Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Ice Cold in Denver

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

In 1980, 21-year-old radio intern, Helene Pruszynski, is found bound and stabbed in a snowy field in Denver, Colorado. After 37 years of dead ends, investigators turn their attention to a public genealogy website.Figs: Check out Wearfigs.com and use code FIGSRX for 15% off your first order!Marley Spoon: Head to MarleySpoon.com/offer/COLDCASE for up to 25 free meals!Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Thrive Market: Go to ThriveMarket.com/coldcase for 30% off your first order, PLUS a free $60 gift!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BenMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. My philosophy on life, you should just be yourself and make the best of everything and smile. That's what I do all the time.

I met Helene in the 1970s. She was always smiling, always smiling. I can still hear Helene's voice. I can still feel her presence. And that's why I made a promise to her parents that I would not rest. until we found out who, why, how, and get the answers for them. And I made a promise to her because it shattered all of us. There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America.

Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's cold in Douglas County, Colorado, on the morning of January 17, 1980. A woman and her children are driving through Daniels Park. a wide open expanse of land along County Road 67. Snow still sits on the frosty ground throughout the fields, but something catches her son's eye as he glances out the window.

The woman can't pull over because she has her kids in the car, so she drives on and finds a road worker. She tells him that she thinks there is a woman's body in the field. Douglas County Sheriff's officers arrive at the scene and find the body of a young female lying on her back. It's a disturbing scene, so the deputies call in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for help. Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock and Lieutenant Tommy Borrella

recall how the victim was found. She was nude from the waist down but wearing socks. Those are strong indicators that this is an a sex assault murder. It appeared that she had some kind of gag around her face and mouth, and it looked like her hands were bound behind her back. When they rolled her body over, it was clear. that she had been stabbed numerous times. It was dark and wet where she had been bleeding into the ground.

So they knew that this was probably where she was killed. You can't get a scene that has more tragedy in it. No one knew who this individual was. Law enforcement was really at that point just starting from scratch. Who is this in the field? How did she get here? And what happened to her? The large red stain where the victim had bled out

is a stark contrast to the glistening white patches of snow throughout the muddy field. The cold weather is surprisingly beneficial to crime scene investigators. Tire tracks and footprints are preserved in the frozen ground. Two sets of footprints can be seen going into the field, but only one is seen leading out of the field. It looks like a boot print, so investigators know that the victim had not just been dumped there. They had been led there and killed.

They still have no idea who she is, though. There are no women matching the description listed as missing in Douglas County, so they check with the neighboring towns. It doesn't take long for Englewood police officers to contact them and say that a 21-year-old woman had been reported missing the night before. Her name is Helene Prasinski. Helene was the youngest child of Chester and Henrietta Prisinski. She was born in New York and spent some of her childhood in Long Island

before the family moved to Hamilton, Massachusetts, a small town north of Boston. She attended Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, where she met her friends Mitch Sherman Thulean and Kimberly Latarette. I first met Helene a freshman year in high school. We had study hall, and I met her there. There was a group of girls that all had the same schedule, and we all made a quick, close connection.

She very much wanted to be part of the school and part of different organizations, very much into drama, very much into the school spirit. She was into poetry, she was into singing. She had a beautiful voice. She was in cheerleading. She was the editor of the school newspaper. She was on the honor roll.

She was in the homecoming court. She just did it all. Helene was interviewed for the school radio show before she graduated. It was the beginning of a promising career as a broadcaster. Philosophy on life. Your philosophy on life. Yeah, I have one.

You should just, I don't know, be yourself and make the best of everything. Be yourself. Smile. Yeah. That's what I do all the time. Helene left home and began studying journalism at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

And, during her senior year in 1979, she landed her dream internship at K-H-O-W in Colorado. Helene's classmate had also gotten a position at KHOWW, so they stayed together with Helene's aunt and uncle just to bust right away from their new job. News director at the station, Mike Anthony, and reporter Bob Scott remember the potential Helene showed from the start. You couldn't ask for much more out of an intern. She was spot on, everything that she did. I'd be in the anchor booth getting ready to do a newscast and a bulletin would come across, and she'd always grab it and slip it to me.

was really not like an intern. She was more like a regular professional journalist. I was so impressed with her from day one because at the end of each shift, she would call me on the two-way and say, how can I do this better? She was a hard worker. She wanted to do her job right and worked very hard to accomplish that. Helene had been working on January 16th, and Mike had been one of the last people to speak with her before she went missing. It was a cold day, and it looked like it was going to snow. Aline came in the news booth and said, it's starting to snow outside, and I'm a little concerned about my bus ride home.

