Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

From left, Black Forest resident Kristin Brown, whose family lost their home in the wildfire, is joined by Ashley Clipp, Kaitlyn Barlow and Ashley's son Jackson, 2, as they support first responders outside of a fire camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sunday.

The most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history is 75 percent contained and expected to be fully under control by Thursday, officials in Colorado Springs said Monday.

Since the Black Forest Fire started on Tuesday, 480 structures have been destroyed, but the mandatory evacuation zone was reduced Monday morning, according Jennifer Brown, an El Paso county public information officer.

Although Brown said more areas are being cleared for displaced residents to return, The Associated Press reported that people whose houses are in areas where the fire did the most damage may be delayed by fire investigators. 

The cause of the fire is still unknown and evidence in those areas could help officials determine what or who started the blaze.

Slideshow: Colorado wildfires

The Black Forest fire raging in Colorado is now the state's most destructive wildfire ever.

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While officials said that three subsequent wildfires may have been caused by lightning strikes, at the time when the Black Forest Fire started, lightning hadn’t been an issue, so the fire is believed to be a result of a person or machine.

Meanwhile thunderstorms were bringing welcome rain as they helped firefighters contain the fire further on Sunday and Monday, and more showers were forecast into the week.

In the midst of firefighters extinguishing the remaining fires, the Sheriff’s office is focused on damage assessment of structures and cleanup, to prepare for more people to return to their homes. However, according to KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado, even those who are allowed back into their homes, or allowed to retrieve what they can from the rubble, still “must be ready to go at a moment's notice.”

Two deaths were caused by the wildfire, officials said, but the Sheriff’s department has yet to release their names. The two who lost their lives were in the midst of packing up belongings from their garage when it collapsed on them, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Jerilee Bennett / Colorado Springs Gazette via AP

Jaycie Francis, right, is comforted by her boyfriend, James Folk as they look at a destroyed house that belonged to Francis' aunt on Thursday n the Black Forest burn area.

Five days after a massive wildfire began to cut a lethal path through Colorado Springs, killing two people and destroying 473 homes, some residents were returning home over the weekend to face the devastation.

Fire crews fighting the monstrous Black Forest Fire made strides over the weekend, bringing the blaze to 65 percent containment, following surprise showers and mild winds Friday. By Sunday afternoon officials were optimistic containment would improve even more by early Monday.

Authorities have lifted some of the evacuation orders in neighborhoods surrounding the 15,500-acre fire, according to NBC station KOAA of Colorado Springs.

Jack and Judy Roe were sure their home was among the hundreds wrecked by the ferocious flames but discovered it largely intact when they came back to their neighborhood.

“We’ve been on such an emotional roller coaster over this, thinking we had lost everything and then to find out that it’s still there,” Judy Roe told The Associated Press. “It was a big relief to us, but I mean, our hearts were breaking for our neighbors.”

Neighbors Steve Boone and Lana Foery returned to their homes Friday afternoon. The fire was selectively destructive – Boone’s home, which he shared with his wife and two daughters, burned to the ground; Foery’s still stands.

“It really is confirmation for me that it’s gone,” Boone told The Denver Post.

Across the street, Foery wept with joy at the sight of her grandchildren’s hands imprinted in the cement near her home, unscathed by the fire.

“I just can’t believe it,” Foery told The Denver Post. “I can’t believe everything is still standing.”

Bob and Barbara Metzger’s home was completely ravaged, but their car and clotheslines survived the Black Forest Fire’s deadly march through their neighborhood.

“As long as the world around me looks the same, I’ll be fine,” Barbara Metzger told the AP, reportedly holding up a photograph of her charred house still flanked by trees. “We’ll rebuild.”

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Black Forest Colo., residents Marlice Van Zandt, center in green, hugs fellow resident Linette Perschke, in blue, who lost her home in the Black Forest Fire during an informational meeting on the progress of the fire at Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, Colo. on Saturday

Officials have yet to determine what sparked the Black Forest Fire, which broke out Tuesday amid record-setting heat and arid conditions. It has cost upwards of $3.5 million to battle the blaze, according to the AP.

The White House Office of the Press Secretary reported that over 1,000 personnel are responding to the fire. FEMA and the Department of Defense are contributing resources to help expand containment.

In a call made to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, President Obama expressed his “gratitude and appreciation for the brave men and women fighting tirelessly to combat these devastating fires,” as well as his condolences to the families of those lost.

