The Colorado Springs cycling community was rocked last month by the murder of Timothy Watkins. The 61-year-old mountain biker and bike mechanic was found shot to death just west of Monument, a town about 20 miles north of Colorado Springs.
Watkins reportedly left for a ride on September 14 and never returned. Three days later, a hiker found his partially buried body off Mt. Herman Road, near a popular mountain biking trail. An earlier search party had come across his abandoned bike. The El Paso Sheriff's department is investigating, but the case remains unsolved.
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Watkins was a fixture in the local cycling scene. His friend Jeff Tessier told reporters, "I think of Tim as a legend in the mountain bike community. He had a passion for riding and loved it so dearly."
Watkins' unsolved death near a popular route has created unease among the local cycling community. That unease intensified when, about a week after Watkins disappeared, several riders independently reported that they had been threatened by a man with a hatchet in the Monument area.
Those reports ultimately led to the September 29 arrest of Daniel Nations, which may shed some light on the case. Nations, 32, was charged with illegal possession of a weapon—a gun—and police found a hatchet in his car, which matched a description of the car involved in the recent threats against mountain bikers. Nations is also a person of interest in the murder of two teenage hikers in Delphi, Indiana.
So far, authorities have not linked Nations to Watkins' murder, but an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told Bicycling, "We do anticipate more charges."
