Detective Jason McDonald (3:50)

So an officer that had arrived on scene Noticed that there were spots of blood Going down the hallway from kenny's apartment. And it's carpeted flooring, and it's like a cream colored floor, so red blood drops would stand out pretty well on it, fortunately. And he noticed that the droplets went down three flights of stairs to the

Ashley Flowers (4:11)

exit, but that's where the trail just stopped. Was it Kenny's blood? The killer's? They didn't know. I mean, at that point, they didn't even know the full extent of his injuries because police weren't allowed to touch the body or check what wounds the robe might be hiding. That was the job of the coroner investigator.

Detective Jason McDonald (4:31)

A coroner investigator's role at the crime scene Is pretty important because their initial examination of the body Gives the detectives an idea of what we're looking at, what type of murder we're dealing with, what weapon was used.

Ashley Flowers (4:46)

This initial assessment helps detectives because it allows them to start their investigation right away without waiting for an autopsy, which could take days to happen and even longer to get results. But at kenny's crime scene, for reasons we don't know, Detective McDonald said his records show that the coroner investigator didn't inspect the body at all. According to those records, he or she apparently ruled that there was no sign of foul play. And listen, given the scene, I don't know how you could say this without looking at his body, even. And neither does detective McDonald. He told us that he's never been to a crime scene where someone died. And a coroner investigator failed to examine the body.

Detective Jason McDonald (5:29)

That baffles me. I think he clearly had blood on his hands, Blood on his neck. Visible injuries, and he's dead.

Ashley Flowers (5:40)

Without that preliminary examination, the original detectives were lacking the most basic information about kenny's injuries. But they still had to work and process what was clearly a crime scene to everyone else. So they collected kenny's glasses and a broken beaded necklace, Made note of a bloody footprint on the living room floor, and they zeroed in on some very important evidence.

Detective Jason McDonald (6:04)

In the bathroom, there was a blue washcloth on the ground near the toilet that had some blood on it. And in the bathroom sink, there was droplets of blood and a washcloth that had blood on it. There's a phrase that's popular in crime culture that at every crime scene, the killer leaves something behind.

Ashley Flowers (6:23)

For this crime scene, this blood in the bathroom might be it. Their crime scene was mostly contained to the living room. So taking this into consideration, with the blood droplets that they'd found outside the apartment leading to the exit, it seemed highly possible that the killer injured themselves during the attack.

Detective Jason McDonald (6:43)

In our experience, we've seen this in many murder cases that involved a knife. Especially brutal attacks where there's multiple stab wounds is. There's a lot of blood and blood's very slippery. And once it gets on the handle of the knife that's being used by the killer, it oftentimes ends up causing the killer's hand to slide down the handle and cut themselves. And now they've left their own blood at the scene.

Ashley Flowers (7:06)

I know they didn't know exactly what their murder weapon was, but one can take an educated guess. And they only had to guess for a couple of days before all their assumptions were confirmed. The autopsy found that Kenny had been stabbed multiple times to the neck and chest with a half inch wide blade.

Detective Jason McDonald (7:25)

And the blood in the sink matched up with other blood we found at the scene. And those blood samples were not Kenny's blood. So that's who we believe is our killer.

Ashley Flowers (7:37)

And they believed that person was someone Kenny knew.

Detective Jason McDonald (7:42)

It seemed very personal. It seemed like the attacker most likely knew him versus a random attack. Knife attacks in particular are pretty personal murders. And the number of stab wounds tells a story as well. They definitely wanted this person dead. That one stab wound to the chest was not going to be enough for the killer. That they wanted this person dead in a bad way and that there was anger towards the victim.

Ashley Flowers (8:10)

So who might that be at the scene? They learned some surface level information about Kenny from John, who owned and managed the building. He said that Kenny was being evicted for numerous complaints. He was throwing loud parties that were bothering his neighbors. And investigators discovered that police had actually been called to Kenny's apartment just a few days before his murder.