The fire is reminiscent of the Waldo Canyon Fire in northwest Colorado Springs a year ago, which destroyed 346 homes.

NBC News' Gillian Spears and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Crews see progress against killer Colorado wildfire
• Nightly News: Family rescues 27 animals from Colorado fire
• Colorado fire now most destructive in state history  

One person was taken into custody at Denver International Airport after a “possible security threat” on a flight from Knoxville, Tenn. on Friday night, an airport spokeswoman said.

Denver Police and the FBI responded after Frontier Airlines flight 601 landed safely at about 7:30 p.m. local time, airport spokeswoman Laura Coale said in a recorded message.

The plane was moved to a remote location, and passengers were taken off the plane and bussed to another section of the airport, she said.

A bomb squad also responded to the scene after one person was taken from the aircraft by law enforcement. The area was cleared around 11:30 p.m., Coale said. She did not provide any other details on the nature of the possible threat.

While law enforcement responded to the possible threat, “all other airport operations remained normal,” Coale said.

Related:

• 'Security threat' forces passengers off plane at Denver International Airport

Firefighters made some progress battling a massive, deadly wildfire near Colorado Springs late Friday when cooler temperatures, rain and calmer winds swept in, allowing them to increase containment to 30 percent.

Mandatory evacuation orders for thousands of Colorado Springs residents were lifted, according to NBC station KOAA of Pueblo, Colo.

More than 38,000 people were evacuated at the peak of the blaze.

The fire, the worst in the state's history, has killed two people and made ashes of 419 homes. 

Authorities were hopeful about being able to stem the blaze.

"We had a real good day without wind in comparison to previous days," El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said at a news conference Friday afternoon. "The cloud cover we got to experience and finally the rain made a tremendous impact especially with that duff that lines the ground and we've seen a lot of smoldering over the last several days. So some things finally turned in our favor ... and I think if you look at it as a fight, we got our tails kicked for a couple days."

The fire raged mostly uncontrolled for days, with a burn zone covering nearly 25 square miles. One of three major fires raging in Colorado, the Black Forest fire is now the most destructive on record in the state.

The two people killed by the fire appeared to have been planning to flee the area before the fire caught up with them, authorities said. The fire's cause will now be investigated as a possible homicide, Maketa said earlier. 

Slideshow: Western wildfires

Drought conditions fuel blazes in the U.S.

Launch slideshow

The two victims were on the phone as flames ringed their home, he said.

"It appears as though the individuals were in the garage, the car doors were open as though they were loading or grabbing last minute things, and all indications are from the evidence on scene that they were planning to depart very quickly,” Maketa said.

Aircraft dropping flame-retardant chemicals swooped low over the wooded residential areas as 750 firefighters on the ground tried to battle back the licking flames that threatened to encroach on the city limits of Colorado Springs. Military and National Guard personnel have joined in the fight as bone-dry conditions and whipping winds have driven the fast-moving blaze.

The Waldo Canyon fire destroyed 346 homes in the Colorado Springs area last year, making it then the most destructive Colorado wildfire on record. That fire killed two people and forced about 35,000 more to be evacuated.

The U.S. Air Force Academy, located immediately north of Colorado Springs, announced Friday morning that it had opened its Emergency Family Assistance control center to help area residents affected by the fire.

A separate wildfire in the state, the Royal Gorge fire, shut down the historic Royal Gorge Bridge and a surrounding amusement park, and caused the evacuation of 900 inmates from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility.

That fire destroyed 48 structures surrounding the bridge, which stretches 950 feet above the Arkansas River and is located 15 miles from Cañon City. It had burned 3,142 acres by Friday night and was 40 percent contained, NBC station KUSA of Denver reported.

“We’ve see a lot of pictures of the damage, but it’s nothing that’s not recoverable,” Fremont County Commissioner Debbie Bell told the Cañon City Daily Record. “Fremont County and Cañon City are still strong and viable. We are going to survive this.”

The Big Meadows fire in Rocky Mountain National Park was reported to have spread over 333 acres by late Thursday, according to NBC News affiliate KUSA. That fire was in a remote area and did not threaten any residences or communities.

Related stories:

• Fire watchers: Colorado residents awed by Black Forest blaze
• Two killed as Colorado wildfires destroy 360 homes, force evacuations in Colorado Springs
• Colorado wildfires char homes, thousands of acres, force prison evacuation

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:09 AM EDT

John Wark / AP

Burnt trees and destroyed homes are left in the wake of a wildfire in the densely wooded Black Forest area northeast of Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday.

