Colorado: Woman, 20, killed after rock was thrown through her windshield | US News

A 20-year-old woman died after being struck by a large rock thrown through her windscreen – in a series of similar incidents.

Alexa Bartell was driving around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday in a Denver, Colorado suburb when suspects threw a rock at her vehicle, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday. The rock struck and killed Bartell.

Bartell was on the phone with her friend at the time and her call fell silent, police officers said. The friend traced the location of Bartell’s phone and found that she had veered off the road and into a field and passed away.

“This is the most tragic of a series of similar crimes that occurred overnight in Jefferson and Boulder counties,” the sheriff’s office said.

Four more rocks were thrown at other drivers before Bartell was hit. At 10:04 p.m., a rock was hurled through a windshield near 100th Avenue and Simms Street in Westminster, according to a crime alert from the Sheriff’s Office. The driver was not injured.

At 10:26 p.m., another rock went through a windshield on Highway 93 and Highway 72 in Arvada, and the driver sustained minor injuries.

Then, at 10:30 p.m., another driver sustained minor injuries from a thrown rock on McCaslin Boulevard and South Indiana Street in Boulder County. A minute later, a stone was thrown at the same intersection, damaging the vehicle while the driver was unharmed.

Bartell of Arvada was driving near the 10600 block of Indiana Street. It was not known whether the suspects were in a vehicle or on the side of the road.

The sheriff’s office initially identified a light-colored Dodge Ram as a truck of interest in the case. The pickup truck and its owner were identified by police Thursday afternoon, and investigators confirmed hours later that they were not involved in Bartell’s death or the related crime series.

As of Thursday evening, no suspects have been identified.

Metro Denver Crime Stoppers has offered a reward of up to $2,000 for information related to the incident.

‘We need your help!’ the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook update Friday afternoon. ‘No information is irrelevant.’

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