Pham's employee charged in her death

Rubio

Agurre

AURORA | Adams County prosecutors said Thursday they filed murder charges against two people in connection with the March slaying of Lyndsay Pham at the northwest Aurora apartment complex she owned.

Lupe Rubio, 43, was arrested Oct. 28 and charged with first-degree murder, robbery and being an accessory to murder, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also issued an arrest warrant for Javier Agurre, 30.

Pham

Agurre, who also goes by Manuel Morales Acosta, is a citizen of Mexico and is believed to have fled to his home country, prosecutors said.

There is a $20,000 reward being offered for Agurre’s capture and conviction.

Pham, 45, of Centennial, was killed March 3 in the office of the Descanso Plaza Apartments, 11102 E. 16th Ave. Pham owned and managed the apartments.

The Adams County coroner’s office said Pham was beaten, strangled and stabbed.

Police said Thursday that Rubio was an assistant manager at the building and conspired with Agurre, who she was in a relationship with, to rob the office.

Aurora police spokesman Detective Bob Friel said police believe Agurre killed Pham, but Rubio helped him plan the robbery.

“She played a significant role in what was first a robbery and turned, tragically, into a homicide,” Friel said.

In the days after Pham’s slaying, her family offered a $15,000 reward for information about the case. That reward was in addition to another $7,000 in reward money offered by Aurora police and Denver Crimestoppers.

Police also hung flyers with Pham’s picture on them in the neighborhood near the apartments asking the public for help.

Even with the flyers, reward and media attention the case received, nobody came forward.

Friel said physical evidence in the case provided the break investigators needed and police issued a warrant for Agurre in September after DNA evidence from the scene tied him to the crime.

“The physical evidence in this case was critical to getting where we are at today,” he said

Police have believed since September that Agurre fled to Mexico and are working with police there as well as the Colorado Attorney General’s office to find him, Friel said.

According to court records, the arrest affidavit against Agurre, which details some of the evidence against him, has been sealed.

Rubio made her first appearance in Adams County Court on Thursday and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in January.

She is being held without bond at the Adams County Jail.

According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records, Rubio, a native of Kansas, had never been arrested in Colorado before last week.

Agurre’s only previous arrest came in 2006 when Denver police arrested him on a warrant from El Paso County for failure to appear in court on a traffic matter.