Tim Watkins /// Part 1 /// 284 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] tonight new information on the death of a local cyclist who went missing last
Thursday in the Palmer Lake area Paso County sheriff's investigators have upgraded the death of Tim Watkins to a
homicide and they just told News 5 he was shot to death his body found Sunday in the very place where he loved to ride
a lot of questions unanswered tonight so we turn to News 5s Lena Holland live in
Palmer Lake what have you learned Lena in the heart of Palmer Lake this news has everyone on edge here tonight with a
strong warning from the Sheriff's Office to remain vigilant it's a small town it's you know you feel
safe in a town like this that's why people move here that feeling of safety in the for distance for neighbors like
David Tenace who has lived here in the Palmer Lake area for four years now a little bit scary just to think about if
somebody would ambush you or you know who knows what could happen and the kids you know just playing in the
neighborhood in general with that's that's scary to know the body of his friendly and well known neighbor 60 year
old Tim Watkins was found by a civilian in the Mount Hermon area on Sunday morning search and rescue crews had
found his shoe and bike nearby the day before but the search was called off when the Sun went down today though this
death investigation upgraded to a homicide it was very surprising especially for an area like this where
everybody walks around and kids bike around all the time and we've never really had to worry about something like
this before now 12 year old Amelia - niece has taken a break from her bike and a break from being outside now me
and my friends are too afraid to go on bike rides anymore because since nobody was found yet it's really scary I just
think it's really sad and heartbreaking to hear that because that doesn't happen
up here often at all Watkins body was found in a popular recreation area used by a lot of
people our family goes up there with our dog and we take hikes and it's a beautiful area and our our school does
cross-country runs up there so the kids are up there it's a it's a great trail but sad to know that that could be a
possibility of what happened up there with no suspects right now the sheriff's office is asking the community to remain
on higher alert if they see anything out of the ordinary to please give the sheriff's office a call no tip is too
small even if you think it is irrelevant please let us decide that again the sheriff's office says vigilance is key
here if you see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary in your neighborhood you are asked to contact them right away
again there is no suspect information at this time for now watching out for you in palmer lake lena howland news 5
Lena thanks and Friends of his turn down at the Red Rocks open-space tonight for
a final ride for Tim as they called it a mechanic by trade but described by his friends the great guy vibrant
personality someone who would do anything for you and one of his closest friends recalled for us the last
conversation he had with Tim we were planning to do a ride one of his favorite rides it's called the airplane
ride and actually rides up Limbaugh Canyon towards a old wrecked airplane and unfortunately we never made that
happen and just kind of reminded me when make plans with someone that's important
do it while you can our thoughts with Tim's family and friends tonight during this difficult time we will continue to
track the investigation bring you updates on air and online at koat.com this week we are discussing an unsolved
case and we will be talking about a man named Tim Watkins now each week we take on a new case and in doing so
essentially we are taking a glimpse into someone's life their family's lives as well as friends in the community this
week when looking into Tim Watkins life and learning about him I learned had I lived in that area in Palmer Lake
Colorado I feel like Tim would have been a guy that I would have liked and found
quite interesting I'm always intrigued by people that are pretty hardcore into their hobbies yeah and Tim was 60 but he
did not look 60 at all he looked easily in his 40s yes and extremely physically fit mm-hmm now the day in question
it was a warm Thursday morning in September when Tim Watkins as you said aged 60 he sets out on his regular ride
in Palmer Lake Colorado Palmer Lake and its nearby town of monument are about 20
miles outside of Colorado Springs it's a conservative military oriented city that
is home to a US Air Force Academy to say that Tim was a experienced mountain biker is like saying Tom Brady played a
little football yeah yeah Tim's life was mountain biking at one time Tim owned and operated a well-known bike shop in
the area and he actually helped to create and maintain the bike trail network that carved through the rugged
hilly terrain of Mount Hermon connecting monument Palmer Lake and the surrounding
woodlands and canyons Tim and his buddies even felled trees to create makeshift bike bridges over monument
Creek Tim was the person responsible for drawing the most popular map of the bike
