The Denver Post

May 28, 1993

Author:
Tracy Seipel; Denver Post Staff WriterDENVER POST
Page: 1B
Estimated printed pages: 3

Article Text:
LITTLETON - Hundreds of mourners - many of them complete

strangers - bade a tearful farewell yesterday to little Aleszandra
Ariel Berrelez, even as police quietly continued their hunt for her killer.

   Five-year-old Alie was kidnapped from her home last week as she
played outside with her baby brother. On Saturday, bloodhounds led
searchers to Deer Creek Canyon, where her body was found in a duffel bag.

Yesterday, during the funeral at Drinkwine Mortuary and later at her
grave site near the "Babyland" section of Chapel Hill Cemetery, Englewood
detectives videotaped those in attendance and their license plates, on
the off chance the girl's killer was present.

   Meanwhile, tears and hugging marked the mournful occasion as 350
people crowded into the chapel. Another 100 spilled out of the chapel
foyer to the outside. Several - mostly mothers with children - pressed
their faces against the glass partition at the front of the chapel,
straining to hear the poems, songs and prayers recited for Alie.

   The funeral featured a compendium of much that Alie loved.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was sung by a family friend. A prayer, "Now I Lay
Me Down to Sleep," was inscribed in 500 memorial folders, all of which
were given away.

   The hope that her killer will be caught was on the minds of many.

   "We want to solemnly pray that the one who committed the heinous
crime against her and against you might be speedily brought to justice and
suffer your righteous judgment," said the Rev. Don Cavin. "We know that
justice will be done because nothing is hidden from you."

   Alie's grandfather, Richard Berrelez Sr., recalled some of his
fondest memories of Alie during the eulogy.

   "I remember it was a little more than five years ago when a baby
girl came into my life," he began. "She grew up without a father who would
love her," he said, recalling once telling her, "Poor Ales, you don't
have a dad that loves you."

   "`But Grandpoppy, you're my dad, and you love me,"' he quoted her as
responding. "So we set the stage and played like father and daughter,"
he said.

    Berrelez remembered the times the twosome sang favorite songs
together, such as Madonna's "Material Girl," or danced to Little Richard's
"Tutti Frutti."

   "Everyone knew we weren't the best duet," he admitted. But "with
practice, we would have made a good duet."

   Only a week before she disappeared, Alie heard that her grandparents
were planning a short vacation, and told her grandmother, "I'm going on
a vacation to Lakeside Park," he said.

   "But I had no idea she'd be gone on a vacation so long," said
Berrelez, sobbing.

    Many others in the audience also cried, even though they did not
know Alie or her family. Nevertheless, they hoped their presence brought
support to the family.

   "I understand the way she feels, because I know how I'd feel if it
happened to my daughter. I'd want support," said Terri Vasquez, 23, who
was there with her 4-year-old daughter, Chantelle.

    "I felt sorry for the little girl's family," said Michelle Duran,
26, who attended the funeral with her three sons and mother-in-law. She
said the tragedy has taught her two oldest that "this can happen to
them if they talk to strangers or wander off."

   Alie's white velvet, child-sized casket was taken by limousine to
the entrance of Chapel Hill Cemetery, where it was transferred to a
horse-drawn carriage, and then to the grave site.

   Someone placed a doll next to a white-and-pink rose bouquet on top
of the casket. Baskets of assorted lilies, roses, daisies and other
spring flowers decorated the area. In one bouquet was a pink ribbon
inscribed "Mommie Loves You."

   Later, Alie's grandfather thanked the public for its support and
asked for help in forming an children's advocacy group to tighten laws
against those who harm children.

   Said Berrelez: "We have to unite together and go after a plan so we
won't have to deal with this anymore."

Copyright 1993 The Denver Post Corp.
Record Number: DNVR132726

The Denver Post

July 28, 2002

 Author:
Dick Kreck

Edition: SUN
Section: A
Page: A-02
Estimated printed pages:
3

Article Text:
You can keep your Six Flags Elitch Gardens with its fancy rides  and
fat entrance fees. Me? I'll take Lakeside.



   I strolled around Lakeside Amusement Park on a recent warm  summer
evening, the kind of night so still even the trees were  holding their
breath.



   Lakeside is the people's amusement park. It costs a buck and  a half
to get in, and that includes parking. Ride coupons are 25  cents. Large
picnic areas, like the wonderfully named "Royal  Grove," encourage
visitors to bring a lunch, spread out and take  their time.



   At Elitch's, it costs $32.99 to get in the door, and you pay  even
if you never set foot on a ride. Parking is another $8. And  don't even
think about slipping in a baloney sandwich. "Outside  food and drink
are not allowed," say the rules.