Thousands of Colorado Springs residents remained poised for mandatory evacuation orders Friday as crews fought to prevent the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history from spreading inside the city limits.

Two people have died in the 15,700-acre Black Forest fire – one of three major blazes burning in the state – and 38,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

It had reduced 378 homes to cinders by 10 p.m. local time Thursday (midnight ET Friday), according to the El Paso County Sheriff's office. It also covered more than 24 square miles. 

Hot, variable winds were hampering efforts to fight the fires.

As of late Thursday, flames from the Black Forest fire had not damaged properties within the Colorado Springs city limits but the sheriff’s office issued a mandatory evacuation order for about 1,000 homes inside the north-eastern boundary and a voluntary order for about 2,000 more, Reuters reported.

Thursday’s two victims were found in the garage of a home in a heavily wooded area, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said, adding that their car doors "were open as if they were loading."

Full coverage from NBC station KUSA

"All evidence from the scene is they were planning on departing," he said. Two other people who had been reported missing were later found safe.

The incident brought back memories of last year's Waldo Canyon fire, which swept through the area and was the most destructive in the state's history to that point, destroying 346 homes and forcing more than 35,000 people to evacuate.

"I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined we'd be dealing a year later with a very similar circumstance," Maketa said.

For the Gardner family of Colorado Springs – the state’s second-biggest city, with 400,000 residents  - it's the second year in a row they've lost their home.

"Here we go again," Terrie Gardner, who lost her home in the Waldo Canyon fire last year, told NBC station KUSA.

Gardner and her husband, John, were living with her parents, Bryan and Bonnie Lord, after they lost everything last year. Now the Black Forest fire has destroyed that home, too. 

The Lords had lived there for 28 years. All that's left are two cats, a dog, a laptop and a couple of checkbooks. Everything else in the home — family photos, important paperwork, all of the new appliances the Gardners had bought for their prospective new home — is gone.

Terri Gardner said the situation was "kind of overwhelming at first. We've practiced this once before."

But "you can't change it," Bonnie Lord told the station. "It's happened. What's gone is gone."

"Decisions to evacuate are difficult, and those of you who had to evacuate, we know it's very difficult for you," Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach said.

Police Chief Peter Carey said he was in discussions with the National Guard to provide security in the evacuated areas.

More than 700 firefighters were at work on the fire, reinforced by active-duty military and National Guard troops, said Rich Harvey, a federal incident commander.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed three disaster emergencies Thursday authorizing a combined $10.15 million to help pay for firefighting and other costs.

Slideshow: Western wildfires

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Drought conditions fuel blazes in the U.S.

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In the area of the Royal Gorge fire, about 15 miles from Cañon City, 48 of the 52 nearby structures were destroyed, authorities said Thursday afternoon. The fire had charred about 3,150 acres and was 20 percent contained. 

The fire is burning on both sides of the Royal Gorge Bridge, which stretches more than 950 feet above the Arkansas River and is surrounded by theme park attractions. The bridge itself was still intact, officials said at a news conference.

That blaze also forced the evacuation of almost 900 prisoners from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility outside Cañon City to a vacant prison in another part of the city Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Big Meadows fire that broke out Monday afternoon on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park was at 333 acres by late Thursday, KUSA reported. However, no structures or communities are threatened.

NBC News' Miguel Almaguer, Alastair Jamieson and Christopher Nelson and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related: 

• Colorado wildfires char homes, thousands of acres, force prison evacuation

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 14, 2013 5:39 AM EDT

A series of Colorado wildfires drove thousands of people from their homes Wednesday, scorching wide swaths of wooded residential land near Colorado Springs and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of inmates from an area prison.

More than 900 prisoners were transported overnight from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, which houses many inmates with medical needs, to other prisons, corrections spokesman Adrienne Jacobson told The Associated Press.

"This was done as a precaution because it takes a lot of time to move the prisoners," Jacobson said. The prison is about an hour from Colorado Springs.

A red flag warning was in effect for western Colorado plus the Colorado Springs area Wednesday as temperatures approaching 100 degrees and strong winds contributed to "critical fire weather conditions," the National Weather Service reported. 

City officials issued a voluntary evacuation order Wednesday afternoon for northern parts of Colorado Springs itself east of Interstate 25. No deaths or injuries had been reported, but authorities strongly urged people to obey the warnings.

