Murder With My Husband - 157. Dexter Stefonek - The Rest Stop Murder

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the bizarre disappearance and murder of 67-year-old, Dexter Stefonek, while driving across the country. Case Sources: The Montana Standard, “Body identified as Wisconsin man,” March 20, 1986 The Montana Standard, “No clues in missing man case,” November 22, 1985 Ravalli Republic, “Missing man,” November 21, 1985 Kalispell Daily, “Missing Wisconsin man’s vehicle burns,” November 21, 1985 Green Bay Press-Gazette, “Missing Onedia County man on way home when car found,” by Press-Gazette The Billings Gazette, “Denver hypnotist to probe for details in death case,” by Gazette  Glendive Bureau, April 22, 1986 The Billings Gazette, “Corpse may be missing driver,” by Evelyne Donkersloot, March 10, 1986 billingsgazette.com, “Dexter Stefonek,” by Gazette Staff, March 31, 2017 Wausau Daily Herald, “TV show features Rhinelander murder,” April 8, 1989 montanarightnow.com, “Montana Murder Mysteries: Bad Route Rest Stop Killing,” article and video, by ABC FOX Montana News Staff, September 23, 2019, updated January 8, 2021 montanarightnow.com, “stefonek photo,” September 25, 2019 unsolved.com, Dexter Stefonek distinctlymontana.com, “Unsolved Montana Murders,” by Joseph Shelton, October 3, 2022 missoulian.com, “1985 Montana rest stop murder still puzzles law enforcement,” by Tom  Lutey, August 27, 2018 theslowlane.com, “Sign to Bad Route in eastern Montana Along I-94” ancestry.com, Vivian Stefonek The Billings Gazette, “Sheriff checks leads in Glendive slaying, “ by Jill Sundby, April 25,  1989 medium.com, published in True Crime Addiction, “Bad Route Rest Stop Murder,” by Lisa Marie Fuqua, January 22, 2021 simmondskimberly.wordpress.com, “Bad Route Road” findagrave.com, “Dexter William Stefonek” google maps projectcoldcase.org, “Cold Case Homicide Statistics” Glendive Ranger Review.com, web.archive.org, “Thirty-year-old Bad Route Rest Are Murder  Case Remains Unsolved,” by Jason Stuart, November 30, 2015 Assisted research and writing by Diane Birnholz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Morelint. And I'm Garrett Morelint. And he's the husband? I'm the husband. Okay if you are listening to this and you no longer want to listen to ads, you can get ad-free Murder with My Husband and binged over on our Apple subscriptions or our Patreon as well as bonus episodes and extra content. So again if you are interested that, go ahead and check it out. Okay, it is time for Garrett's 10 seconds. Well, I am playing in a pickleball tournament on Sunday. So that'll be the day before that this comes out.

If you don't hear from me the following week, it's because I lost. And sorry, not doing the podcast anymore. You'll be too sad. I'll be too sad. Daisy and I are going to try our best at cheer mom. I feel like I haven't seen a good TV show in a while. You know what I'm saying? Like I feel like, okay, we finished the last of us.

That was great. I was about to say, what do you mean? But we haven't watched anything since then. No. Like I haven't watched anything since then. No. Like, I haven't even really watched TV. You haven't really watched TV. Last night, I just resorted to watching old dances. So if anyone has any good TV shows that I haven't seen,

I guess you won't know if I've seen them or not, but just take a guess. Shoot them out, let me know, put them in the comments, put them anywhere you're listening. I need some more TV show recommendations. And last but not least, something I realized this week. I love my truck, it's great, looks good, feels good, I'm so sick of getting gas. I feel like I have to get gas, not think every few days.

It's just ridiculous. We can sell it. Baking it like. That's good. I'm just so sick of getting gas. It is a guzzler. I know it's such a, I don't know, first order problem sort of thing,

but yeah, I'm just, I don't know, I'm sick of getting gas. I'm sure everyone's sick of getting gas. Like go into the gas station just, I guess not that big of a deal, but I feel like in the truck every two to three days. Just good to old after a while. Yeah. Alright, let's hop into it.

Okay, our case sources are the Montana Standard, the Calisbell Daily, the Green Bay Press Gazette, the Billings Gazette, Wassau Daily Herald, the Glendive Ranger Review.com, MontanaRightNow.com, theslowline.com, findaggrave, Medium.com, and Ancestry.com. Alright, so this week our case takes us to Montana, which is known for its wide open spaces and for being one of the least populated states in the United States. Now it's not a place that one would typically associate with violent crime and for good reason. Montana has one of the lowest murder rates in the entire country.

