Former Cuenca expat who committed 127 sexual assaults sentenced to prison in Colorado

A former Cuenca expat who police in the U.S. say committed 127 sexual assaults was sentenced Thursday to 28 years to life in prison by a Golden, Colorado court. Peter Dettmer was arrested in June 2016 in Golden on charges of raping an unconscious woman but fled to Ecuador before he could stand trial.

Peter Dettmer

In 2021, investigators tracked Dettmer to Cuenca, where he was living in an Av. Ordóñez Lasso apartment. He was arrested on an international warrant in April 2021 and held in a Quito jail until he was extradited to the U.S. in December.

Those who knew him in Cuenca said Dettmer led an unremarkable life, occasionally visiting local bars and restaurants and working with a community project for Venezuelan refugees.

According to Golden police, Dettmer was charged with at least nine assaults in Jefferson County, Colorado between July 2015 and June 2016 and for using drugs to incapacitate his victims. He is also charged with photographing his victims while they were drugged. One of his victims was Dettmer’s business partner, according to arrest documents. Following his 2016 arrest, police connected him to another 118 sexual assaults.

Police say he was released on a $2,000 bond in 2016 because the incapacitated victim was unable to provide details of the rape. Dettmer failed to appear for a January 2017 court hearing and it was determined later he had relocated to Cuenca three months earlier.

National Police say Dettmer did not have an arrest record in Ecuador.