TORRINGTON – Living with the scars of yesterday is a burden all too many carries. However, when those scars were made by someone who a person believed loved them, those scars never heal and the pain never leaves, especially for those who remain after a loved one has been ripped out of their lives forever.

At only 48 years old, Kimberly Apple died at the hands of Marty Colwell on May 17, 2021. Though Colwell maintained in court he didn’t remember what had happened, “Kim’s body was found stripped down in the house they briefly shared outside Torrington. She passed away from internal and external bleeding.”

In the affidavit submitted to the court by Sheriff Kory Fleenor, “Colwell told Deputies Apple had fallen out of a pickup truck the previous day and suffered a cut on her forehead as a result. Colwell claimed that he believed Apple attempted to overdose using prescription medications the day prior, which resulted in her falling from the vehicle…after the autopsy, the examiner determined the cause of death to Apple was exsanguination (severe loss of blood) due to both massive internal and some external bleeding that she had suffered due to multiple blunt force traumas. The examiner indicated there were also signs of defensive wounds on Apple’s body.”

Colwell told Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents he never sought medical care for Apple after she sustained injuries while falling from the vehicle. He also said he had made several attempts to carry her to the home they shared, dropping her multiple times along the way, causing additional injuries to Apple. 

“DCI Agents questioned the medical examiner about those claims, the pathologist indicated the wounds were not consistent with Colwell’s claim, concluding instead the cause of death was homicide.”

Apple’s daughter, Samantha Apple, presented the following during Colwell’s sentencing:

“One year, one month and twenty days ago, on the day of May 16th, 2021, this person made a horrific choice. He chose the day after his own birthday to end the life of an amazing woman, Kimberly Apple.”

Samantha “Sam” is the youngest daughter of Kimberly.
“I am at a complete loss of words,” Samantha wrote. “Not only did this man steal my mother’s life, but he took away my only best friend in this entire world and she will never come back as a result of that. I will never be able to see my own mom ever again.”

Despite her mother’s passing, Sam keeps her mom’s memory alive and reminisces on the great times she had with her mother. 

“We are left with the amazing memories we had with her and that he cannot take from us,” Sam wrote. “The joyful moments my family and I spent together with her will not be tainted by him…Kimberly Apple will never be forgotten and will forever be loved and missed dearly.”

In life, Kimberly was obsessed with bowling. When she wasn’t bowling, she enjoyed fishing, playing pool and photography. 

“She would bowl in different leagues and stuff. She loved it,” Sam said. “We would always go fishing. All of us enjoyed going fishing.

“She would go up to Glendo, most recently, that’s on the thing she would do most is fish. We would always fish over in Lake McConaughey because we grew up in Oshkosh, Nebraska.”

After growing up in Greeley, Colorado and living in Oshkosh, Kimberly moved to Eastern Wyoming. Eventually, Sam and her sister, NAME, moved to Eastern Wyoming as well, while their brother, Cody moved to Kearney, Nebraska.

“She decided she wanted to pursue college,” Sam said. “She went through three different colleges, but she finally finished it out here at EWC in 2016, same year I graduated high school. So, we each had the ‘16 little tassel.”

Sam said she wasn’t always close with her mom, but she holds onto the good memories they shared together. 

“The day that we had our little photo shoot – she wasn’t having to try so hard, she could just be herself and it kind of showed in the photos,” Sam explained. “She didn’t care about her body weight or anything like that, kind of just got that moment of fresh breath of air and being outside.”

Sam shared a humorous moment between the two while they were out taking photographs. 

“I had to give her crap, because in one of the pictures, there was a donkey down the road, so it looks like she is bending over kissing an ‘ass,’” Sam said with laughter as she reminisced. “I always gave her ‘crap’ about that photo. It was a fun day.”

The joy of their relationship began to fade with concern when she began to see the situation unfolding at Kimberly and Colwell’s household.

“They were together three to four months prior to it (Kimberly’s untimely death),” Sam said. “The first few months they were together, I knew he had a really bad drinking problem. I didn’t really think anything of it and then she left him at one point.”

Sam helped her mother move out, but Kimberly wound up not having a place to live, she was looking for a new job and had wrecked her vehicle in the winter.

“She left that little bit, but then she was in that desperate spot where she decided to go back and he became a little bit more controlling, a little bit more excessing, always wanting to be at her work,” Sam explained. “She got a job over at 307 and he wanted to always see her timecards and always wanted to be there. I didn’t really think anything of it; put two and two together.”

Looking back, Sam began to recognize signs domestic violence was impacting her mom’s life. At the time, Sam didn’t recognize what she was observing.

“He always seemed to have to have control,” she explained. “He worried about when the phone goes off; he would freak the hell out whenever my mom’s phone would ‘ding’ because he would think it was another guy…he would just immediately be on her.”

