Three Due in Court in Colorado Socialite’s Killing
Published at
Facebook.com(ASPEN, Colo.) — Three people arrested on suspicion of murder in the killing of Aspen, Colo., socialite Nancy Pfister are due in court Monday.
Pfister, 57, was found dead in her mountain chalet on Feb. 26, four days after returning to Aspen from an extended trip to Australia.
Pfister had been renting her home to William Styler III, 65, and Nancy Styler 62, while she was away, officials said. But in January she wrote on her Facebook wall: “I’d like to stay in Australia but the people that were supposedly taking care of my house are not doing what they said they would do and they’re not paying rent and they haven’t paid utilities.”
Five days after Pfister was found dead, police arrested the Stylers on March 3 on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, officials said.
A third person, Kathy Carpenter, 56, who reported finding Pfister’s body in a closet of her home, was arrested Friday night on charges of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder.
Carpenter, who was arrested without incident at her home, was being held in the Pitkin County Jail without bond, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.
The Stylers are scheduled to be formally charged Monday at 10:30 a.m. MT, and Carpenter is scheduled for an advisement hearing at 3 p.m.
Juliana Pfister told ABC News she couldn’t believe someone would kill her fun-loving mother because of an alleged rent dispute.
“How could someone just be so angry that they got kicked out of a house?” Juliana Pfister said. “There’s got to be something more. It’s hard to understand that.”
At their first hearing, attorneys for the Stylers waived formal advisement of the charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and a Pitkin County District Court judge ruled that the couple continue to be held without bond for the time being.
The judge also denied prosecutors’ request for a six-week extension to file charges, and scheduled their next court appearance for March 17.
County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo has released few details about the resort town’s first murder investigation in more than a decade, saying only that the Stylers had moved into Nancy Pfister’s home last fall.
Pfister’s death remains an open investigation. The autopsy report is not complete and all records in the case have been sealed.
Officials are also investigating whether anyone else was potentially involved with the crime.
“I’m not going to close the door on any possible suspects,” Sheriff DiSalvo said.
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio