Sarah Skiba

Missing Child: Sarah Skiba
Missing from: Thornton, CO
Date of Birth: 7/27/89
Age: 10
years
Missing: 2/7/99
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Blonde, wavy to her
shoulders
Height: 4'5"
Weight: 80 lbs.
Race: Caucasian
Other:
Sarah has a red mark on the bridge of her nose.
Sarah's father also went missing:
Missing: Paul Skiba
Date of Birth: 2/23/60
Age: 39 years
Eyes:
Hazel
Hair: Brown
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 170 lbs.
Race:
Caucasian
Along with his co-worker:
Missing: Lorenzo Chivers
Date of Birth: 11/5/62
Age: 37
years
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 160 lbs.
Race:
African American
Other: Lorenzo has a tattoo of a scorpion on his
left inner forearm and a scar on his abdomen.
Circumstances: Sarah, Paul and Lorenzo were last seen in Morrison,
CO at a moving job. It was originally believed that Paul had abducted
Sarah and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Since that time, evidence
has been found at Paul's place of business in Westminster, CO that
leads investigators to believe that all three have been the victims of
foul play. Their whereabouts are still unknown. Sarah's photo is shown
age progressed to 16 years by the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.

Posted February 11, 2008, 1:51 pm MT Three presumed dead after scalp foundBy Kirk Mitchell Comments (3)
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Share Share Names: Paul Skiba, 38; his daughter, Sarah, 9; and employee Lorenzo Chivers, 36
Agency: Westminster and Thornton police departments
Date murdered: Feb. 7, 1999
Status: All are missing and presumed dead
Cause of death: Foul play
Suspect: None identified

Police, at first, believed recently divorced small-businessman Paul Skiba had kidnapped his 9-year-old daughter, Sarah, with the help of an employee and that they had all vanished together.
Sarah’s mother, Michelle Russell, reported her daughter missing when she was not returned home after the weekend of Feb. 7, 1999. Thinking Skiba had abducted Sarah in a custody dispute, police sought warrants for his arrest.


But Paul Skiba’s mother, Sharon Skiba, knew he had just borrowed money to buy a third truck for his Tuff Movers company and would never do anything to jeopardize visiting rights with his daughter.
So Sharon Skiba and friends went to the Westminster lot where her son stored his trucks near 72nd Avenue and Raleigh Street, and they found blood smeared inside the cab of the truck and numerous bullet holes on the side of the white 1978 Chevrolet moving truck.

Shell casings were littered about on the ground. Then Sharon Skiba saw pieces of a scalp with hair attached outside the truck.
“When I saw that, I knew my son was dead,” Skiba said nine years after the disappearance of her son, her granddaughter and Skiba’s employee, Lorenzo Chivers, 36. “It was horrifying.”


Since then, there has been no sign of the three.
On the day they disappeared, two of Paul Skiba’s employees had called in to say they couldn’t work, his mother said. Chivers agreed to help, and Skiba took his daughter along to do the moving job in Littleton.
The last time witnesses saw them was at about 6 p.m. on Feb. 7. Thornton police investigated the case as three homicides and said previously that they believe Paul Skiba, 38, was the intended target, although the motive was unclear.



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Paul Skiba
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Sharon Skiba said police believed he was a drug dealer and that his death was somehow related to drugs. But they later told her they no longer believe that was the motivation, she said.
The Westminster Police Department took over the investigation in 2005. Department spokeswoman Stephanie Topkoff said there are no suspects in the homicides.


DNA tests indicated Skiba’s blood was smeared on the door of the truck and that his daughter’s blood had pooled with his blood on the lot, where police believe their bodies were left temporarily. The assailants poured oil on the blood, attempting to hide it, Topkoff said.
A ramp was missing from the truck. The 3-by-10-foot silver-colored metal ramp, which hooked onto the back of the truck, was used to load and unload furniture.



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Lorenzo Chivers
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Chivers’ car was found in the same lot, but Skiba’s car was found in Denver. Authorities dredged nearby lakes but didn’t find any evidence connected to the case.
Chivers had a daughter, Aubrey, and a son, Joshua. They are now teenagers.
“We hope to generate new leads, tips, or information that may assist us in solving this tragic case and bringing some sense of closure and justice to the grieving family and friends of the victims,” Topkoff said.
Sharon Skiba said she doesn’t want the case to ever be forgotten. She said she wants the person who dumped the bodies to at least anonymously tell authorities where to find them so her son and granddaughter can be given proper burials.
“I never in my wildest imagination thought that it would not be solved in nine years,” she said.
Contact information: Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Westminster Detective Sgt. Tim Clark at 303-430-2400, ext. 4250, or Denver Post reporter Kirk Mitchell at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com/.

Thanks Antoinette. I found Sarah's story this morning when I was reading Nancy Grace's 'cold cases,' on CNN. I wonder if those 2 employees not turning up for work had something to do with this. Poor Sarah must have been in the wrong place when her father was probably the target.