Body found believed to be ex-LV teen

Monday, May 12, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

What authorities are describing as "a tangled web" of intrigue may have led to the slaying of a former Las Vegas teenager in Aurora, Colo.

The Douglas County, Colo., Sheriff's Office believes the bodies found last Tuesday in a wheat field in Aurora, 25 miles east of Denver, are former Las Vegan Shawn Cerniglia, 16, and his girlfriend, Carrie Heiden, 18. They had been missing from their homes in the Aurora suburb of Highlands Ranch since Feb. 5.

The boy's mother, Gloria Cerniglia, of Las Vegas, told reporters in Colordo Sunday that police officers last week identified one of the badly decomposed bodies as her son. Attempts to reach her today were not successful.

"The coroner has not yet positively identified the bodies, but we are going on the premise that it is the missing teenagers," Douglas County Sheriff's Office Lt. Tim Moore said today.

"Aurora is a pretty big city, the second largest in Colorado, behind Denver, but it is rural and we don't usually get these type of incidents, especially ones with such a tangled web."

The discovery of the bodies, how they got there and how they avoided detection despite several searches of the area over the last three months only adds to the mystery. They were found just 100 feet from a paved road amid wheat that was about a foot high, police said.

"If that is where they have been since they disappeared, then I am somewhat surprised they weren't found earlier," Moore said.

The teens had been sought for questioning about a drive-by shooting, a burglary and an unrelated stabbing in a Douglas County Court case where recently the Douglas County District Attorney got the records sealed.

Cerniglia told reporters in Colorado that Shawn had lived with her until this year, then moved to Highlands Ranch to live with his father and his stepmother.

"You never expect to lose your children," Gloria Cerniglia told reporters in Colorado. "He always would tell me to be happy. He would say, 'Mom, I just want you to be happy."'

Shawn Cerniglia attended local schools from 1991 to 2001, finishing as a freshman at Cheyenne High School, a school district spokeswoman said.

Days after her son's disappearance, Gloria Cerniglia came to Denver to help look for him. Photos and posters of Shawn Cernigila and his girlfriend were distributed throughout the community and on the Internet.

Moore said detectives had called the 16-year-old's home on Feb. 5 to talk to him about a drive-by shooting that had occurred in September. He and his girlfriend left together that night.

Moore said there is no indication they were abducted and evidence is not conclusive that they were running away.

Aurora police found Shawn's car partly burned, abandoned the next day in Aurora.

Media reports a few days later were that one of the couple's friends had called family members to tell them that Cerniglia had called asking for help, saying he had been shot.

Moore said the coroner has not yet determined how the two youths died and that those results are not expected until late this week.