Cops say he murdered his mother in Colorado, and he was just caught in the Florida Keys
A Colorado man accused of killing his mother last week was arrested Tuesday morning in the Florida Keys.
Monroe County sheriff’s deputies arrested Matthew Harless Buchanan, 32, at a Plantation Key gas station, agency spokesman Adam Linhardt said.
Deputies located him at the 7-Eleven shortly after receiving information around 3 a.m. that Buchanan was in the Keys driving a white Dodge Caravan minivan. A 50-year-old woman from Daytona Beach was also in the van, but she was not arrested, Linhardt said.
Buchanan is expected to be returned to Colorado to face multiple charges, including second-degree murder and arson.
He is accused of killing his mother, 59-year-old Elizabeth Bjorlow. She was found dead inside her smoldering house shortly before 3 p.m. last Tuesday after firefighters extinguished a fire there, the Castle Rock Police Department said in a statement.
The Douglas County Coroner’s Office did an autopsy, but the manner of Bjorlow’s death has not been released. Another person was inside the house at the time and was treated in the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, the police department said.
Police named Buchanan a person of interest in the blaze and a warrant was issued for his arrest “for his involvement in the death of his mother,” the Castle Rock police said. Witnesses saw him leave the house in a Dodge minivan.
“This incident has shaken our community,” Castle Rock Police Chief Jack Cauley said in a statement shortly after Bjorlow’s body was found.
Cauley released a statement Tuesday thanking the Keys sheriff’s office, as well as other police agencies, and praising his investigators
“I am so proud of our team for their diligent and quick work, and we hope this arrest brings some relief to our community,” Cauley said. “We are grateful to the many agencies who assisted us in locating this wanted person.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 3:14 PM.
