Colorado cold case linked to one of the state’s ‘most prolific serial killers’ nearly four decades later

A 1987 cold case murder of a young mom in Colorado has been linked to one of the state’s “most prolific serial killers,” who was released from prison the same year, a local sheriff’s office announced on Tuesday.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said that it had finally solved the case of Rhonda Marie Fisher, 30, who was sexually assaulted and strangled before her body was ditched on the side of a road in Sedalia, Colorado on April 1, 1987.

Officials determined, with the use of “exceptionally rare” skin cells that were originally collected 38 years ago, that Vincent Groves was responsible for Fisher’s harrowing murder.

Groves is “considered one of Colorado’s most prolific serial killers,” tied to a laundry list of murders in Colorado through the 1970s and 1980s. He was eventually captured and died behind bars in 1996, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

Groves and another man were the primary suspects for years, but antiquated DNA technology couldn’t definitively tie one or the other to Fisher’s murder, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said.

“Rhonda Fisher was a mother, daughter, sister, and friend. This resolution is a testament to the persistence of Douglas County investigators, the importance of evidence preservation, and the continued advancement of forensic science,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“Trace” evidence was collected from paper bags the investigating team placed on Fisher’s hands when she was first found, Weekly said. The move was intended to preserve evidence, the sheriff added.

Skin cells found on the bags positively matched with Groves’ DNA, which was still on file after it had been used to connect him to three previous homicides, Weekly said.

Fisher’s brother and parents have since passed away, but a surviving cousin was “very happy to have answers,” Michelle Kennedy, a crime analysis supervisor at the sheriff’s office, said at a press conference.

Groves was a celebrated high school athlete who turned to dealing drugs after he dropped out of college. That path led him to human trafficking and, eventually, murder, Weekly said.

The serial killer would specifically target vulnerable young women, most often hitchhikers, and the sheriff suggested that Fisher may have been looking for a ride the night she was killed.

Groves was convicted of murder in 1982, but served a slim five-year sentence — meaning he was released the same year he killed Fisher. Weekly said the office isn’t sure why he was released so soon.

He was behind bars again soon after for the 1988 murders of Diann Mancera and another victim in a neighboring county, according to the sheriff’s office. He died in the Department of Corrections’ custody in 1996.

In 2012, Denver police detectives surmised that Groves may be responsible for upwards of 20 different murders in Colorado. Since his death, he has been linked to seven other homicides of women and girls in the Centennial State, excluding Fisher’s.

Some of his victims include Emma Jenefor, 25; Joyce Ramey, 23; Peggy Cuff, 20; and Pamela Montgomery, 35, according to a 2012 press release from the Denver District Attorney’s Office.