The Disappearances of Paul and Sarah Skiba and Lorenzo Chivers

When Rich Lesmeister and his wife, Carol, saw the blood smeared across the side of one of the moving trucks at the Tuff Movers yard, they knew that something was horribly wrong. Then they saw the bullet holes on the side of another truck. It was clear that they were standing in the middle of a crime scene. But when the police arrived, they were adamant, despite the blood and bullet holes, that no crime had taken place.

Eventually, an investigation began into the disappearances of Paul Skiba, his daughter Sarah Skiba, and Lorenzo Chivers. But by that point, it almost felt too late.

As of 2021, this case has gone unsolved for 22 years.

The Day of the Disappearances

On Sunday, Feb. 7, 1999, at 10:30 a.m, Paul Skiba, his daughter, Sarah, and one of Paul’s employees, Lorenzo Chivers, arrived at a moving job in Thornton, Colorado. Paul owned a local moving company, Tuff Movers. The truck they were driving was a White 1978 Chevrolet moving truck with red crescents painted on both sides.

Jerry Bybee, another employee of Paul’s and a close friend, was supposed to work that Sunday. But Jerry had asked Paul for the day off so he could make preparations for his father’s memorial service. Paul told Jerry he would cover for him, even though it meant he would have to take Sarah with him on the job.

At 12:50 p.m, Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo stopped for lunch in Lakewood, about 30 minutes south of Thornton. After lunch, they drove 20 minutes to Morrison, for their second and last moving job of the day.

Around 6:15pm, the three returned to the Tuff Movers yard on the 7100 block of Raleigh Street in Westminster. The yard was a fenced in parking lot where Paul kept his moving trucks. I believe there was also a small office. According to investigators, Sarah made a phone call at 6:22pm. No details of this call have ever been released, however.

Paul's mother, Sharon, was expecting a call from him that evening. But that call never came.

No one would see or hear from Paul, Sarah or Lorenzo again after that night.

Who Was Paul Skiba?

Paul Carroll Skiba was born February 23rd, 1960 in the tiny town of Centerville, Minnesota. He had one younger brother named Gordon. There isn't a lot of information about Paul's father, other than that he was a police officer. Paul was very close with his mother, Sharon.

Paul was a troublemaker as a teen. In 1981, he was charged with a drug related misdemeanor and failed to show up for his court date. 21-year-old Paul fled to Colorado, where he began looking for work. Police eventually tracked him down, but the charge was dropped in the end. Paul ended up staying in Colorado.

Paul and his girlfriend, who had come with him from Minnesota, found an apartment in Westminster, Colorado, just north of Denver. It was here that Paul met Jerry Bybee, who would eventually end up working for Paul. The two quickly became good friends.

"He was my best friend, but I wasn't necessarily his," Jerry would later say of Paul. "He knew hundreds of people."

After going through a series of different jobs, Paul began working at a moving company named Student Movers. He enjoyed this job more than his previous ones. At some point, he left Student Movers and was quickly employed by another moving company. When his boss at this job retired, Paul bought his moving trucks from him. It wasn't long before Paul started his own moving business, Tuff Movers.

He had places he wanted to go, visions of what he wanted to be in life. He came a long way in the fifteen years I knew him.

- Jerry Bybee

Eron Johnson, a local antique store owner who used Tuff Movers for all of his moves, said of Paul: "You could count on him. If he said he was going to do something, he found a way to do it,” he added.

It was at Student Movers that Paul met Michelle Russell. Their relationship was somewhat of a whirlwind romance, which resulted in them quickly moving in together and getting married. In 1989, their daughter, Sarah, was born.

The marriage did not last long, however. In 1993, Michelle and Paul divorced. The same year, Paul bought a house in Thornton, Colorado. Michelle moved to Granby, Colorado, a 2-hour-drive away.

The Lead Up to the Disappearances

On Friday, Feb. 5, 1999, two days before the disappearances, 9-year-old Sarah went to Thornton to stay with her father for the weekend. As part of his custody agreement with Michelle, Sarah stayed with Paul on Wednesdays, every other weekend during the school year, and the entire summer. Paul had fought hard in court to see Sarah as much as possible.

