Murder of Nancy Pfister

Early life

Nancy Pfister was born on July 4, 1956 in Orofino, Idaho, a small city on the north bank of the Clearwater River. She was raised both in Aspen and Basalt, and attended Basalt High School. Born into a legendary Aspen family, Nancy was the daughter of Art Pfister, who made a fortune when he turned his family cattle ranch into the Buttermilk Ski Resort. Her mother Betty Pfister was a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II, who, in later years, flew a helicopter, which she was notoriously known for parking in the family's driveway. Pfister was raised in Aspen, and later graduated from Aspen High School. She took classes at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute. In her youth, she met John F. Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Cher and Michael Douglas when they vacationed at her parents' ski resort. Pfister was briefly engaged to Douglas.

At age 29 and never having been married, Nancy gave birth to her daughter Juliana Pfister. At age of 43, Pfister adopted a son, Austin, with a longtime boyfriend. The couple later split up and Austin went to live with his father, but the three all remained close. Pfister was greatly involved in her kids' lives.

Shortly before the time of her death, she rented out her house to retired doctor Trey Styler and his wife Nancy. Pfister abruptly evicted the Stylers from her house after they paid her $6000. Pfister refused to let the Stylers collect their belongings from the home.

Death

On the evening of February 26, 2014, Kathy Carpenter, a bank teller who Nancy Pfister had become close friends with, became concerned when Pfister had not returned her phone call from two days earlier. When she learned that Nancy had not shown up for her job as a tour guide for two days, Carpenter drove to Pfister's secluded log home in rural Buttermilk, Colorado. However, there seemed to be no trace of the missing woman. She later told police that as she entered the bedroom, she noticed the bed in disarray, the comforter draped over the side, and the sheets pulled off one side of the mattress. As she drew closer, she noticed a very small stain of blood, spattered on the bed frame. Carpenter then made her way to the walk-in-closet, where she found Nancy Pfister's lifeless body. Carpenter immediately called 911, and investigators arrived to examine the body before taking it to the crime lab. Nancy Pfister had a large gash in her torso, where she had been struck with an ax. The wounds to Nancy Pfister's face were later determined to have been caused by someone beating her with a hammer. There were no defense wounds on Nancy Pfister's body, which led the medical examiner to believe that Nancy had been beaten while she slept. He determined that the cause of her death was due to blunt force trauma to the head. Pfister's memorial service was held at Hotel Jerome, her favorite place in Aspen. Hundreds of people came to the memorial.

Investigation

Police immediately became suspicious when they received information that Pfister had in fact, returned home early from vacation. Kathy Carpenter told them that she had picked Pfister up from the airport, driven her home, and was asked by Pfister if she could stay at the house over the weekend. After spending the weekend with Pfister, Carpenter got up early and left for work, leaving Pfister alone at the house. Carpenter left a note on the door for guests, saying that Pfister was sleeping, and to call her to see if she was awake enough to talk before entering the house. Another one of Nancy's friends, Billy Clayton, said that he did not want to bother Pfister while she was sleeping, so he sent her an email. Pfister never replied back. Things became even more strange on Wednesday, when Pfister's roommates, Trey and Nancy Styler, called Kathy Carpenter to tell them that they had recently moved out. They told her that they had moved into a motel in Basalt, Colorado, only returning to the home to clear out their belongings. Carpenter, as well as the police, found it odd that the Stylers had not once seen Pfister in her own home. Nancy Styler came upon Pfister's dog, Gabe. The dog had obviously been alone for a while, given that the dog's food and water dishes were empty. Carpenter drove over to pick up the dog, and decided to check up on her later that night, when she found Nancy's body in the closet.

Investigators turned their attention to the mattress, where they believed Pfister had been murdered. When they flipped the mattress over, they found a large pool of blood, indicating that whoever killed Pfister had flipped the mattress in order to cover their tracks. The police believed that Pfister had been dead since Monday morning, and had laid in the closet for two days before Carpenter had discovered her. Based on where her body was placed, investigators also believed that she had been attacked by two people, who both carried her body to the closet. Shortly afterwards, they zeroed in on Trey and Nancy Styler, the couple who had been renting her house, because there were no signs of forced entry. The Stylers had met 25 years earlier, in a Wichita hospital. Trey worked as a doctor, and Nancy, an instructor. After the two were married, they moved to a large house in Kanorado, Kansas, that they had built together, and became world-renowned in specialized botany, for their shared hobby of growing the Victoria water lily. In 2000, Trey became ill, and had to stop practicing medicine. The two lost everything. After they were near fatally poisoned by carbon monoxide, Nancy had the idea to move to Aspen to open a spa, and contacted Nancy Pfister to inquire about her real estate offer in the local paper.

