Disappointing news came out of Colorado over the weekend. Shane Benjamin of the Durango Herald reported that the bloody palm print found at a murder scene 22 years ago in Durango does not match Eli Stutzman. The police still like Little Blue’s dad for the murders of David Tyler and Dennis Slaeter, both killed in 1985 — just weeks before Stutzman’s son, Danny, was dumped in a ditch in Chester, Nebraska. Read the article.

Justice is slowing turning its wheels in the Eli Stutzman case. My new favorite reporter, Durango Herald staff writer Shane Benjamin, wrote a follow-up piece on the two-decades-old Colorado murders tied to the former Amish Stutzman. It appears in today’s Herald.

Nothing moves fast enough when a case is so old, and you’ve been so hopeful for as long as I have. But I’m very grateful for the way things are progressing. This still doesn’t address Ida Stutzman’s death, or specifically how Danny died. But it is a good start.

Here’s Shane’s article:

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has received evidence – including the fingerprints and blood sample of a deceased killer – that will be tested in the hopes of solving two Durango murders that are 22 years old.

The Durango Police Department reopened the cold cases earlier this year after receiving fingerprints and a blood sample from Eli Stutzman, who committed suicide Jan. 31 in Fort Worth, Texas.

For legal reasons, police were unable to obtain Stutzman’s fingerprints and blood sample before his death.

Since receiving the samples, investigators have gone through boxes of evidence preserved from the 1985 murders.

Police declined to identify the items that were turned over to the CBI for forensic study.

“We have some suspicion that it was Stutzman,” said Durango Police Investigator Steve Glaser. “Hopefully with the help of the CBI and the analysis they do, we’ll (be able to) link this.”

It is unknown how long it will take the CBI to do testing, but it could take several months because new cases take priority over cold cases.

Stutzman spent 16 years in a federal prison for killing his roommate, Glen Pritchett, in Texas. While on the run for that murder, Stutzman lived in La Plata County in 1985.

During that time, two Durangoans – David M. Tyler, 36, and Dennis Slaeter, 24 – were killed.

Tyler was found dead Nov. 10, 1985, in a small utility trailer outside Automatic Transmission Exchange, a business he co-owned in the 1400 block of Main Avenue.

Slaeter was found shot to death Dec. 5, 1985, in the basement of Junction Creek Liquors, where he worked as a clerk.

Evidence suggests Stutzman and Tyler knew each other and possibly attended the same party two days before Tyler’s body was found. Both men were gay and used drugs, according to Gregg Olsen, author of Abandoned Prayers , a true-crime novel about the death of Stutzman’s son that hit No. 7 on The New York Times bestseller list in 2003.

It is unknown if Stutzman and Slaeter knew each other, although Tyler and Slaeter were acquaintances, Olsen said.

“I continue to hope that the 20-year journey to justice for David and Dennis comes to an end and that the world knows that Eli Stutzman was as evil a killer as any,” Olsen wrote Thursday in an e-mail to the Herald.

If police can prove Stutzman played a role in the 1985 murders, it could expose the Amish-born Stutzman as a serial killer.

Stutzman left Durango a few days after Slaeter’s murder to pick up his son, Danny, from Lyman, Wyo. Two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, the boy’s frozen body was found in a ditch along U.S. 81 in Chester, Neb. He was nicknamed Little Boy Blue.

Stutzman was convicted of abandoning a body and concealing a death, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. During his trial, he claimed that Danny had died unexpectedly while they were driving from Wyoming to Ohio. Out of fear, he ditched the body along the roadside and covered it with snow.

For killing his roommate, Stutzman was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but he was paroled in spring 2005 after serving only 16 years.

He never faced prosecution for the 1977 death of his wife, who was eight months pregnant when she died in a suspicious barn fire.

Slaeter’s family has learned of the reopened investigation through a family friend who read about the case in this newspaper, said Investigator Glaser. Police have since contacted the family.

Police have not yet been able to locate surviving family members of Tyler.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with the evidence at CBI,” Glaser said

One more thing…do you know how hard it is to type when your fingers are crossed?

It’s Sunday morning and I thought I’d take a moment on the slowest day of the week (CR reader-wise) to catch you up on a few odds and ends. For that, of course, I turned to Google.

Here’s an update on Eli Stutzman that appeared on MSNBC’s site last week. The evidence is in, and the investigators are working the two murder cases that have sat cold for two decades. Since the article in the Fort Worth paper appeared, I’ve heard from many people connected to Stutzman and the victims. I have a good feeling about this. Justice may come after all.