   Lakeside, at Sheridan Boulevard and Interstate 70, opened in  1908.
Originally known as White City, it was billed by ambitious  investors
as "the Coney Island of the West." The founding fathers  were a group of
Denver businessmen, including brewer Adolph Zang,  who put up a
reported $500,000 to build it. There were already two  parks in town, the
original Elitch's in north Denver and Manhattan  Beach at Sloan's Lake.



   Lakeside is an amusement-park time capsule, a trip back to a  day
when pleasures and life itself were less frantic. Visitors are 
surrounded by art-deco buildings bathed in neon and rides so  gentle a
10-year-old would scoff. Names of the rides at the two  parks tell you all you
need to know. At Elitch's there are The  Mind Eraser, Tower of Doom,
XLR8R and Turbobungy. At Lakeside it's  Rock-o-Plane, Tilt-a-Whirl, Wild
Chipmunk and The Round-up  ("Defies Gravity").



   I couldn't pass up a chance to ride the Cyclone roller  coaster,
built in 1940. "Do Not Stand Up/Hold Tight to Bar/Fasten  Seat Belt" warns
a well-worn sign as riders with steel nerves in  wooden cars are
carried into a pitch-black tunnel before making a  herky-jerky, clanking
ascent to the first big fall. The train  bucks and rattles and snaps from
side to side as it hurtles over  the vibrating wooden coaster. The best
$1.75 you'll spend for a  90-second ride.



   The carousel, built by the C.W. Parker Co. of Kansas and  installed
the year the park opened, still carries delighted riders  on not only
horses but on an odd menagerie of goats, deer, dogs  and pigs. The
park's glittering tower of 16,000 lights is visible  from I-70.



   How long can this go on? Not forever. Signs are everywhere.  It's
clean and well maintained, but it doesn't open until 6 p.m.  on weekdays.
An abandoned Ferris wheel makes a forlorn pile of  iron. The carousel
animals look exhausted. The adjacent Lakeside  Speedway was closed 14
years ago after a fatal accident, and trees  sprout where daredevils once
raced.



   There is no rational reason owner Rhoda Krasner, whose  parents
bought the park during the Depression, keeps it open. She  can't hope to
compete with bigger, flashier Elitch's. The night I  was there, about 100
souls were wandering the grounds. Why not  just level it, put up
condos? Krasner doesn't speak to the media,  but she said through a
spokeswoman that as long as she feels it's  an entertainment outlet for the
area, she'll keep it going.

   On a stucco wall, tucked almost out of public view, is a  small
poster, its 1950s-style letters dusted with glitter,  promising, "Lakeside
- Where Fun Collides With Thrills." They  might have added, "Where Time
Stands Still."

Copyright 2002  The Denver Post Corp.
Record Number: 1106616

Ever since I was a small child, I've heard horrific tales of death and mutilation at Lakeside Amusement Park. When I realized that Silent Hill's park shared its name, I was astounded. Could they be related in some way? True, after playing Silent Hill 3 and exploring the park more thoroughly, it appears that Silent Hill's Lakeside takes its inspirations from many sources. The most obvious parody in SH3 was of course, the Haunted Mansion, which I instantly recognized from the Disney theme parks. True, the actual sites you see are different in the game, but the lighting, the narrator's dialogue and even the graveyard out front are uncanny similiarities to Disney's famous ride. Denver's Lakeside doesn't have a children's theatre, either, but from what I understand of the park's history, it probably used to. The sign leading Heather to the roller coaster looks exactly like the one for Lakeside's Cyclone coaster.

My attempts to get more information on the park's dark past were foiled by their human resources rep. Not wanting to give the park a bad reputation, she denied any ghost stories or validity to the legends.

Notable urban legends include: a woman got her long hair caught on a rollercoaster turn and she was decapitated. There is, of course, the classic "someone stood up on the ride and got decapitated." Either way, someone insists that a coaster rider lost their head.

Lakeside's fun house was notoriously scary. My older sister was scared to death of it. I, unfortunately, wasn't tall enough to explore the landmark ride before it was demolished in the 1980's. Rumor has it that someone was killed inside and that's why they tore it down. The park's HR Rep insisted that the fun house was too old and cumbersome to control anymore and thus they tore it down.

Supposedly, one of the roller coaster cars careened off the tracks and killed everyone on board. I couldn't find any newspaper articles on this, though, so I doubt it's true. The closest evidence I could find was an article about the roller coaster car getting stuck or something and a couple of people got bruised...nothing to write home about.

Everyone I know (and people I have talked to online) have heard the very same urban legends. Could there be strange happenings in Lakeside Amusement Park?

I intend to find out for myself.