A man was arrested Sunday after he allegedly broke into a Dolores woman’s house and spent the night – drinking a bottle of wine and cooking on her stove – before leaving an incriminating letter behind.
He allegedly broke in the night before and made himself at home while the homeowner was staying with her parents in Cortez. He slept on the couch, played on her PlayStation, and rummaged through her closets and drawers, according to a deputy’s report. He also apparently left behind a four-page letter that said that he had taken “all the poisons from (the) home” and would return sometime to meet the homeowner. He identified himself and said he was traveling from Durango to Telluride.
The owner of the residence, in the 200 block of North Central Street, contacted the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday morning, and Deputy Zachary Green responded to the scene. The homeowner and a neighbor gave Green a description of a man they’d seen walking away from the house, and the deputy reported that he found footprints in the snow outside the house.
The deputy caught up with a man walking on Colorado 145 at mile marker 15 who matched the suspect’s description. When confronted, the suspect identified himself as Ryan Versaw, and his shoes matched the footprints outside the house, according to the deputy’s report. Versaw said he had entered the house through a dog door and stayed there for the night to keep warm. He denied that he had drunk the wine or used the stove.
Green arrested Versaw on suspicion of second-degree burglary and theft, and transported him to the Montezuma County jail.
