In the late summer of 1979, the community of Pitkin, Colorado, was marked by a grim discovery that would remain a mystery for decades. A 29-year-old White / Caucasian male named Donald Theodore Allison met a violent end, his body left in a remote forest area near Lenado. For 33 years, he was known only as 'Lenado Man,' an unidentified victim of a homicide that stumped investigators.
His story is one of a life cut short and a long, patient quest for answers that has yet to reach its conclusion.
On August 18, 1979, individuals hunting for mushrooms off Woody Creek Road stumbled upon a partially decomposed body that had been discarded down an embankment and partially covered with tree limbs. The man, wearing a wristwatch, glasses in his shirt pocket, jeans, and a shirt, had been deceased for an estimated 18 days. An autopsy would later reveal the brutal nature of his death; he had been shot twice with a. 22-caliber weapon, once in the chest and once through the right eye socket. The Pitkin County Sheriff's Office immediately ruled the case a homicide, but with no identification and few leads, the investigation grew cold.
For years, the case remained one of Pitkin County's only unsolved murders. Investigators preserved the man's fingerprints and skull, hoping that one day technology could shed light on his identity. That breakthrough finally came in 2012. Through the use of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a national database, investigators were able to match information about the unidentified body with a missing person report filed in another state. A fingerprint comparison by the FBI confirmed that 'Lenado Man' was indeed Donald Allison.
The identification breathed new life into the decades-old investigation. The Pitkin County Sheriff's Office announced that they were treating the case as if it had just happened, pursuing what they described as viable leads. They indicated a desire to speak with several individuals, including at least one person who was incarcerated. Despite this renewed effort and the crucial step of returning his name to Donald Allison, his murder remains unsolved. To this day, no arrests have been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified, leaving the full story of his final days and the identity of his killer locked in the past.
