Real Name: Dexter William Stefonek
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Bad Route Rest Area, Glendive, Montana
Date: November 19, 1985
Case
Details: In Winter 1985, sixty-seven-year-old Dexter Stefonek prepared to drive from his son David’s Corbett, Oregon farm to his home in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Six years earlier, he had retired from a Wisconsin paper mill to take care of his wife, Vivian. They had been married for forty-four years, but in 1984, she died. A few months later, he went to visit his grandchildren and David. But as the first anniversary of Vivian’s death approached, he wanted to go back home.
When Dexter came to visit, David thought that he would probably spend the winter with them. However, it became a difficult time of year for Dexter (with the anniversary of Vivian’s death), so he decided to leave. David tried to convince him not to leave. Since winter had already started, David figured that there was nothing for him to go back to Wisconsin for. David told him that if, at any point during the drive, he decided he wanted to come back, that it was fine and that he could come back. But he seemed anxious to return home.
Dexter left David’s home on the morning of November 18, 1985. He had made the 2,000-mile trip from Oregon to Wisconsin many times before. Because he wanted to finish the drive as quickly as possible, he told David that he would not stop at motels, but would pull into rest areas instead.
At around 10:20am on the morning of November 19, along a bleak stretch of Montana's Interstate 94, a burning car was found at the Bad Route rest area near Glendive. When Dawson County Sheriff Jim George arrived at the scene, he noticed that the inside of the car was completely engulfed in flames. He talked to members of the State Highway Department, and they said that they had not seen anyone inside the car. A computer check of the license plate revealed that the car, a brown Plymouth Horizon, belonged to Dexter. His car was found only twenty-six hours after he left David’s home.
The Sheriff’s Department immediately searched the area, worried that Dexter might have begun walking for help and been overcome by the bitter cold. However, they found nothing. Sheriff George had an arson expert examine the car. He found that the fire had been set deliberately using gasoline. The largest amount of the gasoline was found on the back seat. Sheriff George also noticed that the driver’s seat was pushed all the way back. Dexter, being a short man, would most likely have had the seat all the way up to the front to drive it. Sheriff George believed that a large man, 6’ or taller, was driving the car.
Law enforcement officials were stymied. Who was the 6’ tall man who had driven Dexter’s car? Could this person have set fire to the car? Finally, where was Dexter? Had he been killed? Or had he simply disappeared into the harsh Montana winter? Sheriff George attempted to establish the chronology of events for the morning that Dexter’s car had been burned. It had been discovered just after 10am.
Nearly three hours earlier, Fred Siegle, custodian of the Bad Route rest area, had arrived for work as usual. He got there between 8 and 8:30am. He noticed a pickup truck parked there, but nobody was around it. He did not pay much attention to it at the time. About fifteen minutes later, at 8:45am, Clyde Mitchell, a Montana Highway maintenance supervisor, made a stop at the rest area. He noticed Fred’s pickup truck, along with a white Chevy pickup truck that was facing southeast. He went into the utility room and talked to Fred. He asked Fred if he had seen anybody and how long the truck had been there. Fred did not know how long it had been there.
Clyde decided to take a closer look at the truck. He saw Arizona plates on the back. He walked around the vehicle and noticed it was a four wheel drive Chevy, with blue trim and a cowcatcher on the front. At the time, he did not think there was anything suspicious about it. At approximately 9:15am, he left to complete his regular rounds. Fifteen minutes later, at 9:30am, as Fred was leaving the rest area, Dexter’s car pulled in. The driver got out, carrying two large plastic containers.
Fred asked the driver if he was having any problems. The man said that he had run out of gas and had to go get some. Fred noticed that the man was around 6’ tall, between thirty-five and forty-years-old, light-complected, and clean shaven. He did not notice any signs that there was something wrong or unusual about him. He did not seem to be “excited” or anything. The authorities had no idea who the man was or what had happened to Dexter. Less than a half hour after Fred saw the man at the rest area, Dexter’s car was discovered there, in flames.
Nearly four months later, on March 8, 1986, a local couple, Bill and Cindy Shaw, went to a remote landfill seventeen miles from the Bad Route rest area. As they went to dump their garbage, Cindy noticed a wallet laying on the ground. She noticed that it had a current driver’s license in it. Bill looked at it and wondered if it was related to the burning car at the rest area. As they continued to look around the landfill, they noticed several items that had not been there when they last visited it. They went in different directions, looking for anything else that did not “belong” there. She noticed a shaving kit, a suitcase, and several pieces of men’s clothing.
Bill noticed a man’s boot next to a pile of garbage and picked it up. When he stood up, he saw a man’s foot, partially hidden beneath a mattress. He and Cindy called the authorities. The coroner positively identified the body as Dexter’s through dental records. He had been shot twice in the back of the head with a large-caliber pistol. There were also marks on his hands, damage to his neck and throat area, and a bruise on the front of his skull. The coroner believed that Dexter had been beaten, possibly "pistol-whipped", before he was shot.
Sheriff’s investigators discovered that there was money in Dexter’s suitcase, so robbery seemed an unlikely motive. Also, the clothing which had been conspicuously placed around the landfill belonged to Dexter, and appeared to have been placed there just days before it was found. Cindy recalled that the clothing and other items had not been there when they visited the landfill the week before. Strangely, Dexter’s body seemed to have been in the landfill for several months. Based on the body’s condition, the coroner determined that it had been there since the time of Dexter’s disappearance.