Detective Jason McDonald (8:32)

Officers had responded that night and took an individual named Leslie Taylor to detox because he was drunk and being very loud. Because he had been partying and was drunk at Kenny's apartment just three nights before his murder.

Ashley Flowers (8:46)

It turns out Leslie was more than just a friend or acquaintance. When investigators tracked him down, he told them that he and Kenny had been in a romantic relationship. But Leslie said that he'd recently ended things. But before you go thinking that might be a good motive for murder, he also told them where he'd been when Kenny was killed. He was still at detox, and that's a rock solid alibi.

Detective Jason McDonald (9:09)

He didn't check out until the 19th. And so they did get those records from the detox facility and were able to rule Leslie out because of that.

Ashley Flowers (9:18)

While detectives were pulling police reports related to Kenny or his address, it wasn't just Leslie's name that popped up. They also found a report from a few months earlier, a report filed back by Kenny alleging a man named Kevin Ransom had forged his signature on a money order.

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Ashley Flowers (11:00)

According to police records, Kenny claimed that Kevin Ransom forged his signature on a money order. Kevin had been interviewed just two months before Kenny's murder and he was cooperative at the time.

Detective Jason McDonald (11:12)

Kevin's story when he was interviewed was that he and Kenny were doing crack together one night and they ran out of crack and Kenny wanted Kevin to go out and buy more crack for them. And he gave Kevin Ransom his rent check and told him, just scratch out my landlord's Name and write your name and go cash this money and buy us more drugs. Kevin Ransom said he did that, and they came back, did drugs and that later. Now that Kenny is out of rent, money, decided to make a police report.

Ashley Flowers (11:46)

At the time, police hit Kevin with some minor charges, and that was the end of it. But now that Kenny was dead, they brought Kevin back in. Again and again, Kevin cooperated. He allowed detectives to photograph him and look for injuries on his body, like a cut, you know, that might have left behind all that blood.

Detective Jason McDonald (12:07)

Because it's one thing inspecting somebody's body a year after a murder or looking for a cut wound, those can obviously heal and be totally gone. But a week after, if you cut yourself to the point where you're bleeding out of a building, you would still have that injury. And Mr. Ransom did not.

Ashley Flowers (12:23)

He wasn't a DNA match for the blood found at the scene either. So Kevin Ransom became the second name crossed off an ever growing list. Between friends from Kenny's parties, romantic partners, and just generally trying to run down all possible connections, police did not have an easy time.

Detective Jason McDonald (12:43)

And some of these folks are hard to track down. Some are transient. There are other people that don't have permanent residences, that kind of couch surf from place to place.

Ashley Flowers (12:52)

Luckily, investigators didn't have trouble finding Kenny's big, tight knit family. But many of Kenny's relatives who we spoke to felt that they weren't appropriately interviewed or kept up to date as the investigation unfolded. Like Kenny's niece, Lafondra Johnson. In the mid-90s, around the time that her uncle was killed, she worked with him at the Denver Rescue Mission, a shelter for folks experiencing homelessness. She sat right next to Kenny in their call center and gave him a ride home most nights. She saw him every day. But Lafondra said police never contacted her for an interview after Kenny was killed, even though she knew him so well and spent nearly every day with him. That's why it was especially heartbreaking that she had to learn about her uncle's murder. On the nightly news, Lavondra told us that she had been worried about her uncle for days before she found out about what happened to him. She hadn't seen him at work, and she'd been trying to call him but was having no luck.

Lafondra Johnson (13:52)

And at the time, it was landlines. You know, I kept calling and calling.

Ashley Flowers (13:58)

That gnawing feeling in her gut was growing stronger. And her mom, Deb, Kenny's sister, had started to worry, too. And Deb became more than worried. One night when she was watching the

Lafondra Johnson (14:10)

News, I want to say it was like Channel 4 news or something was that. And she was like, well, do you know where Kenny lives? And I'm like, of course I drop him off. And she was like, well, it just came on the news about a man being found in an apartment building in Aurora. So she said, come with me. Take me over there.

