A jury convicted James Holmes in 2015 in the Aurora, Co., movie theater shooting rampage. The jury sentenced him to life in prison for killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others. Not long after that, Holmes effectively disappeared. His location was not publicly known for nearly two years after officials transferred him to a prison outside Colorado and refused to say where he was being held, which angered survivors of the attack and prosecutors alike. This week, that question was finally answered, says the Washington Post. Holmes, 29, is being held at the federal penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa. The high-security facility, which houses only male inmates, is 165 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Colorado officials said Wednesday that they had tried to place Holmes in a federal facility earlier but were unable to find space at a place they described as having the necessary security. They did not say where Holmes had been held until he was transferred. Holmes’s location had been a mystery since early 2016, when state officials said he had been moved out of Colorado. They would not say where he was transferred, pointing to safety concerns. One reason Holmes was moved was because he had been attacked by another inmate. Victims of the movie theater attack filed complaints, arguing that their rights were being violated by not knowing where he was being held. A state committee said the corrections department should have done more to keep victims informed, including telling them more about why Holmes’s location was not being revealed.