Do you know who killed Rick VanDuyn in 1986? In the quiet mountain town of Aspen Park, Colorado, the life of 27-year-old Rick VanDuyn was cut tragically short on the night of October 19, 1986. A white male, VanDuyn was working as a security guard for Evergreen Security, a job he had held for just four months while he pursued a career in law enforcement. On that fateful Sunday evening, he was making his rounds, collecting the day's earnings from local Safeway stores to deposit at various banks.
His final stop was the Mountain Valley
Bank in Aspen Park. He pulled his marked security car up to the night deposit box, a routine task on a seemingly ordinary night. As he exited his vehicle with the money bags, the crisp autumn air was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Witnesses reported hearing the shots and seeing a full-size Ford pickup truck speeding away from the scene, heading northbound on Highway 285.
When law enforcement arrived, they found VanDuyn shot multiple times with a. 223 caliber weapon. He died at the scene. Curiously, the money bags he had been carrying were left behind, leading investigators to believe that robbery was not the primary motive for his murder. It appeared that Rick VanDuyn himself was the target.
Despite a thorough investigation by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, the case has remained unsolved for decades. A female custodian who was at the bank that night recalled seeing a pickup truck with two men inside parked in the lot before the shooting. By the time she discovered VanDuyn's body, the truck was gone. A sheriff's deputy in the vicinity also heard the gunfire and pursued a speeding Ford pickup, but lost it in the fog. No arrests have ever been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified in the homicide of Rick VanDuyn. The case remains a painful cold case for his family and the community, with a reward still offered for any information that could lead to the capture and conviction of his killer or killers.