trail network and some trails bore his name Tim and his wife lived just a few blocks from the trail network that
crisscross Pike and San Isabel national force on this day Tim set out up the steady ascending mount hermon Road which
is not a paved highway but an unpaved two-lane track now we know which way he went because at some point on
Herman rode in the hills above monument Tim's phone but dialed a friend and Tim had to stop his ride and say hello this
is the last known conversation anyone had with Tim Watkins so who is Tim Watkins well Tim was born on November
17th 1956 and Fort Collins Colorado and moved to Palmer Lake when he was very young
as a kid he raced around his hometown on his dad's black relay three-speed at college he earned a degree in education
afterward he worked in the ski patrol Tim loved adventure he loved everything outdoors he spent a lot of time learning
survival skills hunting and fishing most of these skills he learned from his father Virgil Tim and his first wife had
two kids together and they they had their kids when they were quite young Arielle and Isaac were very close to
their father even though Tim and his first wife divorced back in 1993 Tim started his bike shop balanced rock bike
and ski in Monument around the year 2000 with his second wife and he ran it for several years but he was a bike guy not
a businessman so the shop eventually closed in Tim and his wife divorce Tim's income from that point on was comprised
of money he made working and other bike shops in the area and he worked for a time for the school district with
special-needs children Tim knew his third wife ginger who was 10 years younger than him since they were kids
growing up in Palmer Lake but Tim didn't pay any attention to her until much later when as an adult
ginger walked into a bike shop he was working in with a Colorado Bilt performance bike called a Yeti yeah Tim
and ginger are gonna get married in 2015 together they loved a camp bike and ski
Tim was a tall lanky curly-haired redhead he was known for being a great caring friendly guy he had a naughty
sense of humor and he loved to have fun now Tim was in a very bad accident in 1987 that left his feet and ankle
mangled this meant he no longer could run or hike so biking became an outlet for his
energy and turned into his passion tim was very involved in his church and had an affinity for Native American
traditions and rituals and he loved to work with leather and beads and make jewelry and other art work for his
friends Tim lived outside as much as possible he would often sleep in tents I mean this guy really did as much as he
could in the great outdoors yeah if you have any outdoorsy friend of yours this is kinda how they they operate I had a
buddy one time that stayed in a teepee for a whole week because he thought it would be a little more fun than staying
in the cabin in September of 2017 Tim and ginger were having some problems they loved each other but Tim's lack of
steady income caused tension in the marriage so we have Tim who seems to always be chin deep in something that he
loves mountain biking but then you have his wife ginger who is working six days a week and putting in long hours each
day as a medical imaging technician rail in recent weeks she told Tim that she needed a break and
she actually asked him to move out for a while Tim took to sleeping in his car various trail heads and living in a tent
Tim at some point told his son Isaac that he was very depressed and that if it weren't for his kids he might
contemplate suicide Tim was also suffering from memory loss that was getting worse and worse and this was
very frustrating for him for those of you who've watched season three of True detective you know what we're talking
about here on the day before he disappeared Tim asked ginger if he could come home see the next day was her
birthday and he wanted to spend that day with her ginger said yes and he spent the night at the couple's house the two
made plans to celebrate their upcoming anniversary which I believe was just a few days after her birthday the next
morning Thursday September 14th ginger left for work and Tim set out we believe around
10:30 a.m. on a bike ride he had the single phone conversation around 11 a.m. with the friend that he accidentally
called and after that no one heard from him now ginger returned from work around
8:30 p.m. expecting a small birthday celebration with her husband she noticed that Tim and his bike were gone but his
car was in the driveway now knowing that Tim would not be he still wouldn't be riding at this time because he had a
notoriously bad night vision right so she texts him but she gets no response assuming he was with his either his
parents or his son ginger fell asleep you know mind you she's just put in a very long day at
work right she woke up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning to find that Tim was still unheard from after sending yet another
unanswered text she left for work around 10:00 a.m. she called the old town bike
shop in Colorado Springs to see if Tim had showed up for work he had not ginger knew that this was extremely unlike Tim
a few hours later Isaac Watkins called asking if she knew where his dad was now ginger began to be very worried at this