According to figures from the Murder Accountability Project, which has tracked the total number of homicides by state for the time period from 1965 to 2021, that's a span of over 50 years. Montana has had only 1,392 homicides, which sure sounds like a lot, but over 50 years. Just for reference, the state with the highest number of homicides during that same time period is California, which has had a whopping 131,113 homicides. That's 100 times as many as Montana. But you do have to remember there is way more people in California than there are in Montana. I agree. I agree. But that's a lot. It's still a lot. Uh-huh. Now you might remember from learning the state capitals in grade school that the capital

of Montana is Helena, but the largest city in Montana is actually Billings. And if you're ever traveling through Montana, there's a good chance you'll end up on Interstate 94. You can take I-94 East through North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or through Michigan, and actually all the way to the Canadian border. So in our story, it's November 1985, and Fred Siegel is the custodian janitor of the Badrout Rest area in eastern Montana He's the person who keeps the facilities all clean and stalked for the motorists and truckers passing through Now the badrout Rest area is off I-94 at exit 192 in a rural area about 200 miles northeast of buildings

It's generally pretty quiet in that part of Montana. The area around the rest area is rather flat and desolate with low dry brush for miles and not much else around in terms of buildings. The mountains are way off in the distance. The closest town is Glendive Montana, which is about 20 miles northeast of the rest area. I've looked at like some houses in Montana, and obviously I know there's cheaper areas of Montana, but I'd looked at, I would assume,

where the nicer places of Montana, like by lakes or on the lake, it is expensive. Expensive, it looks beautiful, but it's expensive. They make it really hard to go out there and live in the middle of nowhere you know what I mean I know so at this rest area it isn't uncommon to find a weary traveler sleeping in a car in addition to the bad route rest area there is a bad route creek a bad route creek bridge a bad route road and a bad route creek, a bad route creek bridge, a bad route road, and a bad route school. I haven't been able to find out exactly why that area is called bad route, but it's a bit of foreshadowing for our story today because this is a murder podcast.

Now on Tuesday, November 19th, 1985, Fred Seagull shows up for work at the bad route rest area at his usual time, somewhere between 8 and 8.30am. So when Seagull arrives this morning, it's nearly empty. He does see one vehicle parked there in the bad route rest area parking lot. It's a pickup truck. However, Seagull doesn't notice anybody around. Although it's odd that there's no sign of the driver, there's nothing especially remarkable about the situation to see go so he doesn't take

particular note of the pickup truck. He just goes about his business of cleaning and taking care of the rest stop is normal. Now meanwhile, a Montana Highway Maintenance Supervisor named Clyde Mitchell is making his rounds in the area. Part of his job is to stop at the various rest areas and make sure they're being tended to and functioning properly. At 8.45 am Mitchell stops at the bad route rest area which is part of his route and he plans to check on Siegel while there. Now when Mitchell pulls up into the bad route rest area he sees Siegel's pickup truck parked

there as it should be. Mitchell also sees another pickup truck in the parking lot. This is presumably the same pickup truck that Seagull saw when he got there. Now Mitchell is naturally observant and as a supervisor, it's part of his job to be observant. Right away, he fills this something is a little off about this other pickup truck in the parking lot. It's parked in what he considers to be an odd location. It's away from the restrooms. This is unusual for someone who's just pulling in.

In Mitchell's experience, people usually park near the buildings also if they want to sleep because it's safer. Mitchell gets out of his vehicle and walks around the pickup truck trying to see if anyone's in there, but he sees no signs of anybody. Again, this is his job. And aside from Seagull, there's no one else inside at the rest stop. So where is this person?

Who's truck is this? It is bitterly cold outside in Montana at this point. With the wind, she'll factor that day. It's minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So that's really cold. It's certainly not a day to be out taking a stroll or wandering around outside. Mitchell notes that the pickup truck is a Chevy four wheel drive

with a blue trim and a cow catcher, also called a cattle guard, in the front of the pickup on the front bumper. Mitchell thinks it's a Chevy blazer and it's probably about 10 years old. The blue trim is really a wide blue horizontal stripe and there's a white camper shell on the back of the pickup. Mitchell notes that this truck has Arizona license plate and the license plate holder is

from Phoenix. Now, the pickup has gold hub caps, bucket seats, and he notes that the windows look like they're tinted. According to the Green Bay Presca set, the vehicle is described as a three quarter ton cab. While looking around, he can see plenty of clothes and bedding inside enough to make it look like someone's been living in there,

but where is the driver? Mitchell finds Segal in the utility room and asks him about that lived-in pickup truck that seems to have no one in it that's parked in the parking lot. Segal's like, yeah, I noticed it too, but I don't know anything about it. He tells Mitchell he hasn't seen the driver, but that the pickup truck has been there all morning since he first got there. So now both Segal and Mitchell have seen this pickup truck in the parking lot.

