As three Colorado teenagers have passed blame for killing a woman by throwing a rock through her car windshield, investigators admitted Wednesday that they still don’t know which one actually did it.
Joseph Koenig, 19; Nicholas Karol-Chik, 19, and Zachary Kwak, 18, have each been charged with first-degree murder for the death of Alexa Bartell, 20, on April 19. Bartell was driving in the Denver suburb of Westminster when a rock slammed through her windshield and killed her.
At a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office investigator Dan Manka said investigators only found Bartell’s DNA on the rock. He said the world may never know who threw the fatal stone.
Koenig, Karol-Chik and Kwak have blamed each other for flinging the rock that killed Bartell. Kwak claimed he’d just recently met the two other friends and said Koenig, the driver, threw it.
Karol-Chik said Koenig was his best friend and pinned the blame on Kwak. Koenig refused to speak with police after he was arrested.
The crew made a “blood brothers” pact after the incident and vowed never to speak to anyone, according to police. However, Kwak took a photo of Bartell’s wrecked car as a macabre “memento,” investigators said.
A fourth friend, who had been hanging out with Koenig, Karol-Chik and Kwak earlier in the day, identified them as suspects. He told police he asked for a ride home after he noticed the others piling rocks into Karol-Chik’s pickup truck.
In addition to the first-degree murder charges for Bartell’s killing, all three teens also face six counts of attempted murder for throwing rocks at other cars that day. Drivers were injured in three of those incidents, leading to three second-degree assault charges for each teen.
With News Wire Services
