The Shocking Murder of Candace Hiltz
Episode 016
UPDATE - ROBERT DODD CONVICTED OF MISDEMEANOR ABUSE OF PUBLIC RECORDS AND OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT
Candace Hiltz
Candace Hiltz was a seventeen year old single mother, a junior at Brigham Young University and a newly accepted student to be at Stanford Law School. She dreamed of becoming a Supreme Court Justice. She had a brilliant level of intelligence, a ferociously protective personality and a great affinity for the law.
All of that was destroyed when she was brutally murdered. Her family sought answers, but ultimately discovered that the men charged with solving her murder may have in fact been involved in it. On August 10th, 2006, a Deputy from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado arrived at the Hiltz family home. He questioned Dolores Hiltz in regard to the whereabouts of her son, James. Sometime during the questioning, Dolores’ daughter Candace became angry by his demeanor and told him to leave. The Deputy threatened to arrest Candace, who then threatened to expose him for taking bribes from local drug dealers.
Three days later, the Hiltz family dog went missing. It was later found tied to a tree and had been killed with a hatchet or small ax. Two days later, on August 15th, Dolores left the home to run some errands. She arrived home three hours later and found her granddaughter unsupervised and crying in her crib. There were pools of blood on the floor and drag marks. Dolores made the grisly discovery of Candace’s body. She had been shot multiple times, wrapped in a green comforter and shoved beneath a bed.
The investigation was shoddy from the beginning: The crime scene wasn’t protected and sealed, evidence was left behind and the prime suspect was Candace’s brother, James. After he was apprehended, he was charged with for breaking into a home and stealing some items, but not the murder of his sister. Over the next ten years, no new leads were developed nor evidence discovered. The Hiltz family and the Fremont County Sheriff’s Department engaged in a rather public exchange of contradictory statements. Candace’s autopsy showed she had been shot by two to three different weapons and at least two assailants as several shots were projected into her front and back simultaneously.
However, there were several errors and contradictions in the report. Then, out of nowhere, a man who purchased an abandoned storage unit discovered vital pieces of evidence related to the murder which had been stolen from evidence and kept there but the Deputy who ran the entire investigation, the very one who had that altercation with Candace. Theories began to build up accusing the Sheriff’s department of a cover up and even of being complicit in the murder itself. The lead investigator retired amid a torrent of accusations, and just months after, was brought up on charges for his mishandling of evidence as well as tampering with official paperwork.
Was Candace Hiltz murdered in a random act of violence? Did the father of her daughter lash out and take her life? Did her brother James lose control and murder his own sister? Or did the lead investigator play a much more vital role in the very murder he was investigating? Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines the details of this tragic story and tries to follow all of the twists and turns in the Shocking Murder of Candace Hiltz.
Listen to 016 - The Shocking Murder of Candace Hiltz
UPDATE
In June of 2018 Robert Dodd was arrested and charged with one misdemeanor count of abuse of public records and two counts of official misconduct related to the evidence found in the storage unit.
Dodd was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 180 days on the misdemeanor charge, with 165 days been suspended. He was hit with a $500 fine for the misdemeanor as well as a $250 fine for each of the other two offenses.
According to the trial, the evidence had sat in a locker in his office for a year because he claimed he wanted to take more photos and write a comprehensive report. When he moved offices he brought the evidence home and then later put it in his storage unit.
Dodd filed an appeal after his convictions, and in May of 2019 his appeal was dismissed and the charges upheld. District Attorney Molly Chilson who was involved in Dodd’s prosecution spoke to the press after the appeal was dismissed, saying “The defendant argues upholding his convictions would result in a parade of horribles, a slippery slope, whereby any peace officer could be prosecuted for a good-faith mistake in the course of duty. That is not what this case is about. This is about the defendant and his grave and criminal departure from the duties of his office, his abuse of the public trust and his efforts to conceal his misconduct by abusing the public record.”
While Dodd’s convictions give some comfort to Candace’s family they believed Dodd should have been given more time and larger penalties. Sadly, there are bigger questions that remain to be answered and it is the belief of many that the identity of Candace’s killer may be attached to someone working for the Sheriff’s department at the time of her death. Candace’s case remains open, though as of this release, her brother remains the only named suspect to date despite no evidence to connect him to the crime.
Sources:
https://www.chieftain.com/13ae7a39-779e-5494-8b2f-63507935e91f.html
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/07/05/robert-dodd-fremont-candace-hiltz/
https://apnews.com/cf46b27427fc489fb6f76665f6a8e1d7