"Paul and Sarah were beautiful together," one of Paul’s friends said. "They were like a Hallmark card. Sarah was Paul's whole world. He'd do anything he could for that girl.”

That evening, Paul called his mom, who was in Minnesota at the time, as her mother (Paul's grandmother) had died. Sharon lived with Paul in his house in Thornton. After she and Paul’s father divorced in the late 80’s, Paul convinced her to come live with him in Colorado. The arrangement worked out well. Paul looked after his mom, and she babysat Sarah whenever he needed to work. Sharon and Sarah were great friends and loved spending time together.

On the phone call, Paul asked Sharon when she was coming back to Thornton. It was a chaotic time for Paul, as he was planning to permanently break up with his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Teresa Donovan. He was going to tell her that he wanted her out of his house by Sunday.

Three months earlier, Teresa gave birth to a son, Paul Roger. She claimed that Paul was the father, but he had his doubts. Paul wanted a paternity test, and had spoken to his lawyer about getting one. If it turned out that the child was his, he planned to fight for full custody.

He told Sharon that he would call her on Sunday evening to update her on how things went with Teresa.

Paul and Teresa

Paul and Teresa met at a Halloween party shortly after Paul and Michelle divorced. Teresa was 10 years younger than Paul. The two dated on and off for about 6 years, and Teresa would spend long periods at a time living in Paul's house. Sharon and Teresa did not get along.

"I hated my son being with her, because I wanted to see him with someone more suitable," Sharon said. "He needed somebody decent. I didn't like her around Sarah."

Sharon thought Teresa was lazy. She spent a lot of time sleeping during the day and never helped around the house. Even when friends came over, she would lie around in bed and not make any effort to socialize.

In late 1997, Paul tried to end things with Teresa for good, but they ended up sleeping together one night in early 1998. Several weeks later, Teresa told Paul she was pregnant. Paul was not exactly thrilled at the news.

Paul rented a trailer for Teresa so that she would not be living in the house, constantly fighting with his mother. Shortly before her due date, Paul had her move into the house.

Several weeks after the birth, Paul told his brother, Gordon, that he planned to get a paternity test. But until then, he wanted Teresa to stay in the house because he didn’t trust her to look after the baby properly. This meant that Sharon was often left babysitting. Paul complained to friends that Teresa was always sleeping or partying with his neighbor. He had come home from work several times to find Sarah, who was only 9, alone with the baby.

Gone Without a Trace

On Monday, Feb. 8, 1999, the day after the disappearances, Jerry Bybee showed up at the Tuff Mover’s yard for work between 9:30 and 10. Neither Paul nor Lorenzo Chivers were there.

Jerry first noticed that the white Chevrolet moving truck, which Paul would have used the day before, was parked in an unusual fashion. It was always backed into a specific spot. But today it was parked front first and crooked.

“It looked like somebody had just pulled in the yard at 50 miles per hour and hit the brakes," he said.

Jerry described Paul as a "neat-freak who was anal about everything”, so he would never have parked the truck that way. Jerry went to open the gate, but realized that the lock had been changed. It was strange, but he had worked there long enough to know that Paul changed the lock whenever he fired someone. Maybe someone messed up, Jerry thought. He waited outside the gate for Paul and Lorenzo to arrive. But they never did.

Sharon still had not heard from Paul. Late Monday morning, Teresa called her, telling her that Paul had not come home the night before. He hadn't taken Sarah back to her mom's, Teresa said, and he hadn't shown up at work that day. There was more: Lorenzo Chivers, Paul’s employee, was also missing.

Who Was Lorenzo Chivers?

