AURORA | An Arapahoe County grand jury has indicted a man on first-degree murder charges, alleging he stalked his estranged wife for months in and disabled her home security system before fatally shooting her and attempting to stage the scene as a suicide.
Ronald Elton Lowry, 52, of Wiggins, was arrested last week following a years-long investigation by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office into the October 2023 death of Richelle Lowry, 52 at her Bennett home.
The Feb. 27 indictment charges Ronald Lowry with first-degree murder, stalking, and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said in a statement Friday that the slaying was the culmination of a pattern of domestic violence that began in July 2023, shortly after Richelle Lowry initiated divorce proceedings.
The investigation began Oct. 26, 2023, when Richelle Lowry’s work supervisor requested a welfare check from police at her home in Bennett. The supervisor told deputies it was “very unusual” for Richelle, a reliable medical sales employee, to miss an important meeting.
Deputies forced their way into the house and found Richelle lying face down on her master bathroom floor with a single gunshot wound to the head, according to police reports. A black Glock 9mm handgun lay near her right shoulder, and her arms were tucked beneath her body. Wedding photos were found scattered across the dining room table and the master bedroom bed.
While the scene indicated a self-inflicted shooting, investigators immediately noted “red flags,” according to court documents.
Richelle’s cellphone was found in a bowl of water in the bathroom, what investigators said was a likely attempt to destroy digital evidence. The home’s camera security system showed a man matching Ronald Lowry’s description prowling the exterior on the night of Oct. 24, but at one point the recording abruptly stopped.
Forensic analysts later determined the system had been manually disabled, investigators reported.
Investigators in a narrative affidavit indicated Ronald was obsessed with his wife’s new life. According to the affidavit, he had been surreptitiously following Richelle to golf lessons and dates with her drum instructor, whom she was then having a relationship with.
In early October 2023, Ronald allegedly filmed Richelle and the instructor hugging at a golf course. He then shared the video with his family members, including his sister and mother, via text.
Investigators said he had deleted the videos from his phone, but technicians recovered them.
“So I wanted to share this with you as I’ve done with the rest of the family,” Ronald wrote in one text message. “This is Chelle and the guy she’s been with behind my back… you can see Chelle at the beginning grabbing his butt and then at the end they kiss.”
Texts deleted and recovered from Ronald’s mobile phone said, “I’m so glad I’m FREE of that NARCISSIST, MANIPULATIVE LYING, CHEATING PERSON.” He said, “Thank GOD I sucked as much money out of her that I could.”
Several witnesses painted a picture of Richelle financially supporting the both of them during their marriage, and Ronald taking advantage of the arrangement. Friends of Richelle and other witnesses said it was Ronald who pressed for divorce and strayed from the marriage before their breakup.
In the weeks before her death, Richelle Lowry told friends, family, and even a Realtor that she feared her husband would kill her.
A neighbor told deputies that Richelle told her on Oct. 12, 2023, about finding nails placed behind her car tires in the garage. Richelle told witnesses she also suspected Ronald had used a hammer to smash an expensive piece of medical equipment linked to her work.
“If anything happens to me, Ronald would be responsible,” Richelle reportedly told the neighbor, saying that she was “very adamant” she would never kill herself.
A real estate agent and friend who was helping Richelle find a new home for her husband n Wiggins told investigators that Richelle requested all communication go through her work email so Ronald wouldn’t find out.
“I realized in my gut that he would take me out,” Richelle told the Realtor, describing a moment in Ronald’s truck where she saw a look in his eyes that she said terrified her. Richelle predicted he would try to make her death look like a “drowning” while fishing or a “hunting accident.”
Following the discovery of Richelle’s body, Ronald allegedly tried to establish a narrative that Richelle was mentally unstable. He told investigators and neighbors that Richelle had recently stopped taking antidepressants and was “paranoid” and “delusional.”
Police said that a friend and neighbor who had for years been a dogwatcher for Richelle’s beloved “fur baby,” Butters, said she was alarmed when Ronald contacted her on the day of Rochelle’s death, saying Rochelle wanted him to come get the dog, months after the couple had separated.
The neighbor “found this ‘odd, very odd’ because not only was she much closer but had been tasked with caring for the dog while Richelle had been out of town,” investigators reported. She “felt that Richelle would have contacted her first as she did not want Ronald around her residence and this request was not consistent with former conversations they had.”
On the night Richelle’s body was found, Ronald sat in his truck with Richelle’s sister and said if it turns out Richelle “used a gun, I’m going to jail.”
Investigators said the couple’s financial records suggest a significant motive for the killing. As of March 2024, Ronald stood to gain approximately $1.33 million if Richelle’s death were ruled a suicide, investigators reported. This included two life insurance policies totaling $500,000 where he was the sole beneficiary, plus marital assets and property.
Insurance investigators told detectives the case set off a “red flag” for them when Ronald had not contacted the insurance company until months after the death. Usually, the insurance investigators said, beneficiaries contact the company within days.
Under Colorado law, a person held criminally responsible for another’s death is prohibited from life insurance proceeds or estate inheritance. In January 2026, a judge officially disinherited Ronald from Richelle’s estate, police said.
The timeline constructed by the Sheriff’s Office alleges Ronald killed Richelle on the evening of Oct. 24, 2023.
Richelle had just returned from a business trip to St. George, Utah. Security footage from 6:44 p.m. that evening showed a man walking near the garage while wearing a “Terry Black’s Barbeque” hat, which was later found in Ronald’s truck.
At the same time, Ronald’s cellphone went “off-network” for four and a half hours, either turned off or placed in airplane mode, investigators said. This was a departure from his typical heavy phone use during evening hours, police said.
A neighbor reported hearing an “unusual” gunshot between noon and 1 p.m. that day, though the autopsy determined the time of death was likely later that evening.
When Richelle failed to go to work the next day, work associates and others contacted police, who found her body.
More than two years later, prosecutors say Richelle was murdered and her killer will now go to trial.
“This case is the result of extraordinary dedication and perseverance by the investigators with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office,” Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said in a statement. “They left no stone unturned in their pursuit of the truth, carefully examining every piece of forensic, digital, and testimonial evidence over the course of this investigation. Their commitment to seeking answers and refusing to give up has been instrumental in bringing this case forward.”
Ronald Lowry is currently being held at the Morgan County Jail.