The Disturbing Case Of Dennis DePue — And The Murder That Inspired The Opening Of ‘Jeepers Creepers’



Dennis DePue brutally murdered his wife Marilynn in April 1990 — and when a passing couple saw him trying to hide the body, a terrifying chase ensued.

Dennis Depue


Dennis Depue and his wife, Marilynn, in an undated photo.


On Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990, Ray and Marie Thornton were on a traditional weekend drive along Snow Prairie Road, a rural highway 12 miles outside Coldwater, Michigan. In their rear-view mirror, a Chevrolet van suddenly appeared, driving aggressively, before overtaking them.


The couple had been playing a game of making slogans from the license plates of passing cars, so when the van sped past, Marie saw the plate beginning ‘GZ’ and remarked, “Geez he’s in a hurry.”


As they approached an abandoned schoolhouse, the Thorntons saw the same van parked to the side of the building — then Marie caught a disturbing sight. The driver was holding what appeared to be a bloody sheet and walking toward the rear of the schoolhouse. Marie, although shocked, was not quite sure what she had just witnessed, and as they discussed calling the police, Ray Thornton saw an ominous van approaching again in his rearview.


Gaining speed rapidly, the same Chevy van they had just seen at the schoolhouse now eerily rode their rear bumper for the next two miles, inspiring the opening scene of the 2001 horror movie Jeepers Creepers.


What Ray And Marie Thornton Saw

Dennis Depue Schoolhouse

Google Maps

The abandoned schoolhouse in Michigan where Dennis DePue was trying to hide his wife’s body when the Thorntons drove by.


As the Thorntons worried what the driver pursuing them would do, they turned off the highway, just as the van suddenly pulled to the side of the road. To try and obtain the full license plate for the police, Ray Thornton turned his car around and they approached the green van again.


Now, however, the man they had seen driving was now crouched down changing the rear license plate of the van.


The Thorntons could also see the van’s open front passenger door — and the inside was soaked in blood. Rushing back to the schoolhouse the couple found the bloody sheet partially stuffed into an animal hole. As they contacted the Michigan State Police recounting what they had just witnessed, unbeknownst to them, police were already scouring the area looking for that man and his injured wife.


The couple had just encountered 46-year-old Dennis DePue.

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