Lorenzo Chivers had been working for Paul for a few months. Everybody who knew him described him as easy-going and friendly. He could strike up a conversation with anyone. Lorenzo had two children with his ex-wife, Misha - 15-year-old Josh, who lived with him, and 12-year-old Aubrie. At the time of his disappearance, Lorenzo was living with a woman named Bobbi Jo Donovan, Teresa Donovan's sister. It was through this connection that Lorenzo met Paul and got the job at Tuff Movers.

Lorenzo was a great dad and adored his kids. He would never just take off and not let anyone know where he was going. Even though Lorenzo and Misha were divorced, they were still good friends. Recently, they'd even talked about getting back together.

Josh called Misha on Monday and told her that Lorenzo had not come home on Sunday night. Misha asked to talk to Bobbi Jo.

What Bobbi Jo said to Misha gave her chills:

"I know he's not coming home. I know something horrible has happened to him."

A Failure From the Beginning

Teresa told Sharon that she called the police, but they weren’t taking her seriously. When Sharon called, she spoke to Detective Dante Carbone at the Thornton Police Department. He said that Paul had likely “decided to take Sarah for a ride and was out having a good time.” He told Sharon that Teresa had called several times already. But if this was a case of Paul taking off with Sarah, then where was Lorenzo?

"This is my first phone call, and there's something drastically wrong," Sharon told the detective. "My son was supposed to call me on Sunday."

Meanwhile, Sarah's mother, Michelle Russell, also called the police to report that Paul hadn't brought Sarah back when he was supposed to. Michelle and Paul had recently been in court over custody issues. Michelle had also told Paul she might be moving out of state.

The Grand County Sheriff's Department issued a warrant for Paul's arrest. Authorities believed it was a case of parental abduction, but they didn’t think that Sarah was in any danger.

On Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1999, three days after the disappearances, a Westminster police officer finally came to look around the Tuff Mover’s lot. Jerry met him there. The officer told him to open the gate. The lock had been changed, Jerry explained, and he didn’t want to cut it in case it was evidence.

This seemed to annoy the officer. He slammed his car into the fence, then jumped onto his hood and over the gate.

You coming? he snapped at Jerry.

Jerry looked around the yard, trying to remember if anything was different to when he was last there on Saturday. He pointed out a puddle of oil partly covered by a piece of plywood. The officer asked if he could prove that Paul didn’t change his oil on Sunday.

Jerry approached the big moving truck, which he noticed was parked strangely when he came into work 2 days earlier. He tried to peek inside the cab without touching anything.

"That's unusual right there," Jerry said. "The truck's clean. We live in these trucks."

The officer grabbed the driver’s door handle and forcefully opened the door, quickly scanning the inside.

"I feel he destroyed more evidence than he was willing to look at. To him, there was nothing unusual there. I was disgusted with him."

- Jerry Bybee

The officer left the lot, clearly convinced that the whole thing had been a waste of his time.

On Saturday, February 13, six days after the disappearances, Sharon returned to Colorado.

She had been calling the police all week. They kept telling her not to worry, Paul had probably taken off with Sarah and would come back eventually. I personally thought this was a weird reaction, because even if Paul "had just taken off with Sarah" wouldn't this still be cause for concern, given the ongoing custody battle?

Sharon insisted that Paul would not just take off. He had too much responsibility in Westminster, including his business and his house, which he had just taken out a second mortgage on. He would not do anything to jeopardize the time he got to spend with Sarah. He never even dropped her off late at her Michelle's.

A Crime Scene

On Sunday, Feb. 14, a week after the disappearances, Rich Lesmeister got a call from Teresa Donovan. Rich was a mechanic and had been at the Tuff Mover's yard rebuilding the engine for one of Paul’s trucks.

The call was the first Rich heard that Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo were missing. He and his wife Carol asked Teresa if they could do anything to help. They spent Sunday morning putting up fliers, which turned out to have the wrong license-plate number for Paul's car on them.

That afternoon, the Lesmeisters met Sharon Skiba at the Tuff Movers yard. When they realized the lock had been changed, they jumped the fence. Sharon waited outside.

They first noticed the oil spilled on the ground. When Rich went to examine the truck he had been working on for Paul, he noticed bullet holes in the side.

