Brenda Kay Sheppard
San Luis Valley, please help us find justice for my aunt, Brenda Kay Shepard.
In 2008, my aunt Brenda, 45, was murdered and found chopped up and burning in a barrel in Saguache County. Some may remember her as “the woman in the barrel.” A small bone fragment was recovered and, through DNA testing and a bone marrow match to her mother, authorities were by the grace if god able to identify her.
A man named Daniel Bessey was later suspected of being responsible for Brenda’s murder. A few years after Brenda was killed, Bessey was convicted of a double homicide and is currently serving two life sentences at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City.
Although investigators, including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and forensic experts in Quantico, reportedly concluded that they believed Bessey was responsible, prosecutors have not pursued charges in Brenda’s case because the available evidence is considered circumstantial.
We believe he had an accomplice, and our family has a person in mind whom we believe may have information about Brenda’s death. We are asking anyone who knows anything, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to please come forward.
Brenda had a family who loved her. She struggled with addiction and did not have the best reputation, and we believe that affected how her case was viewed and investigated. But addiction does not make someone less deserving of justice. Her past does not determine the value of her life.
Brenda was a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, and someone who was deeply loved. Her family has never stopped wanting answers.
If you have information about Brenda’s murder or the people involved, please consider contacting law enforcement or Crime Stoppers. Even information you may have dismissed as unimportant could help bring her family the answers they have been waiting for.
Everyone deserves justice. Brenda deserves justice, too. Please help us bring her home in the only way we can now by finding the truth.