A Centennial man has been arrested after the dismembered remains of a woman, believed to be his mother, were found in the back seat of his car.
Ari Misha Liggett was arrested on Oct. 17, two days after family members had reported him and his mother missing from their home. Liggett, 24, and his 56-year-old mother lived in the 6200 block of East Peakview Avenue.
After receiving the missing persons’ report on Oct. 15, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office began monitoring credit card transactions, leading to a belief that the pair traveled to the Western Slope of Colorado during the early morning hours of Oct. 16.
Early on Oct. 17, sheriff’s deputies spotted the vehicle associated with the missing persons report as it drove near the Peakview address, but were unable to make contact.
A Greenwood Village police officer saw the vehicle on the afternoon of Oct. 17 and attempted to make a traffic stop. The sheriff’s office says Liggett was driving and tried to elude police, but crashed at the intersection of East Orchard Road and South Dayton Street.
Liggett then fled the vehicle and, after a brief foot pursuit, was taken into custody without further incident, according to the sheriff’s office.
While conducting an initial search of the home, investigators discovered a suspicious liquid thought to be potassium cyanide, although further testing and laboratory analysis are required.
Potassium cyanide is a highly toxic, colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar and highly soluble in water. It is commonly used in gold mining and electroplating. Smaller applications include chemical gilding and buffing of jewelry.
According to reports, Liggett was arrested in 2010 at a commercial shipping office in Arapahoe County on an unrelated weapons charge and later forced a seven-hour evacuation of a Boulder homeless shelter after he told police he was storing hazardous chemicals there.
The deceased woman has not been positively identified, pending further investigation by the county coroner’s office.
Liggett is being held without bond in the Arapahoe County jail, pending the filing of a first-degree murder charge, the sheriff’s office reports.