The "Real" Story Behind Jeffrey Creepers

Horror movies provide a captivating form of entertainment for many people, offering about 90 minutes of chilling, adrenaline-pumping ssuspense. Throughout this time, viewers seek comfort in the knowledge that the spine-tingling experiences they're immersed in is completely made up, and not real.

I'm sure most of us have heard of the movie 'Jeepers Creepers' right?

The main character is pretty famous.. 

Justin Long? 

It was a good movie.. I liked it anyway..

But, did you know that Jeepers Creepers was actually inspired by a true story?

That's right..

At first glance, the film may seem like a fantastical story about an unidentifiable creature relentlessly stalking motorists on secluded country roads. However, the chilling truth is that the movie draws from a disturbing real-life crime. This gruesome true crime story provides a haunting backdrop to the now infamous film, adding layers of depth and intrigue to the narrative.

It was 1990, and the DePue family lived in Coldwater Michigan. At that time, 46-year-old Dennis DePue was employed as a property assessor for the State of Michigan, having worked for over twenty years as a tax specialist at the treasury department. And, his wife, Marilynn, who was 48 years old, worked as a guidance counselor at Coldwater High School, dedicating her time and expertise to her profession. The couple, who had been married for 18 years and shared three children, found their marriage overshadowed by discontent. 

And as time passed Marilyn observed a major shift in Dennis' behavior as he became increasingly withdrawn. Tensions were high in the household, and it had reached a breaking point when Dennis started to accuse his wife of influencing their children against him. Their kids also noticed that Dennis was acting strangely and started to keep their distance from him. 

Marilyn often told her friends that she was unhappy and shared with them that she wanted to end her marriage. This is something she had been considering for a while, and in 1989, she finally took steps to make it happen. Marilyn told her lawyer that Dennis was trying to mess up her life and not letting her do her own thing. He was super controlling and couldn't deal with the fact that their marriage was over. He just couldn't let go of Marilyn, especially after being married for almost 20 years. He tried to save the marriage, but they ended up getting divorced in December that year.

Dennis was allowed to visit his children every two weeks, but they didn't always want to see him. He was also allowed to use the guest house as an office, but it seemed like he was using it to control his family.

Marilynn then decided to change the locks on the main house, but even after that, Dennis still managed to find a way inside the house. 

One time, Marilynn actually came home from work to find Dennis sitting on the couch. That would have been quite scary for her, and confusing. This this guy just casually breaking into the house?? Who does that!

Then, easter 1990 came along, and everyone was having a great time until Dennis showed up to pickup the kids..

Who may i add, didnt want to see him.

Tensions ran high at this point, because their younger daughter, Julie, did NOR want to go with him at all. She kicked up a stink and blatantly told her parents that she didn't want to go with her dad, which ofcourse caused the parents to argue a bit..

Then, it turned out that their son Scott also didn't want to go with him.

I'm going to assume this made Dennis feel quite small and embarrassed to be rejected by his own kids. No parent wants to hear that their child or children would prefer not to spend time with us right? But, it doesn't need to be a big drama either! If the kids don't want to go, then they shouldn't be forced to go.

My son who is 13 and he has said in the past that he would prefer to spend time with his Dad, because they go bush and do the boys hunting trip things. Not my cup of tea at all, because I absolutely adore animals, and can't be around that sh#t. But, my son likes the quality time with his dad, so I'm fine with him going. Ofcourse there are rules around weapons, but that's between my son's dad and I.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if my son doesn't want to spend time with me because he got a better offer, then that is absolutely fine, and I won't be hurt about it.

Ok, on with the story.

Me and my little tangents.. 😆 

So, Marilynn did try to talk to Dennis about the situation, but he just got shitty and went into a rage at her. It's s not her fault the kids dont want to see you Dennis! Geez.