Mitchell seems to be the one who's more observant about it like I said because he does notice the Arizona plates. He figures the pickup truck's occupant would be especially cold on a day like today given they're from Arizona. So it's just really standing out to him that the person is missing. However, despite the whole thing being unsettling, Mitchell needs to keep working. At around 9.15 a.m., he leaves the rest area to continue on his regular rounds. He's heading next to Terry Montana, which according to Google Maps, is about a 19-minute drive west on I-94. And then after that, he's planning to double back and head east to go back home.

Fred Seagull stays at the rest area when Mitchell leaves around 9.15 and at around 9.30 a.m. about 15 minutes after Mitchell drives off Seagull is just leaving the rest area when he sees a late model brown Plymouth horizon pull into the rest area. This car is a sub-compact four-door with a hatchback. Seagull sees the driver a Caucasian man get out of the plimuth. No one else is in the car, and the man is carrying two large plastic containers. According to Seagull, he was around six feet tall between 35 and 40 years old and had real light skin, no sign of anything wrong with him. People are way more observant than I am. Oh, 100%. I would like... Like, if someone got out of the car with plastic containers. I guess I would note that but I probably would have said

Oh, I don't remember if they were cardboard or plastic like I just looked over at him and he was carrying something and also for Seagull, it's like he works here and sees people here every day. Yeah, super reserved. Which is a good thing right, but I'm just like a White is one standout like wouldn't they just face to you? Yeah, you would think so. I don't know. Either way, Segal notes that the man is clean, shaven, and because it's very cold out, the man is wearing a parka. This is when Segal notices that the man

who pulls up in the car takes the jugs to the lived in Chevy pickup truck that's already parked there. And he starts pouring gasoline from the containers into the pickup truck's gas tank. Oh, okay. I think it's a into the car inside the car. But Seagal's like, oh, okay, the car ran out of gas and this is the owner and he had to go get more gas.

So Seagal walks over and asks the man if he needs any help. And the six foot man says, no, no, no, he's fine Some reports say the man states that he'd run out of gas, but they was able to get some now the man isn't chatty It's a very brief conversation and then Segal's finished for the day So he gets in his own truck and leaves the rest stop when he drives out of the parking lot The man is still there as is the pickup truck and the plume of horizon so the two cars and the man about 30 minutes later at just a little after 10 a.m. Clyde Mitchell this is our worker who stopped in and noticed the truck then left to continue work is back on the road heading east towards home when he sees smoke

coming from the direction of the bad route rest area. He thinks of Seagull's smoking habit and worries that maybe Seagull has accidentally started a fire of some sort. So Mitchell begins hurrying over to see what's going on. When he pulls into the parking lot, he finds a shocking scene. The pickup truck with the blue stripe is gone.

Seagulls truck is gone. But now there's a Plymouth horizon in the parking lot and it's completely engulfed in flames. So he was pouring gas inside? Well, he was pouring gas into the truck. The car he drove up in was the Plymouth and now that's the one that's on fire. Oh, that's right. Okay. So it's very cold November and there's lots of snow on the ground. So Mitchell tries to douse the flames by using a shovel to throw snow on the car, but the car is already too far gone at this point. It continues to burn out of control. The tires are popping from the flames in the extreme heat and it's beyond Mitchell's ability to put it out. So Mitchell makes an emergency call for the fire department and the sheriff.