Ashley Flowers (14:29)

They drove over. They couldn't get inside the locked building, but LaFondra could see Kenny's third floor window.

Lafondra Johnson (14:36)

And the curtain was blowing. And I was like, oh, he's right there. Like, in my head, I thought I seen him. And I was just like, uncle Kenny, Uncle Kenny, come open the door. And then I'm standing there. And so I looked again. I'm like, oh, maybe that's just the window blowing with the curtain.

Ashley Flowers (14:52)

They eventually got into the building with the help of a couple who lived there.

Lafondra Johnson (14:57)

And then when we went up there, it was police tape on his door. So that's how we knew for sure it was him.

Ashley Flowers (15:06)

Deb said she was the one who had to call her mother and inform her that Kenny, her youngest son, was dead. We asked Detective McDonald to confirm whether police called Kenny's mom, Joyce, who would have been his next of kin, to notify her of the murder. And he said that Kenny's mom actually called Jenny them. According to the reports MacDonald had, whoever Joyce spoke to at the Aurora PD advised her to call the coroner's office to ask about a body that hadn't yet been identified. After Kenny was identified, Detective McDonald says that records show the original detectives talked to Kenny's mom, Ann, to Deb and a few other members of their family, including his other sister, Cheryl. But how in depth those conversations were is up for debate. Like, for example, Cheryl had been arrested at the scene the night that they found Kenny for disorderly conduct. When she had rushed to Kenny's apartment and tried to get inside to check on her brother, they took her to jail, but they didn't ask her any questions about Kenny until later on. And though Deb is listed in police records as someone who was interviewed, she told us that likely only happened because she just happened to be at her mom's place while they were talking to her. She only remembers being asked a couple of questions and getting very little information in the less than 11 hour that police were there, or any time after that, for that matter. When we met with them in early 2026, they still weren't even clear on how Kenny was killed. They thought he'd been dead for a week or more. Instead of less than 24 hours by the time he was found. And they also had no idea that the killer had left evidence behind. But that didn't mean they didn't want to know what happened to him. We found there is an entire extended family who is still showing up for Kenny Even decades later. When we went to meet with kenny's nephew, cletus, or rookie, as they call him, he showed up with five members of his family, A whole crew of people who wanted to talk about kenny. They said kenny had the same booming voice as his father, who was a preacher. And he was always the life of the party, A sharp dresser, a social guy who could befriend the anyone. But he kept his close circle small, and he was pretty regimented. He had a good career and always showed up to work with a home cooked meal for lunch. Rookie actually lived with kenny for a bit, and he said that his uncle ran a tight ship.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (17:30)

My uncle had to get up and go to work early in the morning, so I couldn't just walk in the door any time of night. Like, I had to be there by a certain time Or I wasn't getting into the house. Like, there was rules and regulations. That was my uncle's rule of the house. Like, period.

Ashley Flowers (17:45)

In the time rookie lived with kenny, he said that he doesn't think his uncle even gave him a key. So he definitely wasn't handing out keys to people that he hardly knew.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (17:55)

Like, his house wasn't an open door for just like, homeless people. But he worked at a homeless shelter. So him seeing you every day, if y' all started to have conversations, I could see him maybe inviting you to his home, Knowing that you're homeless. He was that kind of person. But, like, it wasn't for any and everybody. He was more or less private, and nobody was ever really there while I stayed with him.

Ashley Flowers (18:20)

This was a very different picture of kenny Than the one painted by the police investigation. Now, the family's not saying that kenny didn't party. I mean, when the family thought of Kenny, they thought of a solid dude who liked to drink and have a good time, but had his life in order to. So they were surprised to hear for the first time from our reporter that kenny had allegedly been partying to the point of being evicted. And we shared with them that according to detective McDonald, an old report in the file says that kenny had been let go from the rescue mission. The family didn't know that either. With this new information, they all agreed that something must have taken a sharp turn in Kenny's life. And now that he learned who Kenny was hanging around with, Rookie wonders whether his uncle may have started using drugs.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (19:09)

I just know that there was something going on. You don't hang out with too many people that do crack, and then you don't do it.

