Has the notorious ‘Blonde Tigress’ finally been found in Denver?

Silvia Pettem is an expert on cemeteries across Colorado, but her latest obsession has brought her to the back of Denver’s Fairmount Cemetery, where a small grave is covered in grass and fallen leaves.

Tucked away on Plot 67, Pettem is certain she has found the grave of America’s most elusive woman — a fugitive who escaped a Chicago prison in 1940 and has been missing ever since.

“I’m 99.9 percent sure,” Pettem said as she drove me through the sprawling cemetery on Oct. 17.

The plot we were looking for was in the far right corner of the 280 acres that make up the second-oldest cemetery in Denver.

When we arrived at the grave, we set up two camping chairs near the grave and Pettem told me the story of the “Blonde Tigress.”

“We are sitting at the grave of a woman named Marie Millman,” P