Mitchell can see that no one's in the plimuth so he checks the bathroom but the owner of the car isn't anywhere to be found. In fact, no one else is around at the rest stop. Now Sheriff Jim George of the Dawson County Sheriff's Department gets the call of the car on fire at the bad route rest stop and the sheriff's department quickly arrives on the scene and officers search all around the area of the rest stop to find

the missing driver but they don't find anyone. Other than the burning car, the sheriff's don't see any sign of foul play in the area, except for the fact that there's no driver. They all note that the driver's seat of the burnt up Plymouth Horizon is pushed all the way back, indicating what to them means that a tall driver had been at the will. Maybe someone who was at least six feet tall. I mean, I'm sure it's looked down upon, but I assume it's not illegal to let your car and fire your own car. Yeah, your own car. That's a good

question. I mean, I guess if you're putting others in danger while doing it, then yes, yeah, in a public space, but I don't know if it's just on your land. I don't know. Gran it is in a public space. But I don't know, I just someone surely knows someone's got to know if it's illegal or not. Let me know. It's a good question. Yeah. So the Plymouth has Wisconsin license plates with scant in license plates, and all that remains is the Ashy Gray burned out whole of the car's carcass. Law enforcement need to figure out the mystery of what's going on here. They need to try to construct a timeline of when and how this car got here and what happened

to the owner. Keep in mind, they haven't talked to Seagull yet, because Seagull knows how this car is. Seagull knows everything. Yeah, he's a Seagull. He Seagull knows how this car is. Seagull knows everything. Yeah, he's a Seagull. He sees it all. That's so stupid. So first they run the plate, which apparently Mitchell was able to get even though the car ended up being completely burned.

So when he arrived, he got the plate. Or perhaps they get the Vinn number, but however they do it, law enforcement learns that the registered owner of the Plymouth Horizon comes back to a 67 year old Wisconsin man named Dexter Stefano. The police are now simultaneously trying to get information on this Dexter Stefano and also trying to find witnesses to the Cummings and Goings at the rest area that morning. Jumping into an ad and it is native. I use their body wash.

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Imagine what you could do with that extra cash and your pocket. Stop throwing your money away, cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way. By going to rocket money.com slash husband. That's rocket money.com slash husband. Rocket money.com slash husband. Law enforcement officers talked to anyone they can find including employees who'd been there and this leads them to Clyde Mitchell

and Fred Segal who helped fill in the timeline. The Sheriff's interview Mitchell and Segal who provide all the information they can about the car and about the now missing pickup truck. Segal is the only person who saw the tall man who'd been driving the plimuth that ended up in flames. Neither Mitchell nor Seagull got the license plate of the Arizona pickup truck. The sheriff's eventually tracked down Dexter's tophonics family, and they find out that Dexter had left his son's place in Oregon on November 18, 1985, just the day before, and that he was making the 2000 mile drive alone back to his home in Wisconsin.

Dexter's family hadn't heard from him that day, which is very unusual for him, and they're extremely concerned that something terrible had happened to him on this drive. That's really sad. The family lets the police know that Dexter definitely had no plans to abandon or set his car on fire and he certainly had no plans to disappear and they don't know what this truck, this pickup truck that's now missing was about. They have no idea why supposedly Dexter would pull up in this plimuth with gas cans and fill this truck and then somehow his car lights on fire and he's now missing. So the official thinking from the beginning is that he wandered off and was overcome by

the bitter cold. However, despite extensive searching of the area, his body isn't found. Another theory is that he wanted to get rid of his car for some reason and so he ended up getting a ride from someone like a trucker passing by. Which it's funny all these theories. I mean I get they have to like think of other things, but no way. Like none of this happened. He didn't wander off. He didn't all of a sudden be like,

I'm gonna get rid of my car. Right. Like this, it just not happened. Even though, and I witnessed saw him with the gas cans, you're not thinking he'd let his own car on fire. No, no, no, there's no way he let his own car on fire. Right. Cause it's also like he's 67 and was on his way home like what? Yeah, he's he's coming back

from his sons. Yeah, he didn't come up with his diabolical plan to let his car on fire. He disappeared. He's not gone girl. No. So again, other than the fire, there's no evidence of a crime here, despite the fact that an adult is missing. Law enforcement starts digging deeper into Dexter's background in order to try and solve this mystery. They learned that Dexter Williams' staphonic was born on January 31, 1918, in Rhineland or Wisconsin to John's staphonic of Minnesota, and Ethel Schultz of Wisconsin. His father had died in 1928 when Dexter was only 10 years old. His mother later remarried and she and her new husband had a child together who was born in 1931 and its Dexter's