Carol saw what looked like blood on the big moving truck's door — like someone had smeared their bloody shirt sleeve across it.

Then Carol and Rich spotted what looked like a small chunk of scalp with hair attached on the hood near the windshield.

(This was the same truck Jerry looked at and was surprised to see it so clean. I don’t know how he didn’t notice the blood smeared on the door or the piece of scalp, or how the officer did not notice these things.)

On seeing the blood and the piece of scalp, Rich and Carol climbed back over the fence. They had no doubt that the place was a crime scene. Sharon called Gordon in Minnesota. She told him that he and his father needed to get to Colorado as soon as possible. Then they called the police.

The Westminster police arrived, and immediately began arguing with Paul’s friends. They kept insisting that Paul had taken off with Sarah.

"They threatened to arrest us if we didn't leave because there was no crime committed there," Rich remembered. "And we should all go home."

Rich tried to reason with them. The inside of a moving truck is never that clean, he said. He asked them how they explained the blood and the bullet holes on the trucks.

Perhaps someone cut themselves and wiped it on the truck, one officer said.

As for the bullet holes, maybe it had been shot at while it was out being driven.

Rich told them that the truck with the bullet holes didn’t have a motor, so it couldn’t go anywhere. He knew because he had not installed it yet.

Sharon called Bob Martinez, another friend of Paul’s. Bob joined the group at the yard around 10pm. The whole thing was a complete mess, as all these people were wandering around what was almost definitely a crime scene, likely contaminating it.

Meanwhile, the Westminster police were arguing that the case was not in their jurisdiction and that Thornton police should be handling it. No one wanted to take any responsibility.

"I was like, 'Jesus Christ, it happened in Westminster, it's your jurisdiction. Do what you need to do,' and they couldn't see it that way,” Bob Martinez remembered.

A missing persons report for Sarah had been filed in Thornton, so they would handle the case. At around 3am, the police took everyone’s information, then told them to leave. The trucks would be towed away as evidence. Sharon asked the officers to secure the gate when they left.

But the officers did no such thing. The following morning, the gate was wide open. No crime tape had been put up. No one was treating the case with the seriousness it deserved.

On Monday, February 15th, now 8 days since the disappearances, the first news report appeared.

Authorities were looking for a trio who had disappeared in relation to a custody battle, the report said. It was the same bogus narrative the police had been trying to push from the beginning.

By this point, friends and family of Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo's were convinced that the police didn’t care about solving this case. So they continued to search on their own.

Paul’s father and brother, Gordon, who had arrived the night before, spent the next few days searching for Paul and Lorenzo’s cars, which were also missing. They searched everywhere within a several-mile radius of Tuff Movers. Gordon also looked in surrounding fields, culverts and large sewage pipes for signs of bodies being dragged.

More Disturbing Discoveries

On February 17, 10 days after the disappearances, Jerry found Lorenzo’s car, parked several blocks away from the Tuff Movers yard at the apartment complex parking lot of 3809 West 68th Avenue in Westminster. It was extremely clean.

Ten days later, on February 27, Paul’s car was located in an apartment complex parking lot at 3129 W Arkansas Ave in Denver. Several of Paul’s personal items, and Sarah’s backpack full of beanie babies, were in the car. The car, which was usually clean, was covered in mud. Unfortunately, despite how dirty it was, no fingerprints or hand prints could be identified on it.

After a week of searching and waiting for police to take some sort of action, Gordon went home to Minnesota. He had little hope left that his brother and niece were still alive.

Sharon, holding out hope that Paul was still alive, wanted to keep his business going. After two or three weeks, she asked the Thornton police if they could return his moving trucks.

They brought them back, and Sharon noticed that the big truck still had bits of scalp and hair stuck to the hood. Horrified, she asked them if they normally returned belongings without removing evidence.

After returning the trucks to Sharon, Thornton police came back to look at them again. They obviously hadn't examined them while they had been in evidence. This time, agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accompanied them. They applied luminol all over the trucks, which Rich Lesmeister suggested they do when they took them initially.

