Candice Hiltz
She was born December 2, 1988 in Canyon City, Colorado.
She was the youngest child and had several older brothers.
Candice was a tomboy who believed in justice and was very protective of her brothers.
Her father died when she was 5 years old.
She could do calculus at age 11.
At 15, she unrolled at BYU.
When she died at 17, she was already in her 3rd year of college.
She wanted one day to be a supreme court justice.
Shortly before her death she was accepted to Stanford Law School.
She got pregnant before she died and gave birth to a baby girl named Paige.
Paige was born with an illness called Hydrocephalus, or water of the brain.
She wasn't predicted to live very long.
From the moment Candice got pregnant, Paige became her whole world.
Candice continued with her education online during her pregnancy and after.
One of Candice's older brothers was named James.
He had severe phobias, he couldn't live around people, so he lived in a wooded area behind the house.
They would leave food out in front of the house for him, to make sure he had enough food and that he was ok.
On August 10, 2006, sheriff Robert Dodds comes to the home to question James about a trespassing incident.
Instead he questions the mother, Delores, and asks her where James was.
She had no idea.
Candice was there and became very angry.
Dodds threaten to arrest Candice and she reached out her arms and told him to go ahead.
She also tells him that if he arrests her, that she will tell all the people at the police station how she has seen him trade envelopes with known drug dealers.
He ended up not arresting her and left.
On August 13, the family dog goes missing.
Later the dog is eventually found, tied to a tree, in a remote place.
It had been brutally murdered.
On August 15, Delores left the house to go run some errands, leaving Candice home alone with 11 month old Paige.
Delores said she came home about three hours later, which was about 4 p.m.
She found Paige screaming in the house and pools of blood leading up to Candice's bedroom.
There is no signs of Candice.
In Candice's bedroom, Delores finds a green blanket in a bundle under the bed.
When she unwraps the bundle, Delores finds her daughter's body inside.
Candice's face had been destroyed, the injuries were so severe she was almost decapitated.
The police were called and showed up an hour later.
Candice's family were ordered out of their home.
The crime scene was not sealed off.
The lead investigator was Robert Dodds.
The police almost immediately focused their attention on Candice's brother, James.
They had no evidence pointing to James.
It took police three days to find him.
The door of the house had been pried open by a crowbar.
James had no reason to pry open the door with a crowbar, he had his own way of getting in the house.
The police said that it was obvious that the murder was committed by more than one person.
James had no friends and didn't and couldn't hang around people.
The family protested that James never could have done this.
He didn't have any access to guns and no violent history.
He was found and questioned, but never charged with anything related to Candice's death.
He was charged for trespassing and found not guilty by reason of insanity.
He was admitted to the Colorado Mental Health Institute, where he currently resides.
The autopsy report stated that Candice had suffered one gun shot to the face, five to the back of the head and one to the left side of her chest.
The head shot seemed to have come from a distance and the chest shot from point blank range within her home.
The gun shot wounds came from at least three different guns.
This is where things get weird.
There is another timeline of events.
The autopsy reads that it was Candice's friend that discovered her body, that he came around to check on her.
He finds Paige screaming inside and brings her back out and to the car for his wife to hold.
He then goes back into the house and finds Candice's body.
When the Hiltz's were allowed back in their home, the police had left a lot of evidence behind.
There was a speaker with Candice's blood, the green blanket that she was wrapped in, and a shot gun casing found in baby Paige's crib.
Delores and one of her sons, John, put on rubber gloves and bagged up evidence and went down to the police station to notify them.
The police eventually sent someone to the house to collect it.
Seven years later Paige passes away.
In December 2016, a local storage shed went up for auction and was bought by a man named Rick.
There was police lights inside along with some envelopes marked "Evidence" , filled with documents and items.
Among some of the items were hatchets, shell casings, and rope, all with blood on them.
There was also some police uniforms found.
On the uniforms was the name "Robert Dodds".
Rick called the police and a sheriff named Beaker came off as threatening.
He came to the storage shed and bagged up the evidence.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigations came and took over.
In January, 2017, they came and took the evidence.
Robert Dodd's family contacted Rick through Facebook, offering him money for his unit back.
Besides those items pertaining to Candice's case in the storage shed, items from other cases were found thrown out by Dodds.
Doddswas on leave pending investigation.
Two months later, he retires and moves to Texas.
A month later, in May 2017, the district attorney files charges against him, two counts of official misconduct, and abuse of public records.
Between December 25th and 30th of 2016, Dodds knowingly altered a public record.
The case went to court and he was offered a plea deal, which he took.
Candice's case remains unsolved.
