When police searched Christian Paetsch’s white SUV after a June 2 bank robbery, the contents pointed to a man leading two lives.
The violin, a Cherry Creek High School bag from his days as a teacher there and a figure skating duffel matched the man Paetsch’s family and friends know.
Other items, though, pointed to someone entirely different: two loaded pistols with high-capacity magazines, multiple disguises, paper shooting targets, latex gloves and a spent air horn used during a bank robbery.
The gulf between the violin-playing schoolteacher who loved figure skating and the accused gun-wielding bank robber has had people close to the case scratching their heads since the robbery.
“Typically, we don’t see an individual with this type of background,” Paetsch’s lawyer, federal public defender Matthew Belcher said in court last week.
Paetsch, a long-time area music teacher and violin instructor, was arrested a short time after the June 2 robbery at a Wells Fargo bank at East Hampden Avenue and South Chambers Road. He faces a bank robbery charge that could send the 45-year-old to prison for more than 25 years.
Several people who know Paetsch declined to comment in recent days about his apparent fall from well-liked music teacher to violent bank robber. But based on several interviews and public records, Paetsch hardly seems to fit the profile of a bank robber.
“He would be the last person that I ever would have guessed,” said Bill Engel, whose children were Paetsch’s students in Douglas County schools. “I think like so many people you have to wonder what happened, what snapped.”
Engel, himself a former music teacher, said Paetsch had a gift for teaching music to young people. The intricacies of violin can be difficult for young people to grasp and teaching the instrument takes mountains of patience, Engel said.
Paetsch had that.
“All of the contact that I had with him just continued to add to my opinion that he was a great teacher,” he said.
It was easy to tell Paetsch was well-liked by many of his students because after orchestra shows and other concerts, the students flocked to him, clamoring for their parents to meet their teacher, Engel said.
While Paetsch was an accomplished violinist and clearly passionate about the instrument, Engel said the teacher never discussed where his fondness for music came from.
“He never really got into his passion behind it but you could tell whenever you would see him play that music was incredibly important to him,” he said.
That fondness started at an early age for Paetsch. He came from a family of accomplished musicians in Colorado Springs. His mother played violin and his father played cello in area orchestras. They named their children after famous composers like Bach and Mozart.
In a 2004 story about a concert by one his siblings, the Colorado Springs Independent referred to the clan as “classical music aristocracy” and said all seven Paetsch children were musicians.
For Christian Paetsch, music took him from Colorado Springs to Greeley where he earned degrees from University of Northern Colorado in musical performance and education.
He later married a fellow musician and has lived in metro Denver since 1988.
According to the Colorado Department of Education, he has been a licensed teacher in Colorado since at least 1996. Local school officials say he taught in Cherry Creek Schools, Aurora Public Schools District and most recently in Douglas County, where he taught music at an elementary school until early this year.
Beyond his work at area schools, Paetsch worked for several years as a private music instructor and with a performing arts group in Parker.
Aside from music, those who know Paetsch said he is an avid figure skating fan. He was active in figure skating groups in Denver and Colorado Springs, but several people associated with those groups declined to comment for this story.
According to several articles, Paetsch was a recreational skater and encouraged his daughter to take up the sport.
Still, prosecutors said last week that while Paetsch may not fit the profile of a typical bank robber, the crime he stands accused of was a terrifying one.
Assistant United States Attorney David Conner said Paetsch, wearing a beekeeper mask and brandishing a pistol, forced all nine people inside the bank to lay on the ground then grabbed $25,000 from the cash drawers before fleeing on a bike.
“There is an extreme amount of violence that was used,” Conner said.
Police arrested him later that afternoon when a GPS tracking device hidden in the money led them to him at East Iliff Avenue and South Buckley Road.
Based on public records and testimony last week, it doesn’t appear Paetsch was under any particular financial stress.
According to court records, neither he nor his wife have ever filed for bankruptcy. Arapahoe County records don’t list any tax liens on his home near Smoky Hill Road and South Buckley Road in Centennial, either. He and his siblings also appear to own land in Steamboat Springs, according to property records.
And at court last week, prosecutors said he may have at least one high-priced asset to his name: a $400,000 violin.
Conner said that after Paetsch didn’t return home the day of the robbery, his wife contacted police to report him missing. When officers told her Paetsch was under arrest on robbery charges, she asked them if they found a violin in his vehicle.
The violin, she said, was worth around $400,000.
Dubious of the claim, FBI agents had the instrument from Paetsch’s SUV appraised and found it was worth only about $1,000.
When they returned the violin to Paetsch’s wife, she told officers it was the wrong one and that her husband had likely lent the pricier violin to one of his students.
As of last week, Conner said the whereabouts of the instrument were unclear.
Reach reporter Brandon Johansson at 720-449-9040 or bjohansson@aurorasentinel.com
One has to wonder whether the PD picked up the right guy. It would be fairly easy to plant the scant amount evidence in a unlocked vehicle. How much time elapsed between the detentions and the arrest? Maybe the real robber is still out there.
There are too many ‘what ifs’ to this case and the circumstances surrounding Paetch’s arrest.
How sad and puzzling.
Made for TV Movie
…. This is my old band teacher from 4th grade… creepy! o.o