Going West: True Crime - Candace Hiltz // 111

Episode Date: March 7, 2021

In 2006, a beautiful and intelligent 17-year-old girl in Colorado was savagely murdered in her home just days after getting into an argument with a police officer as well as days after her dog suspiciously went missing. With debates of family involvement and talks of police corruption, this botched investigation had this small town in a terrified frenzy. But years after the investigation began, a man found some incriminating information in a local storage unit. This is the story of Candace Hiltz. *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186744575/candace-colleary-hiltz https://www.chieftain.com/13ae7a39-779e-5494-8b2f-63507935e91f.html https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/76mko9/the_murder_of_candace_hiltz https://www.fortmorgantimes.com/2017/06/09/colorado-bureau-of-investigation-opens-second-investigation-into-former-fremont-county-sheriffs-office-lt-robert-dodd/ https://www.chieftain.com/article/20071129/SPECIAL/311299905 https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/crime/sentencing-hearing-for-former-fremont-county-deputy-set-for-wednesday https://www.chieftain.com/3bb384c4-96fb-57dc-be00-361740310102.html https://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2017/12/30/no-1-story-of-2017-murder-evidence-discovered-in-candace-hiltz-case/ https://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/05/18/fremont-county-robert-dodd-candace-hiltz/ https://home.iape.org/features/headline-evidence-news/articles-evidence-news/entry/former-fremont-county-sheriff-s-office-detective-robert-dodd-found-guilty-on-three-of-four-counts.html https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-denver-post/20180705/281595241284770 https://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2018/06/25/robert-dodd-attorney-items-found-not-connected-to-hiltz-murder-case/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Tee and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for joining us today as always. We really appreciate everybody tuning in and we don't have any updates today so we're just gonna dive right into this case. We have a tragic case for you guys today out of Colorado. Again like Daphne said I don't want to waste any more time. This is episode 111 of Going West so let's get into it. In 2006, a beautiful and intelligent 17-year-old girl in Colorado was savagely murdered in her home.

Just days after getting into an argument with a police officer, as well as days after her dogs suspiciously went missing. With debates of family involvement and talks of police corruption, this botched investigation had this small town in a terrified frenzy. But years after the investigation began, a man found some incriminating information Candace Hiltz. Candace Hiltz was born on December 22, 1988 in Canyon City, Colorado, which is a small town in the high desert of southern Colorado. Being born so close to the Christmas holiday, she was introduced to her nine older brothers

and one older sister by being placed gently under the Christmas tree when her parents brought her home from the hospital. When she was just around five years old, her father passed away, leaving her to be raised only by her wonderful mother, Dolores Hiltz. But Candace had a very promising upbringing and was even considered a child prodigy due to her incredible smarts. I mean, she could do calculus when she was 11 years old. Wow, so she's really smart.

Yeah, she's really, really smart. And not only that, she was outspoken, passionately friendly, and caring towards her peers, friends, and family. And for example, one time during school in her early teen years, some kids were being bullied on the school bus, and she told them that she had more and bigger balls than even her brothers did, so to knock it off.

So she was definitely a big tomboy, she loved bodybuilding, and she was known to have the best sense of humor around. Like she was always saying things that brought people to tears because they laughed so hard. I would imagine if you had nine older brothers, you'd probably want to be pretty tough. Yeah, so this girl was just all around amazing. And most of her siblings were older, like her eldest sibling was her sister Dawn who was 17 years older, but they all got along so well and had a really great family dynamic. And actually Dawn had a son a couple years after Candace was born, so they grew up almost

like siblings, lots and lots of family here. In a bit more on Candace being loving and protective, one of her older brothers is named James Hildz and he suffers from numerous psychological issues. In a bit more on Candace being loving and protective, one of her older brothers is named James Hiltz and he suffers from numerous psychological issues. One including an extreme case of paranoia and could be described as a phobia of other people, which makes it really difficult for him to be around anyone at all, including his family. He even moved into a house in the woods behind the Hiltz's home so that he could be alone and not have to communicate with the rest of the family.