Ashley Flowers (19:16)

Rookie said he never saw his uncle use drugs, never smelled drugs in his apartment, but he knew his uncle was dating Leslie, and he had seen Leslie with a crack pipe. He thinks if Kenny was losing control of his home and his job, he probably was using, too. Our reporter asked Lafondra, Kenny's niece, who saw him almost every day, if Kenny had been acting different, if he looked different. And she said he hadn't seemed totally like himself.

Lafondra Johnson (19:44)

If you knew my uncle Kenny, you would know that he kept his hair trimmed. He was always patting on his afro. Like, wouldn't no hair be out of place? He always kept a comb in his pocket. But sometimes it seemed like maybe close to the end, he just kind of started showing up with, like, sweaters and jeans, and, I don't know, it just seems like he was just a little off.

Ashley Flowers (20:06)

That's not something she told detectives at the time, though, because, again, no one went and talked to her. Lafondra said that her family followed up with police to try and learn anything they could. But after years of being stonewalled, ignored, dismissed, they stopped trying. And eventually, police stopped trying, too. At least for a while. Kenny's case went cold. Whether that's because police lost hope, felt like they were at a dead end, or if his case was just lost to time, we may never know. But nothing happened in Kenny's case for years. But during a recent review of Aurora's cold cases, Kenny's was flagged as having viable DNA evidence, prime for retesting. When Detective McDonald took over the case in 2022, he knew that original detectives had sent the suspect's blood from that trail in the hallway and in Kenny's bathroom to the lab, and that they'd been able to get a DNA profile on their suspect. Now, it had already been run through codis. No hits there, but this was recent enough now in 2022, that he knew that wasn't the end of the line anymore. And luckily, their killer had left enough blood behind that they had plenty of it to retest with different methods, like the kind needed for genetic genealogy, which, by 2022, had already been closing cold cases left and right across the country and beyond. So they turned to a local forensic genealogist whose name might sound familiar to you if you have listened to our recent episode about another Colorado case, Joan Hanlon. Joan started to build out a family tree and she was able to trace the suspect's ancestry to this tiny island in the Caribbean. I'm talking a total population less than 4,500 people. She found family connections that made her think they just might be able to solve this case. I mean, they were this close. But Mother Nature had other plans.

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Ashley Flowers (23:30)

According to the family tree Jones started to build, the suspect's ancestors had roots in two places, South Carolina and a tiny Caribbean island called Montserrat. In a typical case, investigators might hop on a plane and start digging through local records. The problem was those records in Montserrat were destroyed by hot, fiery lava because in 1995, the same year that Kenney was killed, a dormant volcano reawakened. It erupted over and over for years, making the island partly uninhabitable and forcing most people to flee, dispersing them all across the globe. The destruction also reduced most of the birth and marriage records. To ash those two things meant it was almost impossible to track down the family members that Joan had identified. Still, this was the biggest lead they'd had in more than 20 years. But when our reporter Taylor Harts, asked Kenny's nephew, Rookie, if anyone had ever told them about the suspect's link to this island or that there was DNA evidence at all.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (24:39)

Not at all. Not at all. I think that we were just told that he was stabbed, and that was in the story. And I think that that's where. I'm not gonna say we gave up hope, but we didn't have no hope. Like, my uncle was found dead. There's no DNA. There's. We were just left. I think everybody just had people in their mind or in their head. I think it was this person or whatever, and I think that that's where it was just stuck at.

