Stacks of local Colorado newspapers were stolen from their racks Wednesday morning — just hours after a bombshell story detailing a teen’s alleged gang rape at the police chief’s home ran on the front page.
The Ouray County Plaindealer broke the shocking news that three teenagers, including Chief Jeff Wood’s son, were accused of sexually assaulting a drunken girl on the bathroom floor as she faded in and out of consciousness.
Readers who preferred the physical paper didn’t get a chance to read the piece, however, according to Plaindeadler co-publisher Erin McIntyre, who authored the story.
“All of our newspaper racks in Ouray and all but one rack in Ridgway were hit by a thief who stole all the newspapers. From what we know so far, it seems this person put in four quarters and took all the papers at these racks,” McIntyre wrote in a Thursday night newsletter.
“It’s pretty clear that someone didn’t want the community to read the news this week. I’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions on which story they didn’t want you to read,” she continued.
A suspect was identified Friday, McIntyre said. The person’s identity will remain under wraps until a citation is handed down, but the co-publisher teased that they weren’t related to Woods or the three accused rapists.
According to the Plaindealer’s reporting, a 17-year-old girl told investigators she was raped more than once at Chief Woods’ home in May during a late-night party with his stepson Nate Dieffenderffer and two other men.
Gabriel Trujillo, 20, Ashton Whittington, 18, and a third man were arrested this week on suspicion of sexual assault, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Dieffenderffer was not named by law enforcement because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.
The victim claimed she passed out from heavy drinking in a bedroom, but woke up naked with Dieffenderffer on top of her, raping her.
The police chief’s son restrained her when she tried to fight back and scream as the other suspects, one of whom was laughing, watched, according to court records.
Chief Woods was reportedly sleeping in the home during the assault.
Dieffenderffer and Trujillo then allegedly dragged her into the bathroom, where they took turns abusing her and choking her in an attack that was so brutal that she was left with a chipped tooth, and she told police she remembered washing blood off herself in the shower.
“I remember really trying to yell so that someone would hear me and screaming because of how painful it was,” she told investigators.
Whittington allegedly did not participate but did not intervene.
The girl woke up around 4:30 a.m. on the bathroom floor and, unable to find her clothing so she grabbed a sweatshirt from a pile of laundry, which turned out to belong to Wood.
Evidence collected through a sexual assault examination matched Dieffenderffer and Trujillo, who told investigators the girl was a “pathological liar” and “crazy” but later admitted to having sex with her, according to the Plaindealer.
Woods’ DNA also showed up, but not in a significant amount to reflect wrongdoing.
The chief did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
According to McIntyre, an individual returned a garbage bag stuffed with stolen newspapers to the Plaindealer office Thursday night and confessed to stealing them.
Although police asked the Plaindealer not to give more details at this time, the newspaper teased that the suspect wasn’t related to the defendants or any person in law enforcement.
The paper did emphasize, however, that the theft has only encouraged its team to pursue their work more enthusiastically.
“Whoever did this does not understand that stealing newspapers doesn’t stop a story,” McIntyre wrote in her newsletter, hours before the suspect came forward.
“This person is not going to shut down the freedom of the press by stealing a few hundred newspapers. Our community won’t stand for it and we won’t, either,” she added.
“If you meant to intimidate us, you just strengthened our resolve.”
