You probably know the scene. Two siblings are driving down a lonely road when a beat-up vehicle aggressively tailgates them, eventually roaring past. Later, they see that same vehicle parked by an abandoned schoolhouse, and the driver is dumping something wrapped in a bloody sheet down a pipe.
It’s the opening of the 2001 horror flick Jeepers Creepers.
But for Ray and Marie Thornton, this wasn't a movie. It was a Sunday afternoon in April 1990. They were driving along a quiet stretch of road in Coldwater, Michigan, when a 1984 Chevrolet van—license plate GZ 8046—screamed up behind them.
The man behind the wheel was Dennis DePue. He wasn't a supernatural monster with wings, but what he'd done was arguably more terrifying because it was real.
The Disappearance of Marilynn DePue
Dennis DePue wasn't a drifter. He was a property appraiser for the state of Michigan. His wife, Marilynn, was a beloved high school guidance counselor. They had three kids and a seventeen-year marriage that was, by all accounts, disintegrating.
Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990, was the breaking point.
Dennis showed up at Marilynn’s house to pick up their children for a visit. The kids didn't want to go. Honestly, who could blame them? The tension was thick. An argument exploded. Dennis shoved Marilynn down the basement stairs right in front of the kids.
He then bundled her into his van, telling the children he was taking her to the hospital.
He didn't.
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Instead, he drove her into the Michigan countryside. At some point during that drive, he murdered her. When police checked the local hospitals later that night, there was no record of Marilynn DePue ever being admitted.
That Chilling Encounter at the Schoolhouse
While Dennis was driving around with his wife's body, Ray and Marie Thornton were just trying to enjoy their day. They saw the van. They saw the blood-stained sheet being dumped behind an old schoolhouse.
They even saw Dennis again later, hunched over the back of the van, changing his license plates. Marie looked into the open passenger door and saw the blood.
They did the right thing. They called the cops.
Authorities found the sheet, but they also found Marilynn’s body. She had been shot in the back of the head and buried in a shallow grave not far from where the Thorntons spotted him.
But Dennis DePue? He was gone.
The Unsolved Mysteries Connection
For nearly a year, Dennis DePue was a ghost. He fled Michigan and vanished into the ether. This is where the Dennis DePue Unsolved Mysteries segment enters the picture.
On March 20, 1991, the show aired a reenactment of the crime. It was visceral. It featured the tailgating, the schoolhouse, and the sheer panic the Thorntons felt.
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At that very moment, a man named "Hank Queen" was living in Dallas, Texas. He was a nice enough guy, or so his girlfriend, Mary Moore, thought. They were sitting in her living room, and the television was on.
Imagine the horror of looking at the screen and seeing the face of the man sitting next to you.
Mary’s friends saw it too. They knew "Hank" was actually the wanted fugitive from Michigan. Dennis realized the game was up the second he saw his own face on national television. He panicked. He told Mary some half-baked story about his mother being sick and bolted.
The Final High-Speed Pursuit
The end came fast.
Acting on tips from viewers, police tracked DePue to Mississippi. He wasn't going to go quietly. On March 21, 1991—less than twenty-four hours after the episode aired—a massive high-speed chase broke out.
DePue was desperate. He blew through two different police barricades. He was shooting at the officers from his van.
It didn't end with handcuffs.
As the police closed in near Vicksburg, Dennis DePue took his own life with a handgun while still behind the wheel. The "unsolved" part of the mystery was technically over, but the psychological shadow he left behind was massive.
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Why the Case Still Lingers in Pop Culture
People get the connection to Jeepers Creepers wrong all the time. Director Victor Salva has been cagey about it, but the parallels are too specific to be a coincidence. The "license plate game," the schoolhouse, the van—it's all there.
But the real story is bleaker.
It’s a story about domestic violence that escalated into a public nightmare. It’s about how a popular TV show in the 90s could actually smoke out a killer in real-time.
A lot of folks think the "mystery" is whether he did it. There was never a doubt about that. The mystery was where he was hiding, and the answer turned out to be "in plain sight."
Key Takeaways for True Crime Enthusiasts
- Trust your gut. The Thorntons felt something was wrong and followed the van just long enough to get a plate. That's what solved the murder.
- Media power is real. Without that specific broadcast, DePue might have lived out the rest of his life as "Hank Queen" in Texas.
- The movie isn't the truth. While Jeepers Creepers uses the setup, the actual case of Dennis DePue is a grounded, tragic example of a domestic dispute turning fatal.
If you're looking into the archives of 90s true crime, the DePue file is a masterclass in how quickly a "normal" life can spiral into a national manhunt. It's a reminder that the person living next door might not be who they say they are.
To dig deeper into similar cases from that era, you can look into the FBI's historical archives on interstate fugitives or watch the original segment, which is still available on various streaming platforms that host old Unsolved Mysteries episodes.
The case remains a haunting benchmark for how true stories eventually morph into urban legends.