Man escapes Colorado halfway house transport; deputies weren’t notified, official alert took hours

STERLING Local authorities say they were unaware that a halfway house was going to transport a man to Weld County, where he was facing criminal charges, and Denver7 Investigates found that it took hours to alert the public after the suspect escaped.

A release from the Morgan County Sheriffs Office said that Byron Roth was not handcuffed or restrained in any way when the Advantage Treatment Center in Sterling, where Roth was in custody, drove him to Weld County for a warrant, where Roth was facing charges of aggravated robbery and felony menacing.

Now, the states Division of Criminal Justice is involved, requiring Advantage Treatment Center to conduct a review of the incident and its policies and is also considering launching an investigation of its own.

WATCH THE FULL STORY HERE:

At around 10 a.m. on Oct. 16, the car transporting Roth from Sterling in Logan County to Weld County pulled over just outside Fort Morgan after Roth complained of feeling ill. Once the car stopped, Roth ran. He hasnt been seen since, according to the Morgan County Sheriff.

Denver7 Investigates has also learned from Colorado State Patrol that it was only alerted to the escape more than an hour later when someone from Advantage Treatment Center emailed CSP, asking for a warrant. CSP said there is no record of anyone calling 911 after the escape.

The Morgan County Sheriffs Office, the county where the escape occurred, warned the public on Facebook at around noon the day of the escape, but State Patrol said the official law enforcement alert did not go out until after 4 p.m., nearly six hours after Roth ran.

They missed the opportunity to really do a good search for this individual and get him back into custody, said Stacey Hervey, a law enforcement expert and professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Hervey said the timeline raises red flags as no law enforcement agency, including Weld County, Logan County and Morgan County, were informed that a person in custody was being transported or had a warrant.

Im surprised that the treatment facility did not notify law enforcement and possibly have law enforcement come and do the transport, she said. I think there definitely needs to be questions asked about why the treatment center did not contact law enforcement.

In Weld County, Roth is accused of aggravated robbery, felony menacing and theft. An arrest affidavit stated that Roth stole shoes from a business in February and told an employee he had a gun when confronted. It also stated that Roth is known to carry weapons.

Transporting someone like that is going to take extra precautions, and it doesn't sound like the treatment center took any of those precautions, Hervey said.

The Weld County District Attorneys Office said they were also not informed that Roth would be brought in and said that transporting people with warrants is solely the responsibility of sworn law enforcement officers.

Advantage Treatment Center called this a routine transport in an email. But when asked why they did not involve law enforcement, the company declined to comment further.

On Oct. 16, 2026, Mr. Roth was participating in a community corrections program at Advantage Treatment Center - Sterling. During a routine transport, he escaped from the transport vehicle inside Morgan County. Advantage Treatment Center is hopeful that he will be quickly apprehended by the authorities and remanded to custody, where he will face charges for his conduct. We are currently reviewing internal policies and procedures and will review those results with oversight agencies and local law enforcement, the full statement read.

I think that should have been probably a top priority by whoever was transporting him, Hervey said. Hopefully they're going to look at how they can prevent this in the future.

Advantage Treatment Center is partially funded by taxpayers. The states Division of Criminal Justice said they can also force the center to take corrective action.