In the quiet landscape of Hinsdale County, Colorado, the life of Sheriff Roger David Coursey, a 44-year-old male, was abruptly ended in a violent encounter. On November 18, 1994, a series of burglaries had been reported in the nearby town of Creede. In the early morning hours, at approximately 5:50 a.m., Sheriff Coursey and his Undersheriff, Ray Blaum, conducted a stop of a suspicious pickup truck they believed might be connected to the crimes.
As Sheriff Coursey approached the driver's
side of the vehicle, he was shot in the chest and killed instantly. The undersheriff returned fire as the truck sped away. The vehicle was later found abandoned, which sparked an extensive manhunt for the two suspects, a man and a woman. In the wake of the shooting, Undersheriff Blaum, left as the only officer in the county, deputized over 100 local citizens to form a posse and assist in the house-to-house search for the perpetrators.
The suspects were identified as Mark Allen Vredenburg and Ruth Slater. They managed to elude capture for several months. However, their freedom was short-lived. Several weeks after the murder of Sheriff Coursey, the bodies of Vredenburg and Slater were discovered inside a sleeping bag beneath a tree. It was determined that they had taken their own lives, with evidence suggesting an apparent murder-suicide. The. 44 caliber handgun used to end their lives was the very same weapon that had been used to murder Sheriff Coursey, bringing a somber close to the investigation.