But Candace really loved her brother and she was always really protective of him whenever anyone would speak badly about him. Since Candace was so smart and believed in getting justice for people, she decided pretty early on that she wanted to become a lawyer and study at Stanford Law School. Her first step to make this dream come true was finishing high school early. And I mean, really early. By the time she was 16 years old, she was already in her second year of college at BYU and Utah. But she was doing all of her school work online from her family home in the rural copper

Gulch neighborhood outside of Canyon City, Colorado. But let's rewind a few months to early 2005. Candace found out that she was pregnant. It was really important to Candace that her child would be a big focus in her life. So she contemplated taking a few years off of college to be with her in the early years before going back. The reason she didn't mind the thought of this was because she was already ahead, but she planned to kinda play it by year.

Yeah, because if she did take a few years off, then by the time she went back to college, she would be with her own age group, so she was kinda like, that could work. Yeah, so it really wouldn't make a big difference. But during Candice's pregnancy, she had a stroke, which sadly affected the health of her yet to be born baby girl. So months later on September 19th, 2005, her daughter Paige was born with hydrocephaly, meaning she had excessive fluid in her brain and because of this, Candace was told that Paige likely wouldn't live very long at all. Of course, this was absolutely devastating news, but Candice being

the incredible fighter she was, made the absolute most of the time that she did have with Little Page. She treated her like an absolute queen, and Page was constantly showered in love by her massive family. Since Candice was doing her college studies online, she decided to continue and enroll in her third and junior year of college just before her 17th birthday in late 2005, so when Paige was just a few months old. Around this time, she applied to Stanford Law School and was accepted, making her just one step closer to becoming a Supreme Court justice.

And by the way, there's no information regarding who the father of her child was, but he was not a part of Paige's life just so you guys know. The following year on August 10, 2006, police arrived at the Hill's home for an incident regarding James. He was thought to have trespassed on some property, so Fremont County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Dodd came by the house to question their mom Dolores about it. This particular deputy was asking some pretty intrusive and assuming questions and had an incredibly rude tone overall and this really bothered Candace. As we said she was extremely protective of her loved ones, but especially her older brother James. So her reaction was to give

Deputy Dodd a piece of her mind, which really didn't go well because he threatened to arrest her if she continued. Candace really wasn't afraid of this though, and she challenged him further, and told the deputy that she had seen him taking envelopes from drug dealers around town, as if maybe he was taking some bribes, and she would be very much willing to tell the Sheriff's Department about this. With that, Deputy Dodd had enough. So he left the house and raged.

Just three days after this emotional encounter, the Helts Family Dog went missing. As we mentioned briefly, the Helts Family lived in a wooded area of Fremont County, Colorado, so they all wondered if maybe a wild animal possibly had something to do with the dog's disappearance. So that same day, Candace went down to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office to report their dog missing, and she was once again faced with Deputy Robert Dodd.

The two once again got into a fairly heated argument and then Candace returned home. And Candace and her mom just kinda hoped their dog would return soon enough, even though he really wasn't the kinda dog to just run away. But they were worried that something suspicious had happened, because the whole situation just seemed strange. Just two days after their dog went missing, 17-year-old Candace Hiltz was murdered. On Tuesday, August 15, 2006, Candace spent the morning with her mom Dolores and her 11-month-old

daughter Paige. At around noon that day, Dolores left the house to run a few errands. Strangely enough, Dolores got a bad feeling while she was out and called her neighbors to check in on Candace and the baby. But it's believed that they didn't end up doing so. Not knowing they hadn't, Dolores had a bit of peace of mind while she continued doing her shopping, and around 3.30pm, she returned home. When she walked into the house, she immediately heard Paige crying very loudly.

