Investigation closed after police reach end of leads

After failing to identify a suspect, Aspen police have inactivated the investigation into a natural gas line attack last winter that left hundreds of city residents without heat for days, an official said last week.

The acknowledgment that the Aspen Police Department is stumped by the question of who sabotaged Black Hills Energy gas lines in three places in the Aspen area Dec. 26 comes after the FBI provided cellphone data from that night in hopes of identifying a suspect, said Sgt. Rick Magnuson, who heads the department’s detective division. But despite that and a months-long, focused investigation, detectives were unable to identify a significant lead or suspect, he said.

“We’ve come to the end of our investigative leads,” Magnuson said. “I’m unhappy we haven’t been able to solve it yet. We’re not giving up. But at this point, we don’t have any suspects.”

A saboteur or group of saboteurs who investigators believe knew what they were doing tampered with unsecured or barely secured natural gas line valves Dec. 26 at two locations in unincorporated Pitkin County and one in the Aspen area. The attackers wrote “Earth First!” on pipes in two of the three locations, though no one associated with the decentralized, radical environmental group has ever taken responsibility for the sabotage.

The saboteur turned the valves in a way that depressurized the entire natural gas delivery system for the city of Aspen only. Areas just outside the city, including the Castle Creek Valley where Aspen Valley Hospital is located, were not affected.

In order to re-pressurize the system, Black Hills Energy imported technicians from across the West and the country to come and first turn off, then turn back on each gas meter at every residence and business affected. That took about three days, which meant approximately 3,500 Aspen residents and businesses went without gas service — and for many, heat — as winter temperatures dipped into the single digits at night.