Police had no reason to suspect the two until they discovered that they had been withholding rent, due to the broken dishwasher and stove. The Stylers also complained about the house smelling like cigarettes (Nancy Pfister was a smoker) and accused Pfister of blaming the smell on them, in order to keep their security deposit. Nancy Pfister was unhappy, but asked Kathy Carpenter to arrange the repairs, as she was on vacation at the time. The Stylers paid Carpenter $6000 cash, which she kept in a safe deposit box for Nancy. By this point, the Stylers had become fed up with Pfister, and told Carpenter that they would be out by February 22. Pfister returned the very day that the Stylers said they'd be gone by, but they had not yet removed all their belongings. Pfister was unhappy, but allowed them to come back a few times a week, in order to move all of their belongings to the motel in Basalt. After Nancy Pfister's body was discovered, the two were separately questioned by police, to which they both denied any involvement in the crime. Trey Styler took and failed a polygraph test, which added to investigators' suspicions, but could not make a murder case against the two. DNA could not be used, because it could easily be explained: the two had lived there for a month before the murder. The Stylers were released later that day.

A few days later, a Basalt city worker was picking through a public trash bin when he discovered a bloody hammer, pill bottles with Nancy Pfister's name printed on them, and a vehicle registration for Trey and Nancy Styler's Jaguar. The city worker immediately contacted police. Police discovered that the trash bin was just behind the motel where the Stylers were staying. Another important piece of evidence came when investigators discovered the owner's key to the closet in which Nancy Pfister's body was found just outside the Stylers' hotel room. The Stylers were arrested on March 3, 2014. Shortly afterwards, they developed a theory that Kathy Carpenter had helped the two commit the crime based on multiple statements Carpenter made to investigators describing items she had seen at the crime scene that were impossible to have been observed. The theory held up and Kathy Carpenter was arrested and charged with 1st degree murder, just three weeks later.

In her interview with the police, Nancy Styler said that Pfister was a liar, an alcoholic (Pfister had been arrested on DUI charges) and hated by everyone. Pfister had called her and her husband "trailer trash," said they should be living in a "trailer park" and treated Nancy Styler like a slave, and treated Carpenter the same way. Prosecutors used this to say the Stylers and Carpenter had motive to kill Pfister.

Trey Styler's confession

Less than two weeks before the preliminary hearing, Trey Styler told police that he wanted to make a statement, regarding the murder. He had taken a plea bargain: confess and plead guilty to 1st degree murder, and his wife, Nancy Styler, and Kathy Carpenter would be released. Trey Styler began his statement when he told the police, "I lost my mind, or at least my rational mind. It was me, it was all me". Trey Styler went on to describe how he slipped out of his motel room while his wife, Nancy, was still sleeping. He then drove his Jaguar to Nancy Pfister's house to confront her about the way she treated his wife, when they rented her home. He then made the statement, "I stuck my head in the door, far enough to ascertain that she was in fact in bed, and I called out her name again, and she still didn't respond". Styler went on to describe the gruesome details of what happened that morning. He told police that he quietly made his way to the bedroom, and while he watched Nancy Pfister sleep, all the rage that had built up inside him, from the time his health began to decline, spilled out of him all at once. He began to focus his anger on Pfister, and all of the difficulties she had put him through. He made his way back downstairs and grabbed a hammer and an ax. He also obtained orange extension cords and a plastic garbage bag, which he later used to tie her up. He then described how he struck her in the face with the hammer, over and over again, until she stopped moving. When he realized she was still breathing, Styler plunged the ax into her chest, killing her. Styler then wrapped Pfister's body in her bed sheet and multiple plastic bags and left her in the closet. He grabbed some of her belongings, such as her medication, to make it look like she was gone. He never told his wife, ruling her and Kathy Carpenter out as suspects. As part of the plea deal charges were dropped against Nancy Styler. She cannot be charged for the crime in the future. However, many believe that Nancy Styler was also greatly involved in the murder.

The charges against Carpenter were dropped, but pending any future information investigators learn Carpenter can be charged for Pfister's murder. So far they have found no concrete evidence linking Carpenter to Nancy Pfister's death. Carpenter's possible involvement in the case has been widely disputed by friends and family of Nancy Pfister. Many believe that the police were only suspicious of Kathy Carpenter, due to her intense media coverage in the aftermath of the murder. In 2015, Carpenter, along with Pfister's daughter, petitioned the city of Aspen to have Nancy Pfister's name added to the "In Memory Of Friends Of Aspen" shrine in Snowmass Village, Colorado. The shrine honors Colorado natives and former Aspen residents, such as John Denver and Molly Brown. Her name was added in 2016.

Aftermath

In 2015, Nancy Styler came out with a book, "Guilt By Matrimony: A Memoir Of Love, Madness, And The Murder of Nancy Pfister". The book was widely criticized, described by the Aspen Daily News as "jarring" and "a giant hate speech". Styler describes Pfister as having Borderline Personality Disorder, and often glorifies her husband killing her (one chapter is titled "Trey To The Rescue"), although claiming she knew nothing about the murder. Styler goes on to accuse the Pitkin County of mishandling evidence, and "having it out for her from the beginning". Pfister's family, along with Kathy Carpenter, attempted to stop the book from being published, but failed to do so. Pitkin County Sheriff, Brad Gibson, said about the book, “Throwing those kinds of stones at a woman who’s been the victim of a murder is a horrible thing to do. That’s right in line with the kind of people we’re talking about. You don’t need to do that. She’s dead, your husband killed her. Leave it alone.”

Trey Styler pleaded guilty to first degree murder, and received 20 years in prison. On August 6, 2015, Styler committed suicide in his cell at Arrowhead Correctional Facility in Cañon City, Colorado. He was 67 years old.