Gov. John Hickenlooper issued a disaster declaration, opening the door to $5.5 million in emergency funding.

The largest of the blazes, the Black Forest fire in El Paso County, had grown to between 8,500 and 12,000 acres Wednesday afternoon, covering 48 square miles. It had already destroyed 92 homes as it chewed its way toward Colorado Springs, authorities said.

"As you can tell, weather is not working with us, but our guys are giving it a heck of a shot," El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said. "The challenge we're facing is a lack of manpower."

More than 450 firefighters and 130 law enforcement personnel were at work to quench the flames, whose cause remained unknown. Because much of the fire scene has no hydrant system, crews were having to truck in water past exploding propane and other fuel tanks, and "with each of those efforts, you're losing time and square footage," Maketa said.

Some residents who had resisted earlier evacuation orders later "changed their minds" as the fire grew, Maketa said. But many insisted on staying behind, and he warned that they were putting themselves in dire danger.

"I know we had people stay in there, and I do have concerns that we could be facing a tragedy that involves people," he said. 

The El Paso County Fairground began accepting evacuated large animals as well as RVs and campers as the Black Forest fire remained zero percent contained Wednesday morning, the sheriff's office said.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, who represents the area in Congress, said in a statement that the fire was especially frightening with the memory of the Waldo Canyon fire — the most destructive on the record books in Colorado — still fresh. That fire forced the evacuations of 35,000 people and destroyed 346 homes when it burned through the Colorado Springs area in 2012.

One aircraft and dozens of firefighters worked to contain the Royal Gorge fire near Cañon City after the blaze was reported around 1 p.m. (3 p.m. ET) Tuesday. U.S. Highway 50 and local roads were closed as mandatory evacuations were put into effect for the surrounding area.

The fire had burned through around 3,000 acres and consumed 20 structures as of Wednesday. Authorities said containment was around 20 percent by late Wednesday, an improvement from reports earlier in the day.

"We're managing a very difficult fire, and we're actually gaining some ground on this thing," said Royal Gorge fire spokesman Gregg Goodland.

However, he warned that the fire "is not going to go away any time soon, especially under the dry conditions."

Officials expressed concern for the Royal Gorge Bridge, a suspension bridge that sits more than 950 feet over the Arkansas River, as the fire burned on either side. The park surrounding the bridge remained closed until further notice, General Manager Mike Bandera said.

A fire started by a lightning strike also broke out Monday afternoon in a remote section of Rocky Mountain National Park and had grown to 400 acres by Wednesday morning, authorities said.

Park officials usually let naturally occurring fires burn themselves out, but they've decided to try to put out what they've dubbed the Big Meadows fire, NBC station KUSA of Denver reported.

A 28-year-old man was killed Monday in California when he was struck by a falling tree while battling a fire in the northern part of the state.

Norma Rubio of NBC News contributed to this report.

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• 'Monster' California wildfire reaches ocean, pushes toward Malibu

This story was originally published on Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:02 AM EDT

Louis Batides / Reuters

Large plumes of smoke from a wildfire burning in the Black Forest stretch the horizon threatening homes northeast of Colorado Springs on Tuesday.

Wildfires fueled by hot, gusty winds were burning hundreds of acres and forcing evacuations Tuesday in three different parts of Colorado, a large part of which was under a red flag warning for extreme wildfire risk.

Fire agencies said their resources were being stretched critically thin as they tried to battle the fires simultaneously.

About 3,600 people had been evacuated from about 1,250 homes northeast of Colorado Springs after a smoky, fast-moving fire broke out at about 2 p.m. (4 p.m. ET)  near Black Forest Regional Park, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said. Residents of 300 more homes were asked to evacuate voluntarily.

No casualties were immediately reported, and Sheriff Terry Maketa said fewer than 10 homes were believed to have burned.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for southeastern Colorado until 11 p.m. ET because of "critical fire weather conditions" — 95 degrees and dry, with strong winds.

"As you can tell, weather is not working with us," Maketa said.

Neither were some residents. Maketa said some who'd ignored earlier evacuation orders were now calling asking for help.

"Some have changed their minds," he said.

The fire was moving rapidly, and authorities had no immediate estimate of how many acres it covered. Maketa said the county was trying to muster all the state and federal resources it could, but with two other major fires burning in Colorado, it wasn't clear when reinforcements might arrive.

