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644 Brown Avenue
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On Feb. 3, 1993, Pueblo resident Lucille Cesario approached the home of her 83-year-old sister Emma Kizlin to pick her up for their daily trip to a local cafeteria. The 69-year-old approached her sister's white stucco home on the 600 block of Brown Avenue as she did every day at 4 p.m., as Kizlin suffered from cataracts in her eyes and was mostly blind, leaving her unable to drive. But as Cesario approached the door on that fateful February day 25 years ago, she found something was amiss. The back door to Kizlin's home had been left wide open, which she later told her granddaughter, Lorrie Greene, was very much unlike her sister. So she alerted a neighbor, who entered the two-bedroom home to investigate. What he found and reported to police was a scene so grisly, that when officers later arrived on the scene, one was seen vomiting in the bushes, visibly shaken from what he'd seen inside the home. Kizlin had been killed, and brutally so. She was stabbed in the throat, which Pueblo Police noted also had been slashed by apparent burglars, who had cased the elderly woman's home and gained entrance through a bathroom window. The unknown person or persons killed Kizlin and ransacked her residence, sending a shockwave through the Pueblo community that for Greene reverberates to this day. "(Kizlin) had no family, she was never married and I'm the only one in our family left and it's not OK," Greene said. "If it weren't for me, the case would just be dead and somebody would just get away with it. That's not justice for me." In the weeks and months following the murder, police were able to apprehend a group of four men who allegedly had been involved in a local burglary ring and were suspected to be involved Kizlin's homicide. Three of those suspects were arrested on warrants for second-degree burglary and first-degree aggravated motor vehicle theft. A fourth suspect was arrested on a probation violation out of El Paso County and later was sentenced to seven years in prison. One of the three suspects, Raymond Currington, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree burglary and aggravated motor-vehicle theft and sentenced to the Department of Corrections, while another pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in the state penitentiary. Later, the Pueblo District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges against another of the four after the DA determined there was not enough evidence to prove he'd committed the crimes. But while all four suspects were questioned by police about Kizlin's murder, none of them offered any information, leaving police with only the physical evidence at the scene to connect the suspects to the murder. Deputy Police Chief Charlene Graham told The Chieftain in 1995 that "strong suspects were developed but we've never been able to have enough (evidence), according to the D.A.'s office, to prosecute." She continued, "There's no doubt who did it … the people involved are in prison for other things." According to Capt. Eric Bravo, the head of the department's investigations unit, one suspect of the four seemed to most clearly be the perpetrator. "The main guy that they zeroed in on in terms of a suspect was this Raymond Currington," Bravo said. "He lived in the 700 block of Euclid at the time. which was right in that area. "They never gathered enough information or evidence to charge him, but apparently he killed somebody in Las Vegas, Nev., and is doing life for that murder." Bravo said long before Currington was arrested for the Las Vegas homicide, which, like Kizlin's, involved a burglary as well as a grisly stabbing, Currington had become the department's primary suspect after an associate reported to police that Currington had said shortly after the homicide that "cutting somebody's throat is like cutting butter." "That would indicate he's done it before," Bravo said. Bravo said that, like all Pueblo cold cases, the department has looked into Kizlin's murder at multiple points over the years, but have found no additional evidence that could positively convict Currington or any of the other suspects arrested in the burglary ring of her murder. He said that at this point in the investigation, outside of new physical evidence, the only thing that may finally bring an answer to questions about Kizlin's death would be a confession from Currington, who was contacted by Pueblo police after receiving his life sentence but he still would not volunteer information. Currington, a known white supremacist, was convicted of homicide along with his co-defendant Calvin Marshall, but regardless of his conviction, Greene is still hoping to find a concrete resolution to her great-aunt's murder to bring closure to the case. Greene has spent the past 25 years researching Kizlin's case and has even been in contact with the Nevada Department of Corrections to receive further information about the murder case he was sentenced on in Las Vegas. She has steadily pushed police for answers, and said she hopes that now that Currington is off the streets and behind bars, community members may finally volunteer information about the decades-old homicide. "One of the reasons why they couldn't get anyone to testify and come forward at the time was because he was a white supremacist. He was very dangerous and people were afraid," Greene said. "But it was so long ago that people have changed their lives. People have moved on. He's now incarcerated and the game has changed, so maybe somebody might not be afraid anymore." Her mission to find closure is also a mission to honor the memory of her grandmother, Cesario. Greene said Cesario went into a deep depression following her sister's murder and carried the burden of the incident with her until her death in 2000. "My grandma went into such a deep shock … she never came out of that night," Greene said. "She was everything to me and I've tried to get this case solved, at least for some peace for her. I feel like because of that, she kind of died in vain. "She found her sister like that and she couldn't get it out of her mind that, if they had to kill her, why did they have to kill her like that? Why did they have to almost cut off her head? "We all just want closure and to believe in justice again. That love does win and does prevail." *****Obituary for Emma Kizlin, 1993****** Emma R. Kizlin - Pueblo Chieftain - February 6, 1993 - Emma R. Kizlin, of 644 Brown, Feb. 3, Sister Of Lucille Cesario, Pueblo, Henry (Margaret M.) Kizlin. Manitou Springs, Colo., John P. (Josephine) Kizlin, Manteca, Calif., and Edward W. (Betty) Kizlin, Omaha, Neb. Survived also by numerous nieces and nephews, Predeceased by her parents, Joseph M. and Anna Kizlin; a brother, Joseph Kizlin; and sisters, Mary and Vera Wooley. A lifelong resident of Pueblo, Miss Kizlin was a member of the Shrine of Therese Parish and had been employed as a bookkeeper for J.F. Dammann Supply Company prior to her retirement. Funeral Mass, 10 a.m. Monday, Shrine of St. Therese. Interment, Roselawn.