point mm-hmm she called the Palmer Lake Police Department but was told by Chief Jason
Vanderpol that Tim's disappearance didn't rise to the criteria for a missing-persons report until Saturday
after 48 hours had elapsed right oh grown man goes off on his own and he's riding his bike we don't know where he's
gone maybe he wanted it to be missing yeah and you know what if if the police chief is getting the full story when she
calls in panicking saying hey I haven't seen my husband in quite some time right
if he knows that the marriage was having some issues mm-hmm and also if he knows
that Tim is an outdoor guy who has been known especially in the past few weeks to sleep in his car or sleep in a tent
this is not really going to I have to agree with the chief here this doesn't really rise to the criteria of
we should panic and this is a missing person but the red flag for me would be the memory loss yes and and very trend
but if that is not played heavily on to the chief then was he supposed to do right well ginger and Isaac they were
not going to stop looking for their you know gingers husband and Isaac's father and actually Isaac began searching the
hills above Palmer Lake this is where he thought his father had likely gone by himself
Isaac worried that his father may have actually carried through on his thoughts of suicide remember they had this
conversation at some point on Saturday ginger made a public plea on Facebook to help find Tim pretty much everyone in
the area and certainly everyone even remotely connected to the biking community they knew and they liked him
so 60 people gathered at the palmer lake town hall and organized grid searches among the network of trails from there
11 private search party set out fanning out over several square miles of forest and around 2:00 p.m. one of the
searchers is going to find this shoe yeah this is near the entrance to the popular limbaugh trail which leads into
Limbaugh Canyon one of Tim's favorite places to ride in a trail that he helped construct the shoe was found on the side
of Mount Hermon Road near a beer can and it was Tim's size the shoe found was a size 42 pearl Azumi bike shoe and I
apologize to the bike enthusiast if I mispronounced that that brand name it's the kind of shoe that clips into the
bike pedals yeah so for those who don't know these are special shoes designed to
help the rider rotate the pedals more efficiently while the shoes fastened to the pedals they aren't designed for
actual walking no these would be very difficult to walk in but what I could find definitively was that for Tim its
belief for Tim who had disfigured feet because of the accident and walking in the shoe would have been
preferable to attempting to walk or run in his bare feet okay so finding this shoe is is not a great sign later other
volunteers spotted some items scattered up near Mount Hermon Road about a half mile northwest from the shoe these were
some of the contents of Tim's wallet specifically his Safeway card some of his other cards and his cell phone case
these were found past Lamballe trailhead heading away from palmer lake then another team spotted Tim's bike off a
trail this titanium bike was specifically designed for Tim by his longtime friend Jeff Tessier right but a
lot of people that are really deep into this hobby will have a custom bike just for themselves yes and this one was
unique as it was custom-built for Tim Watkins it was immediately recognizable to those who knew Tim so I mean the
people that knew him immediately they spot the bike and they're like that's Tim's bike there's no question and this
would have raised alarms big-time if anyone else would have been spotted riding this bike or attempting to sell
it at any point the bike was located it was about a quarter mile north of where the Lamballe Canyon Trail breaks off
from mount hermon Road 50 feet uphill from the Forest Service trail this is not an area that is accessible to cars
the bike didn't provide any answers though it was laid down on its side next to a tree now it could have been placed
there or it could have fallen there but the bike did have a flat tire and the gearing suggested that Tim was going
downhill when he stopped riding the bike after the bike was located law enforcement began searching for Tim the
assumption was that Tim was injured somewhere possibly due to a bike accident or even an animal attack in
fact Tim once had a very close run-in with a mountain lion and there are bears in this area
El Paso County Search and Rescue used bloodhounds to comb the area for Tim sent a local group of drone operators
pitched in providing aerial footage through Saturday night searchers and volunteers found nothing else so well
over 48 hours since anyone his last seen or spoke to Tim well I mean you're actually over the 60 hour mark by this
point lame and now we have found tim's bike and a lot of his belongings but still no Tim yeah not good the next day
on Sunday around 11:45 a.m. Tim was found dead they found the body not 50 feet from where his bike was found and
40 yards west of the mouth of the Limbaugh Canyon Trail initially searchers missed finding him they were
in that area Tim's body was found lying in a shallow four foot by three foot old
