Alexa Bartell, a 20-year-old woman from Arvada, Colorado, was killed on Wednesday night, after a large rock was thrown through her windshield while she was on the phone with a friend.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office noted that the rock was “possibly from a vehicle on the side of the road”. According to Alexa’s friend, who tracked her phone’s location and found her fatally wounded in her car, the phone went silent in her last moments.
Investigators have created a timeline in order to locate the perpetrators and their “light-colored pickup truck or SUV”. They have reported four similar rock-throwing incidents, including one that resulted in minor injury. The weapon used was a large “landscaping rock”, larger than a softball. However, the perpetrator of this crime has yet to be identified.
Senseless rock-throwing incidents have had deadly consequences in the past. Cases in Michigan and Ohio involved groups of teens throwing rocks and killing passengers, with some of them pleading guilty to manslaughter and murder. In 2019, a similar incident occurred in Texas, where 33-year-old Keila Ruby Flores was killed by a rock thrown from an overpass on I-35. The Temple Police Department has asked for the public’s help in solving the case, however no updates have been made.
Alexa’s high school classmate, Emily Audette, described her as always being “super nice”, “super sweet” and “high energy”, always smiling and uplifting people. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is asking witnesses with information that can help solve the case to call the tip line at 303-271-5612.