Man Arrested In Triple Homicide Is Convicted Sex Offender
CANON CITY, Colo. (CBS4) – The man arrested in connection with the murder of a mother and two of her children turns out to be a convicted sex offender.
Around 8 p.m. Sunday night a teenage girl reported to Canon City Police that she had been sexually assaulted.
When police arrived on the scene they made a grisly discovery.
"Police responded to the house where the incident occurred and they found three bodies inside. They were the bodies of a 5-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and their 35-year-old mother," said Cannon City Police Chief Paul Schultz.
Officers also found 31-year-old Jaacob Vanwinkle, the mother's boyfriend, passed out inside and promptly arrested him.
"I believe it's absolute one of the worst tragedies I can think of. The young ones had been in my house and it upsets me," said next-door neighbor Paul Sandover.
Vanwinkle is a registered sex offender with a history that goes back to Indiana.
He was arrested there for probation violation after his roommate was found dead of natural causes and Vanwinkle buried the body in the house.
There he also had two child molestation convictions.
According to court records Vanwinkle had also been arrested in Cannon City for assaulting a girlfriend once before.
This was a woman who was beaten after she apparently found out that Vanwinkle was a sex offender.
Authorities have not released the names of the victims.