The luminol showed blood all over the back of the big truck and in the cab. The oil spilled on the ground, which Jerry and Rich had both noticed, was covering more blood. Investigators assumed the oil was spilled on purpose, in an attempt to hide the blood.

The blood in the truck and on the ground was tested for DNA. The profiles identified belonged to Sarah and Paul. Lorenzo's DNA was not discovered at the scene.

Investigators determined that Paul and Sarah had been fatally wounded, given the amount of blood they found. DNA testing showed the piece of scalp on the big truck's hood belonged to Paul.

It was not until mid-March — five weeks after Paul, Sarah, and Lorenzo vanished — that Thornton police and the CBI concluded that the disappearances were a result of foul-play.

An Investigation, At Last

Finally, an investigation began. The disappearances would be officially investigated as homicides.

Police interviewed witnesses who said they had seen the big moving truck leaving the lot at seven or eight on the evening of February 7th and returning around midnight.

Therefore, if the truck was only gone for four or five hours and was being used to transport the bodies (which seemed likely, given the amount of blood inside), this indicated that the bodies could not be more than a few hours away.

One witness told police that they heard a woman screaming on the night of February 7, near the Tuff Movers yard.

Employees of Paul’s noticed that a ramp was missing from the truck. Investigators thought that perhaps the assailants had tied the bodies to the ramp and disposed of them in a lake. Furthermore, pieces of vegetation known to grow near water were found in the truck’s radiator. So they had nearby lakes searched.

The organization NecroSearch, which describes itself as a "team of volunteer multidisciplinary specialists dedicated to assisting law enforcement in the location of clandestine graves and the documentation and recovery of evidence (including human remains)” were brought in to assist in the search. Investigators used bloodhounds, and eventually even turned to psychics. But they had no luck.

Case Theories

When a case goes unsolved for this long, theories about what happened take shape and spread. "As far as theories, there's a million of them out there," Jerry Bybee said. "They all make sense. They all don't make sense."

I thought I’d break down the theories about this case by person. I’ll start with Teresa. Many believe that while she wasn't solely responsible, she likely played a central role.

Teresa’s Motives

Teresa had a (mostly financial) motive to get rid of Paul and Sarah. This following part might seem a little long-winded, but I thought it was important to include. If anything, I think it really shows Teresa’s true colors.

After Paul and Sarah disappeared, Teresa stayed in the house with Sharon and the baby. Teresa’s family came to the home and spent hours searching through Paul’s things. They were looking for files relating to life insurance and who was going to take over Paul’s business. They ultimately found nothing with Teresa's name on it.

Teresa moved out with the baby in March. However, this was not the last Sharon would hear from Teresa; far from it. In April, Teresa went to court to argue that she should control Paul’s assets. Sharon had already been appointed temporary conservator of Paul's estate, meaning she would continue to pay Paul's bills and run the business.

Teresa Goes To Court

Teresa could only be granted control of Paul’s assets if she was able to prove they were married. When asked why she objected to Sharon being conservator of Paul’s estate, Teresa said:

"For the sake of my son, Paul Roger Skiba," she replied, "because I believe that he is entitled to Paul's — Paul Carroll [Skiba]'s things. He is the only heir. If they never come back, he's the only heir to everything that Paul had. Paul always wanted — if Sarah was here, Paul would want Sarah to have his things. He always wanted his children to have his things."

Teresa told the court that she and Paul were going to get married after the baby was born. Paul had bought her a ring at a half-price jewelry sale at the mall. It was her wedding ring, Teresa claimed. She didn’t use the name Skiba on documents or say she was married publicly because she did not want to lose her medical insurance. She was 26 and still covered by her mother’s insurance. She said Paul rented the trailer with the intention that they would live there together. On the rental application for the trailer, Paul had put their marital status as “common-law married”.

Several witnesses rebutted Teresa’s claims. The trailer-park manager testified Paul referred to Teresa as his girlfriend, not his wife. She (the trailer-park manager) told Paul that it would be cheaper to rent the trailer as a married couple.

