Death of Pikes Peak State College graduate has family seeking answers

Dec. 30—Katelin Anderson's future lay before her like an expanse of open road, full of untold possibilities.

Having just completed her final semester at Pikes Peak State College with an associate's degree in chemical engineering, Anderson had recently been accepted at the Colorado School of Mines and was set to begin attending in the fall of 2023.

"She was always excited for the next adventure," said Brandy Stimec, Anderson's aunt. "The School of Mines was going to be her next adventure."

But that adventure would never take place, and a promising young life ended in the parking lot of an auto dealership during one of the city's coldest periods in recent memory.

Last Thursday morning, Dec. 21, as the arctic blast was at or near its apex, Anderson, 23, was found at McCloskey Motors in the 5500 block of North Academy Boulevard. The El Paso County Coroner's Office has yet to make an official determination as to how Anderson died, but according to several accounts she was underdressed for the frigid weather, and police say she did not show any injuries that would suggest foul play.

Anderson's family believes she was one of four Colorado Springs fatalities connected to last week's winter storm.

Dana Anderson, Katelin's mother, and Rebecca Bagby, her paternal aunt, traveled to Colorado Springs from Kansas City, Kan., shortly after being notified of Katelin's death and have spent the past few days speaking with police, her friends, and area businesses in a painstaking effort to reconstruct her final hours.

Katelin's friends last saw her at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20. She was found at 8 a.m. Thursday, when employees at the auto dealership opened up for the day. But the timeline has a gaping hole in it, according to her family.

"She was somewhere for four hours and 20 minutes, but we still don't know where," Dana said of her daughter.

The evening began innocuously enough, as Katelin and three of her friends decided to go out on the town, despite the cold, to celebrate her recent accomplishments. They spent some time at Cowboys Night Club on North Tejon Street before deciding to take an Uber to the Whiskey Baron on North Academy Boulevard, according to Mary Gatrost, Katelin's best friend.

Katelin left her iPhone in the rideshare vehicle, which would turn out to be the first of a series of troublesome events in a girls' night out gone horribly wrong.

While waiting to enter the Whiskey Baron, Katelin stumbled, which led employees to believe she'd had too much to drink and refuse to let the group into the bar.

Gatrost, who had Katelin's identification, says she suggested that the group call it a night. Katelin wanted to continue celebrating. An argument ensued.

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"Katelin got mad at me because I wouldn't give her ID back," Gatrost said. "I said, 'Let's just go home.' She got mad at me, and walked off."

Katelin separated from her friends at about 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service in Pueblo, the temperature was about 1 degree above zero. She had no phone, no ID and was "dressed to go clubbing," according to Gatrost.

As far as the family and police can tell, it was the last time anyone saw her alive.

A surveillance camera outside Woodley's Fine Furniture on North Academy Boulevard showed Katelin walking by at 10:38 p.m., her mother said. She apparently tripped an alarm at McCloskey's — less than a mile away — at 3:04 a.m. Cameras around the dealership showed her wandering around the lot, pulling on car handles in a vain effort to find an unlocked vehicle.

No one seems to know where she was, or what she was doing, during that four-hour, 20-minute period in between.

At about 4 a.m., Katelin lay down on the asphalt lot. She was found dead four hours later.

"I just can't believe she was outside in those temperatures for more than four hours," Gatrost said. "We were standing outside (the Whiskey Baron) for just 10 minutes, and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. I couldn't even feel my lips."

Nothing can bring Dana Anderson's daughter back. But a complete timeline of Katelin's final night could bring some semblance of closure, she said.

"What happened during those four hours?" Dana asked. "Did she sit down somewhere? Did she lay down and go to sleep? We just don't know."

A funeral director told the family that Katelin had debris inside her boots, including dirt, bark, mulch, and sticks. No one knows where it came from.

The family hopes area residents with security cameras will check to see if she may have been spotted. She was wearing a white cropped blouse with the midriff showing, and pants with a camouflage pattern.

Dana would also like to recover Katelin's iPhone, which was never found. Its last known location was the Baymont Inn on Kelly Johnson Boulevard, where it pinged about 24 hours after Katelin disappeared.

As it happens, Katelin was wearing an Apple Watch, which she could have used to call emergency services even without her phone. The family thinks she was either unaware of that feature, or was suffering from cognitive impairment due to hypothermia.

"She was trying to get into cars, so on some level, she knew she was in trouble," said Bagby, Katelin's aunt.

Dana Anderson hopes her daughter's story can help save lives going forward, by raising awareness of the dangers of hypothermia, the exacerbating effect of alcohol consumption, and the importance of being prepared for frigid weather. Katelin — remembered by her friends and family as generous to a fault — would have wanted it that way.

"My daughter would help anyone, anywhere, at any time," Dana said. "If the story of her death can help even one person, I think she would be happy with that."