mineral prospectors hole and his body was kind of covered up with branches and leaves Tim's body was deliberately
obscured one of the searchers said quote on so what you're saying is 50 yards from his bike where they're searching
mm-hmm they find Tim basically in a hole hmm a nature-made hole but covered up well a prospectors hole okay so a
mineral prospectors hole this is a shallow hole that that somebody would have used to try to find something you
know some type of mineral maybe be it gold or any other type of mineral right so he's he's in this hole but it looks
like somebody covered him up he wasn't covered up just by the elements no cuz the way that this is stated is he's
covered with branches and leaves and the people that were there at the scene they
state that he was deliberately obscured that it wasn't like these branches and leaves just happened to fall on top of
him it looked like somebody had placed them there and one of the searchers said in regards to where Tim was found he
said quote literally we could have walked on top of Tim yes today that's how close we were to where
his body was so when they say deliberately obscured these people I mean they're outside looking for some of
them are friends with Tim they're outside looking for their friend he must have been covered up pretty well know is
what I'm guessing so we talked about Tim's items and belongings that were found by searchers now let's talk about
what items of Tim's that were not found and this was Tim's hydration pack his jacket his helmet his phone and his
socks in one of his shoes remember only one shoe was found we don't know about the cycling gloves and I threw this in
here because based off of photos that I could find it seems like Tim usually wore gloves and that seems to be a
pretty common thing right but none of the articles ever mentioned whether the gloves were found or not found right
Tim's backpack was still on him containing a single banana it's actually believed that that would lead to some
kind of indication of leading you to to a better timeframe of whatever happened when it happened
because he would he would have stopped for a snack at some point on this trip but he did not as it was found still in
his backpack now the area where his body lay was wooded hard to get to and had no
cell service so how did Tim die at first police did not publicly reveal the cause
of death leaving the townspeople to speculate and leading to rumours and gossips spreading stories circulated
about animal attacks and car versus bike collisions in fact Tim's autopsy results
have never been released despite a lawsuit brought by the Colorado Springs Gazette seeking their
unsealing so we don't know any details as to specific injuries Tim might have sustained but we do know something very
important Tim Watkins was shot police on the scene discovered that tim's beloved mountain-bike had a
flat tire it had been shot through by a bullet now CBS's Denver station reported on
September 19th that Tim had been shot quote several times other news sources stated it was quote multiple times
outside online magazine reported the following in November of 2018 according to sources familiar with the
investigation Watkins had been shot in three places and buried beneath logs and branches in a shallow depression 40
yards west of the limb ball cannon trail bullets had grazed his ear and injured his hand the likely fatal shot from a 22
caliber entered near his ribs and never exited closer examination of his front tire later revealed that it had also
been shot Watkins is the first mountain biker known to have been murdered during
a ride and again that's from outside online magazine yeah which raises even more questions
additionally there was a long story in The Gazette about the case where they interviewed a friend of Tim's who
observed his body and describes it as quote pockmarked with bullet holes but the El Paso County Sheriff has never
confirmed the number of bullet holes or that a 22 was used by the bullet that went into Tim's torso was removed and
examined for potential ballistics matches but it was determined that the bullet was too mangled to be usable for
these type of tests and of course since the shooting occurred in the great outdoors it's it was difficult if not
impossible for investigators to find any shell casings now if they did find any casings they aren't telling us but what
investigators saw the shot out bike tire the bullet-ridden body hidden in a depression and covered with foliage was
enough for Tim Watkins death to be declared a homicide the hiking biking camping and generally outdoorsy
community around Mount Hermon was shocked and terrified by the news that one of their own had been mowed down
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during checkout for $20 off a suitcase all right we're back cheers mate Cheers captain it's very important in this case
to discuss the location of where Tim's body was found and the the setting in general so Mount Hermon is on the
outskirts of Colorado Springs it's a very big hunting and gun community most people in the area own guns an open-air
sport shooting at makeshift ranges was rampant and completely unregulated as a result bullets were whizzing around in
