By Matt Lubich/The Johnstown Breeze

Sitting in a motel room Sunday night less than 24 hours before he said he planned to turn himself in to Greeley police, Paul Acuña, who grew up in Milliken and laid to rest members of many of the families in both communities over the past decade, admits he fled last spring – but not from the law.

A failed marriage. The death of his beloved mother. The unraveling of a business, perhaps precipitated by both. All led him to leave for California in April to stay with family “and try to get my head and my heart together,” he said.