The death of 16-year-old Alicia Martinez, whose dismembered body was found in four black garbage bags inside a blue plastic tub in Edward Romero’s home, is reverberating throughout Denver news outlets this morning. 7News notes Romero has been charged with her murder, and police have also charged 20-year-old Manuel Gonzales with a felony count of accessory to first-degree murder.

Such gruesome tragedies belie the latest report showing the number of murders has dropped 13 percent in the past year, writes the Denver Post, and, overall, crimes are down an average of five percent in the past year. That’s lower than at any time in the past decade. “Clearly we’re doing things right,” says Denver police lieutenant Matt Murray, a spokesman for the department. Murder isn’t the only crime that’s dropped. For instance, burglaries are down 6.3 percent. Still, some types of crime are moving in the opposite direction: Prostitution arrests are up more than 72 percent, points out CW2, and child pornography arrests increased by 15.4 percent as a result of police targeting them.