And she thought this was odd right off the bat, since she knew Candace would have been watching Paige all day. But as she walked further into the house, she saw blood everywhere, along with drag marks, and Candace was nowhere to be found. Before calling the police, Dolores ran to grab Paige, completely horrified and unsure what had even happened. That's when she noticed something under the bed wrapped in a green comforter. Needing to know what it was, Dolores pulled on the comforter

and found Candace brutally murdered. And this was a beyond horrific discovery because 75% of Candace's head has essentially been blown off by numerous gunshots and she'd nearly been decapitated. Sadly, her mom held her hand for the next few minutes until police showed up to investigate. And can you guess who showed up? Deputy Robert Dodd, along with Deputy Briscoe, and this is where issues began to arise. First of all, neither of them sealed off the crime scene and people were walking in and out whilst nothing was protected, meaning evidence was being contaminated.

The deputies began looking behind the home in the wooded area for any evidence, but apparently they didn't find anything useful. This is when they started believing that Candace's older brother, James Hiltz, was behind the whole thing. James, who again is Candace's older brother, who suffered from multiple mental health disorders, was a pretty easy target, and he wasn't on the property when police arrived. So with that, a man hunt for him and sued. Since Deputy Dodd already knew who her brother was, he immediately pointed him as the possible killer,

and from there, he was their only person of interest. While they were looking for James, another grisly discovery was made. As you know, the Hills Family dog had gone missing days prior. Well, the county sheriff found the dog tied to a tree and murdered by a small axe. Since the dog had been missing for days, it's believed that they were killed by the same person who murdered Candace. And that it was either supposed to mock the Hills family and foreshadow what was ahead, or the killer wanted to get the dog out of the house so that they didn't inhibit the process of killing Candace. Either way, the killer was watching, and they knew that there was a dog to get rid of, and they knew that Dolores had left to run errands and that Candace would be home alone with Paige. So of course, James was still in question.

Why would he kill the family dog and then kill his sister who absolutely adored him? Well, police felt that since he lived behind the house, he was right there to commit all these crimes. And since evidence didn't take part in this investigation, there was no one else in their minds. But since they didn't know where he was, they had to ask Dolores and the rest of the family

for his whereabouts. And this deeply upset the whole family because they were catching on to police's thoughts that he was involved in what happened to Candace and their dog. So they made sure to remind officers that because of James' mental illness, he couldn't interact with anyone at all, not even his own family. He didn't have any history of violence whatsoever and kept himself at all times, except for when he would go to the Colorado Mental Health Institute, which he did from time to time to get the help he needed.

But overall, he was by himself and liked it that way. So essentially they're kind of trying to lean on the fact that James has this mental illness. Yeah, which is really sad because I understand if you're, you know, it makes sense. Sure, he lives behind the house, but okay, but what's his motive? You're only saying that because he has a mental illness, you have nothing else to go off of. It's just, it's just messed up. Yeah, and I think it would be kind of hard in this situation because people with mental illness is, you don't really know what's going

to happen, you don't know how they're going to react to certain situations. So it is kind of hard to not think about James possibly being a suspect. Which I totally get, but I don't think that they should have been like, he's our guy, nobody else is going to be in question. Like sure he can be on your list, but there's got to be some more thought here. The Hiltz family was very adamant that the police did not do a proper job investigating. Despite the fact that Deputy Robert Dodd and Deputy Briscoe had been doing this for a while, so they would know that they needed to take anything and everything that could be relevant

to the investigation. But when the Hiltz family were allowed back inside their home, after police were done with it, they noticed multiple things that weren't taken in for evidence, including bloody towels that were outside of the house that they think were used by the killer, a computer monitor that had blood on it, no samples were taken, and it was used by the killer to prop up the bed. Candice's bloody t-shirt, the green comforter that Candace's body was wrapped in, which, oh my god, why would you not take that?

