Dennis DePue was a Michigan property assessor who shot and killed his ex-wife on Easter Sunday 1990, and the case is widely cited as the likely real-life basis for the opening scene of the 2001 horror film Jeepers Creepers. The link runs through a 1991 Unsolved Mysteries episode: two siblings who crossed paths with DePue as he disposed of evidence described a chase and an abandoned rural building, and the film’s opening almost directly mirrors that re-enactment.1Click On Detroit. Did 1990 Michigan Murder Inspire Jeepers Creepers Film Director Victor Salva has never publicly confirmed the case as an inspiration.2The Daily Reporter. Arson Suspected in Abandoned School
The Easter Sunday 1990 Murder
On April 15, 1990, DePue assaulted his ex-wife Marilynn in front of their three children, forced her into his Chevrolet van, and drove away.1Click On Detroit. Did 1990 Michigan Murder Inspire Jeepers Creepers Film He beat her and shot her in the back of the head. Marilynn, a high school counselor at Coldwater High School, had filed for divorce in 1989 citing his attempts to control every aspect of her life; the divorce was finalized that December.3All That’s Interesting. Dennis DePue
Her body was found the next day by a highway worker near a deserted road, behind an abandoned church roughly five miles from where DePue had first stopped with the van.2The Daily Reporter. Arson Suspected in Abandoned School
The Witnesses on Snow Prairie Road
That same Easter afternoon, a brother and sister named Ray and Marie Thornton were driving on Snow Prairie Road south of Coldwater when DePue’s van aggressively overtook them. Marie noted a license plate beginning with “GZ.” Minutes later the Thorntons saw the same van parked at an abandoned two-story brick schoolhouse, and Marie watched the driver carry a bloody sheet toward the rear of the building.3All That’s Interesting. Dennis DePue
When DePue realized he had been seen, he followed the Thorntons for about two miles, riding their bumper. After he pulled over, they doubled back and observed him crouched behind the van, apparently swapping the rear plate. The passenger door hung open and the interior was soaked in blood.3All That’s Interesting. Dennis DePue
Once DePue left, the Thorntons returned to the schoolhouse and found the bloody sheet partially stuffed into an animal hole. They called the Michigan State Police, who matched tire tracks at the site to DePue’s van.3All That’s Interesting. Dennis DePue Every element the Thorntons described, the aggressive pursuit, the abandoned building, the figure dumping what appeared to be a body, would later reappear on screen.
A Year on the Run, Then a Shootout
DePue fled Michigan immediately after the killing and spent nearly a year as a fugitive. He settled in Dallas, Texas, under the alias “Hank Queen,” and sent 17 letters to friends and family from Virginia, Iowa, and Oklahoma trying to justify what he had done.3All That’s Interesting. Dennis DePue
NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries aired the case on March 20, 1991. Tips came in identifying “Hank Queen” in Dallas. DePue himself watched the broadcast at his unsuspecting girlfriend’s home and ran.3All That’s Interesting. Dennis DePue
The next day, Louisiana State Troopers chased him 15 miles before he crossed into Mississippi, where Warren County deputies and Vicksburg police joined the pursuit. DePue drove through a roadblock, fired a .357 Magnum at officers, and tried to ram their cars before his tires were shot out. Around 4:00 a.m. on March 21, 1991, officers opened the driver’s door and found DePue, 47, dead behind the wheel, the revolver in his left hand with his thumb still on the trigger. The fatal wound had entered his mouth and exited the back of his head. Warren County Sheriff Paul Barrett ruled it a suicide, saying “our bullets would not have gone in that direction.”1Click On Detroit. Did 1990 Michigan Murder Inspire Jeepers Creepers Film Barrett added: “My wife and I had watched the TV program about him and the next morning I am with other officers firing into his van. I’d say that’s not going to happen every day.”4Orlando Sentinel. Man Wanted for Murder Dies in Police Shootout
How the Case Matches the Opening of Jeepers Creepers
Victor Salva wrote and directed Jeepers Creepers, released in 2001. The film opens with two siblings driving a rural road who watch a figure dump what appears to be a body behind an abandoned building, then find themselves pursued by that figure’s vehicle. Commentators and media reports have noted the sequence “almost directly mirrors a re-enactment” of the Thornton siblings’ account as it was staged for the 1991 Unsolved Mysteries episode.1Click On Detroit. Did 1990 Michigan Murder Inspire Jeepers Creepers Film
The parallels are specific: siblings rather than a couple, a remote road, an aggressive vehicle, an isolated building used to hide a body, a driver who realizes he has been seen and gives chase. Salva has never officially cited the DePue case or the Unsolved Mysteries segment as source material, so the connection rests on the visual match rather than on any acknowledgment from the filmmakers.2The Daily Reporter. Arson Suspected in Abandoned School
The Schoolhouse Is Still Standing
The building the Thorntons saw is a 1908 two-story brick schoolhouse officially known as District School No. 3, at the corner of South Snow Prairie and Southern roads in Gilead Township. It has been privately owned and was used at various times to house sheep. It appeared in the 1991 Unsolved Mysteries episode and continues to attract visitors drawn by the case and its rumored film connection.2The Daily Reporter. Arson Suspected in Abandoned School