commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Ronald Thomas Ford and Ramiro “Rome” Sanchez were 63 and 55 respectively when their lives were cut short when they were bludgeoned to death at their home in the 100 block of North Stuart Street in Denver, Colorado in January of 2011. Ford and Sanchez were reportedly “bon vivants” who had no qualms about enjoying the pleasures of middle age. Shortly after the slayings, a neighbor named Ryan Delve reported:
“I never saw Ms. Puppy lurking around, but the two gentlemen who lived in the house, they were quite frequent boozers, they were out partying, they’d come home at 6, 7 in the morning, just jumping out of cabs, half-dressed. It was pretty weird.”
Ford and Sanchez, who were known for being extremely kind, would probably still be partying and “jumping out of cabs half-naked” at 6 am had they not made the fatal mistake of employing a stone killer and all-around con-man named Daryl Rasmussen as their housekeeper and gardener. For somewhat inexplicable reasons (perhaps he thought they worked him too hard), Rasmussen, an alleged cross dresser who went by the name ‘Ms. Puppy’, bludgeoned the two life partners to death, stashed their bodies in the basement and took off after stealing their car.
The official cause of death was blunt force trauma injuries.
We’ve all heard the expression “no good deed goes unpunished” and that was apparently the case with Ms. Puppy’s victims. According to the Denver Post, Ford and Sanchez, who had formerly operated an upscale Mexican restaurant and catering service in Denver called La Fabula Grill and Cantina, took Rasmussen into their home approximately three months before they were found bludgeoned to death because he was homeless.
Ford and Sanchez clearly appear to have been kind-hearted folks who were not averse to helping people in need.
“It wasn’t surprising that they’d help somebody in need, it was surprising that we didn’t know. We had not heard of this person,” Sanchez’s sister Angie Mingus told 7News. “From what we hear he was a cross dresser. He was looking to get an operation is what we’re hearing so he’s in transition.”
Ms. Puppy might still be roaming the country “hustling people strange to him” was it not for an observant Palm Springs resident who recognized the reprobate at a local bar called “Score” after seeing news coverage on TV and alerting police. According to another report, the man at the “Score” was a former Denver resident who reportedly overheard Rasmussen call himself Ms. Puppy at the bar. The Desert Sun reports that Rasmussen reportedly flashed another man’s driver’s license to Palm Springs police, but was positively ID’d anyway. Denver Police had been looking for him since February of 2011.
At the time of his arrest, Ms. Puppy, who certainly got around, was wanted on two outstanding warrants for parole violations in Texas and Georgia.
It’s was nearly two years after the heinous act that a Colorado grand jury finally returned a multiple count indictment against Rasmussen for two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Ford and Sanchez and a dozen other counts including theft, identity theft and credit card fraud.
It’s a fortunate thing that the grand jury returned the indictment, because although prosecutors had previously charged Rasmussen for the deaths of his two luckless benefactors, a judge had originally dismissed the case after finding that there was not enough evidence to bind him over for trial.
The grand jury indictment, which also named four co-defendants accused of conspiracy for allegedly helping Rasmussen with Ford and Sanchez’s stolen car and other items, set the stage for the convictions.
It took approximately 30 months from the time of the murder for justice to be carried out, but finally, on Friday July 18, 2014, Ms. Puppy pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder for killing Ford and Sanchez, and was then sentenced to 30 years in state prison.
The sisters of Ford and Sanchez spoke in court saying that society is better off with Rasmussen in prison.
As for the prosecutors, they said that the 30-year sentence isn’t harsh enough but that hopefully the sentence will give some sense of closure to the victims’ families. Prosecutor Joe Morales stated in court:
“He betrayed them by taking their lives and taking their money. That’s the sad part about this is that these were two men who really gave a lot their entire lives. In fact, speaking with the families that’s what they talked about is that they were always giving, always giving to the family, always giving to the community and unfortunately their gratuity got them killed.”
Which is why they say, “No good deed goes unpunished.” I can just image this creep Ms. Puppy hustling these poor, good-hearted middle-aged gentlemen, and them thinking they were helping out a poor unfortunate soul, something they were clearly more than willing to do.