Here’s a snip that points to some new info:

After reading about Stutzman’s death last month in The Durango Herald , Gregory Berwald called the newspaper to say the pictures printed of Stutzman look like a man Tyler was talking to on the Friday night before Tyler died. Berwald, now a New Mexico resident, worked part-time at Tyler’s automotive shop in 1985.

Berwald said he seemed to interrupt a conversation that appeared serious in nature between the men. But he did not know the man Tyler was talking to.

At the time, police told Berwald that he was probably one of the last to see Tyler alive. They wanted to use hypnosis to jog Berwald’s memory about what the stranger in the store looked like, Berwald said.

“For whatever reason, the guy stuck in my mind,” he said. “It has just been etched into my memory for so long now.”

After Tyler’s murder, Berwald was allowed to walk through the crime scene. He said he saw pieces of skull in one corner and the word “fag,” or something to that effect, scrawled in blood on the wall.

“This really was a nightmare for me at the time. I went through nights thinking that I was going to be killed,” he said. “At 20 years old, you didn’t know what to expect, and I certainly didn’t.”

FYI, the photo of Eli and Danny Stutzman was taken the day Danny died. Note the body laguage.

I’ve been working A WICKED SNOW and have enjoyed every bit of it — meeting new readers and old friends along the way is a huge bonus in writing. I’ve been the subject of several feature stories locally. One of the best was written by Jim Thomsen of the Kitsap Sun. He took the time to interview authors Ann Rule, Jess Walter, and Jack Olsen’s widow, Su, about genre switching.

Oh yeah, he interviewed Matt, too.

Here’s a snip:

Ann Rule, the Seattle author who has established herself as the reigning queen of true crime, found that out the hard way with her one and only novel, 1983’s “Possession.”
Even though the novel found a top spot on bookseller lists, Rule said, that wasn’t necessarily good enough for her fans.

“My non-fiction books were so successful that my publishers didn’t want me to vary my genre. It’s kind of that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ theory,” she said. “My readers are mostly non-fiction readers, and frankly, there were some sweet ladies, mostly down South, who were absolutely shocked by the steamy sex scenes in ‘Possession.’”

Readers of Olsen’s women-gone-bad books are likely to see echoes of both the mother and daughter in those earlier volumes.

“What’s great about it is Gregg’s knowledge of the female perpetrator from his true-crime books,” said M. William Phelps, a Connecticut-based true-crime writer who runs an online blog called “Crime Rant” with Olsen. “He took that with him into his fiction. He’s just a great storyteller, and great storytelling sells itself.

“I don’t know if a lot of true-crime fans will jump across the fence with this,” Phelps added. “But his loyal fans will.”

And, of course, not everyone loves me. Here’s a review from the Daily Olympian by Barbara “The Bookmonger” McMichael. She was left cold by A WICKED SNOW.

Today’s Akron Beacon Journal has an excellent article on the Eli Stutzman case. It is fairly comprehensive, and well worth the read. Rick Armon is the reporter.

Here’s a small snip:

Now those who have followed his ignominious life, chronicled in newspapers as early as 1977 with the death of his Amish farm wife and in the 1990 true-crime book Abandoned Prayers, are wondering if the truth about the many mysteries and tragedies surrounding the homosexual Amish-born man will ever be fully revealed.

The main question is whether Stutzman, who was convicted of murdering his roommate in Texas, was a serial killer. Did he also kill his wife, Ida, and son Danny, as some authorities have suspected — or were their deaths accidental and natural, as he claimed? And did he kill two men in Durango, Colo., in 1985?

The answers about his wife and son may die with him.

But Durango police have requested fingerprints and DNA from his corpse to see if he’s responsible for two unsolved murders in their community.

“I’m very interested in the outcome of the Colorado cases and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the authorities there do the right thing and wrap them up,” said Gregg Olsen, author of Abandoned Prayers. “I’ve been pushing for this for 20 years and finally, some action. Closing the books on David Tyler and Dennis Slaeter’s murders would mean the world to me. The system totally failed us on Danny and Ida’s deaths.”

One little quibble. It was yours truly that urged the Fort Worth detective in charge of the suicide investigation to collect the prints and DNA and get them to Colorado. There was no request from Durango, though I’m happy to report they are on the case now. Everyone who knows me, knows how long I’ve viewed those Colorado deaths as the key to determining if Stutzman was a serial killer or not. Now, we’ll see.

To read the entire article, go here. The photo was sent to me from one of Stutzman’s friends in Fort Worth. It was taken last year and shows Stutzman with his dog Sport. He’s wearing Amish clothes that he said his mother made for him.

Other Crime Rant posts on Stutzman:

Little Boy Blue’s Dad Dead at 56

Letter of the Week: My Friend Eli Stutzman

Article on Stutzman from Amish Country