I know. And a gun shell casing that was found in Paige's crib. Once the family made it known that police missed many pieces of potentially vital evidence, Deputy Brisco received a search warrant for the home again and collected the other evidence from the family. But it took a lot of trying on Dolores' part for someone to get back to her. It was as if she had to beg them to finish their job. Candice's autopsy was pretty shocking. It showed that she had been shot seven times, once in the chest and six times in the head,

with at least two, if not three, different guns, thought to be a shotgun, a medium-caliber handgun, and a small-caliber handgun, and then at least two people committed her murder. And the coroner determined this by the fact that shots were thought to have been fired at the same time from behind her and in front of her. However, the coroner's report is believed to be a bit all over the place, and many of the notes in the autopsy contradict each other, and there are many errors, so it's unknown if there really were two people involved, or if someone possibly had multiple guns on them. James Helds didn't own any handguns or guns of any kind. So this made the family wonder even more about how he could be a suspect if he had never fired or owned a gun, or had access to one, let alone two or three.

He hated entering the Helts family home and didn't even believe that Dolores was his own mother, but that another unknown woman replaced her, so he really didn't like going in there when there was anybody else in the house. And the only time that James would go into the home, which again was very rare, it would be when he knew that no one was home. The way he would let himself in was by using the butter knife that he kept under the front door mat and popping the door open. But during Candice's murder investigation, it was discovered that whoever entered the home had done so by busting the back door open with a crowbar. But either way, police felt confident that he was behind his sister's murder, and that he possibly got help from others.

Again, James didn't have anyone in his life. He didn't have any friends and he never spoke to his family because of his phobias and his mental illness. On Friday, August 18, 2006, so three days after Candace's murder, police found 28-year-old James Hildz camping out in a rural area, not far from his family's home, in the Copper Gulch area, and we actually posted photos of this on our social media, so just in case you guys need a visual. James was found with a hunting knife on him, and was charged with first degree burglary and first degree criminal trespassing of a home in the area from before Candace's murder where he's thought to have stolen flashlights and a hatchet. And as you guys remember, this is the charge that Deputy Robert Dodd had been trying

to charge James with that resulted in Candace and him getting into a heated argument and threatening each other. Since the crimes don't relate to Candace's murder, I can only assume they charged him with this so that they could hold him in hopes of adding the murder charges, not to say that they didn't want to charge him with this before Candace's murder, but I'm sure they hope that it would be easier once they had him in holding. And, you know, if he did in fact trespass and burglarize a home, I don't know why he would do this with his mental illness,

and there really isn't much information on what evidence they had on him for this crime, but I mean, it's absolutely possible that he did commit something like that. So, originally, James Heltz entered a not guilty plea and then changed it to a not guilty by reason of insanity plea with the advice of his attorney, public defender Magdalena Rosa. James had a very difficult time while they held him at the Fremont County jail because of all of his terrifying hallucinations and he had to be there for five months on a $500,000 bond.

When his trial came in early March of 2007, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity after a couple different psychological evaluations, and he was sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute, where he, like I said earlier, had been many times before. Since James was never charged with any crimes relating to Candace's murder, this left many questions in the investigation. Many of the officers expressed that they believed that James did it, they just couldn't prove it. But others wondered if there was someone else involved entirely. Because of the deputies at the Fremont County Sheriff's Office, every time James had come up for a review for possible release,

the deputies would show up to the institute and protest why he shouldn't be released because he's a suspect in the murder of his sister Candace Hill. So they were pretty much doing everything they could not to let him get out of there. Which is really suspicious to me. Right. You know, it's like I see it both ways. It's like, oh yeah, if you think he's guilty then I understand why you wouldn't want him on the streets, but why do you think he's guilty?

Yeah, it's so hard for me to think that this person who has multiple mental health issues, I mean it's not impossible, but for him to use multiple guns to kill his sister and then hide the body and then try to cover up evidence, and try to get away with a murder. I mean, it's just, ah, it's so weird to me, right? Yeah, I'm with ya. Another person that came up was the father of Candace's baby. But nothing's really known about him, and there was no real evidence that he was there

that day, nor had motive to kill Candaceace because he wasn't a part of her nor Paige's life and he had never made an effort to be. The weird thing though is that in Candace's autopsy, it states that Candace's boyfriend came inside the house and took Paige outside to his wife and then went back inside to find Candace unresponsive. When Dolores read this, she was floored. Because not only did she know that her daughter didn't have a boyfriend, but she was the one to find Candace. So why this was in her autopsy report made absolutely no sense to her. It was just completely fabricated. Dolores saw so many holes in this case,

and she was absolutely heartbroken by it. Because she truly believed that the entire investigation was just botched, and there was nothing that she could do about it. A few months after Candace's murder, Dolores filed a formal complaint with the State Attorney General's Office regarding mismanagement of the crime scene, and she also included photos of all the evidence that police had left months prior. She also provided a written theory that a certain deputy was involved in her daughter's murder, but nothing was done about it.