half-brother. Dexter also has a step sister in Arizona, a brother, two step brothers, his son David, and two grandchildren. Dexter has lived in Rhineland, Wisconsin his whole entire life up until this point. He has many cousins there and also an nephew. Now Rhinelander is in the northern part of Wisconsin not too far from Michigan's upper peninsula. Now Dexter married Vivian Abbey on December 15, 1940 in Wisconsin, and Vivian was born on November 17, 1905, which makes her 12 years older than Dexter. She was a resident of Wisconsin and both of her parents were from Wisconsin as well. Dexter and Vivian were married for 44 years before her death on Christmas Day in 1984 in Portland, Oregon at the

age of 79. Presumably, they were visiting their son and his family for the holidays when she died. Dexter continued living in the same home in the town of Pine Lake, which is in the area of Reinlander, after his wife Vivian died. And by 1985, Dexter is 67, and he's been retired for several years. He'd been a paper mill worker at Reinlander Paper Company where he worked for over 30 years. He's a churchgoer and a member of the 7th day Adventist Church.

After retiring, he was taking care of his wife who was suffering from arthritis until her death the previous year. Dexter's got dark eyes and dark hair, wears eyeglasses, and is hard of hearing. The police learn that Dexter's not a tall man. Not at all. In fact, he's slight, only 5'6 and 150 pounds according to his driver's license. And according to his family, he's short, especially in the legs, and when he drives, he pulls the seat all the way forward. So despite Seagulls, eyewitness account, and the police initially believing that Seagull had

saw Dexter and that that was the man he had talked to. They're now thinking, wait, was that not Dexter in his car who drove to the rest stop? So clearly the man carrying the containers of gasoline was probably not Dexter himself. So where is Dexter? They're only lead that they thought they had. His last known whereabouts isn't even true. So earlier in 1985 Dexter had been staying for a few months with his son David and David's family in Oregon while adjusting to life after the loss of his wife. Remember, his wife did just die. Oregon is on the banks of the Columbia River, which divides Oregon from Washington. But in mid-November, with Christmas coming soon, and the one-year anniversary of his wife's death

approaching, Dexter had decided it was time to go back home to Wisconsin. David wants his dad to stay for the winter, but Dexter has made up his mind and he's ready to leave. So David tells him to come back if he changes his mind. Again, Dexter will be setting off alone in his brown 1984 Plymouth horizon for this 2,000 mile drive. I mean, that is a long drive. But realistically, people make these long drives all the time with no issues. And Dexter had before, he had made this several times before.

It's not like he's some incompetent person. He knows the route well, he's familiar with the roads and he's comfortable making the drive. It likely feels safe to him. So he's okay, going at it alone. Plus he's got a new car. So he wouldn't be worried about car trouble. And 67 is not that old. I mean, it's not like you're sending off your great, great, great grandpa. Like you're 96 years old. Yes. So Dexter leaves his son place in Oregon early in the morning on

November 18th and he sets off for the drive to Wisconsin. He tells his son he's not planning to stop at any motels along the way. He plans to make the trip quickly and he's just going to pull into rest stops whenever he gets too tired. The next morning to say November 19th is when his car is found in flames at the bad route rest area and he's now missing. So he didn't even make it a day in. Law enforcement pieces together that the last time Dexter is seen was actually at a gas station in Park City Montana. The sources don't say what time this was, but according to Google Maps, Park, Montana is 222 miles southwest of the bad route rest area, or about three hours and 15 minutes if you're driving.

The police say they believe that Dexter likely arrived at the rest stop at around 7 a.m. So then it seems logical to presume he must have gotten gas in Park City sometime around 3 or 4 a.m. A little confused because they think he actually made it to the rest stop. They do. Okay. Even though he wasn't the one who then pulled up later. So they think he made it to the rest stop in his Plymouth seven a.m. And then another man later that morning drove his Plymouth back to the rest stop again. So this may or may not be true. No one actually ever sees Dexter at the rest stop. Now the timing and distance are such that Dexter couldn't

have stopped much along the way since his burning car is found just a little over 24 hours from when he left Oregon. And since his car is found at the rest stop, if he really did make it there like police are thinking, that would mean that he probably drove most of that 24 hours and didn't stop since leaving his son's place the day before if that's true if that's how he got there So Dexter's disappearance is treated as a missing person's case

The coroner isn't involved yet and doesn't think there's been a murder They just think he's missing The sheriff brings in an arson investigator to determine the cause of fire and the arson expert determines that the fire was indeed set intentionally and the gasoline had been used. The investigation reveals that the backseat and trunk of the car had burned the hottest. Furthermore, investigators also determined that the backseat had the most gasoline port on it. So Dexter's car was found burning November 19th, and even though originally they thought that there was no foul play that he just willingly up and left, by December 7th, a little under a month later, law enforcement is announcing and Green Bay Prescaz that is reporting that they believe foul play is suspected

