Inset: Justin De Nileon Jr. (Weld County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Haley Rippetoe (GoFundMe). Background: The area in Colorado where Haley Rippetoe was found dead after her ex-boyfriend, Justin De Nileon Jr., allegedly ran her off the road and then murdered her (KUSA).
A Colorado man followed his ex-girlfriend after she left work, “intentionally” plowed into her car, then dragged her out of the vehicle and killed her — with cops and the woman’s family finding her body in a ditch after receiving iPhone crash notifications, police say.
“There were signs of post-crash damage … which were suspicious in nature, to include what looked like intentional damage to the driver’s window and the cutting of the seatbelt,” an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime says about Haley Rippetoe’s Nissan Rogue, which was allegedly hit by her ex-boyfriend, Justin De Nileon Jr., on June 21.
Police and prosecutors say De Nileon, 29, struck Rippetoe’s vehicle and caused it to “roll off the roadway.” He then got out of his car and pulled Rippetoe, 28, out to murder her, according to the affidavit.
“The medical examiner observed at autopsy multiple sharp force injuries to Haley’s torso, neck and head appearing to have been caused by a sharp instrument,” the affidavit says. “None of the injuries were consistent with a vehicle crash but were more consistent with intentional, deliberate injuries inflicted by another person.”
Rippetoe’s brother and sister received iPhone notifications that she had been in a crash and “decided to drive to the area to find her,” according to the affidavit. They found police officers with Rippetoe’s body near the intersection of Weld County Road 7 and Weld County Road 6 in Erie.
“Haley was laying perpendicular to the road in a ditch,” the affidavit says. An officer called their father, Ryan Rippetoe, to tell him what happened.
“Ryan advised he had also received a crash notification,” the affidavit recounts. “[Police]Â informed Ryan his daughter was found deceased at the crash site. Ryan immediately suggested the crash was not an accident and Haley’s ex-boyfriend, later identified as Justin De Nileon Jr., was somehow involved.”
Police say Ryan Rippetoe was “extremely emotional at the time and did not clarify what he meant by suggesting Haley’s ex-boyfriend may have been involved in the incident,” per the affidavit.
When Haley Rippetoe was found, she was “lying on the ground outside of the driver’s side” of her Nissan Rogue and large amounts of blood “saturated Haley’s clothes,” the affidavit says. “Additionally, there was a large amount of blood spatter running down the side of the exterior driver’s door and rear driver’s side door,” the document explains. “The blood covered most of the entire driver’s side of the vehicle. Blood had soaked into the driver’s seat and spattered onto door panels and the dashboard inside the vehicle. The amount and location of the blood did not appear to be consistent with a vehicle crash or a person being ejected from a vehicle.”
Investigators pieced together evidence found at the crash site and determined that Rippetoe had been involved in a two-vehicle crash, in which Rippetoe’s Nissan was struck by another white vehicle, which matched a description of De Nileon’s car.
The driver’s side seatbelt was still locked into the buckle when police arrived at the scene, and the top of the seatbelt where it had attached to the car “appeared to have been cut cleanly with a sharp object,” according to the affidavit. There were also attempted cut marks on the seatbelt above the cut, as if someone had made multiple attempts at cutting the seatbelt.
The driver’s side window had a large break and “oblong hole,” centered in the upper right portion of the window and facing the door. Investigators determined that the damage was consistent with someone “possibly punching the window, attempting to break it to gain access into the vehicle,” according to the affidavit.
De Nileon was allegedly caught on surveillance cameras leaving the crash scene in his white SUV. Phone records show that he made a phone call to his parents “in which he sounds panicked,” according to the affidavit.
His parents called police in Broomfield and asked them to conduct a welfare check on him. As they were doing this, De Nileon allegedly showed up at their home, where officers completed the check.
“Justin was … concealing himself under a tent, having a large amount of suspected blood on his clothing and cuts and abrasions on his hands,” the affidavit says. “The amount of suspected blood on Justin’s clothing was not consistent with his minor injuries.”
Rippetoe’s family told police De Nileon was “emotionally and physically abusive” toward her throughout their relationship. They recalled incidents in which De Nileon allegedly shoved Rippetoe and attempted to “run her off the road,” the affidavit says.
De Nileon allegedly threatened to harm Rippetoe in the past, telling her “I’m going to smash your head” during one of their domestic disputes. De Nileon was arrested in May and accused of kidnapping and assaulting Rippetoe, who had a 3-year-old son.
An order of protection was in place at the time of her death.
“A piece of paper isn’t going to stop somebody that kidnaps somebody with a kid,” Ryan Rippetoe recalled his daughter telling him. He spoke to local NBC affiliate KUSA about her death, saying, “I got a notification on the Apple app for the crash, and I immediately said, ‘This is Justin.'”
Ryan Rippetoe told the outlet, “The system failed us so miserably and failed her miserably.”
De Nileon was arrested last week and charged with first-degree murder. He is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 2 for a disposition hearing.
