Cariaso previously convicted on charges of animal cruelty
By Adrienne Hoenig
Reporter-Herald Staff WriterBOULDER COUNTY — Larimer County sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a woman Thursday less than an hour after she was alleged to have robbed a west Loveland bank 14 miles away.
The woman was identified by the Larimer County Medical Examiner’s Office as Catherine C. Cariaso, 56, of Larimer County, a former dog breeder convicted of animal cruelty in 2005.
A private citizen who witnessed the robbery followed the suspect and guided authorities in their pursuit.
According to Loveland police, a woman walked into Chase bank, 1905 W. Eisenhower Blvd., about 1:30 p.m. and handed a note to a teller. She said she had a gun but did not show it.
The woman then left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money in a white Dodge minivan.
A witness to the robbery followed her and called 911, said Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle.
Larimer County sheriff’s deputies located the van and started pursuing it at Larimer County roads 8E and 23 west of Berthoud.
A Berthoud police vehicle also joined in the chase.
Cariaso pulled into a driveway at 83rd Street (the Boulder County continuation of Larimer Road 23) between Yellowstone and Woodland roads in unincorporated Boulder County, about five miles from where the pursuit started.
She got out of the van and leveled what looked like a gun at deputies.
Two Larimer County deputies fired, and she was killed about 2:30 p.m.
Investigating officers found a toy or replica gun near the suspect’s body.
No Chase employees were hurt during the robbery. Loveland police officers turned customers away from the bank as investigators interviewed witnesses inside.
The drive-through lanes at the bank were still open, and Van Buren Elementary School one block away wasn’t placed on lockdown.
Cariaso was sentenced last August to 60 days in jail and five years of supervised probation after being convicted on charges related to leaving 84 dogs at her Berthoud rental home in 2004.
The Loveland Police Department and the FBI will handle the investigation into the bank robbery.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office will investigate the shooting.
The Larimer County Medical Examiner’s Office plans to conduct an autopsy today.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said the deputies who shot Cariaso acted appropriately.
More details are expected to be released in the next few days.
“We’re in the early stages of trying to put this thing together,” Pelle said.
Reporter-Herald staff writer Kate Martin contributed to this report.
Catherine “Dodie” Cariaso may have predicted this day.“If I go to jail, I’ll never get a job again,” Cariaso told a judge before she was sentenced on animal cruelty charges in August. “I’ll be homeless; I’ll be a bag lady. I’ll probably have to commit a crime.”
Cariaso, 56, was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies Thursday after allegedly robbing Chase bank in Loveland.
In 2004, Cariaso made news for abandoning 84 Labrador retrievers at her Berthoud rental home.
Larimer Humane Society officials euthanized 54 of the dogs, saying they were malnourished, dehydrated, not vaccinated, covered in their own waste and living in crates too small to allow them to stand up.
Cariaso, the former owner of a Loveland pottery shop called Symposium in Mud, said throughout her hearings that she fell on hard financial times and couldn’t care for her dogs that she bred for a business. But she said she loved her dogs and thought the animals were well cared for.
Cariaso, who was to start a two-month jail term in September, said before she went to jail that she wanted to move on with her life.
“I don’t want to go to court anymore,” she said in late August. “I just want my freedom back.”
— Ann DepperschmidtSpecial to the Reporter-Herald/LEWIS GEYER
Larimer County sheriff’s deputies and Berthoud police officers investigate the scene north of Longmont where deputies fatally shot a woman alleged to have robbed a Loveland bank Thursday.
SOURCE: Larimer County; ESRI
Reporter-Herald graphic/JASON HACKETT
The suspect was identified by the Larimer County Medical Examiner’s Office as Catherine C. Cariaso, 56, of Larimer County.
A Chase bank employee is comforted by a man police allowed into the bank near the intersection of Van Buren Avenue and Eisenhower Boulevard after the bank was robbed Thursday afternoon.