EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — A former El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy is accused of defrauding his family and co-workers and taking their donations for treatment of a fake cancer diagnosis to pay for trips and jewelry. Court documents laying out the probable cause to charge Kevin Sypher detail how he allegedly concocted elaborate lies to gain their financial support so he could afford a "double life."
Sypher is accused of taking more than $20,000 from his co-workers. Coloradans may remember his name as Sypher was the deputy who mysteriously disappeared into Rocky Mountain National Park a year ago after going missing for a short period days before. Now Sypher is facing charitable fraud, theft, and official misconduct charges in El Paso County.
A judge reduced Sypher's bond this week from $10,000 to $3,000 and waived his preliminary hearing. Oftentimes, that is done because the defense attorney is working on a plea deal with prosecutors. News 5 Investigates reached out to Sypher's attorney who could not confirm whether a deal is in the works.
Before the now- 57-year-old walked off into the national park on April 30, 2023, he defrauded his co-workers of $20,300, according to court documents. The affidavit in the case says that between March 2022 and March 2023, Sypher told at least seven co-workers that he had cancer and was also in the midst of a divorce. He told colleagues his wife was jealous of his new relationship and served him divorce papers while also freezing his assets. So the documents allege he shared with colleagues, he was unable to afford housing, food, or gas.
Sypher worked for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office for 11 years and was terminated when he did not show up for work and ran out of paid time off in August 2023. Most recently his job was with the Criminal Investigations Division. He primarily worked at the county jail until a month before his departure, the office merged two divisions, moving Sypher's office from the jail to Sheriff's Office Headquarters in downtown Colorado Springs.
On March 7, Sypher began a planned leave from work for a medical procedure, which investigators later learned had nothing
to do with a cancer diagnosis, the documents said. The day before his leave, Sypher's colleague filed a formal complaint about him to Internal Affairs. The colleague told investigators that Sypher emailed and texted him, asking for help with a crisis negotiation training scenario. The documents go on to say that the man agreed since Sypher was a deputy sheriff and taught classes on the subject of crisis negotiation. The colleague told investigators that on March 6, 2023, Sypher emailed him a script and that he'd be getting a call from a woman named Sara who would be playing the role of his wife. Sypher had the colleague tell his wife he had "five stromal tumors localized near the pancreas," and that "Kevin is scheduled for surgery tomorrow," the documents said.
The man was also instructed to tell her Sypher was taken off chemotherapy. However, the colleague told investigators he did not know what to do when Sara called back asking questions about the biopsy, noting that the surgeon who just completed Sypher's procedure had no idea what she was talking about," the affidavit said.
The colleague reported the incident because Sypher used his official capacity to "mislead him into believing he was participating in a legitimate crisis negotiation training scenario and because it could potentially compromise his physician licensing and integrity" as a Colorado law enforcement officer. That's when Internal Affairs began investigating Sypher.
Investigators found that the former sheriff's deputy used the donations to "live a double life," paying for a trip to Florida, going out to dinner, buying items at Amazon and Home Depot and purchasing his second wife an engagement ring, the documents said.
However, Sypher was already married to another woman in California, according to documents, and had his paycheck deposited into their joint account each month. One colleague who thought the two were divorced called Jody Sypher out of respect when Kevin Sypher went missing last April only to learn the two were still married and she planned to come to Colorado to search for him, the document said.
When he married Sara Clay just one month before disappearing, Sypher swore under oath that he was not married and also told colleagues he didn't know how he'd afford the wedding, the documents said. They go on to say that Clay told investigators she paid for the wedding herself and that Sypher took an envelope of money full of cash the two received as wedding gifts when we left their Parker home last April.
Clay has since filed an invalidity of marriage with the state. She told investigators that Sypher also shared with her he was sick and it was one of his dying wishes to marry her. However, the documents say that he found an interest in investigating her ex-husband and searched for him using the Colorado Crime Information Center database, which is restricted to law enforcement for official use only.
News 5 Investigates has previously reached out to Sara Clay who says she has no comment. Sypher is next in court on June 3.
