Missing Colorado woman's entire body uncovered in trash bag in her outdated house

Jenny Goldsberry

June 11, 07:15 PM June 11, 07:53 PM

Police found the stays of a Colorado female who had been lacking for just over four decades.

Authorities verified through genetic screening that human stays observed in a trash bag inside a manhole at 82-12 months-previous Sylvia Frens's final home had been, in reality, hers. Frens was beforehand noted missing by anxious family members members in 2018. An autopsy exposed that her trigger of demise was blunt force trauma and dominated her loss of life a homicide.

Frens's son, Richard Vandervelde, 54, was subsequently arrested on very first-diploma murder expenses, as very well as rates of tampering with a deceased human physique, crimes against an at-threat adult, fraud-identity theft, theft, motor auto theft, and abuse of a corpse. He was in Florida at the time of his arrest.

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Not even a 7 days following Frens was described lacking, Vandervelde was pulled in excess of for a website traffic violation in Missouri while driving his mother's car or truck. Authorities took him into custody to dilemma him more immediately after he gave police a wrong name. Police then uncovered he had been employing his mother's debit card and taken $10,000 out of her bank account, a lot more than 50 % of which was in the motor vehicle at the time. Vandervelde mentioned the transactions ended up all approved by his mother.

A cellular phone located with Vandervelde disclosed Feb. 2018 queries for “map of desolate places in Colorado” and “least traveled locations close to grand junction co.”

Data also discovered lookups for “knocking anyone out with a blow to the head,” “knocking somebody unconscious,” “how to knock someone out without killing them,” "how to knock someone unconscious properly for a very long time,” “5 methods to knock a person out in under 10 seconds,” “how to knock anyone out swiftly and quietly,” and an short article about knockout medication.

It wasn't until eventually March 2022 that law enforcement had been capable to get permission from the new occupants of Frens's former residence, which she shared with her son.

Vandervelde is now at the Mesa County Detention Facility, awaiting arraignment on a $1 million income-only bond. His future court docket date is Jun. 21.