Karolyn Walker was an 18-year-old recent St. Mary’s Academy graduate when she was found murdered near East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, Colorado. She had been with her boyfriend on the night of July 4, 1987, borrowed his car to leave, and her body was discovered the next day in a ditch. An autopsy determined cause of death as strangulation and a blow to the head.

Her vehicle was recovered on July 7, parked at an apartment building. Investigators found no immediately incriminating evidence or witnesses, and the case remained unsolved. Authorities later linked Karolyn’s murder to a series of Denver-area killings attributed to a suspected offender sometimes called the Denver Prostitute Killer, whose victims were typically young women aged about 15 to 25 and were beaten and strangled and left in remote locations. A local resident was at one point considered a person of interest, but no charges were filed in Karolyn’s death.

Anyone who knew Karolyn, saw her car around July 4–7, 1987, or has information about these linked cases is asked to come forward.