So let's just pause here just for a moment to think about this What a horrible holiday season and Christmas for Dexter's son. Yeah, his mother had just passed away a year ago on Christmas day And now just before Christmas the next year his dad had disappeared driving home from his house and Police now suspect foul play. That's horrible. Horrible. Right. So Christmas though comes and goes and now it's turned 1986. The case goes cold for months. Literally 67-year-old Dexter just disappears. No one hears from him and there's no trace of him whatsoever. On March 8th 1986, however, almost exactly four months later, that all changes. A local Montana couple named Cynthia and William Shaw are dumping garbage at a remote landfill about 17 miles away from the bad route rest area. This is something they apparently do on a regular basis. The dump is down a dirt road that isn't

used or known by many people. The dump is apparently a private landfill owned by a farmer. Okay. It's very isolated, out of the way, and it's difficult to find. Now while at the dump on March 8th, 1986, Cynthia and William Shaw come across something unusual on the ground. It's a wallet and it looks like it's full. They open it and they find that there's cash inside along with a driver's license. They check and see that the driver's license belongs to missing 67-year-old Dexter's Dephonic. The Shaw's live in the area and they've heard all about Dexter's disappearance from the bad route rest stop.

They keep looking to see if they can find anything else of significance there at the dump. They search around and find things that they say weren't there the last time they were there and they go to the dump on a regular basis, like I said. They find men's clothing and belonging strewn about including a shaving kit. They keep searching until Bill finds a boot on the ground. He picks it up and then realizes in horror that there's a foot. Oh my gosh okay. That's when the Shaw's make the horrific discovery. They find a man's body where it had been dumped and left,

partially hidden underneath a mattress at this landfill. Which it's interesting that whoever dumped the body knows about this landfill. And that it's so close to the rest of the car where the car was found burning. So it's obviously somebody local. Right. It would have to be. Cynthia and William Shaw call the police and this is now a crime scene.

While searching the crime scene, Dexter's suitcase is eventually found and Dexter's clothing is found scattered all around the dump site. It looks to the people who find it like it had been purposely scattered. Dexter had been carrying cash in his suitcase as well. And the cash is still there. Wow. Reportedly, even though Dexter disappeared four months cash in his suitcase as well, and the cash is still there. Wow. Reportedly, even though Dexter disappeared four months ago, all of these items look like they've just been thrown around in the past few days. So they look new, they don't look like they've been sitting there for four months.

Dexter's belongings are in such good condition that they don't appear to have been outside in the elements all of this time. Also reports indicate that people who visit the dumpstite regularly hadn't seen these items the past few months. They believe Dexter's belongings must have just appeared there in the last week. And that makes things that's really weird. Even more mysterious. Yeah, that doesn't make sense at all. The Shah's say these things hadn't been scattered around like this the previous week, and nothing appears to be missing from Dexter's wallet or suitcase. In addition to the money and the driver's license, the police also find four postcards

in his wallet addressed to a lady friend of his in Wisconsin that he was riding as he made the drive back to Wisconsin. There are reports that he'd asked this woman, who's divorced and had several kids to marry him, but that she declined because of the large age gap between them. And before you're like, oh, his wife just died. There's no point in going through life alone. So I'm glad that he's able to find some company to live out his life with. Okay, let's not go blaming a quick, a quick turnaround here.

Hey, he is going to kill me and re-marry. Oh, stop. That's all I heard. Stop. So police learned that the day he left his son's house, Dexter had meld a letter to this lady. It's post marked November 18th and the letter reads, I miss you in the children and the family worship.

May the Lord be with you until we meet again. Love Dexter. But sadly, for the Staphonic family, the body found in the dump is that of an elderly male as announced by the Dawson County Attorney and everyone assumes its Dexter, particularly with his driver's license and belongings found there, but of course they'll need to officially ID him.

And the autopsy is performed in Billings, Montana, and the autopsy reveals that the body is dexter and he had been shot twice in the head. Geez. He had also been severely beaten. Okay. There were marks on his hands. There was damage done to his neck and throat and he had a bruise or damage on the front part of his skull that was probably caused by a beating. And whoever did this obviously was not trying to get money. No way. Was not trying to get belongings.

