Aspen kidnapping suspect receives permanent protection order

Editor’s note: This article contains details of kidnapping, assault, and sexual violence that could be triggering to some readers.

A Pitkin County judge assigned a permanent protection order to an Aspen woman who allegedly kidnapped and assaulted another Aspen woman in early July. 

The order prohibits Vanessa Leighton from contacting the victim in any way and has been assigned after she and her co-defendent, Aspen’s Nathan Keen, were accused of forcibly driving the victim to a remote part of Independence Pass and severely beating her on July 5, according to a police affidavit. 

The suspects also allegedly drove the victim across the state against her will between July 5 and 7, and told her they would “beat her up” if she went to authorities. 

In a Wednesday protection order hearing, the victim’s mother testified in favor of the order. 

“I’m fearful for my daughter’s life,” the mother said. “It’s all I think about.”

Allison Mahoney, the victim’s defense attorney, brought the victim to the stand on Wednesday to describe in detail the events on Independence Pass and the two days she was allegedly held against her will.

The victim said she had dated Keen between March and June 2025. On the morning of July 5, she said Keen walked through the door of her house in Aspen, at which point she drove Keen to his own house across town. After Keen entered and exited his house, she said he threw what he said was $20,000 at her, before pointing a loaded semi-automatic 9-millometer gun at her. 

“He told me to get into the backseat, and then we drove to Vanessa’s house,” she said. “I tried to get out, but I could not. I was forced into the backseat of my own truck.”

The victim said she was aware that Leighton and Keen had previously dated. Once they picked up Leighton, the victim said Keen drove her up Independence Pass with Leighton in the front passenger seat, repeatedly swinging the victim’s truck into the guard rail. She said Keen had told her that he and Leighton were going to “teach (her) a lesson.”

Keen reportedly stopped the truck at Lincoln Creek campground up the pass, which the victim described as “very remote with hardly any people up there.”

The victim said Leighton told her to “stay the f*ck away from my family” — a statement the victim told the court she didn’t understand.

Leighton allegedly punched the victim in both eyes. Between the two suspects, the victim also said she had sunscreen squirted on her and hand sanitizer put down her mouth, a hair pick stuck in her ear, was pistol-whipped, strangled, and kicked repeatedly in the ribs.

The victim added Leighton stuck her bloody tampon down the suspect’s throat, choking her, and Keen discussed raping her. 

In the days following, the suspects allegedly also forced the victim to accompany them to Buena Vista, Gunnison, Ouray, and Montrose, according to the affidavit.

In court Wednesday, the victim’s mother corroborated the allegations, saying she tracked her daughter’s phone on July 7 in Ouray and witnessed her daughter’s injuries when she met with her daughter on July 11 in Parachute. 

“She didn’t look like my daughter — her face was extremely swollen, bruised, and she had a hard time getting in and out of my car,” she said. “She looked horrible”

She added that her daughter was fearful and “always looking over her shoulder.” The victim’s mother convinced her daughter to report to the police about a week after the allegations occurred. 

In court Wednesday, Leighton said there was no evidence she had committed the crimes. 

“I just want to say that there is no proof or evidence that connects me to these allegations whatsoever,” she said.

But Judge Ashley Andrews found that the violence and sexual violence allegedly committed by Leighton against the victim, as well as Leighton’s alleged threat to harm the victim should she report to authorities, was enough to grant the permanent protection order. 

Keen also appeared in court for the permanent protection order hearing but continued the proceedings to Sept. 24, telling the court he planned to hire an attorney to represent him. 

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.