Richard Paul White is a Colorado serial killer who pleaded guilty to three murders, confessed to killing five women beginning in 1998, and is serving three life sentences plus 144 years in the Colorado prison system. A Denver District Court judge imposed two of those life terms in November 2004; a separate life-without-parole sentence had already been handed down in Arapahoe County for the shooting of his former roommate.
The Murders He Confessed To
White told investigators he had killed five women, whom he described as prostitutes from the Denver area, over a period beginning in 1998.1Fox News. Confessed Serial Killer Gets Life in Prison He also admitted to killing Jason Reichardt, a 27-year-old Aurora man he called a friend, during a robbery in 2003. Three other women survived sexual assaults he committed with a deadly weapon.2Denver District Attorney’s Office. News Release Regarding Richard Paul White Sentencing
Two of the women he named were Victoria Lyn Turpin, 32, and Annaletia Maria Gonzales, 27. Their deaths had not been under investigation before White spoke; neither was on Denver’s list of missing persons or open cases.3The Pueblo Chieftain. Professed Serial Killer Lived In
How He Was Caught
Aurora police arrested White in 2003 in a forested area south of Denver after his sister, Danyall White, told authorities where to find him. She later said her brother had been telling her for about a year that he had killed women around Colorado, and she had treated the accounts as fantasy until he showed her a newspaper story confirming Reichardt’s death.4Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Killers’ Families Struggle With Fear, Shame and Silence After his arrest, he confessed to the Reichardt killing and then to five more.
What Investigators Found
Following the confession, police recovered the remains of Turpin and Gonzales from the backyard of a Denver home in the Park Hill neighborhood where White had once lived.5Los Angeles Times. Man Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Murder
White also said he had buried victims in southern Colorado. In 2003 and 2004 he used a hand-drawn map to direct searchers to sites in Costilla and Otero counties. An early search in Costilla County that lasted several days turned up nothing.6Colorado Central Magazine. Briefs From the San Luis Valley Skeletal remains were later found near Mesita in Costilla County, and in August 2005 Denver police announced that DNA testing had identified them as Torrey Marie Foster, a 25-year-old Denver mother of two. White had told investigators he picked Foster up at a bus stop and killed her.7The Denver Post. Victim of Serial Killer Identified Whether prosecutors would file separate charges for her death was unclear at the time, given the sentences White was already serving.
The remains of the other two women White claimed to have killed were never publicly reported as recovered. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation reviewed missing-persons records for southern Colorado and found no matches, and regional agencies checked cold case files without turning up further links.3The Pueblo Chieftain. Professed Serial Killer Lived In
Guilty Pleas and Sentences
White’s cases moved through two jurisdictions. In September 2004 he pleaded guilty in Arapahoe County to first-degree murder for Reichardt’s killing and received life without parole.89News. Man Strikes Plea Bargain in Murder Case The same month, in Denver District Court, he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for Turpin and Gonzales and to three counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon involving the three surviving women.2Denver District Attorney’s Office. News Release Regarding Richard Paul White Sentencing Under the agreement, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in exchange for the guilty pleas and White’s continued cooperation in locating victims.
On November 29, 2004, Denver District Court Judge R. Michael Mullins imposed two consecutive life terms for the murders and 144 years of indeterminate-to-life imprisonment for the sexual assaults.1Fox News. Confessed Serial Killer Gets Life in Prison Together with the Arapahoe County sentence, White was left with three life terms.
Background
White was born on October 29, 1972. He was convicted of burglary in Clatsop County, Oregon, in 1991, and lived at different times in Denver, Aurora, and Pueblo.3The Pueblo Chieftain. Professed Serial Killer Lived In He and his sisters described a difficult childhood that included abuse by their mother’s boyfriend.4Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Killers’ Families Struggle With Fear, Shame and Silence