Madeleine Furey-Livaudais was 33 when she was stabbed to death after an unknown man forced his way into her northeast Denver home on December 7, 1978. A wife and mother of two young daughters, she worked as an editor for the children’s magazine Ranger Rick and had traveled through Africa and Europe for her work.

DNA testing between 2013 and 2018 linked the evidence from her murder to three other unsolved Denver-area homicides: Dolores Barajas, 53; Gwendolyn Harris, 27; and Antoinette Parks, 17. Investigative genetic genealogy pointed to a potential relative in Texas and ultimately to Joe Michael Ervin. Ervin had died by suicide in 1981 while in custody at the Adams County Detention Center. His remains were exhumed in late 2021 and a DNA sample taken; in January 2022 that sample matched the crime-scene evidence, confirming him as the killer in these cases.

Anyone who knew Madeleine or has information about her life in Denver in the 1970s is asked to share what they remember.