WESTMINSTER, Colo. – A 24-year-old man is sitting in jail Thursday, accused of murdering his 75-year-old grandmother.
Family members of 75-year-old Linda Power Shomberg reached out to the Westminster Police Department on Monday, to ask if they could perform a welfare check on the woman after they weren’t able to reach her by phone at her senior living home.
Responding officers found Shomberg in her apartment unconscious, but breathing, according to a news release from the Westminster Police Department.
She was taken Good Samaritan Medical Center by Westminster Fire Department personnel and later died from her injuries, the release states.
Officers identified what they called suspicious circumstances in the apartment that were not “consistent with a fall or accident.”
Investigators stated Shomberg suffered several head injuries leading to her death, at which point police began a criminal investigation.
Surveillance video, along with the fact that the senior living facility has secured doors that can be accessed remotely or through residents buzzing guests in, police were able to identify a family member who left Shomberg’s apartment, whom they identified as 24-year-old John Power Swenson.
Swenson was arrested by Denver police on unrelated charges a few hours after Westminster began their criminal investigation into Shomberg’s death, according to the news release.
Detectives with the Westminster Police Department identified him as the sole suspect and applied to get a warrant out for his arrest on first-degree murder charges. Westminster police also said Swenson is being held without bond.
Court records obtained by Denver7 show Swenson has been arrested in the past for burglary, first-degree assault, trespassing, theft, obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest, attempted robbery, among other charges dating back to January 2018.
It’s unclear if he’s been assigned a public defender or if he has hired an attorney to represent him in this case.