And she said, could I leave a little bit early if I need to? I said, if you'll wait 15 minutes, I'll give you a ride home. I said, I'd feel a lot better if you let me take you home. She thought about it for a minute, and she said, now I think I'll just ride the bus. I left the station that night to go home, which was about 6.15. The phone rang about 8.30 or 9 o'clock, and it was Helene's aunt. And she said, Helene has not come home yet. Do you know if she went someplace that I'm not aware of?

And I said, no, she left the station right around 6 o'clock, said she was going to catch the bus and go straight home. It usually takes Helene an hour to get back home after work. But as time passes, her aunt and uncle become more concerned, and they contact the Englewood Police Department to report her missing. The Englewood Police Department, you know, searched the area of the bus stop that she was dropped off at, as well as where she would have been picked up at. And then kind of the route between those to the general area,

a, you know, contacted businesses in the area. Did they see anyone that looked like, you know, a 21-year-old. year old young lady, you know, walking, they knew the route that she walked. Did anyone see her? Helene's colleagues at the radio station joined the search. They drive around town and along the route Helene would have traveled. One of the reporters, Bob, tries to get more information from the sheriff's office. I just kept hoping there's some other explanation.

We just kept hoping for some miracle that she would be okay. I was at the sheriff's office talking to a couple of investigators see if they had any idea, anything else we could do. My best friend was a captain, and he said, we just had a call from Douglas County that they found a body of a young female, and they want you to go out and see if you can identify it. I just knew this had to be her. This was the only reported missing young female.

I just sick in my stomach. I didn't want to go to the scene and identify the body, but didn't have any choice. drove down to the location. I had to get out and walk out into the snowy field. But as soon as I got to the body, I know it was her. I instantly knew it was her. It was the worst thing I ever had to do.

And it's never left my mind. Helene's remains are taken to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy. The coroner determines that she had been stabbed nine times in the back. Her death had been caused by severe blood loss and collapsed lungs. She had also been sexually assaulted. They were able to find some fluid, some dry fluid, could possibly be saliva or could be semen. So they took samples of it and they preserved it.

And in 1980, nobody really knew what DNA was. But for whatever reason, the people working on this case just did a phenomenal job of preserving all of her evidence. The way that she was murdered does give an indication that this is a crime of passion. and so that sometimes leads to an individual who might know her. The violence and brutality of the murder indicate that Helene had been killed by someone she knew. But she'd only just moved to the area,

and the only people she knew were her co-workers at KHOW. I was contacted by several investigators after the day that Helene was found, and they wanted all the information I could give them about people that worked for, For me, people in the radio station, anybody she had come in contact with, or if there was anybody I thought that might want to harm her. Helene had worked just two weeks of her internship, but her colleagues are eager to help the police catch her killer. They issue a reward of $10,000 for any information and keep the case in the news in the hope of someone coming forward. A lady contacted law enforcement. She had saw a vehicle parked on the side of the road in the location that Helene's body was found.

She saw a male suspect that was appeared to be kneeling down by the rear of the vehicle and looked toward her. Investigators used hypnosis and a crime scene sketch artist to develop a composite of a suspect that she thought she had seen. They have a composite of this white male with, you know, thick hair kind of parted to the side with the mustache. But it was aired and nothing else. ever came of it. I love to cook for my family, but some weeks, work, school, and kids' activities just overwhelm my weekly meal planning. In times like that, it feels like my options for a healthy meal are so limited. I don't want to order in, but I just don't have the time to put together something delicious and nourishing for everyone. But then Marley Spoon showed up in my life, and

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real life. It's not about being perfect in the kitchen. It's about actually enjoying dinner again. This new year, fast track your way to eating well with Marley Spoon. Head to marlyspoon.com slash offer slash cold case for up to 25 free meals. That's right, up to 25 free meals with Marley Spoon. That's Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash cold case for up to 25 free meals. meals. Our listeners know health care professionals play a huge role in closing out the cases we look at on this show, whether they're medical examiners, forensic pathologists, nurses, morgue technicians, or crime lab specialists. No matter their field or specialty, these experts deserve a uniform that works as hard as they do. That's where figs comes in. They make scrubs that are lightweight,

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It was very hard to get through. I remember sitting there surrounded by my friends. We all held hands. We all cried a lot. Helene's family is shattered by the loss of the youngest child. The toll it takes on them will love. last for the rest of their lives. What could we say to her parents?

