Documents detail pregnancy rumors, cellphone records in Kasprzak killing


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SALT LAKE CITY — A 17-year-old Colorado boy charged with murdering his 15-year-old girlfriend when he was 14 has been extradited back to Utah.

The teen is accused of beating Anne Kasprzak to death and dumping her body in the Jordan River in 2012. He is currently being held in a juvenile detention facility in South Salt Lake.

Investigators have declined to discuss possible motives for the killing. But new court documents provide a glimpse into the young couple's relationship.

The Grand Junction High School student was arrested in Grand Junction, Colorado. He has been charged in Utah's 3rd District Juvenile Court with murder, a first-degree felony, and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. KSL News has chosen not to name the boy at this time.

On Tuesday, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office confirmed that it intends to seek to have the boy certified to stand trial as an adult.

Dennis Kasprzak, the girl's father, believes it is the right decision.

"This isn't a case of manslaughter. This isn't a case of an accidental death with a car accident. This is a full blown murder where an adult crime was committed. She was literally beaten to unrecognizable status. That isn't an accident. That needs to be treated like the crime that it is," he told KSL News.

"This was an adult crime and he needs to take responsibility for that as an adult. He didn't admit this crime. He's lived with this crime for as long as we have. He's had time to come forward. He's had time to take responsibility for it, and he has not. And so it is time for him to take responsibility for it now. Because he is an adult for all intents and purposes now."

Kasprzak's stepfather, James Bratcher, told police he was "not fond" of the boyfriend because he learned that their relationship had become sexual. "He also learned that Anne had been telling family and friends she was pregnant by (the boyfriend)," according to a search warrant affidavit served by Draper police in June.

Was pregnancy rumor a factor in killing?

Investigators also read through Kasprzak's day planner. There was an entry from March 1, 2012, that read: "(Boyfriend) finds out." When police inquired what that meant, the stepfather said, "Anne told (the boyfriend) she was pregnant with his baby," the affidavit states.

The family "immediately had Anne take a pregnancy test when they found out Anne was saying she was pregnant, it came back negative."

Court documents do not reveal the boyfriend's reaction to receiving the information or whether he was ever told that she was not pregnant.

But police also took a notebook from Kasprzak's room as evidence that appears to contain “poems" that she had written. "It talks about (the boyfriend) in the notebook and how Anne believed (the boyfriend) did not want the baby that she told him she was carrying," the affidavit states.


I think that spoke strongly as to why we always suspected (the boyfriend) in the case. (The pregnancy rumor) was a very delicate situation between teenagers and probably not anything any of them were prepared to deal with. That's why he was the only suspect in my mind.

–Jennifer Kasprzak, stepmother


Jennifer Kasprzak, the girl's stepmother, said she was aware of the pregnancy rumors.

"I think that spoke strongly as to why we always suspected (the boyfriend) in the case. It was a very delicate situation between teenagers and probably not anything any of them were prepared to deal with," she said. "That's why he was the only suspect in my mind."

Although charging documents refer to the defendant as Anne Kasprzak's "boyfriend," her father said they really didn't date. He said the two knew each other when they both went to Oquirrh Hills Middle School. Her parents transferred her to the Summit Academy about six months later.

Dennis Kasprzak stressed his daughter was not pregnant, and isn't sure if ultimately those rumors will have any bearing on the case. He said he still doesn't know what the motive was for the crime.

"That's kind of the sad thing about it. We may never have that resolution. We don't have any clue as to motive," he said.

As for why Kasprzak would have written those things in her journal, her father said he didn't know for sure, but it was a delicate situation with teenagers.

"Annie, like any teenage girl, fantasized about a family, fantasized about her future. And she was always a very caring and giving child. That was just something she was working through," he said. "Hopefully we'll get some answers in trial."

Timeline of crime, details of investigation

Anne Kasprzak was last seen by her mother, Veronica Kasprzak, and stepfather, James Bratcher, at 7:45 p.m. on March 10, 2012. They checked her bedroom about an hour later and she was gone, according to court documents. When they "pinged" her phone between 8:56 p.m. and 9:22 p.m., they received information that the cellphone was near the Jordan River. After that, the phone stopped sending information about its location.

Kasprzak's cellphone was never found.

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A subsequent review of her cellphone records by police indicates that Kasprzak received three phone calls listing the caller as "Unavailable" that night, including one at 6 p.m. that resulted in a 19-minute conversation, and a second call at 7:50 p.m. that was connected for five minutes, and a third call at 7:58 p.m. that lasted for four minutes.

After initially denying it, the boyfriend later told police he made those anonymous calls and tried to conceal his number "because she wasn’t answering his phone calls," the affidavit states. In addition, he made several calls to Kasprzak's phone that day using his regular cellphone number.

Because of the numerous phone calls, Dennis Kasprzak said the boyfriend immediately raised red flags with them.

"Knowing that it was him and not being able to do anything about it, I think that was the most helpless situation we could have been in," he said.

On March 14, 2012, police seized the boyfriend's shoes as part of their investigation. He told them there may be traces of Kasprzak's blood on his shoes because she had recently had a bloody nose near him. On March 16, 2012, Draper police served a search warrant on the boy's home where evidence of blood was found.

Police also found a BMX-style bike at the boyfriend's house. Investigators had earlier received a tip from an eyewitness who saw a teenage boy with a BMX bike on March 10 — about the same time Kasprzak disappeared. The teen was "leaning over the bridge at approximately 1000 West (12300 South). She said he drew her attention because he was leaning so far over the bridge it looked like he may fall over and into the river," the affidavit states.

After speaking to the boyfriend on March 14, police spoke to one of his male friends. They also checked the friend's cellphone, which included text messages from Kasprzak's boyfriend.


"I need you to do something for me really bad," one text read. A second stated: "The cops might come back to your house I need you to tell them that Anne got a bloody nose cause she did but you were lying down and she got some on my shoe and they took my shoes for testing and I need you to tell them that so I don't get blamed," according to the affidavit.

"I need you to do something for me really bad," one text read. A second stated: "The cops might come back to your house I need you to tell them that Anne got a bloody nose cause she did but you were lying down and she got some on my shoe and they took my shoes for testing and I need you to tell them that so I don't get blamed," according to the affidavit.

Two days later, the friend "admitted that he only told officers Anne had a bloody nose because" her boyfriend told him to, the affidavit states.

In November of 2012, police viewed a text message from another of Kasprzak's friends who had been talking with the boy who was asked to lie about the bloody nose.

"Yeah I told the police what you told me about him being at the river that night,” the female friend texted. The male friend replied, “Yeah he told me he went there that night."

The girl told investigators that Kasprzak went to the Jordan River that day to meet with her boyfriend.

"She added that (the boyfriend) told (his friend) not to tell anyone because (the boyfriend) would get in trouble," police wrote.

In 2013, investigators served new search warrants on the boyfriend's cellphone and his friend's cellphone after learning about updated technology that allows investigators to retrieve deleted text messages. Police said in the affidavit that they retrieved some deleted texts in which the boyfriend had instructed his friends to delete his messages.

Investigators continued to monitor the Facebook pages of the boyfriend and his friends and served a warrant in June to read their private messages.

The last Facebook post on the boyfriend's Facebook page was made on Oct. 7, 2014, just after 9 a.m. The post had an angry tone and seemed to indicate he was upset with something he had seen on Facebook.

There are no posts on the teen's Facebook page between Feb. 26, 2012, and March 11, 2013. It is unclear whether the boyfriend, who posted on a semi-regular basis in the preceding and subsequent months, deleted all the posts during that time or didn't post anything.

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Pat Reavy

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