Hank or Dennis DePue

1. Marilyn McClrnahen was born in Detroit the year of 1941. 

1. She grew up in that area and stayed in Michigan.

1. Dennis Henry Hank DePue was born in Sturgis in 1943.

1. Dennis grew up in Burr Oak and graduated from Burr Oak High School.

1.   After high school he attended MSU obtaining his bachelor's degree in business education.

1.  He also stayed in Michigan most of his life, working for 20 years as a tax specialist for the Michigan Department of Treasury.

1. The couple married in 1971

1. They went on to have their family of 3,   2 girls and a boy.

1. The family owned a home in Coldwell

1. Marilyn worked as a high school counselor

1. Dennis worked as a property accessor
2.   It was often said that Dennis was rather controlling of Marilyn and if people noticed that, then you can betcha there was shit happening behind closed doors.

1.   Eventually, Marilyn would tire of their lifeless marriage and 18 years later asked Dennis for a divorce.

1.  Dennis wasn’t happy about this but didn’t outright put up a fight.

1. Dennis had some visiting rights with his kids,  which was every other weekend.

1. Often the children would complain and not want to go, that is pretty common.

1. There were times when Marilyn would come home, having locked her house and Dennis would be sitting on their couch.  Without a key, Marilyn did not know how he was able to get into her home.

1.   As  part of their agreement, Dennis did use the garage as his office, which kept him close to the family, in ways.

1. April 15, 1990 Easter Sunday it was Dennis’s turn to have the kids but the oldest didn’t want to go to his house, so some arguing started in their house. 

1.  Dennis actually started physically fighting with Marilyn right in front of their kids.

1.   During their scuffle, she either fell down or he threw her down the stairs.

1.   Either way, when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he continued to beat her.

1. Dennis proceeded to half walk, half drag Marilyn out of the house to his van, telling the kids he was going to take her to the hospital.

1.   The oldest child said that her mom wasn’t responding to her so she ran to the neighbors house to call the police.

1.  Dennis never took Marilyn to the hospital.

1.   Police began their search for Marilyn right away.

1.  During this same time, a couple was taking their Sunday drive.  Literally.  While driving a Green Chevy van passed them going rather fast.

1.   The couple then saw the van at an old school house parked between the school and this old tank looking thing. 

1.  The passenger door was open on the van and the Sunday driver said she saw blood all over the van door and was pretty sure she saw him carrying a bloody sheet or blanket.

1.  The couple kept driving down the road when the van was suddenly behind them again.  It stayed right behind them for 2 miles on a country road. 

1.   Then the van turned off on a sideroad.

1. They turned around to try to get his plates but saw him changing his plates.

1.   Bravely, with the van still just down the road they go back to the old school house that was known as the Luce school built in 1908  and find a sheet with blood all over it.

1.   Ray and Mary Thornton had found evidence.

1.  When police show up they find all sorts of evidence and the school is now a crime scene with tire tracks, blood and that bloody sheet.

1. On Monday, the next day, a highway worker discovered  Marilyn's body on a small road that runs between her home and the school house. 

1.   Police would soon find out that Marilyn had one shot to the back of her head.

1.  At the young age of 48, Marilyn was executed by her ex-husband  who couldn’t even look her in the eye when he pulled the trigger.

1.   On top of that, Dennis disappeared.  I believe they had plenty of evidence against him but couldn’t find him.

1.   Soon, letters began to show up in the mailboxes of many friends and family of Marilyn and Dennis.  

1.  These letters were his narcissistic way of  explaining why he had to kill Marilyn.  

1. 17 letters were sent all together.  They all came from different places.   Oklahoma, Virginia and Iowa.

1.  The letters often quoted the bible and he did say, “I was too old to start over.”

1.  March 20, 1991 almost 1 year after disgustingly killing his wife,  we skip down to Texas where Hank, yup, I said Hank…. goes to his girlfriend's house and tells her that he has to go home because his mom is sick.

1.   While he was packing, Unsolved Mysteries was playing a show about a man named Dennis DePue.

1.   Could you imagine????

1.  That night the girlfriend learned that her boyfriend was not Hank Queen.  He was Dennis DePue and he had been featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

1.   Later, she realized that the show was on at the same time that he was packing to go  to his sick mom’s house and ordering her to make some sandwiches for him to hit the road.

1.   Thanks  to the show, someone who knew Hank & Mary was able to give the information of the van’s license plate number.   

1. They must have jotted it down while watching the show.

1.   4 hours later, police in Louisiana spot the Green Chevy van,   Dennis and the cops ended up in a van chase for 15 miles, ending in Mississippi.

1.   Eventually, police shot out both back tires, and Dennis kept going until he had to stop.  He was rollin on rims.

1. Dennis fired his gun 4 times that night. 

1.  There were numerous windows shattered out of his van.

1.   3 bullets were aimed at the ensuing police.

1. The 4th shot went into his forehead.  Dennis shot himself, leaving the cowards way, with a 357 magnum.

1.  Dennis was 64 years old when he died.  Leaving behind his parents, 4 sisters and a brother.  He was buried in Indiana….far, far away from the beautiful woman who was buried back home in Michigan at Oakland Hills Cemetery in Novi.

Jeepers Creepers?   The beginning of the movie is supposedly just like the start of this story….that’s what is all over the internet anyway.