Sam said she noticed more aggressive and controlling behavior as time passed.

“He was easily ticked off towards mom,” she explained. “I noticed some of the signs; it wasn’t the greatest before she left the first time, but after she went back, it was more; more drunk all the time, more observant, more controlling, more obsessive.”

I went over there the day right before she passed, or the night of, I don’t know exactly,” Sam said. “I heard him yelling at her and I didn’t think anything of it.” 

Colwell claimed Kimberly was overdosing on prescription medication and said he was trying to get her to throw up. Sam questions to this day why her mom wouldn’t look at her. Sam suspects her mom was trying to hide injuries she received from Colwell as the reason she never looked at her that night.

“That’s the one that sucks the most, because the last time I seen her, she was faced away from me bent over a toilet and she didn’t look at me, and I just left.”

Sam would soon learn the news nobody ever wants to hear; their loved one is dead. 

“DCI couldn’t reach out to me, but they managed to reach out to Eric (Sam’s fiancé), and he was at work at the time,” Sam explained. “They asked if I was with him, and at the time I wasn’t, but it was right at the time of me getting ready to pick him up for work. So, they asked if they could meet us over there and I didn’t know until I showed up and he came outside. Then, they showed up and asked a few questions about Marty’s and my mom’s relationship.”

The DCI agents then delivered the news no peace officer ever wants to have to deliver. 

“They broke the news to me, asked a few more questions, since me and him were there the day prior and everything that happened and tried to put the pieces together,” Sam said. “They broke the news to me out in the parking lot and then I had to inform the rest of my family.”

Sam had just heard the worst news she had ever heard, something she would never forget.

“I didn’t cry at the very moment,” She explained. “After they left, I broke down, probably sat in the parking lot for quite a few hours.”

Sam didn’t want to deliver the news of her mom’s passing over the phone to her siblings, especially her brother, Cody, who was closest to Kimberly. Being as Cody was far away, she had to call him and inform him of their mother’s murder. 

“That broke my heart the most,” Sam said. “My sister, I at least got to tell her in person. I asked him not to tell anyone yet.”

As “the baby of the family,” Sam had to deliver the news of her mother’s passing to all the other members of her family.

“That’s what sucked the most,” she said. “I kept getting sick all the time there for a few weeks. I would throw up, basically, every morning. I still have nightmares to this day.”

Goshen Help, now Wyo Help, offered counseling and therapy services for Sam, but the struggle continues. 

“It’s hard to think about the good memories when the bad ones outweigh them so much,” Sam said. “You just keep going back to that one replaying.”

Colwell was later arrested and charged on Sept. 16.

“The great thing that happened, they actually arrested him and charged him on my birthday,” Sam explained. “Last year on my birthday, and that was a year ago a [month ago]; best and the worst, I guess.”

Colwell was sentenced to eight years with credit for one year served. He now remains incarcerated. 

Sam felt local law enforcement, the county attorney’s office and victim’s service didn’t put forth their best effort to fully convict Colwell. 

“I feel like the county didn’t do such good of a job in really looking out for their victims,” Sam said. “I just don’t think they wanted to put much effort into it. The coroner was phenomenal. They were really, really nice. They reached out, wanted to help out in any way they could. They were really nice people, those guys over there.”

The entirety of the awful events has left a lasting impact on Sam and her family.

“It’s had a major impact,” Sam explained. “It happened right after Mother’s Day, and we all didn’t really leave on good terms with my mother. We haven’t been the closest family and so, we have taken in a lot of regret…she was a huge impact in our lives. She was my brother’s No. 1 best friend, and he is at a complete loss, my sister is stranded, and my best friend is gone.”

Sam hopes to help bring awareness to domestic violence and the impact it has on families. She hopes by bringing awareness to the subject, the community will take a stand against domestic violence. 

“There’s others out there, it just doesn’t seem like it,” she said. “There are actually others out there. It helps to have someone else to talk to. You have your family, but you’re all sad and you get stuck in that same sad feeling. It’s nice to have someone else to talk to outside of the little group that you can just express your feelings to and figure out ways to cope with it.”

Sam and her family had Kimberly’s legacy and story memorialized with a Silent Witness silhouette with the Wyoming Silent Witness Initiative.

Sam has stickers on her car of a purple ribbon promoting the awareness of domestic violence and a sticker to memorialize her mother. She hopes to take part in hosting an event locally to spotlight Silent Witnesses and have shirts made to both memorialize her mom and promote domestic violence awareness.

If you know someone who is being abused or is being subjected to the face of domestic violence, contact your local law enforcement agency at 911, in the case of emergencies, or the Torrington Dispatch Center at 307-532-7001. Also consider contacting the Goshen County Task Force by calling 307-532-2118.