Arrest Ensues After 24-Hour Manhunt
Trevor Phipps
Over the past few weeks, Teller County has started to experience a wrath of serious crimes, similar to certain parts of the nation. This is a trend that some experts attribute to warmer weather.
Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, a massive manhunt for a wanted suspect marked the third major case in the last two months where police have pursued a dangerous criminal.
After terrorizing neighborhoods in the city for around 24 hours, the manhunt ended in the arrest of 40-year-old Edgar Saenz-Lopez after police say he attempted to break into an occupied home and then fled on foot from authorities.
The situation began on May 24 at around 6 p.m. when the Teller County Sheriff’s Office received a call that someone was trying to break into a house located off of County Road 21 (Crystola Road), just south of Woodland Park.
People were in the house at the time of the attempted break-in and they were able to notify the police and furnish surveillance camera footage to help the authorities identify and find the suspect.
The sheriff’s deputies arrived within minutes of receiving the 911 call and they promptly started searching for the suspect, after talking with the people who reported the crime. Their initial search led to deputies locating the suspect in an undeveloped, wooded area behind the Safeway shopping center on the southeast side of Woodland Park.
Once the deputies found the suspect who was later identified as Saenz-Lopez, they chased him on foot. However, the deputies lost Saenz-Lopez in the area around the Little Gem’s Trailer Park located off of S. Woodland Avenue near the Safeway shopping center, and just north of the suspected burglary location.
After losing the suspect’s location, the deputies then partnered with the Woodland Park Police Department to launch a massive manhunt for Lopez. A mobile phone alert was sent out to everyone in the area that told them to be aware of law enforcement activity and notify police if the suspect is spotted.
The authorities spent all night that Friday searching for Saenz-Lopez to no avail. Law enforcement officials still haven’t given any details on where Saenz-Lopez was during the 24-hour manhunt.
The next day while residents were enjoying Memorial Day Weekend activities, the entire city was interrupted by an alert for citizens to be on the lookout for a shirtless Hispanic male suspect with tattoos on his stomach, back and chest, who was allegedly riding a mountain bike around the city. Some residents even received a phone call alerting them to not approach the suspect if seen and instead notify the authorities.
Then some time that Saturday, the sheriff’s office announced that the suspect had been found and arrested without incident. The deputies eventually located the suspect in an area off of Highway 24 in Chipita Park, just southeast of Green Mountain Falls.
Saenz-Lopez was then taken into police custody and arrested on charges of second degree burglary, resisting arrest, criminal mischief and obstructing a peace officer. At the time of our press deadline, Saenz-Lopez was still in custody at the Teller County Jail with a $20,000 bond. He faces numerous felony charges.
Saenz-Lopez was out on parole from being convicted of prior crimes during the incident. According to an article published by VailDaily.com in 2019, Saenz-Lopez was arrested over four years ago by the Vail Police Department in connection to a string of home burglaries.
After his arrest, Saenz-Lopez confessed the crimes to Vail detectives and said he was working alone, and that he had chosen the houses to rob randomly. “It wasn’t anyone that he had done work for; he wasn’t tied to the houses in any way,” Detective Lachlan Crawford of the Vail Police Department told Vail Daily in September 2019. “He just picked an area in Vail. He said, ‘People in Vail have money, and I was hard up for cash.’”
During that burglary incident in Vail that took place nearly five years ago, Saenz-Lopez was charged with six counts of second-degree burglary, theft and second-degree criminal trespass. During the Vail robberies, Saenz-Lopez stole items from homes including an electric skateboard, a pressure washer, bikes and other recreational items.
It is not known if the arrest in Vail played a role in Saenz-Lopez being out on parole during the recent incident. But one fact remains certain: The suspect has a history of breaking into houses. However, in the recent burglary in Teller County, deputies have not said whether anything was taken from the home or if the break-in was even successful.
