THE COLD CASE FILES: Body found in motel room, 1988

Each victim is a face frozen in time, haunting investigators whose job it is to bring their killers to justice decades after the trail has gone cold.

The Gazette in cooperation with the Colorado Springs Police Department runs a weekly feature called “The Cold Case Files.” The Colorado Springs Police Department Homicide Cold Case Unit is currently responsible for approximately 90 unsolved homicide cases dating back to 1949. CSPD considers a case to be cold if it remains unsolved for more than one year. If you have any information that would be of assistance in these investigations, please contact 719-444-7613, by e-mail at CSPDColdCase@springsgov.com or you may remain anonymous and could earn a cash reward by calling Crime Stoppers at 634-STOP (7867).

The victim: Carolyn June O’Kelly, 29, nicknamed “Dodee” by her family. She had moved to Colorado from Sarasota, Fla., and had been living at the Circle S. Motel at 1639 S. Nevada Ave., since being released from jail in Denver about three weeks before she was killed. Her family told The Gazette she had a drug problem while living in Florida and had moved in an attempt to get clean. However, a brother-in-law told the newspaper she had begun doing cocaine again and supported her habit as a prostitute. Relatives said she loved children and going to the mountains.

File Number: 88-11508

The crime: On the evening of April 14, 1988, employees at the Circle S Motel found the nude body of O’Kelly in her room. She had been stabbed three times with a 5-inch knife blade, police said at the time. The employees had gone to check on her after her sister called to say she wasn’t answering her phone.

The investigation: O’Kelly had been dead 24 to 48 hours prior to the discovery of her body.  A knife was discovered next to her body. No suspects have been named and no arrests made.