Dolores later stated, quote, �I felt like I could never say anything because if an officer killed her and they were covering up for him, I can't lose any more children and anyone who would do that to a 17 year old-old girl has no soul. Only briefly did Dolores wonder if maybe some girls who were jealous of Candace committed her murder instead. It was determined that at least one of the shots fired into Candace was done after she

was already deceased. The autopsy discussed that Candace had more than likely experienced death tremors, meaning that he escaped her lungs or her body moved after she was dead, which could indicate to someone that she was still alive even though she wasn't. And Dolores pointed out that a police officer would know about death tremors and would know when a person was dead, so why would they shoot her again? At the same time, they could have maybe just been scared and shot her to be sure, since they had already fired multiple shots into her, so in theory, what's another shot to

someone like that? Unfortunately with this case, it went cold for a very long time since there wasn't any proper evidence to go off of in Candace's case. But 10 whole years later, in December of 2016, some new information came to light. For those of you who don't know, storage facilities will host auctions on units that people have abandoned, and here's looking at you, Beatrice.

If you're listening, you know what I'm talking about. When a certain period of time passes and the person hasn't shown up to claim their belongings and they haven't paid for their unit, the facility will host an auction for it. And without seeing what's inside the unit, an auction will ensue, and it will go to the highest bidder. So basically, you're bidding on this unit, you don't know what's inside, might be some treasures, you don't really know.

Since many people hold valuables and old antiques and stuff like that in their storage units, you can actually make a great deal of money selling off stuff from someone else's unit, hence the appeal of buying the units. But sometimes, the units just have a bunch of junk, so it's kind of a gamble, like I just said. On December 17, 2016, just five days before what would have been Candace's 28th birthday, a man named Rick Ratzlaff was at an auction in Fremont County where he bought an abandoned unit for $50. After paying for it, he opened it up and discovered what seemed like a dud unit filled with some

old police uniforms and police lights. But as he sifted through the items, he came across some very suspicious stuff, including an axe, a blood-stained rope, and a bloodied pair of socks in separate plastic bags. There was also a manila folder that said evidence on it, along with boxes of official paperwork with Candace Hiltz's name on it. Rick was able to find out the name of the person who had previously rented out that unit, and it was Deputy Robert Dodd. Rick was very worried when he came across all this because it was just very fishy.

He pondered why on Earth evidence from an unsolved murder case would be hidden away in a storage unit. It just didn't make any sense. Apparently, a lot of people in this area had bad experiences with the Fremont County Sheriff's Office because Rick was not a fan of them due to some encounters he had had. So he did not feel good about going down there and showing them what he'd found. Instead he called the police department and had them come take a look, hoping it would

go into the right hands and someone would do something about it, because obviously something weird was going on. However, this encounter was likely no better than it would have been with the Sheriff's Department, because an argument ensued between Rik and the officers. Rik's wife was present and she decided to record their entire conversation, which is not been released. But according to Rik and his wife, the officers basically threatened Rik to keep quiet on what he had found in the unit.