When I looked at them, all the light had gone out of them, and their eyes were just hollow, and it was just really hard. They were never the same. Investigators continue searching for Helene's killer, but more than a year after the murder, the case goes cold. There just wasn't any more leads for detectives to go off of in the 80s. DNA wasn't something that you can go. test to figure out who it was.

There were no fingerprint, so the case became a cold case. That is, until 1984, when a confession from a notorious pair of serial killers jumpstarts the investigation once more. Did you kill that girl? That is a green thing around her neck? Yeah. You never heard for sure? Yeah.

There's no doubt in your mind. No doubt. It's been four years since 21-year-old Helene Prasinski was brutally murdered in Colorado, and two men who claimed. they've killed hundreds of women, say that Helene is one of their victims. Okay, the time is 11.20 a.m. We're back in our interview with Audit's Tool. Do you remember if you were sitting at the bus stop, waiting for somebody to get off?

I wouldn't just pull up on the bus stop and wait for somebody to get off from the bus and ask me, was this girl right at the bus stop or was she? I say she was waiting for the bus. It was Dan Shore Coal out there, too? There's a snowing outside. Somebody comes along with an office and ride. They're going to take the ride and sit waiting on the bus. Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole

are known serial killers in the United States who have confessed to numerous murders. They've been in Colorado, and Audis Tool claims that they killed Helene. She was found in a field, weren't she? Mm-hmm. And a big open field. Not too far from the road.

Otis Toll says that Henry Lee Lucas tied Helene's hands up, but much of his confession contained things that had already been published in the media. During the interview with these two individuals, investigators were getting a lot of information that was common in the Helene crime scene. That she was abducted, that she's taken to a field, that she was sexually assaulted, that she was stabbed. And then one of them said that they had shot her in the head. That caused the investigators to pause because we know that that didn't occur.

Everything you told us today about that girl that we showed you the picture of, that's true. Yeah. You can't just make that out of your mind. You don't think I'm that smart, dude? I can make up all that shit. As it turns out, Audest Toole and Henry Lee Lucas confessed to numerous other murders they didn't commit because they want to be notorious serial killers. They repeat details about Helene's death known through the media

and fabricate information that can quickly be discredited. without a solid case against them, investigators rule the pair out. They did not kill Helene. Helene's friends and family do their best to keep her memory alive, and they continued to check for new leads in the case. I continued to follow everything that took place, and I checked back frequently with people that I knew in Denver to see if anything had ever been discovered,

and if they were on any train. or had any new input. And every time I checked back, it was nothing, nothing. Some people were frustrated thinking, you know, we'll never know, but it certainly never left our minds. And we were always talking with one another about what else could we do. Over the years, we stayed in touch with Helene's family.

It was difficult because it was way before cell phones and social media. But I stayed connected with her sister. I stayed connected with her parents. her parents. I used to go and visit them, but, you know, you look around the room and who's missing, Helene. And that never should have been. Helene's parents establish a scholarship in her name to be given to a student each year that embodies the characteristics she had. Her high school friends, Kimberly and Mitch and choir director, Cece Fogner Hunt, never give up on their pursuit of justice.

We were all building families now. We're married. We're having children. We're building careers. But this never left us, not for a moment. Then, outside of my marriage, outside of being a mom, outside of my career, you know, people say, well, what's your hobby? Mine wasn't golf. Mine was solving Helene's case for her family. Because we didn't think that her parents or her family should carry that burden, that we were going to start to just at least drive it with the detectives

in the sense that we would be calling the detectives. Where are you on this case? Have there been any advancements? I made a promise to her parents that I would not. rest until we found out who, why, how, and get the answers for them. And when Kimberly makes a promise, there's no breaking that promise. Years stretch into decades, and there are no leads to pursue. With the evolution of forensic technology, the evidence is logged into the database in

the early 2000s. The DNA sample is run through the combined DNA index system, also known as CODIS, but there is no match. It seems that Helene's killer has gotten away with murder. On the 26th anniversary of Helene's death in 2006, Kimberly and Sisi and other members of the original Harmony Choir travel to Colorado and retrace Helene's steps. They contact every media outlet.

