Mary Lynn Vialpando, 24, was born and raised in the Colorado Springs neighborhood where she died. Mary excelled in track at Coronado high school where she graduated in 1982. She married Robert Vialpando and they had a child, Coral. “The little girl was very cute, said a neighbor. Mary loved to ride her bicycle and often took Coral, wearing a helmet, riding on a child’s seat. “She was a very outdoors type person, ” said her mother, Faye Renkel. “They went camping a lot.”
Mary was studying sports medicine at Denver Technical College in Colorado Springs. She rode her bicycle to attend classes and was doing very well in her studies according to her mother.
Following a wedding reception Mary and Robert attended on June 4, 1988, the couple picked up their daughter from Grandma’s and went home in the early morning hours Sunday, June 5. Mary decided to go for a walk. “Ever since she was a youngster she would go off for a walk and feel safe,” Mary’s mother explained later.
Mary Vialpando was raped and beaten to death in a darkened alley in the 2600 block of Colorado Avenue in Old Colorado City about four blocks from her home. “I heard it as plain as day,” said the resident of a nearby apartment, “but I didn’t do anything about it. She wasn’t screaming, she was yelling. She yelled something four times. They were short yells, not long yells. I couldn’t tell what she was yelling. ”
Colorado Springs Police said they conducted an extensive search for witnesses in an eight block area around the crime scene.