Paul's tax accountant testified that on his most recent return, he had filed as single. A number of Paul’s friends testified that Paul was not married, and had no intention of marrying Teresa.

The judge ruled that there was no common-law marital relationship:

"We can't be married some of the time and not the rest of the time. You're either married or you're not. You can't have it both ways,” he said.

Sharon was appointed permanent conservator. Paul had signed Paul Roger's birth certificate and given the child his last name, however, so Sharon would have to pay Teresa child support from Paul’s estate.

This left Sharon with many expenses. She would continue to pay Paul’s bills and child-support, as well as try to keep his business afloat.

I mentioned earlier that a witness came forward saying they heard a woman screaming at the Tuff Movers lot that night. According to the WestWorld article, which I got the vast majority of information on this case from, Teresa told Jerry Bybee that she had been at the Tuff Movers yard that night. But she asked that Jerry not tell the police. The article did not give any information beyond that, for example, whether Teresa told Jerry what she was doing. But it sounds very fishy to me.

Teresa did a number of media interviews shortly after the disappearances. She appeared for an interview on MSNBC, in which she said the police told her that she failed a lie-detector test and that she was a suspect.

"I'd never hurt them," she told the TV interviewer. "I'd never hurt them. The police have tried to say that I killed them or I had them killed."

Paul’s Enemies

Teresa claimed that Paul had gotten into trouble with drug dealers. She said drug dealers were out for revenge against him, and Sarah and Lorenzo were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There were others who also made good suspects. Since starting his business, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that Paul made his fair share of enemies.

One of these people was Teresa’s brother, Tom Donovan, who sounds like a real gem.

Paul had fired Tom a few months before he disappeared. Tom was known to be a hot head. Jerry recalled that after the disappearances, Tom appeared and began throwing rocks at the Tuff Movers truck as he was driving, yelling: “you’re next! you’re next!”

Tom also made threatening calls to Sharon. He told her that Paul and Sarah had been shot in the head and that he was glad Paul was dead.

Tom later took Sharon and Jerry to court over a debt he claimed Jerry owed him. Bob Martinez accompanied them for moral support.

"He [Tom] actually looked at Sharon, made his hand look like a gun and motioned like he was going to shoot her," Bob recalled.

Then there was Paul's cousin, Herbert Michael Hymes. Herbert and Paul had once been business partners, but in the late 80s, Herbert was sentenced to six years in prison for aggravated robbery.

On his release from prison, he returned to Tuff Movers, but Paul caught him stealing money and fired him. Herbert claimed that he left the business voluntarily because he was making more money in the stock market, and he knew nothing about what happened to Paul, Sarah or Lorenzo.

What About Lorenzo?

There’s also the theory that Lorenzo was involved, mostly due to the fact his DNA was never found. Lorenzo has never officially been considered a suspect, as he has not been seen or heard from since. Like Paul and Sarah, he is also presumed dead.

According to those closest to Lorenzo, he was happy in his job and generally content with his life. He loved his kids and would never do anything to jeopardize his relationship with them. He had no motive for killing Paul.

It’s easy to explain why his DNA was not in the truck - he was likely killed elsewhere. There is speculation that he was even made to help dispose of Paul and Sarah’s bodies before he was murdered himself.

Misha Chivers found the theory that Lorenzo was involved so hurtful that she wrote to the media, demanding that they treat him with more respect.

"He was always either a suspect or he was just a third party or just an employee," she said. But Lorenzo was so much more than that. He and Misha had fallen in love when they were just kids. They used to dress up and go dancing together. Lorenzo was a kind, loving man.

After the third anniversary of the disappearances, Misha called Detective Pat Long of the Thornton police, who would end up working the case for a total of six years. She wanted to know what Long really thought happened to Lorenzo.

"You've given me bits and pieces of information," she said to the detective. "My son is eighteen now. I need to know."

