LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Friends say that a woman found strangled in her home in Green Mountain on Tuesday was a nurse at St. John’s Hospital. Anthony and the mother of an 8-year-old boy.
“I am devastated, completely devastated,” said Traci Buntenbah.
Buntenbah said Hilary Engel was a good friend and “the most gifted person” she had ever met.
“He did toy trainings for children. He adopted families during Christmas. He’s just the kind of person who’s always been looking for ways to help people and help strangers,” Buntenbah said.
The two mothers met four years ago at Rooney Ranch Elementary School in the Green Mountain neighborhood, where their sons go to school.
“We had no choice but to be friends,” she said, “because the boys always wanted to play together.”
Buntenbah said that Engel accepts a lot.
“My kids are hyper,” she said. “I’m a little nervous about it. She always told me she’d never judge me, no matter what.”
Police said she was called to a home on S. Coors Circle following a report of the missing person on December 29.
When friends arrived, they reported finding a dead adult woman inside the house.
Police said Engel died of strangulation.
Engel’s boyfriend, Karl Aaron Bemish, 51, was arrested the next day at a hotel in Trinidad.
He is being held on suspicion of committing a first-degree felony.
“It really bothers me,” Buntenbah said. “I met him … he was around my child. He had been (had been) to my house. It’s devastating.”
She told Denver7 that she thought Bemish was “a little shady, but not bad.”
Now her thoughts are on Engel’s 8-year-old son.
“I know he’s fine. I don’t have to see him yet, but I know he’s fine. He’s with his family,” she said.
Buntenbah said he wants others to know that Engel was not just a victim.
“She was an amazing mother and a nurse,” she said. “It saved people’s lives and it didn’t deserve it at all.”
Buntenbah told Denver7 that he received a text message from Engel on Monday.
“He was just recording,” Buntenbah said. “She said she wanted to stay. I happened to tell her I loved her. I’m grateful I did.”
Denver7 has reached Belt-St. Anthony for comments.
The hospital issued this statement:
“We offer our condolences to the loved ones of Hilary Engel, who worked at Centura-St. Anthony as a nurse. Our sympathies are addressed to her family and friends and to all the caregivers who suffer this painful loss.