The three men all appeared to enter the hotel separately but met up at a display case in the lobby. The suspects allegedly took $800,000 worth of jewelry from the case, walked out and left the scene in a rental car. It's unclear whether the suspects flew from Aspen airport or ended up driving to Denver, but they were eventually spotted after the theft at Denver International Airport.
The Aspen police circulated photos of the three suspects at Denver International Airport taken in the days after the theft. At least two of the pictures show the suspects standing in front of an American Airlines gate area boarding sign. American Airlines serves Denver from Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and Phoenix. There do not appear to be any reports of where the suspects were headed.
The missing jewelry is the property of Piranesi, a jeweler based in New York City, who has had a display case in the Little Nell Hotel for approximately 20 years. There are no reports as to why the display case with almost $1 million worth of jewelry wasn't secured with an alarm or how the suspects apparently were able to open the case easily and escape the hotel without anyone noticing.
Aspen is a very affluent area, popular amongst wealthy individuals and celebrities in both the winter and warmer months. Opened in 1989, the Little Nell Hotel is a Five-Star, Five Diamond hotel that sits near an old mining shaft named after a lady of the night. While the hotel is sold out for New Year's Eve, you can snag a room for December 29th for $10,730. Rooms drop to between $1,200 and $4,000 in January, and less than $1,000 per night in June.
Photo by Malcolm Linton/Liaison
