Woman Who Allegedly Beats Man To Death With Baseball Bat Is Charged

9-27-2013 Colorado:

A family is grappling with grief and confusion after a 42-year-old man was beaten to death with a baseball bat.

"My husband is the most loveable, caring person I know," Denzel Rainey's widow told sister station KCNC.

The woman arrested for the attack, however, allegedly told authorities she beat Rainey because she believed he sexually assaulted a child. She was formally charged Friday.

According to the arrest affidavit, 30-year-old Forsythia Owen told police she grabbed a bat and hunted Rainey down after a child said he had sexually abused her.

Rainey was found Sunday in an alley in the Denver suburb of Englewood. Owen allegedly told police she went to that alley because he slept there, and according to the affidavit detailed her attack on him by swinging her hands "back and forth...demonstrated how she struck Rainey over and over again."

Rainey suffered multiple injuries: skull fracture, six broken ribs, broken left hand and two broken arms.

Lisa Rainey told KCNC that her husband had been homeless due to struggles with alcohol.

“I just don’t know why, what caused her to do this on Denzel, and if Denzel did anything to provoke it,” Lisa Rainey said. “I need to know the answers for closure for me and closure for my kids.”

Neighbors told KCNC Rainey kept to himself and "never bothered anyone." One woman KCNC spoke with alleged that Owens was the troubled one.

“From my understanding of looking at her, you could tell she was on something,” Veronica Evans said. “That’s why my little sister and I would stay away from her.”

Englewood woman accused of using baseball bat in murder of man she suspected of molesting a child

9-24-2013 Colorado:

An Englewood woman is accused of using a baseball bat to kill a man who she suspected of sexually assaulting a child.

Court records show that Forsythia Eliese Owen, 30, is accused of committing the murder on September 22.

Englewood police identified the murder victim as Denzle Rainey, 42. Officers found him in an alley between the 3600 block of S. Sherman and S. Grant Streets at 1:11 a.m. Sunday.

According to an affidavit obtained by 7NEWS, Owen confessed to officers in the Englewood Police Department's recorded interview room. She told the officers that the child, whose name is redacted from the document, said Rainey "had touched and sexually abused her."

The officers asked if Owen was responsible for Rainey's death.

"Owen stood up and said she killed him," the affidavit says. "Owen swung her hands back and forth and demonstrated how she struck Rainey over and over again because of what he did to [name redacted]."

Rainey suffered lacerations to his head and a skull fracture. Both arms, six ribs and his left hand were broken. His liver was also lacerated.