A fire jumped the Arkansas River near Cañon City and the historic Royal Gorge Bridge, spreading rapidly to cover about 3,000 acres by Tuesday evening. With containment pegged at 0 percent, about 200 people had already been evacuated, and about 800 more were being asked to leave.

Territorial State Prison in Cañon City was put on standby to evacuate its roughly 16,000 inmates if needed, authorities said. 

"It's certainly not out of the question that we'll be fighting this fire for another week," said Gregg Goodland, a Royal Gorge fire spokesman, who said an evacuation for Cañon City itself remained a possibility. "This fire is not going to go away any time soon, especially under the dry conditions."

A third fire, meanwhile, was burning in Rocky Mountain National Park after having been sparked by lightning Monday, NBC station KUSA of Denver reported. At least five trails in the park were closed by the fire, the size of which more than tripled, to 300 to 400 acres, in just a couple of hours Tuesday afternoon.

No structures were threatened in the park, the Forest Service said.

Parker Enix-Ross of NBC News contributed to this report.

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Scott Pribble / AP

This photo provided by the Arvada (Colo.) Fire Department shows a hot air balloon that crashed on Saturday in Arvada, Colo. Several hot air balloons made crash landings after a morning of strong winds.

DENVER -- Gusty winds forced the crash landings of four hot air balloons in separate mishaps on Saturday northwest of Denver, leaving at least 10 people hurt, but none of the injuries was life-threatening, authorities said.

All of the aborted flights occurred in wide-open areas frequented by balloon enthusiasts, according to Dana Lewis, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Fire Protection District.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kalina said sustained winds of 20 to 30 miles an hour, with gusts of up to 35 mph, were reported in the area at the time of the crash landings.

Lewis said one balloon carrying 10 passengers and a pilot went down inside the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, injuring five people, one of whom suffered "a fairly significant ankle injury."

In Boulder County, a balloon with a pilot and 11 passengers "impacted the ground hard" inside a wildlife conservation area, said local sheriff's spokesman Deputy Mitch Rosebrough.

"The weather conditions were calm and warm early this morning, but changed to gusty winds at the time of the crash," Rosebrough said. Two passengers were transported to a local hospital with neck and back injuries, he said.

In neighboring Arvada, the pilot of a balloon was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and two passengers were treated at the scene after the aircraft crash landed, said Scott Pribble, spokesman for the Arvada Fire Protection District.

A fourth balloon went down in nearby Louisville, Colorado, but there were no reports of injuries.

Separately, a small airplane crashed on Saturday in a remote corner of the Great Sand Dunes National Park, about 230 miles southwest of Denver, killing one person aboard the aircraft and injuring two others, a park spokeswoman said.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but one lovesick bull moose in Colorado is having a hard time understanding that a bronze moose statue is not the same as the real thing.

The young bull has fallen hard for the life-sized moose statue with large antlers in a backyard in Grand Lake, Colo., and he’s attracting people from all over the area to watch him make his moves.

“He’s in love with it,” said Frances Transue, 55, who lives about a mile from the moose love scene. “He acts like he wants to mate it. He kisses it, he nuzzles it.”

Transue isn’t the only one who’s noticed the moose’s courtship. Local media have taken note, and various videos, including one from

YouTube user Adam Reling, have been circulating online.

Like clockwork, the moose calls on the statue in the morning and stays for the most of the day, Bob Balink told NBC affiliate KUSA.

"He's not too shy about it, apparently,” Balink said.

In many parts of Colorado, wildlife such as moose and elk are common in communities. Mike Porras, of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said it’s important that people remember moose can be dangerous to humans.

“Wildlife is unpredictable,” Porras said. “Why that moose is tolerating people coming that close is a question for the moose. Certainly, we recommend people not do that.”

Transue said she often sees moose in her backyard, especially as it gets warmer. This particular bull, who she thinks is about a year old, is the only moose that’s hung around all winter long.

“I think he thinks the statue is a female,” she said, “but it’s definitely not.”

Transue said there were about 20 people watching the moose Saturday evening and it’s been the talk of the town since the statue arrived earlier last week. She was about 20 feet away from the moose when she recorded her video.

“There were lots of people around,” Transue said. “He stops to look at people, but then he goes back to checking his moose out.”

A Colorado judge allowed Aurora massacre suspect James Holmes to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday and ordered an independent mental health evaluation.

The grad-school dropout's next stop is the state hospital in Pueblo, Colo., where a sanity exam could take months, legal experts said.