He was trying to kill somebody. Also what is our timeline here? Yeah. What is our timeline here? Why are these things just barely being dumped? Weird. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads unsure of which direction to take in life?

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Dexter's body was basically mostly preserved by the cold winter months but even with the cold it's partially decomposed. The body is mostly intact except for the hands and face which are now just bone. Law enforcement believes that a murder like this must have been inspired by some type of rage, but it just doesn't make sense given who the victim is and that he's not even from the area like he was passing through. One theory that officers come up with is perhaps the killer asked Dexter for help getting a ride to the gas station and that Dexter, who was hard of hearing, couldn't understand what he was saying, and so there was some confusion or something. Now that Dexter's body has been

found in law enforcement in the corner, know that they're dealing with a murder. They go back and search for clues at the bad route rest area. They look through the bathrooms inch by inch And about 10 days after the discovery of Dexter's body hidden in the graffiti on the bathroom walls The corner finds the following message written in pencil on a wall Hot jock shot wad from Wisconsin 1185 Saturday the thirdrd. What? Was it even mean? I don't know, but authorities believe the message was there the whole time, but as the corner says is quoted, I think it was there we just overlooked it.

But the police believe that the message was left by the killer because of the way it was worded and because of the word shot, along with the state that dexter is from and the month and the year of the murder. Okay. Others aren't so convinced, especially since the message wasn't found until months after the murder, plus it's in a public location, maybe someone was just messing around and went and wrote it.

The current Dawson County Sheriff doesn't even know that it's authentic or when it was written. What could this message even mean? It's all so puzzling. Is the message even related to Dexter's murder? Law enforcement wonders if hot jock is a driver's like handle or maybe a nickname? Some people think it's related. Some people just think it's a random message. However, the investigation continues. On March 20th, 1986, an article comes out in the Montana standard that the comes out in the Montana

standard that the body found in the landfill is positively identified as Dexter. The identification does take a bit longer because law enforcement couldn't locate any dental records for Dexter. At this point, law enforcement interview Mitchell and Segal over and over again to see if they can remember anything else about that suspicious pick-up truck, the license plate, and the man. I don't know what else they want them to remember. over and over again to see if they can remember anything else about that suspicious pickup truck, the license plate, and the man. I don't know what else they want them to remember. I feel like Siege remembered everything.

And it's four months later. They believe the pickup clearly seems to have been connected to Dexter's murder, considering that that strange man pulled up in Dexter's car. However, they're unable to remember the plate number. So willing to try just about anything to jog their memories in late spring or early summer of 1986, Mitchell and Siegel are sent to Denver to some law enforcement hypnosis specialists there. They're like, okay, let's hypnotize these guys and let's see what we can get. And it works.

Mitchell remembers under hypnosis that the first three digits of the license plate of the pickup truck were one four seven. No freaking way. Well, your brain does store. No, that's not. That's okay. Well, I guess it worked. I can't say anything. Well, no, because it also could just be like he's made it up. Well, you know, like lead there in a way like, oh, I see what you're saying. I don't want to say, but sometimes under hypnosis, maybe your brain just like makes up something because you're under hypnosis. You know what I mean? A B C D E F G. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So law enforcement eagerly follows up on this lead and apparently 279 vehicles resembling the pickup truck are potential matches with Arizona

plates that start with the numbers 147 But despite these leads and even digging into Dexter's life looking at the new love interest Years will pass and the case grows cold as cold as the Montana winters Now in 1997 Fred Seagal dies He's 81 at the time of his death, and he's the only eyewitness who ever spoke to the killer at the Bad Routress area or the suspected killer. In 2012, 27 years after Dexter's murder, the cold case is reopened by the Dawson County Sheriff's Office. The Dawson County Sheriff is now Ross Cannon and he's taking a fresh

look, and the case seems solvable to him. Sheriff Cannon figures the killer was the type of person who must have had prior convictions given that this murder was random or had the very tiniest amount of motives. Like it just doesn't, they don't believe that Dexter knew his killer. The killer could be someone who would easily get set off in a murderous rage. His theory is that the killer shot Dexter in the backseat of his own car dumped his body and then used Dexter's car to go pick up the gasoline to fill his own pickup truck at the rest stop and then to burn Dexter's car at the

rest stop. The main clue the Sheriff's Department has is this pickup truck. So law enforcement still want to track down the vehicle and figure out who owned it and who had access to it at that time. Sheriff Cannon goes back through that list of license plates starting with 147. And he somehow works that list from 279 down to 60 vehicles. Cannon used the 13-digit vehicle identification number of each truck to get a better match. The blue trim on the side of the truck was Hawaiian blue. He learned this from Chevy.

