BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
Shortly after 8:00 a.m. on March 30, police were called to a home in the Hills West neighborhood near the corner of East Belleview Avenue and South Havana Street, where they found Tracy Lee Bloch Lechner, 42, a mother of two young children, deceased in her driveway from a gunshot wound.
Her estranged husband, David Samuel Lechner, 45, had fled the scene but was arrested a mile away a short time later and charged with First Degree Murder – Felony, Menacing/Aggravated Assault with a gun – Felony, and Domestic Violence – Misdemeanor. He is being held in the Arapahoe County Detention Facility without bond.
The arrest affidavit says that a witness who happened to be driving by and heard a commotion reported seeing David Lechner shoot the victim in the face at point-blank range as he stood over her, before fleeing in his car.
Tracy Lechner was a highly respected private attorney with expertise in the fields of cybersecurity, technology, information security, and media. She also served as adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado School of Law.
At Tracy’s funeral service, Rabbi Yaakov Meyer spoke about the scourge of omnipresent violence in our society and the need to reject it, seeking instead tolerance and understanding. Her father, Dr. Clifford Bloch, spoke about Tracy as a super-mom who taught kindness to her children and as a woman of valor, a customary designation of great honor. Her mother, Natalie Bloch, spoke in glowing terms about Tracy’s boundless energy, dedication to her children, and courage as she worked to help other victims of domestic abuse battle a tangled and heartless court system as she had done for the past three and a half years, attempting to get divorced from her husband, who was under a restraining order when he came to her house and allegedly committed this heinous crime.
Tracy’s friends have set up a way to help Tracy’s two young children, “SupportForTracyLechnersKids” on spotfund.com.
fmiklin.villager@gmail.com