Leto Willis was 31 years old when he was found lying in a Five Points alley in the 2500 block between Glenarm Place and Welton Street on December 3, 1993, stabbed to death in a killing that has never been solved. He was rushed to Denver General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, and more than three decades later, no one has ever been charged in his murder.
The Denver Police Department issued a new crime alert this week asking the public for help identifying who killed Willis, according to the Denver Police Dept. The department is asking anyone with information about Willis's friends or associates at the time of his death, or about the circumstances of the murder, to come forward. State cold case records specify that Willis died of stab wounds, a detail confirmed by Colorado Bureau of Investigation records, which is not spelled out in the department's own alert.
Willis was a Denver resident and the father of two children, according to historical case notes from the Denver District Attorney's office cited by former Denver DA Mitch Morrissey. Those same records note that homicide detectives were never able to identify a suspect at the time of the killing, and that then-District Attorney Bill Ritter, who served from 1993 to 2005, was never able to file criminal charges in the case.
A Killing In the Heart of Five Points
The alley where Willis was found sits within Denver's historic Five Points neighborhood, long recognized as a cultural hub for the city's Black community, per the state cold case database. His death also fell during a grim stretch for the city: Denver recorded 74 homicides in 1993, part of an era locally remembered as the “Summer of Violence” that eventually pushed state lawmakers and city officials toward major public safety reforms, as reported by The Colorado Sun. That surge in violent crime stretched police resources thin at the time, leaving many cases like Willis's without the follow-through that might have identified a suspect.
One Case Among Hundreds Still Open
Willis's file is one of more than 780 cold cases under Denver Police Department jurisdiction, out of roughly 1,800 active unsolved cases logged statewide, according to Law Week Colorado. The same reporting found that roughly 60% of Denver's outstanding cold cases involve racial minority victims, even though the city's non-white population was under 20% at the time of that analysis — a disparity that underscores how cases like Willis's have long gone without resolution.
Denver's overall ability to close homicide cases has shifted dramatically since the 1990s. The department's clearance rate sank as low as 17% in the mid-2000s before structural changes to the homicide unit pushed it back above 70%, exceeding national averages, per CBS News. Investigators now lean on tools that didn't exist when Willis was killed, including the department's Integrated Cold Case Project, which uses federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant funding to apply forensic genetic genealogy and advanced DNA testing to decades-old homicides, Hoodline has reported.
How to Submit a Tip
Tipsters can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or through www.MetroDenverCrimeStoppers.com to report information, and can remain anonymous while qualifying for a reward of up to $2,000. To stay anonymous and remain eligible for that reward, tipsters must go through the tip line or submit information online rather than contacting police directly, since the department itself is not staffed around the clock. Metro Denver Crime Stoppers is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit that receives no taxpayer or government funding, financing its rewards through private community donations. Its tip line is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Denver police have logged the case as #1993-608152 and issued the renewed alert on Thursday. Anyone with an emergency is asked to call 911, while non-emergency police services can be reached at 720-913-2000. More than three decades after Willis died in that Five Points alley, his case remains a reminder of how many of the city's oldest homicides are still waiting for the tip that could finally close them.