the air and public recreation spaces locals voiced concern that accidental shootings were inevitable in this kind
of situation Tim and his son like many in the area had first-hand experiences with this for example
about 10 years before Tim was killed Tim and Isaac were backpacking and suddenly
bullets whistled by Isaac's head and ricocheted off of a boulder near misses like this were fairly common other
mountain bikers told stories of bullets hitting the trail in front of them as they navigated a narrow mountain bike
trail right so then you start wandering in this case is he accidentally hit by a
bullet and then do they try to cover it up or or is he hit where he's injured badly and then they you don't come up
upon him and his life and then try to move him out of the way so he's not found yes pretty interesting well this
is all going to lead to them trying to put an end to some of this just you know people shooting their guns off out in
these these recreation spaces and there's another story that I came across this one's from 2014 when a couple
reported that while they were out picnicking their Jeep was hit with gunfire so stories like this about close
calls with unregulated gunfire they did cause the Forest Service to finally ban recreational shooting in the mount
hermon area this took place later in 2014 the band cited weekly complaints of bullets barely missing people and 911
reports of trail users being pinned down by gunfire according to outside online magazine
within days of the band's implementation signs announcing it was announcing the ban were peppered by gunfire likely from
protesting shooters right within weeks Forest Service personnel issued about 80 warnings to people found
shooting in defiance of the band yeah this isn't this is strange to me because anybody that I know that owns a gun
they're very responsible with their guns mm-hmm and there would not be shooting in areas that somebody could
accidentally hit well while some in the area say that the band did cut down on random shooting others say it largely
went unheeded and unenforced one state senator who was a friend of Tim's describes a biking with his sons and
seeing a dad and his kids shooting right at a no shooting sign and menacing him and his sons when he reminded them of
the ban and in 2015 a 60 year old grandfather named Glenn Martin was killed by an errant bullet while camping
with his family roughly 20 miles from where Watkins was shot Martin's killer has never been found Tim's friends and
family say that while he was not confrontational and was always friendly he often stopped and asked people firing
their guns to be more cautious warning them that they that you know they're biking and their hiking trails in their
bullets range one riding partner a friend of Tim's said quote I witnessed him with a shooter multiple times he was
very friendly he wrote up and said hey guys I'm not against shooting or anything but I just want to let you know
that there's a trail right down below where your bullets are going usually according to this person that say oh
okay I didn't realize there's a trail down there and we'll make sure that we're shooting into a backstop
right one of Tim's favorite spots who biked to on his mountain biking excursions is called shooters alley
which is a popular popular shooting site dotted with shot up tattered stuffed animals
shredded trees and what's left of paper targets from shooters alley a mountain bike trail leads downhill into a 4-way
trail intersection with trails 7:15 this is near where Tim's body was found so while Tim had no known enemies his
family believed it is possible that Tim had approached the wrong person with his
simple request to stop shooting and then had been shot the fact that Tim was shot
at least three times according to media reports anyway and his bike tire also shot this ruled out an accidental
shooting in the minds of most people right like you said it could have been accidental in the beginning but that's
not how it ended right there were other dangers in the woods of mount hermon other than haphazard shooting Colorado
legalized marijuana in 2012 and I mean whether it's a direct result or coincidentally the number of homeless
transient and drifters who descended on the unsettled areas of the state skyrocketed news articles started to
crop up about the homeless and transient drifter problem doubling to quadrupling
as the outside online magazine described the setting mount hermon had long been known for its backcountry conflicts
bullets whizzed over makeshift shooting ranges reports of drinking and drug use were common creating a sense of menace
as drivers whipped around blind curves even if the sound of gunshots have quieted the sight of homeless camps have
created their own tension mountain bikers complain of abandoned camps resembling landfills and of eroding
sense of safety as the area's homeless population grows some say enforcement of the Forest Service's ban on living in
national forest land is lacking as is ticketing for campers who remain in one place longer than two weeks
so Tim was all - aware of the destruction caused by these illegal activities he was one of
