Teens arrested in connection with Colorado rock-throwing death took photo to keep as 'memento'

DENVER — Three teenagers accused of callously killing a woman by throwing a rock through her windshield confessed to taking pictures of her car but not trying to help her after she careened off the road, according to police.

Alexa Bartell, 20, died April 19 after a rock crashed through her windshield, and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office earlier this week arrested three teens in connection with her death and multiple other rock-throwing incidents that night. The three briefly appeared in court on Thursday.

According to court records, two of the teens had thrown items at passing cars over the course of several months. On April 19, investigators said, the teens loaded up the bed of a pickup with melon-size landscaping stones and began hurling them at vehicles as they sped around a suburban area at up to 75 mph, using military or gaming terms to coordinate their attacks.

Investigators said they used cellphone tracking and DNA evidence to connect the three to Bartell's death, and an arrest affidavit portrays a callous and gleeful attack on strangers.

Facing charges are Joseph Koenig, Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak, all 18.

"Mitch again stated it was Zach who threw the 'fatal' rock at Alexis' vehicle. When they turned around to see Alexis' vehicle, they drove past it northbound, and turned around southbound. Joe slowed the vehicle so that Zach could take a photo of it. Mitch noted that he felt 'a hint of guilt,'" an investigator wrote. "As they passed where the vehicle had stopped, Zachary used his cellphone to take a picture of the vehicle. When asked why, he replied that he thought Joseph or Mitch would want it as a memento."

In interviews with other victims who survived having rocks thrown at their vehicles, witnesses told police they thought the rocks came from either a sunroof or someone in the bed of a pickup. Karol-Chik drives a black Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup, and security camera footage of one of the attacks showed a pickup matching that description passing by.

Authorities offered a $17,000 reward in the case, and a coworker of one of the teens contacted investigators on April 25 to tell them he'd seen them load the truck up and heard them discussing their plans.

That witness "stated that he knew something bad was going to happen, so he insisted they take him home, which they did," police said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rock throwing death in Colorado: Teens arrested took photos of car