Maggie Lengthy, a 17-year-old who lived in rural Bailey, Colorado, went dwelling for the final time on Dec. 1, 2017, when she occurred upon armed males burglarizing it. There was an altercation, after which the assailants set the home on fireplace with Lengthy inside, creating an everlasting true crime thriller within the course of. Maggie’s killers are nonetheless at massive.
The primary day of December, 2023 marked six lengthy years throughout which the Lengthy household has been trying to find justice for this heinous crime. There are nonetheless so many questions: Did the burglars kill Maggie as a result of she caught them within the act? Had been her murderers motivated by Asian hate? Did authorities bungle the investigation and wait too lengthy, giving the dangerous guys ample time to flee?
The case has been chilly for years, regardless of being reclassified as a hate crime with a particular activity pressure assigned to it. Right here’s what occurred to Maggie Lengthy.
What occurred to Maggie Lengthy?
Maggie, by all accounts, was simply your common highschool senior. On that fateful day, she was alleged to man the V.I.P. room for a live performance at the highschool. As a substitute of ready on the faculty, she determined to drive dwelling to select up some snacks.
She pulled up, parked her automotive within the driveway, and entered the home to search out at the least three armed males inside. We don’t know why the Lengthy home was focused by criminals, however on the time, Maggie’s mother and father owned a number of Chinese language eating places and had closely invested in actual property, so it’s potential their ensuing excessive profile might have attracted consideration.
It was apparent folks cherished Maggie. Her greatest buddy Katy Monahan admitted final yr that she undoubtedly nonetheless feels her presence round her.
“I simply see her, like randomly. . . and typically, like, songs will come on that I bear in mind listening to together with her and stuff like that.”
Katy’s mom was effusive about Maggie, saying she had a “fantastic spirit” and a tremendous smile and an enormous coronary heart. “She cherished everybody,” the mom recalled.
Katy’s sister Connie stated the tragedy was simply mindless, and shared how she goes via Maggie’s stuff at the least yearly across the time of her disappearance, which lately led to the invention of a observe.
“I opened up her pc and I discovered a observe that she wrote to herself for when she turns 18 . . . The primary message that she was giving herself was: ‘It doesn’t matter what you resolve to do together with your life, simply be an excellent individual.’”
Round 7 p.m. on the day of the homicide, Park County deputies have been dispatched to the 6,000-square-foot ranch-style home after getting a name a few disturbance. “It was reported in a 9-1-1 name that individuals have been contained in the residence inflicting injury,” the FBI stated in a press launch. “No less than one male was on the property.”
Connie, in the meantime, was getting texts about noises in the home. A tenant who lived upstairs, who would later be cleared as a suspect, advised Connie they heard loud noises coming from downstairs.
Connie and Maggie’s mother was additionally confused; she thought Maggie was supposed to come back into work. She didn’t even know concerning the live performance.
Connie assumed Maggie would present up on the faculty, so she went there and simply… waited. Maggie was alleged to be there for arrange. When the primary band began to play, Connie’s coronary heart sank. She knew one thing wasn’t proper, and one thing advised her she wanted to go dwelling. Now.
As Connie neared the home, she noticed firefighters in her driveway and he or she smelled smoke. She waited exterior as different relations began exhibiting up. She wasn’t allowed in the home for 4 hours. Actually, they couldn’t even enter the home till 11 when sheriffs got here out and advised them they discovered a feminine physique within the wreckage.
The loss of life was dominated a murder by deputies, per a press launch:
“Investigative efforts on the scene revealed a bodily altercation occurred between Lengthy and her assailants earlier than the hearth began. The suspects stole a Beretta handgun, an AK-47-style rifle, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, a inexperienced secure, and jade collectible figurines.”
Connie stated it was necessary to keep in mind that Maggie died in a particularly brutal manner. It’s necessary for her reminiscence, and so that individuals keep in mind that this occurred, and in order that the Lengthy household can discover justice.
The household wasn’t allowed again in the home for 4 extra days. They stayed with grandparents within the meantime. Per sister Lynna:
“We weren’t allowed to be anyplace close to the house as a result of it was against the law scene….so we really didn’t even see the home till 4 days . . . after we bought a tour of the home by the sheriff, mainly exhibiting us the place the injury was. And we noticed simply the injury within the storage as properly. As a result of the perpetrators have been making an attempt to set a number of beginning factors of the hearth round the home.”
On the surface, it didn’t look very like deputies have been getting a lot carried out. They advised the household to not discuss to the press or anybody on the town for per week. They didn’t problem a press launch till greater than a month and a half after the crime, maybe giving the perpetrators loads of time to go away city.
Nelson Conway, the proprietor of a theater the place Maggie would carry out after faculty, criticized the glacial tempo of the investigation. Conway referred to as the sheriff’s investigation “sloppy from the start.” He couldn’t fairly perceive the rationale of ready to place out the information of the crime.
As for investigators, there have been initially quite a lot of results in comply with up on. Lynna revealed there have been “dozens of various folks” being regarded into by the FBI, together with “younger white males who had police referred to as on them for threatening neighbors.”
Sadly, these folks had alibis and not one of the leads led to something in any respect.
In 2021, following an uptick in crimes towards the Asian and Asian-American group, the case was reclassified as a hate crime, permitting for extra sources and the formation of a activity pressure with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. Regardless of all this, the case stays chilly. That doesn’t imply that regulation enforcement or the Lengthy household are giving up.
Earlier this month, Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw stated he holds out hope that the case will finally be solved.
He is not going to hand over the “quest for justice,” he stated. There’s a devoted activity pressure who by no means stopped looking out. He guarantees they’ll comply with each lead and clue till one thing lastly occurs. Till they get that mystical break within the case, Maggie deserves justice.