Which is fissious heck! Like why would you tell someone to keep quiet on something like that? Like, are you all in cahoots on some evil business? Because it seems like it? Yeah, it really, really does seem like it. Like, oh, god, it just, it gives me chills thinking about it. It kind of seems like a weird thriller movie going on. Like, there's just this huge cover up going on

for this police department. Cover up scare me more than anything else because of the power that people like this have, and like they can just literally get away with murder sometimes. Yeah, and that's just not the response you're looking for when you say, hey, I found this evidence of a murder case, or these files of a murder case in this storage unit,

you guys wanna come take a look, like you're not thinking the police are gonna come say, hey, you need to shut the fuck up about that, you're thinking they're going to take it in and they're going to, you know, do what they need to do. Rick was actually able to get all the evidence into the hands of the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, who opened up an investigation into now detective Robert Dodd being involved in misconduct. Within a few weeks, on January 16, 2017, Fremont County Sheriff Jim Baker held a press conference and shared that Robert Dodd was on routine administrative leave,

which is never a good sign. The local news submitted a Colorado Open Records Act in hopes of obtaining a copy of Candace's autopsy, but the Fremont County Corner who performed the autopsy said that it was an open case and he couldn't release it. But not releasing it would go against the Colorado Open Records Act, so they had to, which was done the following week in late January 2017. Then, the local news, which is the daily record, requested the 911 recording and or transcript from the day that Candace was killed, and the sheriff stated that those records were important to the investigation and could not be released. But when the daily record made yet another request for all police and incident

reports regarding Candace's case, they were denied again. So it seems like they're really trying to keep a lot of the reports and records safe with them, but it doesn't seem like they're doing it for the safety of the case, but maybe just to save their own asses. That is just the vibe I'm getting here. I think that's the vibe we're all getting here. So three months after all of this was going on on April 23rd, 2017, Robert Dodd retired from the Fremont County Sheriff's Office. And just a couple weeks after this,

the District Attorney's Office filed charges against Robert Dodd, including two counts of second degree official misconduct and abuse of public records. Ooh, that is not good. But, yeah, so, but it is good because we're glad that action is being taken against this man. It's good, but it's not good. It's good for us, it's not good for him. So then additional evidence, including a computer, an enveloped marked evidence with a DVD,

a videotape labeled with a sexual assault investigation interview, an attack box marked with Fremont County Sheriff's Office unit forensic lights was found in a nearby landfill and it was linked to Robert Dodd. About a month after this discovery on June 6, 2017, Robert failed to show up for his first court date. But thanks to what was found in the landfill, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, or the CBI, opened up an investigation to search the landfill

for any more evidence along with further investigation into Robert Dodd. As they searched more into the landfill, additional evidence was discovered that included Robert Dodd's name on it and was believed to have been disposed by him. So not only is he hiding things in storage units, but he is trying to, like, permanently dispose of certain documents and evidence. Yeah, I mean, if that doesn't scream that this dude is guilty of something, I don't know what would. Well, and it's not just for Kansas' case, but it's for other cases, like I said, some

sexual assault investigation interview and other things, so what else is this man hiding? As all these charges were coming forward, and the investigations continued, Robert Dodd picked up and moved with his wife to Texas. Of course he did. They all pick up and move when you're assessed. As 2017 rolled on, more interesting information actually came forward, including the fact that during August 15th 2006, so the day that Candace Hildz was killed, and December 30th 2006, Robert Dodd, quote, card, actual social security card, or actual passport of Heath Heimann, knowing that Robert Dodd did so without permission or lawful authority. And although it wasn't publicly made clear the relevance of this or who exactly Heath Heimann

was, Candace's mother Dolores was quoted saying that Heath Heimann was a man who lived in the same area she lived in and was camping behind the hill of one of her neighbor's houses at the time of her daughter's murder. And she believes that Robert had discovered Heath Hymn's Social Security card and some of his other belongings on that hill while searching for James Hills and didn't come forward with this information. Instead it was found in the storage unit that Rick had won in the auction. Heath Heimann had been known to make inappropriate comments towards Candace, so he looked like

he could be a pretty good suspect. But it appears that Robert Dodd hid his ID card in hopes of potentially pinning the crime on James Hilton's stead. And that would imply that there's potentially another suspect in the case and that Robert Dodd isn't necessarily behind the murder itself, but you know we don't really know because he didn't look into Heath Heimann for this crime at all. He just went straight to James and didn't tell anybody about the fact that he had found somebody else's belongings up behind their house, which is obviously pretty relevant when we're talking