Helene's case is headline news, but the outreach doesn't bring the spark they hope for. Kimberly tries something else, building a website dedicated to Helene's. case. I secured a friend of mine who is a software developer and we built traps on the website to say, if anyone goes to the website, we want to, you know, collect their IP address and we want to know how long they sit on each page of the website. And then they would generate a report and send the Colorado Bureau of Investigation a report of who went to that website in hope that the

killer would go to the website and we could find them that. way because the DNA through the CODA system, there were no hits. And so we were trying to find other ways to trap him. Kimberly keeps pushing for nine more years, asking to try new forensic techniques and desperately seeking answers. Eventually, things change within the police department. A new sheriff, Tony Spurlock, and a new unit, heats the cold case up. So when I became elected sheriff, one of the first things I did is I created a cold case unit. with a full-time detective.

And that unit, their only job really was to start from scratch. And I brought in Lieutenant Tommy Borrella, and I said, listen, I need you to solve those cases. I need you to make some moves on us. He established a cold case review team that's made of five civilians. Two of them were lawyers. One of them is a doctor. And the other two are people there and had an interest in this.

He really wanted us to put a lot of energy and work into getting these cold cases solved. And he said, you know, I would like to see two solved in the next two years. The renewed hope in the case centers around the DNA sample investigators had collected from Helene's body 40 years earlier. DNA technology wasn't around in 1980. But the cold case investigators have new tools that may help them identify Helene's killer. The investigators begin to work with United Data Connect, co-founder of the organization Mitch Morrissey, explains the new technique they would be utilizing.

Genetic genealogy is using a DNA technique that then allows you to apply genealogy techniques. Lichen it to getting you in the ballpark. And now you use genealogy techniques to find your seat. The cold case team gives them the suspect's DNA, and the genetic genealogists build a family tree using commercial genealogy sites. They run the DNA through those sites. and look for anyone with even partial DNA matches based on the science behind something called centamorgans.

Centimorgans is a unit for measuring DNA. You and I may not be related at all, so there be no centamorgans. If you and I were siblings, it would be a very high number. The genealogists work on building the family tree for weeks until they finally get a promising lead. Thanks to the advancements in DNA technology, investigators were able to identify

what looked to be the killer's mother. Finding the mother of the person responsible for Helene's murder wasn't the home run investigators hoped for, though. She was the mother of multiple kids, but the women could be thrown out right away. They didn't commit this crime because it was a male sample. It was a seaman sample.

But by all accounts and all records, she didn't have any boys. So we thought, this is a problem. Everything was re-looked at again, and the phone call started being made to possible family members in this possible family tree, asking people if they would voluntarily give samples of their DNA.

And as we're testing these people and getting their DNA, these sent the organs, the numbers are increasing. And as the numbers increase, that means we're getting closer and closer to our suspect. Detectives question the woman's relatives, and they discover that, She had two sons, and she had placed both of them up for adoption. Using contemporary research through old newspaper archives,

the team finds an article about a reunion between this woman and her son. The article also references another son. They are able to eliminate one of the sons quite quickly because his DNA was already in the CODA system and it did not match the DNA found at the scene. So they focus on the other son. Curtis Allen White. Curtis Allen White had committed a violent rape at knife point prior to 1980

and had been convicted, but DNA was not taken back then, and he was paroled to Colorado after serving a very short sentence. It was out here during the time that Helene, I came here in 1979, and was out here during the time that Helene would have been murdered. So now we're feeling like, okay, this could be our guy. We check his fingerprints, and they come back to, a guy named James Curtis Clinton down in Florida.

So detectives follow up on that and James Curtis Clinton is arrested in 1998 for domestic violence. And once they send a booking photo to us, when it was compared to the composite drawing that was given to us by a lady under hypnosis in

1980, were almost identical. Now we know that Curtis Allen White and James Curtis Clinton are the same person. He changed his name to Clanton in 1982, and in 2019, he's living in a small town in rural Florida and working as a truck driver. Investigators are sure this is their guy. He looks just like the composite sketch from 1980, but they need to get his DNA to prove that he's the killer. It's now November 2019

and the detectives board a plane from Colorado to Florida to tail Clanton and discreetly obtain his DNA if possible. When you're out looking for someone's DNA, you have to be careful. What you do is use undercover officers to surveil the individual, and you're looking for abandoned DNA. Clanton wakes up early in the morning and drives off in his truck. By 3 or 4 p.m., he's back at home and stays there for the night. His pattern of behavior gives the investigators no chance of getting a sample of his DNA

without being noticed, until he decides to. head to a local bar. When he leaves, the waitress takes the mugs off the bar and puts them underneath. Doesn't wash him yet. Just puts him underneath to watch him at a later time. And the detective is watching it. And the owner comes in and meets us out back and hands us these mugs. And within days, those detectives got back a positive result.

