A man has been indicted in connection to the death of popular Colorado hairstylist Jax Gratton after she was found dead in 2025.
Authorities found the remains of Gratton on June 6, 2025, which was nearly two months after she was last seen leaving her Denver apartment on April 15, 2025, at approximately 10 p.m. She told her roommate she would be gone for several hours. However, friends and family told KMGH that she never returned.
Nearly one year after she went missing, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King announced in a statement on March 11 that a grand jury returned a two-count indictment against Brandon David Mumma in connection with Gratton’s death investigation.
The district attorney said that Mumma, 45, was the last known individual to have been with Gratton before she disappeared. Mumma is facing one count of tampering with a deceased human body, as well as one count of tampering with physical evidence.
The indictment alleged that Gratton, 34, and Mumma were engaged in a consensual, intimate relationship at the time of her death.
The two entered an office space on West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood at 10:41 p.m. on April 15, and they were joined by a male friend later at 12:14 a.m.
The indictment went on to state that Mumma and the male friend left the office space at 1:43 a.m. on April 16, 2025, “leaving Gratton alone and asleep under the influence of drugs.”
Mumma returned to the building at 5:55 a.m. and was seen leaving the office space at 6:57 a.m., to move his vehicle to the north side of the building.
He then allegedly “entered the building and returned with trash bags, which he threw into a dumpster” before he left the area, according to the indictment.
Gratton’s body was found months later wearing the same clothes she had on when she left her apartment on April 15. She was discovered lying on her side, while a grate from an air conditioning unit was on top of her lower body.
“If her body fell from the second story window of the room where [she was] last reportedly seen alive, autopsy cannot determine whether she was pushed, fell or jumped from the window while alive, or was dropped from the window after death,” the autopsy report from the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office read, per People.
Prosecutors said in the indictment that they believe that Mumma removed Gratton’s body, her personal belongings and other evidence in order to avoid detection by the police following her death.
Mumma was eventually arrested on March 11 in Summit County in connection to Gratton’s death.
The district attorney added that the male friend who was with the couple that night “remained cooperative with law enforcement,” but “is not named in the indictment and is not believed to have participated in the destruction or removal of any evidence associated with Gratton.”
Mumma is being held on a $100,000 cash bond, and he is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, March 17.
It is not currently clear if he has retained legal representation or entered a plea.