Long told Misha that Paul had been using Tuff Movers as a front for selling drugs, and had gotten into trouble with some bad actors. Lorenzo was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he said.

Long had repeated the theory that Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo were likely victims of drug-related violence to the media. While Paul was not a “major drug lord”, he said, he sold marijuana to a small circle of people.

Paul’s friends and family insisted that while Paul smoked pot, they did not believe this was related to his disappearance. They also denied that he was a drug dealer. Furthermore, he would never have put Sarah in harm’s way. "He's not the person they made him out to be at all," Rich Lesmeister said. "Yeah, he dabbled in shit, but he was by no means a kingpin."

In my opinion, there is a strong possibility that the Donovan siblings were responsible for the disappearances and murders of Paul, Sarah and Lorenzo. Both Teresa and Tom had a motive to kill Paul. While Bobbi Jo may not have played a role, what she said to Misha Chivers suggests she knew more than she let on.

I could not actually find any information about police interviewing Teresa, Tom or Bobbi Jo - other than when Teresa went on MSNBC and spoke about failing a polygraph test.

Family Developments

While there have been no updates in the case, there have been developments in the lives of the Skiba and Chivers families.

In March 2000, Sharon had Tuff Movers dissolved. She could no longer keep the business afloat. Furthermore, the clients only wanted to do business with Paul, and Paul was no longer around. Paul had been the glue that held everything together.

In 2004, Sharon filed a motion asking the court to order a paternity test for Paul Roger, Teresa's son but the judge had denied the request. Teresa eventually had him tested anyway. She sent the lab results to Sharon, Paul's father and brother. The results said that Paul Skiba was the father. Sharon, knowing how conniving Teresa could be, did not trust the results.

"I would like to believe it, because if that is Paul's child, that's wonderful," she said. "But I don't want to put my heart out there and have it destroyed."

In December 2006, Paul and Sarah were declared legally dead and their death certificates were issued. Sharon sold the house in May 2007 and put the money into a bank account. The probate court would decide how to disperse it.

By court order, the contents went to Teresa for her son. With Paul declared dead, Sharon’s conservatorship was dissolved. The money for the house, as well as the $100,000 life-insurance policy for Sarah went to Paul Roger Skiba, the sole beneficiary of Paul’s estate.

Sharon’s friends and family pleaded with her to come home to Minnesota. But that felt like giving up. She felt like she needed to stay in Colorado to make sure the case would not go cold.

"I guess at some point I realized they might never be found, and so I might go back to Minnesota sometime. But right now it just doesn't seem quite right," she said in 2008. "My job isn't finished here until the bodies are found."

Tragically, Lorenzo’s mother died in 2005, and Sharon died in 2013. They never got answers about what happened to their sons, or in Sharon’s case, her son and granddaughter.

In 2019, Michelle Russell, Sarah’s mother, released a statement, in which she said in part:

"Every February is heartbreaking for me, and especially so this year since I’ve been reliving the horrendous murder of my 9-year-old daughter, Sarah, for 20 years now. The pain of her loss has not been any easier with the passage of time. I can’t think about the fact that Sarah would be 29 years old now: a grown woman, possibly with a family and children of her own. But instead, her life was taken away and I have a hole in my heart that can never be filled."

An age progression of Sarah Skiba to 28 years old (source: The Charley Project)

Still A Cold Case

In February 2019, ABC News affiliate Denver 7 reported that after 20 years, the Westminster Police Department were still working to piece together the case. The information in the report was vague. In the last 5 years, it said, police have started from scratch with the case. Detectives interviewed two more witnesses. They also resubmitted DNA, in hopes that updated technology for DNA analysis might result in some leads.

I could not find any further information regarding what these witnesses said, or whether any progress in the investigation has been made as a result of updated DNA technology.

A news segment from 9News in Westminster aired on the 15th anniversary of the disappearances.

If you personally have any information about this case, please call the Westminster Police Department at 303-658-4360. Callers can remain anonymous by contacting Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Anyone with information may be eligible for a reward up to $4,000.