That the DNA that was found on the beer mugs matched the DNA that he had left 40 years earlier on this poor victim's clothing. And we had our man. James Curtis Clanton is our murderer. Now there's a murderer on the loose. So we send four detectives down to conduct 24 hours of balance on him because anything he does at this from this moment on, we would be responsible for him.

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in all states or situations. Price is vary based on how you buy. It's December 11th, 2019. One week since Clanton's DNA was confirmed to match the DNA found on Helene's body 39 years earlier. Investigators gather on Clanton's property

and tell him that they are investigating a large insurance scam, and his name came up as a suspect in a multi-million dollar case. We want to talk to him and try and get a confession. I had never interviewed a murder suspect. Detectives in the cold case unit weren't comfortable interviewing the suspects

for the same reasons. So we were wondering how we want to approach this, who should approach it, what sex should the interviewers be. We're playing with very high stakes right now. And we want justice for Helene and just arresting a person is injustice. Having that person, you know, being held accountable is justice. Clanton agrees to go to the police headquarters for an interview. In the interrogation room, Clanton begins to wonder if he will be able to get to work the next day.

His question is answered when Corporal Trengell slides a photograph of Helene across the table. He makes it clear that. This isn't about insurance fraud. You could probably tell by now that there's more of this than this financial case, right? So we talked about how I don't really care about stolen cars, 1980 in Colorado, but we do care about a young woman in Colorado in 1980. And we want to show you a picture of her and see if you recognize it.

You know, you know, I think I want to turn it now. The investigators are certain that they are face-to-face. with Helene's killer, and they let him know. We actually do have a warrant for your arrest for first-degree murder and kidnapping. Or what? First-degree murder and kidnapping. You got your wrong guy. We actually have your DNA in her at honor. James Clanton is arrested and turned over to the custody of the Union County Sheriff's Office,

where he is held without bond pending his extradition. On the flight back to Colorado, Clanton opens up to Lieutenant Borrella. about that cold January night in 1980. You remember what you had been wearing cowboy boots, shoes? I'm sure I was wearing cowboy boots. What made Helene the right target? Faith. Clanton says he saw Helene stand up to get off the bus

as he was driving past and he made a U-turn. As she was crossing the street, Clanton shows her his knife and she tells him she sees it. He put his arm around her and told her to come with him before he used the strap from her purse to tie her hands behind her back. She didn't tell me about herself. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her that. I was kidnapping her for money, and she said, well, my parents don't have any money

and stuff like that. I didn't tell her what I was really doing until we got into that put you in. During the six-hour flight, Clanton and Lieutenant Borrella speak about everything and anything. Clanton is adamant that he had not committed any other crimes beside Helene's murder, and he angrily tells the lieutenant that women have always been the cause of pain in his life. He knew he was going to grab a girl, kidnap her, rape her, and kill her. It was one of those kinds of feelings where it hit you in the chest. You're like, we've got this guy. It's the news Helene's family and friends have been waiting almost four decades to hear.

It is bittersweet as Helene's brother and parents passed away before her killer was caught. I was just amazed, just amazed and glad. I'm glad that they caught him. That was a phone call I won't forget. Finally hearing that they got the guy was such a shock. It was just like this huge jolt of happiness. I was just totally elated that it finally happened after 40 years. It was a relief, but there's never closure

on something that's so heinous like this. In February 2020, James Clanton pleads guilty in a Colorado courtroom and is sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years. It took 40 years and countless dedicated people to finally bring him to justice. We went out for the sentencing of this murderer and we got in a big group for a group photo afterwards and it was mind-boggling how many people played a signature. significant role in all of this. We will forever be grateful for everything that they did. The big void is now closed. And now we can really start with the healing. You can't heal when that wound remains open. And we'll never heal completely, but now we can soften the edges around the broken pieces of our hearts and be with Helene in a different way now. You know, not being

buried in her murder, but being buried back into the joy and the spirit of her life. Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barrows. It's produced by the Law and Crime Network and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson. Our composer is Blake Maples. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher and our supervising producer is McCamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz,

Maite Cueva, and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series Cold Case Files. For more cold case files, visit AETV.com. The free movies and TV shows. What? This is the mindset. This is the...

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