Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — A month before Lori Bases was murdered in her home, she reported to police that her new Toyota Rav4 was vandalized on two successive nights.

Police said that in investigating the reports, they found an ax at the scene and sent it to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for examination for fingerprints.

They said they also obtained a search warrant for a Boulder man's cellular phone records in connection with the vandalism. However, police said they determined the man was not in the Steamboat area when the vehicle was vandalized.

Police said Bases made two separate reports describing the vandalism to her car on the nights of April 9 and 10.

The first report stated that on the night of April 9, someone unknown to her used a sharp object to puncture a rear tire and repeatedly slash all of the seats and dashboard while her vehicle was parked outside her apartment.

The second report said that on following night, April 10, two tires on the vehicle, parked in the same location, were slashed.

On April 8, a girlfriend from Longmont spent the night at Bases' apartment. The previous day, the girlfriend had filed a report with the Weld County sheriff's office alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by her boyfriend.

Bases' girlfriend told Steamboat police last month, in response to questions about the vandalism, that while driving from the Front Range to Steamboat, she used Caller ID to screen at least two cell phone calls from her boyfriend.

Bases' friend told police she thought she saw her boyfriend's white delivery truck drive by Bases' house on April 9. She said he had been to Bases' house before.

According to court documents, the man worked for High Plains Distributing and drove a boxy delivery truck.

On April 20, Steamboat police requested the release of the Boulder man's cellular phone records from April 8 to April 11, in order to determine if he made any calls in the Steamboat area.

Chief J.D. Hays said police determined that the two calls to the girlfriend were not made in Steamboat

"We determined he wasn't in the area during that time," Hays said.