Family of murdered Loveland woman question police response to "threat" made 2 days before shooting
Two months after Lindsay Daum and her 16-year-old daughter Meadow Sinner were murdered, family members say they are struggling to heal.
"The news cycle ends, and the shock starts to wear off, this is something we have to go on with," Garin Daum said.
Daum is Lindsay's older brother, he says their path forward is shrouded with questions about what didn't happen in his sister's case, starting with a call that was made to the Loveland Police Department.
"Loveland Police Department was told that he was going to do this, and they did nothing," Daum said.
CBS News Colorado filed an open records request to obtain that call, in it the caller who CBS News Colorado is not naming, details an encounter he had with a former co-worker in a Home Depot
"He introduces himself, I haven't seen him in a couple of years, I guess," the caller tells the police officer.
The concerned citizen tells the officer that almost immediately the conversation turns dark, "He goes to tell me his wife ****** him over and flashes me an ankle monitor and that he was going to do life in prison and that he's going to kill her and himself."
And goes as far as offering up a time for when he might commit the murder.
"He goes, 'While I'm not doing it today, I'm thinking tomorrow,'" the caller states on the call.
The caller only knows the man as Javier, and where they worked together, enough information for the officer to contact the employer and determine, the threat was made by Javier Acevedo.
The officer follows up on that information with a call to Acevedo.
Officer: "The reason I'm calling you it's about some statements you might have been making today, about your wife?"
Acevedo: "About what?"
Officer: "That you were going to harm her"
Acevedo: "Oh hell no dude, why would I do that?"
Javier Acevedo goes on to tell the officer he just got a new job making $150,000 a year and that would be stupid.
Two days later, Acevedo shot Lindsay and Meadow with four other children inside the home.
"It was a horrific call for the police department to respond to, one of the worst calls you can take," Loveland Police Assistant Chief Ray Butler said.
Butler was leading that response and the investigation that would follow including how that call was handled.
"Those threats, the officer felt were against his wife who had a restraining order. The officer located the restraining order, was aware that restraining order was in place, there was no probable cause for an arrest during that contact," Butler said.
The restraining order he found was for an active domestic violence case out of Denver, involving Acevedo's ex-wife, who divorced in 2016.
Daum had been Acevedo's partner for the last three years, had two children together but did not share a last name and despite multiple attempts, had no protection order against Acevedo in her name, only her children.
"Without those tools, we can't offer that level of protection," Butler said.
Butler says the officer searched Acevedo's history which is how he found the protection order in Denver, while he's unsure if the officer would have also seen the protection order for the children in Loveland, he did know his address.
A home he shared with Daum and that Loveland police had responded to 22 times in the last year.
"I think you see varying number of calls to a different residence, but I would say that's probably more than we spend in one residence... yes," Butler said.
Despite Acevedo talking about losing his home in the call.
"She's trying to take the house from me, I filed a common law divorce I lost that case," he tells the officer.
And discussing legal issues surrounding that fight, which involved Loveland police.
"The detective turned around and called Lindsay," he tells the officer.
After roughly 10 minutes, the call ends and no further investigation is done.
"They just called him on the phone and took his word for it, they took his word for it when he said he wasn't going to do it," Daum said.
Loveland police say there was no probable cause for an arrest.
CBS News Colorado reporter Karen Morfitt asked Butler if the investigation was thorough, "So one call to the person who is making the threat, that's a sufficient amount of work to determine probable cause?"
"Yes, I believe so, yes," Butler said.
He says it's standard to review every case looking for ways to improve but maintains the call with Acevedo was handled appropriately.
"Loveland PD did everything in their power legally to protect that family," Butler said.
The Daum family does not agree and is calling for more accountability from the department as well as a change in how they investigate threats.
"I would be doing my sister and my niece a disservice if I'm not honoring them, if I don't come out and I don't speak for them and I don't say, 'look this was wrong, this could have been prevented,'" Daum said.
