Bone, hidden trapdoor may lead to missing woman

MONTE VISTA - A bone fragment, a chair and a hidden trapdoor may lead the Rio Grande Sheriff's Department to answers about a woman who's been missing since 2002.

Danice Day disappeared from Monte Vista in 2002. She was 19 years old with two children.

Recently, the new owners of a home that Day's boyfriend’s parents' had owned, moved a shed to build a fence. Beneath the shed, they found a hidden trapdoor with an 8-feet by 5-feet by 4-and-a-half feet hole.

"It appears to be a trash pit," said Rio Grande Sheriff Brian Norton.

Sheriff’s investigators took nearly four hours to sift through the hole. They found a chair, a rusted step ladder to get into the hole, a missing poster of Danice Day, a newspaper article from September of 2002 and a bone fragment.

Day disappeared on January 9, 2002.

Sheriff’s investigators have sent the bone fragment, which is 2 inches by 3 inches, to the El Paso County lab to determine whether it is human and if so, if it’s related to Day in any way.

Her boyfriend, Victor Braun, is still listed as a “person of interest” in the case. He was recently released from the Rio Grande jail after burglary and bad check convictions.

Day's extended family has kept searching for her through the years. They maintain the daniceday.com Web site. 9NEWS has done stories on Day in the past.

"Any lead on this case we get, we’re going to follow," said Sheriff Norton.