Chris Halsne joined the FOX31 Problem Solvers investigative team after spending 14 years as lead investigative reporter for KIRO-TV in Seattle. His in-depth reporting on controversial topics have earned him a National Edward R. Murrow award for Investigative Reporting, several National Press Club Consumer Journalism awards, and numerous regional Murrow and Emmy honors.
Halsne’s specialties include exposing government corruption, cold case crimes, aviation, using computer data to discover new truths and keeping politicians and powerful community leaders honest.
In addition, The Humane Society of the United States has recognized his exposes’ into animal abuse with its highest honor – the national Genesis Award.
Halsne believes strongly in the Society of Professional Journalists principal: Give voice to the voiceless.
After receiving his journalism degree from the University of Kansas, Halsne worked for television stations in Missouri, Florida, Michigan and Oklahoma.
Halsne is a documentary filmmaker, an author and a guy who loves sports and the outdoors.
His wife of 27 years grew up in Colorado and has always considered this area her home. They have two grown daughters: The oldest is a Certified Prosthetist-Orthotist pursuing a PhD. The other is an officer in the United States Army.
ELBERT COUNTY, Colo. — A missing person’s case that began in January near Conifer is now a murder investigation; a body has been found and a suspect is in custody. The remains of 28-year-old Joseph Brinson were found Wednesday around 9:30 p.m. in the 42000 Block of Ridge Road near Deer Trail, 70 miles east of where he was last seen. Friends say they knew something was wrong the minute Brinson disappeared. “It was terrible,” says Quincy Lyon. “It wasn’t […]
LONGMONT, Colo. — A Longmont-area pastor appeared in civil court on a restraining order this week; accused of sexually assaulting, harassing, and stalking a much younger, former member of his church. On Tuesday, FOX31 was in the Boulder County courtroom when a judge approved the continuation and expansion of a restraining order against 51-year-old church leader, Nestor Villalobos. State public records show he leads a church called Iglesia de Jesuscristo Palabra Miel on 9th Avenue in Longmont. The church’s YouTube […]
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — The Colorado State Board of Nursing has revoked the license of a drug-pilfering nurse’s aide whom was the focus of a FOX31 Problem Solvers investigation late last year. Since then, former Lakewood resident, 39-year-old Euphama Jane Martinek, has also been arrested, charged with two crimes and then pleaded guilty to one of those. Court records show the Jefferson County prosecutor hit Martinek with a felony charge of theft from an at-risk person, less than $500, plus a misdemeanor […]
DENVER — Reports of violent threats toward Colorado schools are on the rise. A FOX31 Problem Solvers analysis of Safe2Tell Colorado’s “planned school attack” reports shows that between the last two school years, the number of tips connected to such a crime have risen at least 135 percent. Overall, during the 2017-18 school year, students reported concerning behaviors 16,000 thousand times — up from just over 9,000 tips the prior year. Suicide threats, drugs and bullying are the top concerns forwarded […]
TELLER COUNTY, Colo. — A former Idaho nurse has pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence in the disappearance of Kelsey Berreth and has agreed to testify against the man charged with killing her. Krystal Jean Lee Kenney entered the plea Friday to the charge related to the death of Berreth, a mother who was last seen on Thanksgiving. The tampering charge is a class 6 felony. Prosecutors in December charged Berreth’s fiance, Patrick Frazee, with murder and solicitation of murder […]
GOLDEN, Colo. — Jenell Mejia dreads opening her own mail. For the past six months, she’s been inundated by unpleasant surprises: overdue bills, court summonses, threats to suspend her driver license and letters from various government agencies, including criminal prosecutors. Her name is on the documents, but the rest of the contents are entirely unfamiliar. Mejia is a victim of identity theft and fraud, one of the most common crimes in Colorado. In fact, she’s the perfect victim: she has good […]
DENVER — New footage of the shootout between Denver police and a suspect was released to FOX31 on Monday. The video, sent to us by a viewer, shows officers surrounding the home where the suspect was holed up with a gun. FOX31 has taken precautions not to show graphic scenes from the footage but discretion is advised. The suspect died at the hospital on Monday, the Denver Police Department said. The two officers that sustained gunshot injuries are still in […]
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — A district court judge ordered that the criminal charges against the former principal and assistant principal of Prairie Middle School in the Cherry Creek School District should be dismissed because the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes ran out before they were indicted by a grand jury, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. For the past year, Prairie Middle School principal David Gonzalez and assistant principal Adrienne “A.J.” MacIntosh have been fighting the criminal charges […]
GOODING, Idaho — The search for answers in what happened to a missing Woodland Park woman is leading investigators nearly 800 miles away. Prosecutors say Kelsey Berreth’s fiance, Patrick Frazee, killed her on Thanksgiving day – and might have had help from someone near Gooding, Idaho, where Kelsey’s phone pinged three days after she was last seen. FOX31 Problem Solver Chris Halsne has traveled to Idaho for answers. In the video above, he tells us that a task force there […]
DENVER — 31-year-old Amanda Jo Garcia has plenty of reasons to pretend to be someone else. Police and court records show Garcia has been arrested 21 times in Colorado on at least 80 different charges, including forgery, fraud, criminal impersonation, drugs, and theft to list a few. If she’s ever had a driver’s license, there’s no record of it this decade — only a long trail of citations for speeding, impaired driving, and being a habitual traffic offender with a […]
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — The leader of a group home for at-risk youth has been arraigned in Jefferson County for reportedly abusing boys placed under his care by the Colorado State Department of Human Services. Wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit, 56-year-old William Sexton stood in front of a judge Monday facing nine criminal counts, eight felonies and one misdemeanor. The charges, spread within two separate yet connected cases, include five counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a […]
CRESTONE, Colo. — In life, 29-year-old Kristal Anne Reisinger was a naturally gifted clairvoyant and medium. Perhaps in death, she can help solve her own mysterious disappearance? Reisinger’s best friend, Amy Ervin, believes that “100 percent.” “They have access to realms, for lack of a better word, that not all of us do,” Ervin told FOX31. FOX31 first profiled Reisinger last summer on the anniversary of her disappearance. She vanished the week of July 13, 2016 from the tiny southern […]
