Bio

Vincent Darrell Groves was born on April 19, 1954, to a family with a postman father and a teacher mother. He was the eldest of three sons. The family lived in Wheat Ridge, a suburb of Denver, Colorado, an area known for being home to many upper-middle-class families. Vincent's parents were solid citizens who provided well for their children.

Vincent attended Wheat Ridge High School, where he graduated in 1972 as the only Black student in his class. During his time in high school, he played on the basketball team and was recognized as a star player. His team reached the finals of the state interscholastic basketball championship, which made him popular among his classmates. One of his fellow students was Dave Logan, who would later become a well-known professional football player and coach.

After high school, Vincent went on to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he played on the basketball team. However, he quickly lost interest in school and sports. In 1974, after facing chronic absences, he dropped out of college and returned to Denver. He moved in with his grandmother and took a job as an electrician at the Gates Rubber Company.

Murder Story

In late 1977, Vincent Groves met 17-year-old Jeanette Baca. He persuaded her to engage in prostitution and became her pimp. On June 11, 1978, police found Baca's naked body in a wooded area in Jefferson County. Authorities interrogated Groves during the investigation, but they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

A few months later, he met 21-year-old Norma Jean Halford, who became his cohabitant. On August 24, 1979, her empty car was discovered on a mountain road outside Georgetown. Neither Halford nor her body has been found to this day.

At the end of 1979, Groves developed a drug addiction. In March 1981, he married Janett Hill. His addiction led to erratic behavior, and he lost his job. On August 14, 1981, he killed 17-year-old Tammy Sue Woodrum while camping. On the advice of his wife, Groves turned himself in to police and gave a full confession, claiming Woodrum had died from a drug overdose. However, an autopsy found she had been raped and strangled, with no drugs in her system. In 1982, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 12 years.

Vincent was paroled on February 13, 1987, and returned to Denver to live with his parents. With his father's support, he purchased a blue AMC Concord and found work as a janitor, splitting his time between a local church and a department store. He often visited Colfax Avenue, where he met 20-year-old prostitute Sheila Washington in March 1987. After paying for her services, Groves drove her to a motel where he beat and attempted to strangle her. Washington survived and was able to describe her attacker and his vehicle to police, but was unable to give his name at the time, allowing Groves to avoid immediate detection.

By August 1988, Washington spotted his car and reported it to police. At the same time, Groves had become a suspect in the murders of more than 20 women in Denver. Investigators found that he was familiar with many of the victims and had been the last person seen with some of them. Groves was arrested on September 1, 1988, but denied any involvement in the murders. A blood sample was taken, and despite searches of his car and apartment, no evidence directly linking him to the killings was found. He was charged only with the assault on Washington.

In early 1989, he was acquitted of the assault after claiming self-defense, arguing that Washington had stolen $1,600 from him and attacked him first — a claim bolstered by her prior cocaine possession conviction. Despite the acquittal, DNA testing had already linked him to the murders of 19-year-old Juanita Lovato, whose naked body had been found east of Denver in April 1988, and 25-year-old Diane Mancera, found in Adams County near I-25.

Vincent Groves went to trial for Lovato's murder in 1990 and received a life sentence. A month later, he was extradited to Adams County to face charges for Mancera's murder, for which he received an additional 20 years. The prosecution presented evidence tying him to eight other murders in the area, though no new charges were filed.

In the early 1990s, Groves faced serious health issues. He was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and liver failure. He died in a prison hospital near Denver on October 31, 1996. Just before his passing, he was asked to confess to more murders, but he refused.

In 2012, DNA analysis established Groves' guilt in four additional murders: 25-year-old Emma Jenefor, found in Denver in March 1978; 23-year-old Joyce Ramey, killed in July 1979; 20-year-old Peggy Cuff, found in Denver in November 1979; and 35-year-old Pamela Montgomery, strangled in August 1988. All four were linked to him posthumously through cold case DNA work.

In December 2025, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office announced that Groves was also responsible for the 1987 murder of 30-year-old Rhonda Marie Fisher, whose body had been found along a rural highway south of Sedalia on April 1, 1987. The breakthrough came from DNA recovered from paper bags that had been placed around Fisher's hands at the crime scene nearly four decades earlier, matched to Groves' DNA profile. Authorities now believe Groves was responsible for at least 12 homicides, with the true number likely higher.