Two arrested in killing of missing man

Police arrested two men Saturday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the disappearance of a disabled man who went missing in January.

A body suspected to be that of Jason Holley, 22, was found Friday in a ravine in Cheyenne Canyon, west of Colorado Springs. Police said they think it is Holley, but positive identification will come in an autopsy that will also determine the cause of death.

Kyle Stott, 18, and Derek Hernandez, 21, are being held without bond Saturday at El Paso County Criminal Justice Center. The men are scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Monday, according to jail records.

One of the two led police to the body, said Dale Kelley, a California-based private investigator and former FBI agent hired by Holley’s family. Kelley worked with local investigators on the case.

Both suspects have only minor offenses in their past, court records show. According to court records, Hernandez pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in June 2008 and was given a deferred sentence.

Stott’s only infraction in court records was a minor traffic offense.

Holley had been missing since Jan. 5.

The tall, lanky blue-eyed man had a rare disorder that left him with the mental capacity of a 13-year-old.

He was studying to be a car mechanic at Pikes Peak Community College. Holley had been receiving help with his classes from a learning specialist and took just one class at a time because of problems with writing and memory, according to his mother, Jan Holley.

“I have never seen him so happy as when he comes home from school,” his mother wrote on a Web site, www.findjasonholley.com.

Holley moved to Colorado Springs from Durango with his mother in 2003, and his big love in life was cars.

“He talks about cars and takes pictures of the good ones on his cell phone to share with everyone. He was working on an old 1973 Dodge Dart in our garage, thinking he would fix it and sell it for money, even though he doesn’t drive,” Jan Holley wrote in January, a few weeks after her son went missing.

Kelley’s theory is that Holley might have been killed over an Xbox he owned. He said the suspects befriended Holley through acquaintances at school and picked him up the morning he went missing, telling him to bring his Xbox.

Kelley said the mother of one of the suspects told investigators she saw the Xbox that night.

http://www.gazette.com/news/police-53498-holley-missing.html