Thomas Mix, 44, male, White, left for work just after midnight on July 16, 1981, reporting to his longtime job with Mile Hi Frozen Foods near Denver’s Denargo Market. By about 3:30 a.m., he was discovered shot to death beside his work truck, which was parked on the 1800 block of 29th Street, a short distance from the company’s address on Denargo Market Street.
He had spent roughly fourteen years with the firm, and his shift that night began like countless others before it, in the quiet industrial corridors east of downtown. The routine broke without warning; by dawn, the crime scene lights washed over loading docks and asphalt, marking the spot where his workday—and life—ended.
In the early aftermath, some contemporaneous notices characterized the shooting as occurring amid a possible robbery attempt, a rumor that spread among those who knew him and followed the case in the days after his death. But official accounts over the years have remained spare: investigators documented the location, time frame, and manner of death, appealed for tips, and kept the case open as a homicide. No arrests were recorded, and authorities have not publicly identified a suspect, leaving the motive and the killer unknown. Decades later, the case persists on statewide and municipal cold-case rolls, a reminder of a workingman interrupted on his route and a family still without answers.
