LAKEWOOD, Colorado. – Friends say a woman found strangled at her Green Mountain home Tuesday was a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital. Anthony and the mother of an eight-year-old boy.
“I’m devastated, completely devastated,” Traci Buntenbah said.
Buntenbah said Hilary Engel was a great friend and “the most donor person” she had ever met.
“She made toy units for kids. She would adopt families for Christmas. She’s just the kind of person who was always looking for ways to help people and help strangers,” Buntenbah said.
The two mothers met four years ago at Rooney Ranch Elementary School in the Green Mountain neighborhood, where their children go to school.
“We had no choice but to be friends,” he said, “because the boys always wanted to play together.”
Buntenbah said Engel was very accepting.
“My kids are hyper,” he said. “I get a little nervous. He always told me he would never judge me, no matter what happened.”
On Dec. 29, police said they were called to a home in the S. Coors circle for a report on a missing person.
When friends arrived, they reported finding a dead adult woman inside the house.
Police said it appears Engel died from strangulation.
Engel’s boyfriend, Karl Aaron Bemish, 51, was arrested the next day at a hotel in Trinidad.
He is being held on suspicion of committing a first-degree murder.
“That really bothers me,” Buntenbah said. “I knew him … he was around my son. He had been (to me) at my house. It’s devastating.”
He told Denver7 that he thought Bemish was “a little gloomy, but not bad.”
Now, his thoughts focus on Engel’s eight-year-old son.
“I know he’s fine. I haven’t been able to see him yet, but I know he’s fine. He’s with the family,” he said.
Buntenbah said he wants others to know that Engel was not just a victim.
“She was an amazing mom and a nurse,” she said. “It saved people’s lives and it didn’t deserve it at all.”
Buntenbah told Denver7 that he had received a text message from Engel on Monday.
“She was just recording,” Buntenbah said. “He said he wanted to stay. I just told him I loved him. I’m grateful he did.”
Denver7 came to Centura-St. Anthony for comments.
The hospital issued this statement:
“We extend our condolences to the loved ones of Hilary Engel, who worked at Centura-St. Anthony Hospital as a nurse. Our sympathies are addressed to her family and friends, and to all caregivers who suffer this painful loss.