75 CENTS
March 15, 2018
ELBERT COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
FASHION WEEK: Designers, models and artists have been working to make the metro area a place where fashion thrives. P18
‘You can’t fill those shoes’
Randy Wilson’s final yearbook photo looks down from a hallway in Kiowa’s K-12 school, above a list of winners of a scholarship created in his honor. PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT
Kiowa school counselor Liz Morrone stands in Randy Wilson’s old classroom, and points out how he had the room arranged.
Teachers, students remember slain teacher Randy Wilson
The life and death of Randy Wilson: Part 1 Kiowa High School teacher Randy Wilson was found dead at a prairie crossroads in 2010. No suspects were named in the homicide until the surprise arrest of Daniel Pesch in December 2017. Part one of a two-part series looks at what the teacher and father meant to the rural town of Kiowa. Part two in next week’s edition will explore the impact that his mysterious death had on people who remember him.
Z DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A wooden cross marks the lonely prairie crossroads where Kiowa High School teacher Randy Wilson was found dead in 2010. At the school, 16 miles south, Wilson’s final, stoic yearbook photo hangs in a hallway above the engraved names of students who have received a scholarship in his name.
Mementos of the father of five are everywhere: A mural of the mountains he loved outside his old classroom. A stone monument beside a mini amphitheater outside the school, with benches arrayed toward a lectern, dedicated to him. Around Kiowa, a town of about 740 people in Elbert County, stand bookshelves he built and basements he finished as a carpenter during summer breaks. But the most poignant legacy Wilson left is the broken hearts of the teachers and students who knew him, who were left with memories of a rock of a man, a father figure of quiet SEE WILSON, P6
THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
“When I take a day (off) I feel guilty I’m letting someone down and I don’t want to be doing that.” Nolan Arenado, Rockies third baseman | Page 21 INSIDE
VOICES: PAGE 14 | LIFE: PAGE 18 | CALENDAR: PAGE 9 | SPORTS: PAGE 21
ElbertCountyNews.net
VOLUME 123 | ISSUE 7