the people who took it upon themselves to clean up the broken TVs old couches and other trash left behind by the
homeless who lived in the campsites illegally and human waste was a problem as well as these camps were not often
near sanitary facilities and often these homeless encampments would be littered with used needles Tim's family said that
Tim was not one to take violations of the law dangerous behavior and destroying of he's his beloved natural
environment lightly yeah if he saw cars driving recklessly close to cyclist on mount hermon Road he'd be likely to flip
them the bird or shout something he probably would have said something to campers or homeless who were littering
right so now we have the idea that possibly you get an accidental shooting that then becomes not accidental or the
idea that that somebody is shooting onto a trail and Tim stops and says hey guys
don't shoot on this trail and then it turns bad we have this other layer of somebody squatting in that area doing
something strange and he stops to tell them not to do that yeah yeah well and there's this very strange twist to the
Tim Watkins case several searchers volunteering in the hunt for Tim Watkins noticed a beat-up red car with Indiana
plates slowly and repeatedly driving past various search areas along mount hermon Road as if the driver was there
to take a closer look or to see what's going on right one of the searchers snapped a photo of the red sedan driving
past the tournelle at Lynn ball Canyon near where Tim's body was ultimately found the searcher said he became
suspicious when the car drove by more than once one also a little more suspicious because like you said as
Indiana license plates and they're in Colorado well they quickly forgot about the
incident this being in the wake of finding and discovering Tim's body within days reports circulated that a
man was threatening people with a hatchet on the trails near where Tim was found on September 25th police and
Woodland Park which is 20 miles down Mount Hermon Road from monument announced an arrest of a transient
police spotted a vehicle the vehicle that we just discussed which matched the description of the one driven by the
hatchet man they saw this vehicle in an Arby's parking lot they waited to see who got into the car and then pulled the
car over for expired Indiana plates and a broken taillight driving the red Chevy
Prizm was a 31 year old man named Daniel Nations they arrested him for quote unrelated weapons charges but Mount
Hermon residents took notice when the sheriff's office also charged nations with felony menacing according to the
arrest affidavit nations accosted and threatened a passing dirt biker with a hatchet at his campsite on mount hermon
road after placing logs in the road that forced the rider to stop nations blocked
off the road with logs seized to hatch it and brandished it at the dirt bike rider saying his bike was too loud
the rider turned around and sped away and reported the incident officers searched Nations car and found a hatchet
and a 22 caliber rifle possibly the same caliber bullet that killed Tim Watkins although this has never been confirmed
by law enforcement right in addition to these formal charges it seems that there
were several other reports of threatened violence and menacing against Daniel nations for example
detective Jason Derbyshire of El Paso County Sheriff's Office told outside online magazine the nation's acted
aggressively during a road rage incident in Monument around the same time nations
got out of his vehicle confronted another driver and ended up kicking and breaking their windshield they added
that the incident escalated very quickly in addition the media reported that several complaints had been filed about
man menacing mountain bikers with a hatchet one friend of Tim's posted on a mountain biking forum that his son and
some of his mountain biking buddies encountered a beat-up red four-door sedan in the road that drove off the
road into the bushes and when they stopped to see if the driver was ok he came out at them with a hatchet they
reported the incident to the sheriff now nation's wife and two young children were with him at the time of his arrest
and a background check on nations revealed that he had a criminal background including felony convictions
for domestic battery in front of a child and a sexual offense both in Morgan County Indiana nation's also has
convictions for indecent exposure and had habitual drunk driving in South Carolina
no the report also notes that Nations was charged multiple times with domestic violence because of his felony history
nations cannot legally own a firearm but he seems to be in possession of one I mean this is there's so many red flags
here not to mention that he's waving a hatchet around two bikers on a bike path mm-hmm
so police also charged him with felony possession of a firearm and since the threats against hikers and bikers took
place in El Paso County police they are charged him with felony menacing reckless endangerment assault and
trespassing finally on October 10th final charges on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender were filed
against Daniel nations well I mean he's checking a lot of boxes so one we have this guy that obviously something's
