Chris Vanderveen

Feb 20, 2025 | 9news.com | Chris Vanderveen

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — As deputies struggled to get Jim Purdy out of his Jefferson County home and into their car parked in the driveway, the 76-year-old warned the deputies his slow pace was deliberate. “Do you know how many times I fall down?  I fall down eight times a day,” Purdy said. It was a remarkably prescient warning from the man who, at the time, was 12 years into a diagnosis of Parkinsons.

Jan 31, 2025 | 9news.com | Chris Vanderveen

DENVER — Federal prosecutors believe they’ve broken up part of a drug, gun and sex trafficking operation run, for at least a few months, out of a Denver apartment complex and led by notorious Venezuelan-born gang Tren de Aragua. At least a few of the seven arrested in two states this week, federal investigators believe, have ties to the TdA. 9NEWS Investigates reviewed the details of a criminal complaint just filed in U.S. District Court.

Jan 29, 2025 | 9news.com | Chris Vanderveen

AURORA, Colo. — Months before Aurora Police say Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco took part in a now infamous break-in at the Edge of Lowry apartments, investigators believe he took part in a bizarre kidnapping in the city that, at one point, linked – via a video chat conversation – the kidnapping victim and a notorious Tren de Aragua leader incarcerated inside a Peruvian prison, according to records reviewed by 9NEWS Investigates.

Dec 4, 2024 | 9news.com | Chris Vanderveen

BOULDER, Colo. — Dozens of times a year, jails in Colorado release inmates the state deems incompetent to stand trial. Often, they’re released with no plan, no structure and no idea how to help. In September at 11:15 p.m., a man named Cole – who 9NEWS Investigates have chosen to identify using only his first name due to a lack of conviction – left the Boulder County Jail with no shoes. He had just an apple, a sandwich and some clothes given to him by the staff at the jail.

Nov 21, 2024 | denvergazette.com | Chris Vanderveen |Aaron Adelson

In the dead of night, an undercover Thornton Police Department unit quietly followed a car with missing plates out of Thornton and into Denver and Lakewood. No lights. No sirens. Unmarked trucks. Mile after mile. The officers — each a member of the city’s IMPACT team — communicated to one another on the radio. “Coming up on 6th, going over the bridge,” an officer said. “You guys want me to take that turn with him?” another asked.