Murder of Warren Barnes
Sixty-nine-year-old Warren Barnes was from Grand Junction, Colorado. On the night of February 27th, 2021, while he slept in a small encampment he kept under a bridge close to downtown, a nineteen-year-old drove around looking for someone to murder.
In the Murder of Warren Barnes, I’ll tell you who Warren was before anyone knew his name as a headline about a beheading, and what it says about society that a teenager could look at a sleeping, unhoused man and assume no one would miss him.
Photo Credits: William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun, Nancy Lofholm, Special to The Colorado Sun, Monique Lanotti for The Colorado Sun, Mesa County, McKenzie Lange for The Daily Sentinel, Rocky Mountain PBS
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Lofholm, Nancy. "A Sculpture Will Pay Tribute to the Murdered Reading Man of Grand Junction." The Colorado Sun, 4 May 2021, coloradosun.com/2021/05/04/reading-man-grand-junction-murder/.
Lofholm, Nancy. "Tribute to 'Reading Man' Warren Barnes Is Installed in Grand Junction." The Colorado Sun, 22 Nov. 2021, coloradosun.com/2021/11/22/reading-man-grand-junction-sculpture/.
Thornton, Matt. “‘And You Also’: Memorial in Grand Junction Honors Beloved Community Member Warren Barnes.” Rocky Mountain PBS, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/warren-barnes-memorial-grand-junction/
"Warren Barnes Murder: Grand Junction's 'Reading Man' Case Solved." Factual America, 5 Apr. 2025, www.factualamerica.com/crime-scene-stories/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-warren-barnes-colorados-reading-man-murder-case.
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