Alexa Bartell, a 20-year-old Colorado woman, was killed Wednesday after being hit by a rock thrown through her windshield while she was driving.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said the incident occurred around 10:45 p.m. Police said suspects were either in another car or on the side of the road and threw a large rock at Bartell’s car, striking and killing her after it crashed through the windshield.
Police from multiple local agencies are investigating a string of crimes from Wednesday night that may be connected, according to local station KDVR.
Bartell was on the phone with a friend at the time, police said.
“Her friend was worried, so her friend used an app to track her phone, drove to the location where it looked like Alexa’s phone was just sitting,” JSCO public information officer Jacki Kelley said. “She discovered that Alexa’s car had gone off the road on Indiana [Street] into a field. And then she discovered her body inside.”
The sheriff’s office said there were at least four other incidents where rocks were thrown at vehicles in the area on Wednesday night, including three others in which the windshield was broken, causing minor injuries to two drivers. A light-colored 4-door 2003-2005 Dodge Ram may be connected to the incidents.
“These are not games, these are people’s lives and what happened last night should never have happened,” Kelley said. “We don’t know who these suspects are, why they’re trying to do this, but they killed somebody last night and we want to know who they are.”
After soliciting the public for information regarding the Dodge Ram, the sheriff’s office said on Thursday that they had located the truck and identified the driver. However, there could be more who were harmed.
“We believe there may be more victims,” the sheriff’s office said. “No piece of information is insignificant. If you have home security or dash cameras that may have caught the vehicle driving by, we want to hear from you.”
