http://www.summitdaily.com/article/2006 ... /112130057
Local car used in Mexico murder

BY NICOLE FORMOSA
summit daily news
December 13, 2006

SUMMIT COUNTY - When Robin and Steve Gessner's car was stolen from a parking lot in Frisco last March, they questioned whether they would ever see it again. But the longtime locals never expected the news they would hear almost six months later: Their car had been located in Juárez, Mexico, with a dead body in the back.

Nevertheless, the couple journeyed across the border last month, armed with disinfectants and odor killing agents, to reunite with their 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser.

"We're looking at it like our car has been through a really bad experience and we're trying to make her feel better," Robin Gessner said with a laugh.

The Gessner's unexpected adventure began nine months ago, when Steve parked the car at Wal-Mart in Frisco, left the keys inside and quickly ran into the store. He came out to discover that not only was the SUV gone, but so was $2,000 to $3,000 worth of the family's backcountry gear that was in the back.

Without comprehensive insurance coverage on the vehicle, it was a complete loss, except for the slight compensation they received from their homeowner's insurance after satisfying a large deductible. For the Gessners, the loss of their four avalanche beacons, shovels and probes, which the family spent two decades accumulating, stung the most because they spend so much time backcountry skiing.

"It was just like, 'Oh my God, where do we live that people are like that and people will just take stuff like that,'" Robin said. "It just really freaked us out and made us really disillusioned with our community."

They reported the theft to a Frisco police officer, who aired a BOLO (be on the lookout) to other police agencies describing the vehicle, and listed it as stolen in a national database.

Frisco Det. Julie Polly followed up by interviewing potential witnesses and watching surveillance tapes, but to no avail.

"Unfortunately here on this side we were not able to get enough information to do a prosecution on the theft, at least at this point," Polly said.

Then, in August, the Frisco Police Department received an electronic message from police in Juárez stating the stolen vehicle had been located. Polly called the police department and was told that the Gessner's car had been involved in a homicide. She spent the next several months, with the help of an interpreter, trying to speak to the proper investigator in Mexico but received very little information on the crime, including the identity of the victim.

According to Robin, the victim was found strangled and wrapped in a blanket in the back of the car.

Despite her limited information, Polly said she believes that the theft and the homicide weren't related and nobody who lives in the county was involved in the murder.

Late last month, after learning that the police in Mexico were finished processing their car, the Gessners drove to El Paso, Texas, near Juárez, and met a detective there who drove them to the short distance to the border. They took a series of taxis into the large city and began the long process \of meeting with people from the American Embassy and the local police department before they were brought to their car.

"You could hardly tell anything had happened to it. It was sitting in this lot with hardly anybody, just a barbed wire fence around it," Robin said.

The car had pretty much been stripped - the radio, battery, ski racks, spare tire and jack were all gone - but the car's exterior and leather interior were intact.

The Gessners were not comfortable having a photo of the vehicle taken for this story.

While they're pleased to have their vehicle back in their possession, the Gessners are more grateful for the generosity they experienced during the ordeal.

A few weeks after their car disappeared, the Gessners were in Crested Butte to watch their daughter participate in an extreme telemark competition and met a representative from Black Diamond, who, after hearing their story, offered to send replacement climbing skins and shovels at a discount.

Then, coincidentally, Robin won Wilderness Sports' competition to name its consignment store (Second Tracks) and was awarded with a $200 gift certificate. When Wilderness co-owner Tom Jones, Jr. called to give her the good news, Robin commented on the apt timing of the award because of the theft.

Upon hearing her story, Jones also offered to replace her four avalanche beacons at cost minus the $200 gift certificate.

For him, helping out the Gessners was a no-brainer.

"When I hear a story like that, you know, I like to try to help people as much as I can when it comes to outdoor equipment, especially if they got it from us in the first place, but not restricted to that," Jones said.

The gesture has helped restore the Gessner's faith in the community.

"Unfortunately there are small groups of people that we must be aware of and protect ourselves against," Robin wrote in a letter to the editor to the SDN. "But, by and large, we are a collection of people who care and help one another, and we are so happy and proud to be a member of this county."