DNA, Fingerprints & Video Tie Ebel To Nathan Leon’s Murder

Posted: May 20, 2013 at 8:56 pm

Evan Ebel (credit: Department of Corrections)

DENVER (CBS4) CBS4 has learned that DNA lifted from a payphone mouthpiece and fingerprints on the phone are some of the key evidence that ties Evan Ebel to the murder of 27-year-old Nathan Leon, a father of three.

Denver police have long said they are confident that Ebel killed Leon March 17, but have never provided details of their investigation that connect Ebel to the murder. Now three law enforcement contacts familiar with the Leon killing have provided CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass with some of the clues linking Ebel to the shooting death of Leon.

The contacts say that Ebel initially called a Dominos Pizza restaurant near 40th and Colorado Boulevard to have a pizza delivered, but that he wanted the delivery to an intersection, not a specific address. Thats apparently against the pizza companys rules and they rejected Ebels initial delivery order.

Dominos has declined to discuss specifics of the Ebel case. Sources say there was then a second conversation between Ebel and the Dominos restaurant, and in that second conversation he provided a street address near 50th and Forest Street and Leon was dispatched to the address, which is located in a desolate industrial section of North Denver.

Nathan Collin Leon (credit: Facebook)

The law enforcement sources say that investigators later determined that Ebel called the pizza restaurant from a payphone located at or near a truck stop in North Denver. Investigators traced the payphone call that had been made to Dominos, determining it had originated from a specific payphone located at or near the truck stop in North Denver. The sources indicated the area had been under police surveillance due to criminal activity in the area, and they also obtained surveillance videotape showing Ebel on the phone, placing the pizza order.

Nathan Collin Leon (credit: Facebook)

Investigators were able to return to that specific phone and extract Ebels DNA and fingerprints from the phone. Since Ebel had been a Colorado prison inmate, they apparently already had samples of his DNA on file for comparison purposes, leading to the match.

Two of the law enforcement sources also say that police obtained videotape from numerous locations between Denver and Golden that shows Ebels vehicle traveling from Denver to Golden, which is where Leon was killed and his body was dumped. He had been shot twice. Law enforcement sources say Leon was alive during the drive from Denver to Golden and that Ebel murdered him after they arrived in Golden.

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DNA, Fingerprints & Video Tie Ebel To Nathan Leon’s Murder

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