Top 10 local news stories of 2017: No. 8 — Surge in Boulder County murders

Boulder County saw nine homicide deaths in 2017, the most the county has seen in the past 15 years and more than twice the average homicide rate over that period of time.

The nine deaths stem from a total of six cases, including a triple homicide and a double murder-suicide. None of the cases were officer-involved shootings, and arrests were made in five of the six cases, with the suspect in the sixth case killing himself alongside the victims.

Boulder County had only recorded at least seven homicides in the past 15 years, with seven being recorded in 2002 and eight being recorded in 2009.

The year began with the February disappearance of Boulder's Ashley Mead, whose torso was later recovered in Oklahoma. Police said Mead's ex-boyfriend, Adam Densmore, killed Mead in Boulder before driving her to his parents' home in Louisiana and dismembering her.

In April, the bodies of Wallace White, 54, Kelly Sloat-White, 56, and Emory Fraker, 39, were found in the White's home in Coal Creek Canyon in what police ruled a triple homicide. The suspect in the case, Garrett Coughlin, was charged with six counts of murder in the case after investigators say they were able to tie the gun used in the shootings to Coughlin.

Just a month later, Erie police found John "JP" Farrar, Elizabeth "Stacy" Farrar and their 4-year-old son, Ian, dead in what police ruled was a murder-suicide, with Elizabeth and Ian's death's being ruled homicides.

The month of May saw yet another homicide death with the shooting of Christopher King, 49, at a restaurant in downtown Boulder. Louis Sebastian, who met King earlier in the day at a croquet party, was charged with murder in the death, though he has claimed self-defense.

Then, in July, Roland "Donnie" Dequina, 43, was killed at the corner of 27th Way and Baseline in what police believe was an argument with another transient, James Dobson. Dobson has been charged with second-degree murder in the case.

The ninth and final homicide of the year was the stabbing death of 20-year-old Makayla Grote in Longmont in November. Police say the suspect, 15-year-old Aiden von Grabow, had a "death list" and was actually going after Grote's sister, but allegedly stabbed Grote instead when she answered the door.

Densmore, Coughlin, Sebastian and Dobson have all pleaded not guilty and are set for trial in 2018, while attorneys are still arguing whether von Grabow should be charged as a juvenile or an adult.

Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars