On the evening of December 5, 1985, the life of 24-year-old Dennis Sleater, a white male, was tragically cut short in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong at his part-time job. A student at Fort Lewis College with aspirations of studying law, Sleater was working as a clerk at Junction Creek Liquors located at 2300 Main Avenue in Durango, Colorado. When friends arrived at the store to make a purchase, they found it unattended.
Calling out for Sleater, their search led them to the basement where they made a grim discovery.
Sleater was found facedown, having been shot twice in the head. The cash register upstairs was open and money had been taken, pointing to a robbery as the motive. The Durango Police Department responded to the call, officially launching a homicide investigation into the death of the young college student, who was the youngest of five siblings and described as the apple of his family's eye.
The investigation into Sleater's murder would soon be linked to another recent, unsolved homicide in Durango. Just weeks prior, on November 10, 1985, the body of a 36-year-old local business owner, David Tyler, was found in the back of a truck outside his auto shop. Investigators noted similarities between the two victims; reports from the time suggested that both men were acquainted, and shared aspects of their personal lives. This led police to consider the possibility that the two murders were connected.
Despite these leads, no arrests have ever been made in connection with Dennis Sleater's murder, and the case has remained a cold case for decades. Over the years, investigators have pursued numerous leads without a resolution. One individual who drew the attention of law enforcement was a man named Eli Stutzman, a former member of the Amish community with a suspicious past. Stutzman was reportedly in Durango at the time of both Sleater's and Tyler's deaths. Witnesses claimed to have seen a man resembling Stutzman near the liquor store around the time of Sleater's murder, and he was also believed to have attended a party with Tyler shortly before his death. However, no conclusive evidence has ever tied him to the crimes, and the case remains unsolved.
