on.”
The interview is also the subject of a complaint, the Denver Gazette reported, as a defense lawyer argued Stanley had made “an extrajudicial statement” that “will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.”
Now it will be up to Stanley’s office to appropriately handle the case against Keith Smith.
Jail records show that defendant Smith was booked into the Fremont County Detention Center at 5:07 p.m. on Thursday.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