"I don't think any of the families were surprised," said Sandy Phillips, mother of Jessica Ghawi, who was one of 12 people killed in an Aurora movie theater while attending a midnight Batman screening last summer.

"Do any of us think he's insane? No, absolutely not. He was way too meticulous to be insane. He's mean. He's evil. But he's not insane."

Before doctors interview Holmes, they will review a mountain of evidence in the case. Prosecutors have up to 3,000 potential witnesses, 2,000 pieces of physical evidence and 40,000 pages of paperwork.

Susan Walsh/AP file

Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in the Aurora theater massacre, says she doesn't believe suspect James Holmes is insane.

The judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors can add one more item to their file: a notebook Holmes sent to a University of Colorado psychiatrist before the shooting that reportedly contains violent plans.

Jerri Jackson, the mother of victim Matt McQuinn, said she is curious to learn what's in the notebook, including any mention of motive, but noted it won't answer the question that torments her most.

"One thing I've always wondered is what Matt's last thoughts were," she said. "Did he think, 'I'm going to die'? That's something I'll never know."

Holmes — who wore a bushy beard and his brown hair combed back — was at Tuesday's hearing but did not speak beyond saying, "No," when the judge asked if he had any questions.

Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who has been closely following the case, said he will need to be more voluble with state examiners if he wants to mount an insanity defense.

If he refuses to cooperate with the court-ordered evaluation, his lawyers will be barred from calling their own mental-health experts to the stand during the trial or the penalty phase.

Holmes' team has asked that a defense lawyer and investigator be allowed to attend the sanity exams. In a reply motion, prosecutors said there's no precedent for it in Colorado and that having outsiders there "negatively impacts the accuracy" of the tests.

A stack of other motions were released Tuesday, including one in which the defense indicated it plans to ask for a change of venue, arguing Holmes cannot get a fair trial in Arapahoe County.

Steinhauser said the defense will have to do more than argue there's been too much pre-trial publicity to convince the judge to transfer the case.

"The issue with the change of venue is whether they're going to be able to find jurors who haven’t already made up their minds," she said.

If the defense can show — through a survey or some other means — that seating an impartial jury will be near impossible, the judge may consider moving the trial to a county where not as many potential jurors were directly affected by the shooting.

In other motions, the defense is trying to get expert testimony and Holmes' statements to investigators excluded from the trial. It also doesn't want the jury to see a evidence seized from Holmes' phone, wallet and a dating-site profile that asked, "Will you visit me in prison?"

One defense motion asked that authorities also turn over an email sent to the Century 16 theater four days after the massacre that said, "I am coming over to finish his job. The master demands it." The significance was unclear.

Holmes won't return to court until Aug. 2, a couple of weeks after the anniversary of the shooting.

"We are coming up on the one-year mark very quickly," Phillips said. "I just want people to remember the victims and not give so much attention to the killer."

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 4, 2013 10:28 AM EDT

DENVER - Authorities in Canada have arrested a man accused of breaking into his estranged wife's home before blasting her with a stun gun and pepper spray and kidnapping their 3-year-old son.

Monty Ray Turner was arrested without incident at a motel in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, said Longmont, Colo., Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur. The boy was found unharmed.

"We are working with the FBI on extradition and reuniting (the boy) with his mother," Satur said. "We've been working very hard on this case since yesterday."

Late Sunday afternoon, Satur said officials hope to reunite the child and his mother on Monday. The child is with Family Services in Canada, he said.

Police said Turner assaulted his wife at her Longmont home Saturday and left with their child, Luke Turner. A court order prohibits the father from contacting his wife and son.

Brandy Turner told the Denver Post on Saturday that when her husband began struggling with her, her son was yelling: "Please don't hurt my mommy."

She did not return a phone message left by the Associated Press on Sunday.

Satur told the Denver Post that Monty Turner had previously disappeared with the boy, but no crime was committed in that case because both parents had custody rights at the time.

Turner is being held on numerous charges, including second-degree kidnapping, second-degree burglary and menacing, among others.

"There's just a litany of charges," said Satur, who declined to detail what led authorities to the whereabouts of Turner and his son.

Earlier Sunday, the boy's grandfather, Ronald Turner, 72, was pulled over in southwest Missouri on a warrant for second-degree kidnapping. He was driving a vehicle with a license plate number listed on the Amber Alert.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Lowe said the grandfather was alone when he was pulled over and is being held at the Bates County Jail.