wrong with him mentally we have something happening with him as far as being a sex offender he's from Indiana
he is attacking people on these hiking trails in the nature or threatening to attack people right but I mean look if
you set up logs so somebody has to stop so you can't confront them that's we're getting dangerous here mm-hmm he has a
gun on him this guy has a history and we have a case that's happening back in Indiana
with two dead girls and he kind of looks like the composite drawing hmm yeah that's what's weird about this
portion of the Watkins case because initially when Nations has picked up he's actually picked up on possible
suspicions of some kind of involvement in the Tim Watkins murder case and then that quickly leads to the suspicion that
he could be could have been involved in another much more prominent case as you know his mugshot is circulated from
being picked up in Colorado and then in the minds of many who see his mug shot say that he resembled a wanted suspect
and resembled the composite sketch from the unsolved double homicide case known as the Delphi murders case in Indiana
now nations recently lived in India and of course we covered the February 2017 Delphi murders case back in May of 2017
and episodes 110 and 111 it seems so far ago it does seem a very long time ago so
what do we know that could possibly tie Daniel nations to that of the Delphi murders right the murders of two young
girls Libby and Abby so for one thing it's his last known address in Indiana it is not far from where the girls were
found about 60 miles the girls were taken on a trail used for hiking and biking similar to the case with Tim
Watkins and the people nations threatened with his hatchet Libby and Abby and Tim were all found in
relatively inaccessible areas located off trails the creek ravine for the girls and the canyon for Tim now the
cause of death in Liberty Jermaine's and Abigail Williams's case has never been officially released we don't know if
they were shot or whether a hatchet might have been involved but whatever it is or whatever it was in combination
with the mug shot composite similarities of Daniel Nations former residents in Indiana and
a criminal history it was enough to make investigators in the Delphi murders fly
to Colorado to interview Daniel Nations it emerged in the media that Indiana State Police had actually been looking
for nations in connection possibly in connection with the Delphi case starting around July of 2017 when it was noted
that nations had failed to check in as a sex offender in Carroll County for more
than two months so he left for Colorado in May and failed to notify anyone that he was leaving the state of Indiana in
response to all the tips that the Indiana State Police received about Daniel nations based on his mug shot
they released the following statement we are aware of the arrest of the person in
Colorado and are investigating to see if he could be a suspect in the Delphi double murder investigation please keep
in mind the Indiana State Police has received more than a thousand photos of persons alleged to be similar in
appearance to the composite sketch of the Delphi person of interest right each and every one of these tips are
investigated for any potential connection to our case we will give the same attention to the person arrested in
Colorado but right now there is nothing that definitively connects this person to our investigation all right so just
looking at the picture of Daniels I think apposite drawing what's your initial thoughts you know I think the
way that I said this before when we've discussed it on off-the-record is I feel like the close-up mugshot of Daniel
nations does look to me like the composite sketch there are some similarities there however I don't know
that he went in comparison to the the picture of the bridge guy which is ultimately what they're going to use to
form their composite sketch of I think he resembles the sketch but I don't think he resembles the picture of the
bridge guy does that make sense yeah yeah and I would agree I mean it seems like
his build says Daniel wasn't as big of a guy but again it's a picture from snapchat that we don't really know like
it's on a bridge so it's really hard to tell it is this person tall are they short it's really hard to determine but
you know I agree I think the bill doesn't match Daniels yeah and you know what I did come across his physical
description somewhere of Daniel Nations and I'll continue to look through my notes I'm looking to see if I can find
that but right but his mug shot if I remember correctly his mug shot is a little deceiving I actually think he
might be he was a little heavier than I expected right in the weight department but the
the bridge guy now mind you the bridge guy could be wearing multiple layers of clothing and jackets yeah and that's one
thing that's very difficult to discern about the bridge guy is his weight is his build I think it's easier to pick
out his height because you have the you know you have him walking on the bridge you have those rails and that he's
walking on the most difficult thing about this case as far as Delphi case goes is there's so much speculation on
