The slaying of Celia Arozamena

The murder of Celia Barquin Arozamena… 

By: Aleksyia LeClere 

9/21/18 

Introduction to Media: Journalism 

Life is so short, so might as well live it well. That is what Celia Arozamena was doing until her life was cut short.  

 Celia Arozamena was a Big 10 golf champion and was also the Iowa State Female of the Year. She sadly was found dead Monday morning of her last week at Coldwater Golf Links. A mystery golf bag (which was proven to be Celia's) was found on the golf course at approximately 10:24 a.m. Her body was later located by officers "some distance away" and they determined the way she died was by assault. The authorities believed that the murder was homeless man, Collin Daniel Richards who has committed two dozen crimes before he turned 18. This includes his more minor crimes as a smashed windshield, to the murder of Celia Arozamena. Collin Richards Court-appointed Des Moines lawyer by the name of, Stephie Tran, who says that he would not stand a chance without her. She goes on to state, “he seemed fine---nothing unusual…” But besides the opinion of Stephie Tran, the authorities believe that Richards act of violence was completely random and unexpected. 

Collin Richards criminal record first started on December of 2014, which was smashing in a windshield with a bat. But from there he has been accused of vandalism, theft, domestic abuse, drugs, refusing to pay rent, etc. After multiple probation violations and other crimes Collin was sentenced  to prison in November of 2017 where he eventually got released on June 4th of this year.  

And in 2017 Collin stayed at his grandparents' home briefly and attended high school at Clarinda Academy which is a “residential foster-care facility for delinquent children.” This was due to his multiple crimes and other violations of the law.

Collin showed his face in court last week on Tuesday and was charged of Celia's murder. He was in jail Tuesday with a bail of $5 million, but the slaying of Celia was so horrific that he is sentenced to a life time in jail.  Since then they have not connected the pieces of why Collin's would do this in the first place.

In conclusion, when we hear about murders of our own state we really need to think of how to prevent this from happening. Even though there is thought to be no connection between Celia and Collin we must always look out for our surroundings. And it just goes to show that there is danger everywhere, even in Iowa.