Divorced dad murders 9-year-old son (Denver, Colorado)

Well, this is pretty vague. Dad WILLIAM AHROLD was divorced some years ago, and the divorce included a "custody order." That tells us exactly nothing about Dad's custodial status, doesn't it? But I assume this apparent alcoholic (and child killer) had some custodial rights, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to take off with his  9-year-old son and not have any missing person report filed for four days. Notice that there isn't one word about this little boy's mom. Typical.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19587098

Denver father, son found in van in Grand County died in murder-suicide, then their bodies were robbed

Posted: 12/20/2011 04:06:42 PM MST
Updated: 12/20/2011 04:09:05 PM MST
By Joey Bunch
The Denver Post

A 62-year-old Denver man and his 9-year-old son had not been seen since Dec. 9, until their bodies were found Saturday in a van parked along the Colorado River in Grand County.

Authorities said today William Ahrold shot his son, Jackson Ahrold, and classified the death as a murder-suicide.

The Grand County Sheriff's Department said someone had found the bodies before Saturday and stolen the Ahrolds' belongings, including the gun used by William Ahrold in the incident.

"Grand County Sheriff's Office along with the assistance of other agencies is following up numerous leads in the effort to locate those individuals," the Sheriff's Department said this afternoon.

The Ahrolds were found Saturday just after noon by a Bureau of Land Management employee off Grand County Road 1 near the end of Grand County Road 102 in the southwest part of the county.

The Ahrolds were last seen on Dec. 9 and reported missing to Denver police on Dec. 13, the Grand County Sheriff's Department stated.

Public records indicate Ahrold operated a construction company in Denver until 2003. His residence of record is in the 3100 block of South Evelyn Way, which is between the University Hills neighborhood and Interstate 25 in south Denver.

A call left at his home this afternoon was not released.

Court records show he was divorced in 2008, which had included a custody order.In 2009, he pleaded guilty to driving while abilities impaired in Park County, after inititially being charged with drunk driving. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, 18 months probation, plus fines and community service, court records show.

He also had been charged with violating the terms of his bail, but prosecutors later dropped the charge.

Ahrold received a six-month suspended sentence, a year's probation, plus fines and community service in 1999, after he was arrested by Glendale Police on drunken driving charges, records indicate.