about a murder investigation. Yeah, I would say so. The following year on June 28, 2018, Robert Dodd was found guilty on three of four counts relating to holding evidence in the storage unit from Candace's murder case which included abuse of public records which is a misdemeanor and two counts of second-degree misconduct. The charge she was found not guilty of was criminal possession of an identification document

relating to Heath Heimann. However, Robert Dodd was not looked into as a possible suspect for Candace's murder, despite many people believing that he should be, you know, knowing that just days before she was killed, he had gotten into a heated argument with her and she had apparently threatened to speak about him working with local drug dealers. Robert Dodd was sentenced to 15 days in jail on the misdemeanor charges and had to pay a $1,000 fine. And despite filing an appeal, the sentencing remained the same. And this sentencing wasn't carried out for over a year and a half. He didn't serve those 15 days until February 26, 2020.

And by the way, the whole drug deal thing is hearsay by Candice's mom. I don't know why she would lie about that, but, you know, there's that. So this really can't be confirmed. And with Candice not partaking in drugs, it's kind of hard to understand how she would have come to witness this and even know who the local dealers were. But it's definitely possible that in this small town,

she witnessed something or one of her many friends did, but we can't say for sure. Well, I mean, it's, we can't really put it past Robert Dodd. I mean, we know that he is a criminal. We know that he had shit. Yeah, we know that he has done things wrong in the eyes of the law, so, I mean, is it possible? Sure. Although this was a very short sentence, Candace's family took this as a small win, knowing he was facing some penalties and was no longer a part of law enforcement.

To this day, no one has been charged with Candace's murder, and her case is still considered an open investigation. I think Robert Dodd is without a doubt incredibly sketchy in this whole case, and I really do think he had a motive as well as the ability to cover his tracks and cover up his own crime, which would make sense why he and the others kind of spearheaded her brother James and why the investigation was botched so badly. It would also explain why he hid a ton of evidence pertaining to her case in a storage unit. So I think it's undeniable that he hid things and he was formally charged for this, but I also

think it's very disturbing that he tried to hide taped interviews from a sexual assault investigation, because I also read that a Fremont County patrol lieutenant was accused of having sexual relations with an underage girl, and she had come forward with these allegations against him. So I'm not saying this whole Sheriff's Department is questionable, but I'm not not saying that. Especially since the other officers basically told Rick to keep what he had found in the storage unit for himself. There's just a lot of icky stuff going on and it's uncomfy. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. The fact that they had come to the storage unit and told him to keep his mouth shut

really raises red flags in my mind. And to me, I agree with you. It's just the whole Sheriff's Department seems like they've got something to cover up here. And as far as Robert Dodd goes, there's absolutely no reason for him doing what he did, unless it was to cover up himself to cover his own ass. Right. I mean, it's possible that Robert Dodd just did a shitty investigation and wasn't involved, but maybe had some ill will towards the family, or he knew who really killed Candace and was covering for them.

But if he didn't do it, you know, it's a shame this investigation wasn't done properly anyway because we have no other evidence linking to anyone at all. So what's the story on the possibly jealous girls are maybe even Heath Heimann? And was there anything at all that made them really think that James was actually behind this or did they just target him because of his mental illness? So whether or not Robert Dodd was involved, they really dropped the ball. Because this was a savage and absolutely brutal murder of a beautiful and intelligent young mother, and whoever committed this crime more than likely also brutally

murdered a dog. Like this person or people needs to be caught. Here's my thought on the situation. The fact that multiple guns were used leads me to believe that police could have been involved in this. Yes, I agree, yes. Right, because we know that police have shot guns, they have handguns at their disposal. We know that they have them on duty. Sure, I mean, is it possible that other people could have come into the house and killed Candace using multiple different guns

and there was multiple people involved? Absolutely, that could definitely be a possibility. But I just think it's really strange that three guns were used. There was a bunch of evidence left behind. The crime scene wasn't closed off and was contaminated. Like all of that just is really sketchy. Also, Motive plays a huge part in this because like I said this was a brutal savage murder. So why would somebody come into the house, not rob the house, not take anything, except for just murder, can't just like that. So the only people I think that could possibly have motive from what we know is Robert Dodd because she threatened

