DENVER – Police arrested a man suspected of murdering his wife and 3-month-old son in Texas in Glenwood Springs on Wednesday, according to the Fort Worth Police Department.
Craig Vandewege, 35, is accused of killing his wife and infant son on Dec. 15 in Texas. Shanna Vandewege and her and Craig’s son, Diederik, were found dead in a bedroom at their home. Both of their throats had been cut.
Homicide detectives interviewed Vandewege, but he denied knowledge of the murders and was not held after he was questioned. Police found him crouched in his walkway with his face in his hands before discovering the rest of his family.
But Wednesday, someone in Glenwood Springs called police and reported a man acting suspiciously at an area 7-Eleven.
The caller said that Vandewege had used his phone to call "a few people to talk about a murder," according to Vandewege's arrest affidavit. The caller also noticed there was no license plate on Vandewege's car.
A Glenwood Springs officer followed Vandewege's vehicle and eventually watched him stop and get a license plate out of the back of his car, then put it on his vehicle. The vehicle was his wife's, according to a police report.
The officer pulled Vandewege over for driving 37 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. The affidavit says that Vanderwege told the officer he didn't know he was speeding, then said, "It's been a long week. My wife and kid were murdered in Texas."
Police found two 9mm pistols on Vandewege's person -- one in a waistband holster and one in an ankle holster. He had a concealed-carry permit issued out of Weld County.
He also told officers he had come to Colorado to bury his wife and son, and that he was being blamed for their murders, calling the situation a "f---ed up story," according to police reports.
But he also told an officer he was headed to Las Vegas and was stopping in Denver overnight.
Vandewege eventually gave the officer his Texas driver's license and an expired insurance card, but refused to get out of his vehicle for more than five minutes, according to the affidavit.
Once he did, he was arrested and taken to the Garfield County jail.
Police searched his car to take an inventory before it was towed to the impound lot, and inside found 1,000 rounds of ammunition, empty gas cans, camouflage clothing, several bottles of medication, an AR-15-style rifle and a .22 caliber revolver, according to the affidavit.
A report by one of the arresting officers says Vandewege told them he planned to go shooting the next day to get rid of stress.
Fort Worth detectives were able to obtain an arrest warrant on capital murder charges before he bonded out in Glenwood Springs. He is now being held on the warrant, which carries a $1 million bond.
A GoFundMe page set up for the family says they had just moved to Fort Worth from Denver, and that Shanna was a nurse.
Kate Stasiowski, a nurse who worked with Shanna at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, said she was shocked to learn of Shanna’s death and Craig’s arrest.
“I was completely shocked that this would even happen in the first place, and that he was arrested was even more of a shock,” she said. “They always seemed like such a great couple together and seemed like they really loved each other.”
She remembered Shanna fondly and said she cherished her work as a nurse.
“Shanna was such a loving person, such a caring soul. She took nursing to another level,” Stasiowski said. “She treated patients like they were family.”
Jail records show Vandewege is being held at the Garfield County jail. He is set to appear in court Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Funeral services for Shanna and Diederik are set to be held Tuesday, Dec. 27 in Walsh, Colorado.
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