Fingerprints lead to arrest of third person in $6 million burglary in Aspen

The investigation into the $6 million burglary of a local developer’s home a year ago netted a third arrest over the weekend, according to court documents.

Blake Cowan, 29, address and hometown unavailable, was charged with second-degree burglary and theft — both felonies — after fingerprints found at the scene tied him to the alleged crime, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in July in Pitkin County District Court.

Cowan joins Nicholas Henderson of Glenwood Springs and Eleanore Louise Davis, who were arrested weeks after the Aug. 6, 2020, burglary at the home of Nikos Hecht, as defendants in the case. Charges against Henderson and Davis are pending in Pitkin County District Court.

The burglary of the home on Owl Creek Ranch Road — which Hecht sold for $40 million in May — netted a cache of Rolex watches, coins, jewelry and airsoft pistols with a total value of more than $6 million, according to Cowan’s arrest warrant affidavit. Cowan’s fingerprints — positively identified by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in March — were found on a keypad from a burglarized gun safe and the metal frame of a window screen removed from a broken basement window used to enter the home, the affidavit states.

The investigation into the incident by a Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office detective discovered Davis used to be married to Hecht’s assistant’s son and that they knew each other. Text messages between Hecht — who was on vacation in the Bahamas during the burglary — and Davis haggling for the return of some of the stolen goods were discovered by the detective.