Famous Rescue in 1982 Has Chilling Twist

Rescued man had just killed 2 women, police now say

By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2021 7:54 AM CDT

(NEWSER) – Two women disappeared while hitchhiking in Breckenridge, Colo., on Jan. 6, 1982. That same night, in the midst of a snowstorm, a man in a pickup truck became stuck on a nearby mountain pass. Amazingly, the Jefferson County sheriff at the time spotted the man's flashing headlights while passing over the 10,000-foot Guanella Pass on a flight bound for California. After the flight crew radioed for help, Clear Creek County fire chief Dave Montoya located the driver, 30-year-old Alan Phillips, within minutes. "He saw me and said, 'Oh, God, I'm saved,'" Montoya recalls, per KUSA. He says Phillips claimed to have gotten lost while driving home drunk. When Montoya asked about the bruise on the side of his face, Phillips said he'd bumped into his trunk in the blinding snow, per the Washington Post. But nearly four decades later, that story would be called into question.

Police now say Phillips had hours earlier killed two women who'd separately hitchhiked home from work. The body of Barbara Oberholtzer, 29, was found not far from Guanella Pass on Jan. 7. Six months later, the body of Annette Schnee, 22, turned up nearby. Both had been shot to death. The connection was made through genetic genealogy, with DNA from the crime scenes definitely linked to Phillips, who's been living within 20 miles of Guanella Pass for the past 13 years. "We ended up picking up the guy straight out of hell," Montoya tells KUSA. "He got his mercy … but he did bad things before that and he's got to pay for them." Arrested March 3, the 70-year-old is charged with murder, kidnapping, and assault. For Charlie McCormick, a retired detective who's been investigating the murders for 32 years, the outcome is "phenomenal, something I thought I would never see." (Read more murder stories.)

INVESTIGATIONS

Sheriff on United flight spots SOS on Guanella Pass in 1982, decades later the rescued man's charged in a double murder

Alan Phillips was saved from the top of Guanella Pass in January 1982. On the same night, two women disappeared and were later found dead.

Author: Matt Jablow
Published: 6:19 PM MDT May 23, 2021
Updated: 4:35 PM MDT May 24, 2021

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — Two young women disappeared from the Breckenridge area on the evening of Jan. 6, 1982. Both were last seen hitchhiking and their bodies were eventually found months apart. ... On that very same night, a rescuer saved a man at the top of Guanella Pass who had been caught in a snowstorm. The two events remained seemingly unconnected for decades. That is until earlier this year.

Dave Montoya still remembers the day vividly. He was a fire chief in Clear Creek County in 1982. ... Just before midnight, on Jan. 6, of that year, a dispatch operator called for a rescue. A man driving a pickup truck was stuck on Guanella Pass, where it was snowing heavily and the temperature was believed to be well below zero.

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Montoya said he was told that the desperate truck driver had flashed an SOS signal with his headlights. Incredibly, just as he did that, the Jefferson County Sheriff at the time was on his way to California, on a United Airlines flight that just happened to be going over Guanella Pass.

Click here to read an archived article about the original incident.

The sheriff recognized the SOS and told the flight crew, who radioed down to get help. ... “I thought it was the craziest thing I ever heard of,” Montoya said during a recent interview with 9Wants to Know. ... About 15 minutes after he got the call, Montoya made his way to the top of Guanella Pass, where he found the driver, 30-year-old Alan Phillips, stuck in a snowdrift.

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