what they have that they have a picture of him that they have more pictures of the suspect that they have audio that
they have maybe video that there's possible DNA and we keep having these guys become suspects and then being
rolled out and you don't know what it's happening with that and we were just talking earlier they had a press
conference where they basically were saying like we don't have much new to share but we want to keep this in the
spotlight and people talking about this and they've had I think over 35 or 38,000 tips yeah that's a lot of tips
yeah that I mean the country really came together I mean not just Indiana super big-time in Indiana but you know you and
I remember when this was going on and as the news was breaking it seemed to go national very quickly after the Delphi
case right and it seemed like everywhere people were were flooding police with these tips
well I'm like you said there was a thousand side-by-side photos that were probably given to law enforcement where
it's hey my neighbor kind of looks like this guy hey there's this registered sex
offender that kind of looks like this guy hey here's a guy that I found on Facebook that kind of looks like this
guy hmm and other than that it was just this guy kind of looks like the drawing but you
have to have more than that what's the criminal history right and it's it's so much that but also the
suspicion here would be you know so many times when we talk about profiles being
released of the suspected offender in a case be it a serial killer be it the one-off murder be it something as
horrible and polarizing as the Delphi murders case they often state that they would believe that there would be a huge
change in behavior by this person and they tell the public keep an eye out for that well in this scenario we have a guy
that fled the whole state of Indiana yeah I mean that wouldn't be outside of the box of what they're what they might
be looking for you know they they reference so many times you might want to question somebody who had recently
sold a vehicle or recently changed certain habits or changed their facial you know their appearance but this guy
he doesn't not look like the composite and he it's known that he fled the state of Indiana just within months after the
murders but and he didn't flee the state and just went into hiding he is now having these acts of violence unto other
people the spokesperson Jackie Kirby with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office admitted
quote many similarities in the Watkins case and the Delphi murders and was not denying a possible connection
she said police in Indiana have requested no further information can be released to the public quote they
have asked us not to speak on their case so I am not at liberty to elaborate on anything that's related to what happened
in Indiana said Kirby the Indiana State Police investigators left Colorado without charging Daniel nations in the
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[Applause] [Music]

Source: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-2jk8b-a9dcb0

Tim Watkins /// Part 1 /// 284 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com Millions of people all over the world enjoy their hobbies, an activity that brings us enjoyment. For Tim Watkins it was hitting the trails on his custom built Mountain Bike. Tim was addicted to his bike and addicted to the scenic trails of Colorado. But all of this was shattered by a brutal and senseless murder. A suspect would emerge, one possibly linked to a much more infamous crime - the Delphi Murders. Could the two killers be one and the same? This week we discuss the case of Tim Watkins. Beer of the Week - Intergalactic Juice Hunter by Odd13 Brewing Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps Check out TCG’s awesome sponsors and save some CA$H with these codes… www.SimpliSafeGarage.com - for a ridiculously smart Security System www.Betterhelp.com/Garage - use code GARAGE to get 10% off your first month www.AwayTravel.com/Garage20 - use code GARAGE20 for $20 off a super great suitcase

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Brief Summary

Tim Watkins, a cyclist, was murdered in Palmer Lake, Colorado, raising safety concerns in the biking community.

Key points

Tim Watkins' Homicide Investigation. Local cyclist Tim Watkins was found dead, raising questions about his tragic fate.
Community Search Efforts. Friends and family organized searches for Tim, uncovering his belongings in the process.
Surprising Discovery. Tim's body was found in a shallow hole, covered with branches and leaves.
Tim Watkins' Mysterious Death. Tim was found shot in a remote area, raising many questions about his death.
The Gun Culture of Mount Hermon. The area is known for unregulated shooting, raising safety concerns.
Daniel Nations Arrested. A transient was arrested for threatening bikers, raising suspicions about his involvement in Tim's death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Make plans with someone that's important, do it while you can.

A friend recalls the last conversation with Tim.

6:24WatchMar 6, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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