him and potentially she had information on him that could ruin his life and his career. And he had bent her house, he knew that she had a dog, he knew where she lived, he could easily have been, you know, keeping eyes on her. And the fact that her murder happened right after they had a negative confrontation, adds a little to, little to coincidental for me to believe that it's not purposeful. Yeah, I really want to know what type of gun was used in this crime because I wonder that shell casing that was found in Pages crib I wonder if they were able to

Connect that to any other gun or if they even tried to test it against Robert Dodd's gun Oh guarantee they did not because they weren't looking at Robert Dodd at all and they never really have I think it's just been a little secret thing that everyone's like Robert Dodd should be looked at He was looked at for other stuff for the misconduct But he wasn't actually looked at for her murder and again, so that's a huge ball drop just because he's a police officer Doesn't mean he's he can't be involved in something really horrible Yeah, and we're not trying to say that it's 100% Robert Dodd because there's it's very possible that he time and could have been involved Or you know, it's possible that James was involved.'t know. Or somebody we have no idea whose name it is but it doesn't take away from the fact that

Robert did some some really bad shady things. Yeah he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and he definitely raised some flags. So James Hiltz seems to be doing much better these days but remains at the Colorado Mental Health Institute by choice and has become a pure counselor there, which is really great. But a few years before the whole questioning of Robert Dodd came about and the storage unit came about on November 22nd, so on Thanksgiving Day in 2012, Candice's daughter Paige passed away from her illness at the age of seven.

She was described by doctors as a miracle baby since they didn't predict that she would live longer than just a few days or weeks after she was born, and she was never fully able to walk on her own or fully speak. Candice's family stated, she's with her mom now like she should be. We feel that she's running like she never was able to,

and all the things we couldn't give her down here she has now Thank you so much everyone for listening to this episode of going west Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week We'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into this case case was really, really hard and sad and it's just, it was such a brutal crime and I can't stop thinking about how amazing Candice was and how much potential she had and her poor mom having to go through this and then the loss of Paige that was like another piece of Candice that she was holding on to that she had to go through the loss again. So I just feel so horrible for this whole family

who has been going through the ringer for so many years, not getting the help they need from the police department and not getting the justice that's deserved for their loved one. Yeah, my heart really does break for this family. I feel so bad for Dolores and the rest of the Holtz family. I really feel like justice could be served in this case. I feel like there's just so much there

that there's no reason why this case can't be solved. So if you guys have any theories and you wanna talk about this case, make sure you reach out to us. Yes, please, we have social medias. We have an Instagram at Going West Podcast, Twitter at Going West Pod. We also have a Facebook page,

but we love our discussion group. It's going West discussion group. It's going West Discussion Group. That's where we kind of like to interact with you guys and talk to you about the cases. So thank you guys so much for listening to this one. Don't forget to share it with a friend and let us know what you think. Also guys, if you want some bonus episodes of going West, make sure you head over to patreon.com slash going West podcast. We've got a ton of ad free full length bonus episodes for you guys And now we have to give things the people who subscribe to our patreon this week. Yes. Thank you so much to Jennifer Kitty Lucy Sarah

Sean Kayley and thank you so much again to Shelley. We love you big thanks going out to Brianna Catherine Gracie Dallas Kateandra, and Marissa. Thank you so much to Deia. I think it's Deia or Deia. Thank you Elizabeth, Derek, Lauren, Maddie, Katelyn, and Aubrey. And last but not least,

big thanks going out to Genesis, Haley, Nicole, Keith, Danielle, Tara, and Stephanie. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for subscribing. You really help out the show and we love producing bonus episodes for you guys. Yes, as we always say, Patreon is what keeps going, West going. So make sure you go over there and subscribe and help support the show. We appreciate you guys so much.

We love the heck out of you. So for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and don't be a stranger. you