2 sentenced in 2021 kidnap, murder of woman found shot in Douglas County

DENVER ( KDVR ) — Two men have been sentenced to prison in the 2021 kidnap and murder of Rachel Holeman, 29.

Holeman’s body was found along an embankment off South Parker Road by Douglas County law enforcement after Fort Collins Police Services first began investigating her disappearance. Authorities learned she had last been seen in Aurora, prompting searches in Douglas County.

According to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Holeman was in Colorado with Casey Childers, 41, of Casper, Wyoming, and co-conspirator Shantel Edlund, 45, of Sheridan, Wyoming, to distribute drugs.

Fort Collins police turned the investigation over to Aurora investigators, who learned Holeman was kidnapped on Nov. 6, 2021, by Childers and Edlund, plus a third co-conspirator, Leo Vanbuskirk, 25, also of Sheridan, Wyoming, near Colfax and Victor Street in a Chevrolet Malibu.

The Chevrolet Malibu was captured on a dashcam of a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deputy responding to an unrelated burglary call on Nov. 7, 2021, and ran the sedan’s license plates. Later, investigators were able to connect the car and the location to Holeman’s disappearance.

“The evidence shows this defendant senselessly murdered and left her body in a remote part of the county where he thought no one would find her,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Corrie Caler in an 18th DA’s Office release. “Fortunately, an alert deputy responding to a different call took the time to run a plate which helped narrow down the search area for Rachel.”

Police in Sheridan, Wyoming, conducted a traffic stop on the same Chevrolet Malibu on Dec. 29, 2021, and arrested Edlund, Childers and Vanbuskirk on unrelated drug charges and warrants. Colorado law enforcement, based on statements made by Edlund and bolstered with dashcam footage, flew a drone over South Parker Road and found the 29-year-old’s body.

“This was not a hastily committed crime; it was deliberate, calculated and cruel. Casey Childers deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars,” said 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner, in a release.

Edlund pleaded guilty under a plea agreement in August 2022 to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and was sentenced to 18 years in the Department of Corrections.

Vanbuskirk pleaded guilty in May under a plea agreement to charges of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping. He was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years for each charge concurrently and will be subject to three years of mandatory parole after release.

Childers was found guilty by a jury on July 25. He was sentenced later that same day to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the charge of first-degree murder. He was also given 32 years for second-degree kidnapping and 16 years for conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping. Both sentences will run concurrently with his life sentence.

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