A Thornton man was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday, more than three decades after authorities say he raped and strangled a 20-year-old Fort Carson soldier in southeastern Colorado Springs. 

Shouting briefly erupted in a Colorado Springs courtroom as Michael Whyte, 60, was found guilty in the March 1987 murder of Darlene Krashoc, capping a more than weeklong trial.  

Fourth Judicial District Michael McHenry scheduled a sentencing hearing at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Whyte will receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Authorities say Krashoc was accosted during a night on the town and beaten, raped and mutilated by a killer who left her nude body behind the former Korean Club Restaurant in the 2700 block of South Academy Boulevard. One of her nipples had been sliced or bitten off, authorities said. 

The case quickly grew cold, haunting the investigators who couldn’t solve it, including Joe Kenda, the former Colorado Springs police investigator-turned reality television star of “Homicide Hunter.” Kenda, long retired, was among the witnesses who testified, describing police procedure with brio while struggling at times to recall the specifics of early efforts to find the person responsible.

A break in the case came 32 years afterward, after Colorado Springs police turned to a company that uses a novel approach known as genetic genealogy. 

Police retained Parabon NanoLabs of Reston, Va., to sort through databases maintained by consumer DNA websites for genetic profiles similar to the killer, whose DNA was left on multiple items of evidence at the scene, prosecutors said during an opening statement.  

In 2019, the company’s research led it to Michael Whyte, who at the time of the Krashoc’s murder was a 24-year-old soldier at Fort Carson. His existence wasn’t known to police.

After learning about the DNA hit, Colorado Springs police detectives traveled to Thornton and followed Whyte to a restaurant and collected a cup he had tossed in the garbage.

His saliva on the rim matched the DNA profile developed from multiple items left at the scene, including cigarette butts near Krashoc’s body and the apparent murder weapon — a coat hanger that had been twisted around her mouth and neck like a bridle, authorities said.  

He was arrested in June 2019. Saliva obtained from inside his cheek confirmed the match to the killer’s DNA, authorities said.

“For 32 years, Michael Whyte was able to evade detectives successfully, but he was not able to evade technology that would prove conclusively that he was the person solely response for the rape and murder of Darlene Krashoc,” prosecutor Joseph Eden said as the trial opened.

Eden credited police for collecting and preserving DNA-bearing evidence even before DNA analysis was a practical reality — because they correctly anticipated it would one day prove critical. 

The body of Darlene D Krashoc, 20 was discovered on March 17, 1987 at the Korean Club Restaurant parking lot by two Colorado Springs Police Department officers. The cause of death was said to be strangulation.

Courtesy photo

Michael Whyte, 60, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the 1987 rape and murder of 20-year-old Fort Carson soldier Darlene Krashoc in southeast Colorado Springs.

courtesy photos