Rifle resident Ramon Chacon was killed in a hit-and-run accident in the early morning hours of April 29, 2024. He was 42. His body was found in the middle of the road close to the main bridge into Rifle.
Gabriela Gonzalez, Chacon’s widow and mother of their two daughters, said she remembers an ambulance at the scene and maybe police cars. “But what I will never forget is when I was arriving and getting closer, I saw his boot—he was wearing Cuban-heel boots. That’s what I noticed first,” she said in Spanish.
Chacon loved his Cuban-heeled boots. “He told me that when he was little, he used to wear Cuban-heel boots. “That’s where they started calling him El Cubano,” explained his sister-in-law Jessica Gonzalez in an interview with Sol del Valle. “Many people—even family and acquaintances—thought he was from Cuba, not Mexico. He’s from Chihuahua, from a place called Matachic.”
Gabriella was on her way to pick up her husband after he phoned her around 4 AM from a Kum and Go convenience store on East First Street in Rifle. She said the boots came as a shock. “At first, I didn’t even know it was him, but when I saw the shape of [his boot[, he came to my mind,” she said. “Then as I got closer and looked, that’s when I saw him lying there and I just froze.”
The Garfield County Coroner’s report listed the manner of death as an accident and the cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries.
According to the police incident report, witnesses said they saw a silver Jeep Cherokee - possibly a 2005 - 2010 model - hit Chacon and drive away. Chacon was found lying on his back in the middle of Highway 13 on the north approach to the bridge. The police report said there was “blood everywhere”.
“I didn’t lose hope when I saw him lying there. I hoped he would survive,” said his widow tearfully. “Even though in my heart I felt he wouldn’t get up from there.”
The Rifle PD did not include witness statements in the incident report. Responding to multiple requests for documents, police stated, “It would be contrary to public interest to release investigation details which could jeopardize the investigation and/or subsequent prosecution.”
KDNK and Sol del Valle attempted to contact one of the witnesses, but they declined to comment. The phone number of another witness is disconnected.
A post-mortem blood test showed a blood alcohol content of .242 percent. A post-mortem urine sample showed the presence of a major cocaine metabolite, which suggested cocaine use two to three days before his death.
Normal Sunday
The day before his death started off as a normal Sunday with family, said Gabriela. “Well, in the morning he woke up very happy and asked me to make him something for breakfast,” she explained. “He stayed at the house for a while, eating, but around 10 or 11 in the morning, he came down [to Rifle] to the rodeo.”
Chacon went to the Garfield County fairgrounds where he often spent time with friends, working horses. Sister-in-law Jessica says he was handy with horses and loved rodeo. “I know very well who my brother-in-law was. He was a very good person and very well known in Rifle—not just in Rifle, but also in Montrose. He was known everywhere,” she told Sol del Valle. “He never said ‘no’ when someone asked, ‘Hey, I need help with my horse.’ He would go, no matter what—even for free, he would help.”
Afterwards, Gabriela and her daughters had dinner with Chacon and his friends at Mi Lindo Nayarit, on Railroad Avenue. A different restaurant is there now. His youngest daughter had been playing with his phone . “Then he stayed at the restaurant and we went home,” she said. “Then, well, my little girl forgot to give the phone back to her dad, and he didn’t remember to ask her for it either.”
Chacon stayed at the restaurant with his friends.
The family never saw him alive after that.
He phoned Gabriela from the Kum and Go but did not wait there. Instead, he started walking south toward the bridge.Two friends, including one who was with Chacon that night, declined to go on record for this story.
Dangerous intersection
Gabriela said he must have crossed East 1st Street and headed across the green space between Highway 6 and Highway 13. Then, he started across Highway 13 at what was a notoriously dangerous intersection at the entrance to Rifle.
Eight collisions occurred there between 2018 and 2023. There were no sidewalks or bicycle lanes. On that April night, the intersection was under construction.
At around 4:50 AM, Chacon was struck by a vehicle. His neck was broken, his sternum and skull fractured. “I still had hope that he would get up… because your whole world falls apart,” she explained. “You can’t believe that the person you lived with for 13 years is gone, that he left this world and left you with your two daughters. It hasn’t been easy—it’s been very hard.”
Police response
Police have not released updates about the case since July 2024. In late April, Lieutenant Mike Kuper of the Rifle PD declined an interview, stating that the agency could not comment on active cases.
Gabriela said that the family has not heard from the police for over a year. So, on Thursday, May 21, she and Jessica went to the Rifle PD in person, with questions. They were told the case is “closed/inactive”.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s over and done with. Rifle PD public information officer Angela Mills told KDNK that a case that’s “closed/inactive” is like a cold case that can be re-opened any time new information comes in.
Jessica is still not at peace. “Because we still don’t have answers. I feel like it’s always the same—we don’t get any answers. And it’s frustrating, it makes you angry,” she told Sol del Valle, “It makes you angry that they want to just set this aside. He was a human being. He was a father, a husband, a son. There is so much suffering.”
Gabriela’s girls have questions, too. “My daughters miss him so much, and they will miss him for their entire lives,” she said. “They ask why this happened to their dad, and you wish you had all the answers to their questions.”
This story is Part 1 of a series in collaboration with Sol del Valle, the Roaring Fork valley’s Spanish-speaking newspaper, with funding from the Colorado Media Project.
You can find the Sol del Valle story by clicking here.
Thanks to Bianca Godina, editor of Sol del Valle, and Ingrid Zunika for contributing to this report.