He wrote law enforcement officers across Arizona, making sure the trucks were the right color scheme. So this is how he narrows it down. He also looks for criminal activity related to any of these vehicles. There was some, but the leads didn't get back to this suspected pickup. And despite like this brilliant work of narrowing these things down, it's still so little to

go on. Dexter's murder took place in 1985. DNA wasn't a tool back then, so there's no DNA to go on. And it would be four more years before Montana would get a murder conviction based on DNA evidence, it ever in history. It's also frustrating because the suspect driving the pickup truck likely bought two containers of gas in the immediate area around the time that Dexter's car

was lit up, right? But they never found anything on it. Don't tell me this is a cool case. And I'm sorry to say that this case remains unsolved to this day. Why do you go, do me like that? Because someone knows, someone knows something. He's out there.

He's out there. In Montana. Literally. Someone figured out in Montana. So here's the aftermath quickly and some theories. Dexter is buried back home at Forest Home Cemetery with his wife Vivian. There are various theories as to what went down in this mysterious case. How a 67 year old man went missing while driving home from his son's house and then was found

murdered four months later in his carlet on fire. Some theories are plausible and some are kind of way out there. Maybe this was the work of a serial killer. Or maybe someone followed Dexter to the rest area from an altercation at a previous location. Maybe it was road rage. Maybe Dexter was killed someplace else before he even made it to the rest stop that day.

I mean, again, no one actually saw him there. Only Dexter's car was there, but it was being driven by a different man. Maybe the murderer was already at the rest stop when Dexter arrived, waiting for another victim. But why on earth would someone kill the elderly Dexter in such a heated, angry, violent manner? It seems likely, like Garrett said, that the killer is from the area, or routinely passes through the area.

How else would they have known about the dump? Exactly. And another big enduring mystery remains. Why would someone dump Dexter's body there immediately after the murder, but then wait several months to dump his belongings? And not take the cash. That's weird. It just doesn't make any sense.

It would mean that the person had just returned to the scene. However, the most logical explanation may be the simplest. Some believe that his belongings were actually there the whole time, and they weren't dumped there later. Maybe they got scattered shortly before the shots found them. By an animal, maybe they had just been in the suitcase. But now, nearly 40 years later, we're still nowhere closer to the truth. This case still does seem solvable, though. It's so sad to me that an elderly religious study family man who lived would appear to be such a normal life in a small town in Wisconsin, and who was looking for a second chance at love and companionship after his wife's

death would become the victim of such a brutal murder and enduring mystery. In the beginning of today's episode, I told you that Montana has one of the lowest murder rates in the country. What I'd like to add now is that very few murders there remain unsolved. Montana has a 68% homicide clearance rate. Only 445 murders from 1965 to 2021 remain unsolved. Tragically, Dexter's is one of them. In this case, should be solvable. Someone saw the suspect. This would be someone who was driving a pickup truck

with Arizona plates, but who in all likelihood was very familiar with the eastern part of Montana around the bad route rest area. Someone out there might be able to recognize or remember this vehicle, someone who drove a truck like this around this area. So please call Dawson County Sheriff's Department at 406-377-5291. If you have any information regarding Dexter's murder and that is the story of the bad route rest stop murder. Dang, one horrible that he was killed. That's so sad. It's bad for the sons, bad for the whole family that's devastating. Two, can't believe it sucks that it's not solved.

I also feel like a lot of the time in the true crime world when we see these cases where someone disappears mysteriously during a drive. Number one, their bodies usually aren't found. And so then it's this big mystery of, was it an alien abduction. Number two, if their body is found, it's usually like not murder.

Like it's never clarified that it's homicide and the family usually does believe it's homicide. It was shot, it was for sure. Yeah, this is like clearly a murder. Clearly a homicide, it's so different from these other disappearances that we see on these long drives. Well, if anyone has any information that will help, not just serious information, give that number a call and let us know. Unless you're, but information, give that number a call, and let us know. Unless you're two women who are gossiping at a water park. Yes,

your theories might actually solve a case. This is true. This is true. All right, you guys. So that is it for this week, and that is the story of Dexter. We will see you next time with another episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.