Maggie Long, a 17-year-old who lived in rural Bailey, Colorado, went home for the last time on Dec. 1, 2017, when she happened upon armed men burglarizing it. There was an altercation, and then the assailants set the house on fire with Long inside, creating an enduring true crime mystery in the process. Maggie’s killers are still at large.
The first day of December, 2023 marked six long years during which the Long family has been searching for justice for this heinous crime. There are still so many questions: Did the burglars kill Maggie because she caught them in the act? Were her murderers motivated by Asian hate? Did authorities bungle the investigation and wait too long, giving the bad guys ample time to escape?
The case has been cold for years, despite being reclassified as a hate crime with a specific task force assigned to it. Here’s what happened to Maggie Long.
What happened to Maggie Long?
Maggie, by all accounts, was just your average high school senior. On that fateful day, she was supposed to man the V.I.P. room for a concert at the high school. Instead of waiting at the school, she decided to drive home to pick up some snacks.
She pulled up, parked her car in the driveway, and entered the house to find at least three armed men inside. We don’t know why the Long house was targeted by criminals, but at the time, Maggie’s parents owned several Chinese restaurants and had heavily invested in real estate, so it’s possible their resulting high profile may have attracted attention.
It was obvious people loved Maggie. Her best friend Katy Monahan admitted last year that she definitely still feels her presence around her.
“I just see her, like randomly. . . and sometimes, like, songs will come on that I remember listening to with her and stuff like that.”
Katy’s mother was effusive about Maggie, saying she had a “wonderful spirit” and an amazing smile and a huge heart. “She loved everyone,” the mother recalled.
Katy’s sister Connie said the tragedy was just senseless, and shared how she goes through Maggie’s stuff at least once a year around the time of her disappearance, which recently led to the discovery of a note.
“I opened up her computer and I found a note that she wrote to herself for when she turns 18 . . . The main message that she was giving herself was: ‘No matter what you decide to do with your life, just be a good person.’”
Around 7 p.m. on the day of the murder, Park County deputies were dispatched to the 6,000-square-foot ranch-style house after getting a call about a disturbance. “It was reported in a 9-1-1 call that people were inside the residence causing damage,” the FBI said in a press release. “At least one male was on the property.”
Connie, meanwhile, was getting texts about noises in the house. A tenant who lived upstairs, who would later be cleared as a suspect, told Connie they heard loud noises coming from downstairs.
Connie and Maggie’s mom was also confused; she thought Maggie was supposed to come into work. She didn’t even know about the concert.
Connie assumed Maggie would show up at the school, so she went there and just… waited. Maggie was supposed to be there for set up. When the first band started to play, Connie’s heart sank. She knew something wasn’t right, and something told her she needed to go home. Now.
As Connie neared the house, she saw firefighters in her driveway and she smelled smoke. She waited outside as other family members started showing up. She wasn’t allowed in the house for four hours. In fact, they couldn’t even enter the house until 11 when sheriffs came out and told them they found a female body in the wreckage.
The death was ruled a homicide by deputies, per a press release:
“Investigative efforts at the scene revealed a physical altercation took place between Long and her assailants before the fire started. The suspects stole a Beretta handgun, an AK-47-style rifle, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, a green safe, and jade figurines.”
Connie said it was important to remember that Maggie died in an extremely brutal way. It’s important for her memory, and so that people remember that this happened, and so that the Long family can find justice.
The family wasn’t allowed back in the house for four more days. They stayed with grandparents in the meantime. Per sister Lynna:
“We were not allowed to be anywhere near the home because it was a crime scene….so we actually didn’t even see the house until four days . . . when we got a tour of the house by the sheriff, basically showing us where the damage was. And we saw just the damage in the garage as well. Because the perpetrators were trying to set multiple starting points of the fire around the house.”
On the outside, it didn’t look much like deputies were getting much done. They told the family not to talk to the press or anyone in town for a week. They didn’t issue a press release until more than a month and a half after the crime, perhaps giving the perpetrators plenty of time to leave town.
Nelson Conway, the owner of a theater where Maggie would perform after school, criticized the glacial pace of the investigation. Conway called the sheriff’s investigation “sloppy from the beginning.” He couldn’t quite understand the rationale of waiting to put out the news of the crime.
As for investigators, there were initially a lot of leads to follow up on. Lynna revealed there were “dozens of different people” being looked into by the FBI, including “young white men who had police called on them for threatening neighbors.”
Unfortunately, those people had alibis and none of the leads led to anything at all.
In 2021, following an uptick in crimes against the Asian and Asian-American community, the case was reclassified as a hate crime, allowing for more resources and the formation of a task force with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI. Despite all this, the case remains cold. That doesn’t mean that law enforcement or the Long family are giving up.
Earlier this month, Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw said he holds out hope that the case will eventually be solved.
He will not give up the “quest for justice,” he said. There’s a dedicated task force who never stopped searching. He promises they’ll follow every lead and clue until something finally happens. Until they get that mystical break in the case, Maggie deserves justice.