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Daughter Of Wheat Ridge Murder Victim Finds Peace

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Jun 19, 2009 7:51 am US/Mountain

Daughter Of Wheat Ridge Murder Victim Finds Peace

Written by Shaun Boyd

Reporting
Shaun Boyd
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) ― Thirteen years after a Wheat Ridge woman was murdered, her killer has confessed in a Jefferson County courtroom.

Michael Muniz plead guilty to stabbing Kay Bodway to death one month before he was to go on trial for her murder for the third time. His first trial ended in a hung jury. The second ended in a conviction that was overturned on appeal.

Prosecutors say Muniz followed Bodway, who was 46, home from a Target store in July 1996 and killed her in her garage for no other reason than to see her die. They say he first confessed to the murder in 2001 when he called a police dispatcher and said he had stabbed a woman at West 46th Avenue and Independence Street 5 years before.

Police traced the call to a hotel and arrested Muniz, but prosecutors couldn't convince a jury.

"Shock doesn't even describe it when we heard the appeal overturned his conviction and we were facing this all over again," said Bodway's daughter Shelly Oxenreider. "I feel confident now we can move on and put this behind us."

Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey says he believes Muniz confessed, partly because he knew they had mounting evidence against him.

"We had statements made to his cellmate and in his own writings. I would easily and gladly have tried this a third time, fourth time, fifth time," Storey said.

Bodway's daughter says she thinks her mother had something to do with the confession, too.

"I believe it's her way of saying 'Enough is enough and it's time to move on,'" Oxenreider said.

She also thanked Jefferson County District attorney's office for never giving up.

"They did this because they cared about who my mom was. ... She was kind and gentle and this was not the way for someone like her to go."

Muniz faces up to 84 years in prison when he's sentenced next month. He also pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping with a deadly weapon for stabbing a 51-year-old Denver woman outside her home the same day Bodway was killed. Prosecutors didn't release her name.

Bodway had moved to Wheat Ridge from Denver a month before her death after her children insisted it would be a safer neighborhood. Her new home also was closer to her 4-year-old grandson.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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