In August of 2006, adolescent mother Candace Hiltz was gunned down inside the trailer that she and her family had been living in in Fremont County, Colorado. The heinous nature of the killing jolted the entire country, and the authorities were forced to surmount a series of obstacles, including one that was located rather near to their own turf. However, despite the fact that the inquiry has been going on for a decade, there has been no success in locating the perpetrator(s) of the crime. The authorities are of the opinion that Candace’s killer is someone else, despite the fact that Candace’s mother thinks she knows who the offender or perpetrators are.
The episode titled “Valley of the Damned: Impossible Perpetrator” on Investigation Discovery’s “Valley of the Damned” analyses the complicated case extremely carefully and lays out the facts for the audience to understand. If you are interested in learning more about the case because it has piqued your curiosity, you can count on us to assist you. If that’s the case, then why don’t we just get started?
How Did Candace Hiltz Die?
Candace Colleary Hiltz was born on the 22nd of December in the year 1988 in the city of Canon City, which is located in the county of Fremont, Colorado. She was enrolled in a programme at Brigham Young University that allowed her to earn her degree online, and she was almost finished. Candace’s mother, Dolores Hiltz, fondly recalled how her daughter’s dream was to attend Stanford Law School and eventually take a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The young woman, who was just 16 years old, gave birth to a baby girl named Paige with her boyfriend, Jesse Weaver. Paige was the young girl’s first child. Hydrocephalus was already present in Paige’s head at birth, making her condition extremely unusual.
Candace was known to frequently get in problems due to her outspoken nature, despite the fact that she was both hilarious and intelligent. She had a talent for being able to tell people exactly what she thought of them, regardless of the possibility that it would offend them. Dolores was under the impression that it had a key part to play in her gruesome slaying. On August 15, 2006, Jesse went to check on Candace, her mother, and Candace’s daughter, who all lived in a trailer in the Copper Gulch neighbourhood. When he arrived, he found Candace’s daughter sobbing uncontrollably inside her crib. Additionally, he observed blood in the corridor of the trailer, and when Dolores came, she discovered the body of her daughter shoved underneath the bed. The girl’s head had been severed.
When the officers from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene, they found the body wrapped in a green quilt. Upon further investigation, they determined that she had been shot seven times. Five bullet holes were found in the back of her head, as well as one in her left breast and one in her face. According to the findings of the autopsy, the victim was shot with three distinct firearms: a 45 Long Colt was used to shoot him in the face, a.22 and a.410 shotgun were used to shoot him in the head, and a.22 shotgun was also used to shoot him in the face. The police were unable to uncover any evidence of a sexual assault or a robbery during their investigation.
Who is to Blame for the Death of Candace Hiltz?
After clearing Jesse Weaver of any wrongdoing, the investigators turned their attention to Candace’s brother, James “Jimmy” Hiltz, who they believed was the principal perpetrator of the murder. As a result of Jimmy’s false conviction in a series of burglaries that occurred in the neighbourhood, he struggled with a variety of mental health concerns, which ultimately led to the breakup of his family with his wife and children. He used to live in the hills behind the trailer where Candace lived with her mother and daughter as if he were a homeless person because of his anxiety around other people. Candace was his ex-girlfriend.
As a result of the fact that Jimmy could not be located after a murder, there was a manhunt for him that lasted for three days, and he was eventually taken into custody. However, the detectives were unable to establish a link between him and the death of his sister. Jimmy was a patient at the Colorado Mental Health Institute on a regular basis, and he was found not guilty on accusations of a burglary that was unconnected to the case on the grounds that he was mentally insane. As a result of this, he was sentenced to be readmitted to the mental institute. As there were no new pieces of evidence or suspects to consider, the investigation was quickly abandoned.
However, in December of 2016, a resident of Canon City named Rick Ratzlaff purchased a storage shed that had previously been owned by Lt. Det. Robert Dodd, an investigator who was involved in the investigation into Candace’s murder. This brought the case back into the spotlight after it had been dormant for ten years. Rick came upon a manila envelope that was marked with the word “Evidence” when he was sifting through the contents of the package. Inside, he discovered a bloody rope, an axe, and some bloody socks. The contents were thought to be evidence from the Candace murder case, and as a result, it prompted an investigation from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
In 2018, Robert was found guilty of tampering with public records, which is a class A official misdemeanour, and he was given a sentence of fifteen days in prison as a result of his conviction. Dolores initially suspected that her son Jimmy was responsible for the murder; however, as time went on, she began to feel that police enforcement officers were to blame instead. Candace got into a heated discussion with the deputy who had come to the Hiltz residence on August 10, 2006 to question Dolores about Jimmy’s possible violation of the no trespassing sign. The deputy had gone there to question Dolores about Jimmy’s possible violation of the no trespassing sign. The Hiltz family discovered the dead body of their dog three days after the altercation, in the area of the woodland that was located behind their trailer.
Dolores argues that it was the law enforcement officers who had supposedly killed both her daughter and the dog, and that they had also mishandled the investigation to cover up their crime. In addition, Dolores believes that they did this to cover up the fact that they had committed the crime. However, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office has vehemently denied the charges and has even given evidence that links Jimmy with the murder. The testimony of Jimmy’s ex-wife and Jesse’s, in which both of them testified of Jimmy’s recurrent outbursts of aggression, was available to the police. Concerning the weapons used in the homicide, Jimmy was a suspect in a number of local break-ins, and one of those break-ins included the theft of several goods, including the murder weapons.
However, the bone fragment that the detectives discovered close to the location where Jimmy used to live during the time of the murder is the most damning piece of evidence that they have unearthed so far. There is a correlation between the DNA of the suspect and the DNA of the victim, and the detectives have presented their findings to the district attorney. Dolores vehemently refutes the circumstantial evidence that points the finger of suspicion at her son as the killer, and she maintains that members of law enforcement have some responsibility to bear in the death of her daughter. This occurs while the police are waiting for a decision to be made regarding the case.
Who Was Candace Hiltz?
Candace Hiltz was only a few feet away from her young daughter when she was killed in the shooting that claimed her life. According to the accounts, she was one of the smart and bright children who used to take calculus at the age of 11 and did it perfectly. Furthermore, she did this according to the stories. The young lady frequently daydreamed about her future career on the Supreme Court. Additionally, she was granted admission to Standford Law School. When the news came that Hitlz had been cruelly murdered in her own home, everyone around her used to expect that she would become the one who would make everyone proud of her. However, all of her hopes and aspirations were dashed in a single instant when the news arrived.
Everyone was shaken up after viewing her body, which showed that she had been shot several times with three different types of firearms. The murder was extremely gruesome. Her mother found her dead body below the bed, where she spotted her daughter’s body wrapped in a green comforter. Her body had been there for some time. Since Candace Hiltz’s passing, her daughter Paige Hiltz, who had been living with her grandmother since her mother’s passing, has sadly passed away due to an illness. It has been some time since the case has been unsolved, and another piece of devastating information is that her daughter Paige Hiltz has passed away.