One week after Dexter's body was found, the authorities found one final clue: a small line of graffiti written in pencil in the Bad Route rest area men’s room. It began with the words, “Hot Jock”. Other key words, such as “Wisconsin”, “shot”, and “11 85”, seemed to refer to Dexter’s murder. The coroner theorized that the killer wanted them to see the graffiti. He suspected that “Hot Jock” may have been a CB handle. Sheriff George believes the graffiti was written by the killer. He believes that the killer was taunting or bragging to law enforcement about his crime.
Sheriff George has attempted to reconstruct Dexter’s last hours. He believes that Dexter arrived at the Bad Route rest area soon after 7am on November 19, and that the killer was already there. Dexter was hard of hearing; Sheriff George theorizes that the killer tried to get Dexter’s attention (possibly asking for a ride to get gas) and failed. Enraged, he pulled out a gun and forced Dexter into the back seat of his own car. It is unclear at what point Dexter was actually killed, but the authorities are convinced that the killer abducted Dexter. After killing him, he hid his body in the landfill. Sheriff George believes that the killer returned to the rest area, doused Dexter’s car with gasoline, and set it on fire, both to destroy evidence and to distract officials so that he would have time to escape.
Dexter’s killer is still at large. Only two clues exist: the description of the suspect’s vehicle and the sketchy description of the suspect himself.
Suspects: The suspect's vehicle was a white Chevy Blazer 4x4 with a wide blue horizontal stripe. It had a white camper shell top, a cattle guard on the front bumper, gold hubcaps, bucket seats, chrome bumpers, and possibly tinted windows. It also had Arizona plates, with a Phoenix license plate holder. It was made around 1976. Bedding and clothes in the back of it suggested that the killer was living in it.
The suspect is a Caucasian male, at least 6’ tall, between thirty-five and forty (in 1985), light-complected and clean shaven. He was wearing a parka at the time. He may use the nickname or CB handle “Hot Jock”. Police think he might have struck before, and they fear he may strike again at a secluded highway rest area.
Investigators noted that the landfill was very remote. It was off a dirt road four miles from Glendive. It was also used by very few people. This led them to believe that Dexter's killer was most likely familiar with the area.
Investigators learned that Dexter had become close with a younger woman in Rhinelander. He had asked her to marry him, but she declined, citing their age difference. It was theorized that their relationship may have been the motive for his murder, but no evidence supporting this was found.
Extra Notes:
- This case first aired on the April 12, 1989 episode.
- It was submitted to the show by Sheriff Jim George.
- It was also featured on The Trail Went Cold podcast.
Results: Unresolved - Investigators later released the full message written at the rest stop: "HOT JOCK SHOT WAD FROM WISCONSIN 11/85 SATURDAY THE 3rd". However, no new leads came from it. Some investigators now believe that it has nothing to do with the murder.
Under hypnosis, Clyde Mitchell told investigators that the first three numbers of Dexter's killer's license plate were 1 4 7. Investigators were able to narrow down the vehicle to less than sixty owners. However, they were unable to determine if any of them were the killer. In 2012, the case was reopened, but for years, there were no new leads.
Then, on January 19, 2024, the Dawson County Sheriff's Office announced that they believed seventy-nine-year-old Charles Gary Sullivan was Dexter's killer. He is currently serving a fifteen-year sentence for the 1979 murder of Julia Woodward, who was killed in Reno, Nevada. He was arrested for her murder in 2019 after DNA evidence linked him to the crime. He previously had to provide a DNA sample when he was required to register as a sex offender following a 2007 sexual assault case in California. He is also a suspect in several other murders.
Sullivan emerged as a person of interest in Dexter's case in 2022. He was linked to the crime based on statements from witnesses at the rest stop that day. Sullivan's vehicle, license plate, traveling pattern, age, and physical description matched the witness statements. Also, his criminal history led investigators to believe that he probably killed Dexter. When investigators went to speak to him about Dexter's murder, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. However, the Sheriff's Office will not file charges against Sullivan for Dexter's murder because they do not believe they have enough evidence to charge or convict him. Despite this, the case has been closed.
According to some sources, Sullivan made comments to cellmates about what exactly happened to Dexter. However, this information has not been confirmed.
In 1997, Fred Siegle died at the age of eighty-one.
Links:
- Dexter Stefonek on Unsolved.com
- Missing Wisconsin man's vehicle burns - November 21, 1985
- Foul play suspected in disappearance - December 7, 1985
- Missing Oneida County man on way home when car found - December 8, 1985
- Disappearance still mystery - December 9, 1985
- Corpse may be missing driver - March 10, 1986
- Body found in dump had been shot - March 12, 1986
- Body identified as Dexter Stefonek - March 19, 1986
- Body identified as state man - March 20, 1986
- Wisconsin man's body identified in Montana - March 20, 1986
- Denver hypnotist to probe for details in death case - April 22, 1986
- Murder case on TV - January 19, 1989
- Unsolved Mysteries show to feature Glendive murder - April 5, 1989
- Glendive killing on Unsolved Mysteries - April 5, 1989
- TV show features Montana case - April 6, 1989
- TV show features Rhinelander murder - April 8, 1989
- Sheriff checks leads in Glendive slaying - April 25, 1989
- Thirty-year-old Bad Route rest area murder case remains unsolved - November 30, 2015
- Long-ago Bad Route rest stop murder still puzzles Dawson County law enforcement - April 9, 2017
- Montana Murder Mysteries: Bad Route Rest Stop Killing - September 23, 2019
- Person of interest in 1985 Bad Route Rest Area murder identified, case has been closed - January 19, 2024
- Dexter Stefonek on The Trail Went Cold
- SitcomsOnline Discussion of Dexter Stefonek
- Vivian (Abbey) Stefonek's Genealogy
- Wayne Nathan Nance - Wikipedia
- Dexter Stefonek on Find a Grave