Ashley Flowers (25:06)

But as soon as Taylor explained the ancestry, wheels started turning for the family. And for one of Kenny's sisters, Yvonne, a light bulb went off. Yvonne remembers that Kenny had an ex boyfriend who, around the time of Kenny's murder, allegedly was in a new relationship with a guy who seemed to not like Kenny very much. And she thinks she remembers him being from another country, maybe Montserrat, she wondered. Now, police knew about Kenny's ex back in 1995, but he was one of the many people who were hard to track down. And since Leslie was Kenny's most recent ex boyfriend, I venture to assume that they didn't think an ex prior to him held the answers that they were looking for. But what if the answer was somehow connected to this guy all along? We took this lead right to Detective McDonald, and he ran with it. He was able to track down the ex boyfriend and interview him for the first time. And as of the time that we're recording this episode, detectives were still working with him and following up on his relationships to see if any of them could be connected to Kenny's murder at all. Kenny's family is hopeful that now that they're in the loop, Detective McDonald can make up for lost time.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (26:28)

Knowing the DNA that's been discovered now, I'm hoping that we get a little bit closer.

Ashley Flowers (26:35)

They've held out hope for answers for over 30 years, and they're angry because it felt at the time. And now that Kenny's case fell through the cracks because of who he was, here is Kim Briggs, Kenny's niece.

Detective Jason McDonald (26:50)

And then when my uncle, a black

Ashley Flowers (26:52)

man, a black gay man, is killed, you know, it was in the news,

Detective Jason McDonald (26:56)

and that was it for, like, A day.

Ashley Flowers (26:59)

Kim, who later came out herself, said at a time when being openly gay wasn't always easy, her uncle made her more comfortable in her own skin. And she loved him for that. To this day, the whole family still celebrates Kenny gathering on his birthday to light fireworks in his honor.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (27:18)

He loved him some fireworks. Yes, especially artillery shells and pot bottle rockets. As long as they around, he was gonna be lighting them.

Ashley Flowers (27:27)

Kenny's niece, Kim, wishes she could tell Kenny's killer what they took from their family.

Detective Jason McDonald (27:33)

You took someone that someone loved.

Rookie (Kenny's nephew) (27:36)

Like my uncle has so many great nieces and nephews that he'll never get

Lafondra Johnson (27:39)

the chance to meet.

Ashley Flowers (27:43)

We have spouses he'll never get the chance to meet. You know, it just took so much. If you have any family from Montserrat or think you might or even have ancestry on the east east coast of the U.S. please, please consider uploading your DNA profile to GEDmatch and selecting the option to opt in for law enforcement. If anyone you know might have ancestry connected to that island, please tell them about Kenny's case and encourage them to do the same. Solving this case depends on people like you. Here's Joan Hanlon.

Joan Hanlon (28:22)

We've done everything in our power and knowledge to analyze the DNA shared matches that we have. It can be solved. We just need more matches. And so I beg you, please consider uploading to GEDmatch and opt in for law enforcement. I just, I can't do this without the community.

Ashley Flowers (28:46)

And she wants everyone listening to know that they might be the one who can help, even if they don't think that's the case.

Joan Hanlon (28:53)

The excuse I hear over and over is I know my relatives, and if there was a criminal in my family, I'd know it. And that drives me absolutely crazy because even in my own family, I don't know my first cousin's grandchildren. They could run into me in the street, I wouldn't recognize them. And those distant connections are exactly what we need need to solve cases like Kenneth's. And someone out there right now listening to this podcast could be holding the key to identifying Kenneth's killer.

Ashley Flowers (29:29)

So if you have information on the murder of Kenny Floyd, contact Aurora police Cold case Detective Jason McDonald at 303-739-6013. We're also going to put his email in the show notes. Or if you'd like to remain anonymous, you can call the Metro Denver Crime Stoppers tip line at 720-913-7867. The Deck is an Audio Chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com I think Chuck would approve. Hi everyone. Ashley Flowers here. If you're like me, diving into true crime is about more than just the details of a case. It is also about giving a voice to the victims and understanding the lives behind the headlines. And this is what host Kylie Lowe does each week on her podcast, Dark Down East. Every Thursday, Kylie dives into New England's most gripping mysteries, uncovering stories in a way you won't hear anywhere else. And she digs through archives, connects with families, and shines a light on the voices that deserve to be heard. From cold cases to moments of long awaited justice, Dark down east is the perfect blend of investigations and honoring the stories behind them. You can find Dark down east now wherever you're listening.