A reward of $100,000 is offered by Colorado officials for information leading to the suspect(s) in relation to the Valentine’s Day double murder of a teenage couple decades ago.
Metro Denver Crime Stoppers announced the major reward increase in a statement 21 years after “high school sweethearts” Nicholas Kunselman and Stephanie Hart-Grizzell were found shot dead on Feb. 14, 2000, inside a Subway sandwich shop in Littleton, Colorado, leaving the community shocked.
“With this significantly increased reward, people who haven’t come forward with their information will be much more likely to do so now,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader said.
Jefferson County detectives have been working on the cold-case continuously since the day it happened and believe someone has kept crucial information on the case.
With the reward increased, authorities hope to find a tip leading to an arrest and bring justice to Kunselman and Hart-Grizzell. Shrader said investigators are “continuing our diligent work to bring justice to Nicholas and Stephanie.”
Kunselman was 15 at the time he was murdered while ending his shift at the Subway bar as 16-year-old Hart-Grizzell was waiting for him to get off work.
A colleague of Kunselman found the couple’s bodies behind the counter later day that after the employee noticed the lights were still on inside the shop after passing the sandwich bar.
An investigation concluded that the two Columbine High School students were shot by an unknown intruder or intruders.
The board president of Metro Denver Crime Stoppers released a statement on the egregious crime that rattled a community already mourning the Columbine High School massacre that happened about one year earlier on April 20, 1999. That mass shooting left 12 students and one teacher dead after two senior students, who committed suicide, embarked on a shooting spree.
“Horrific crimes like this one have an enormous impact on our community and touch the lives of everyone,” said Michael Mills, the board president of the non-profit organization.
“We are hopeful that the increase will result in tips that will lead investigators to the person or persons responsible for this crime and hopefully start the closure process for the family and friends of Nicholas and Stephanie, as well as the community,” he continued.
“On behalf of our all-volunteer Board of Directors and privately and anonymously funded donors, we will continue to work with the community and our law enforcement partners until this case is solved.”
Anyone with information on this case, no matter how minuscule it may seem, is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at (720) 913-7867 – (720) 913-STOP.