This is where it went from just words to actual physical violence! This horrible man grabbed Marilynn and he threw her down the stairs. I'm not sure how they ended up upstairs, but they did and he fully attacked her in front of their children.

The kids were screaming and crying.

And Dennis went down the stairs towards Marilynn, who was laying at the bottom, and instead of being like. OMG IM SO SORRY, he instead started to beat on her... Like, pretty badly..

And all this is happening in front of the kids!

The kids were begging him to stop, but he didn’t, and just kept on hitting poor Marilynn.

I feel so sad for this poor woman and her children!

So, while this beating is going on, their oldest daughter 'Jennifer' actually takes off out the house to find help. She ended up at the neighbors house and frantically asked to use the phone to call the police..

What a brave girl!

Meanwhile, back at the house Dennis stops beating on Marilyn and bends down to pick her up. He told the kids who were still there that he was going to take Marilynn to the hospital, and he carried a very badly beaten Marilynn to his car. This woman had just been thrown down a flight of stairs, which could cause serious injuries on its own, and then beaten relentlessly by her ex husband.

She was an absolute mess, and the kids were terrified!

So, Dennis gets Marilynn into his car and he takes off to the (airquotes) HOSPITAL!....

Thing is, they never made it to the hospital, and by this stage police were looking for them.

Because, remember.. Jennifer had bravely called them.

Later on that same day, a couple called Ray and Marie Thorton were driving near Coldwater when a van sped past them. 

It was going fast enough for them to take notice, and they saw that the van's license plate started with the letters "GZ".

They didn't think to much of it, but did take a mental note. Also, just like in the movie.. The Thorntons were playing a game on their road trip.. 

Basically trying to make words from passing license plates. Thats when they spotted a fast green 1984 Chevrolet truck with the license plate "GZ," and Marie said, "Geez, he must be in a hurry!". Then, the truck quickly vanished from sight. So, they are driving and they went past an old abandoned school. Kind of like in the movie, and thats when they saw the van again! That one that was speeding. It was parked up by the old school. The Thorntons were curious about what the driver was up to. Human curiosity and all that. I would be too. Then they saw that a man (likely the driver of the van) was actually carrying a blood drenched sheet. The Thorntons were shocked, and wondered what was going on.

So, I'm sure you guys have clued on by now.

The man was Dennis and that was Marilynn in that blood soaked sheet. I guess he thought noone else would be out there, because it was quite isolated. Thing is.. There were people put there, and they saw what he was doing. The Thorntons decided to find a phone box, and Marie quickly wrote down what she could remember of the license plate of the speeding truck. But their plans changed when they saw the same green Chevrolet truck rapidly approaching from behind. Looking in the rearview mirror, they were surprised to see the same green Chevrolet truck tailgating them for several miles, swerving and trying to force them off the road. After they left the highway, they saw a van pulled over to the side of the road. Since Marie hadn't been able to get the full license plate earlier, they decided to turn back for another look. As they passed the van, they saw a tall man with a white hat standing at the back of the vehicle with its doors wide open, changing the number plates.

He’d also left the passenger door ajar, and they could see inside the van.

What they saw scared them!

The inside was covered in blood, and they were really scared. But, they bravely decided that they would head back up to that old school to see what the heck that man was up to. So, they got to the school and they got out of the car to have a look around. Thats when tbey found the blood soaked sheet. It was in an animal hole. 

But, the hole that Dennis tried to push the sheet down wasn’t large enough and when Ray and Marie went back to see what Dennis had been up to, they found it sticking out of the ground. They then found a phone and called the police. So, the police arrived with a forensics team to the old school and were also looking for Dennis and Marilynn, because remember.. Jennifer (the daughter had called them as well).

Police taped off the area and started their investigation. They found tyre tracks and a pool of blood. Later on after tests were done, they discovered that the tracks matched Dennis's van and the blood matched Marilynn. Police were frantically trying to find Marilynn, and also they needed to locate Dennis to arrest him.

They had hope that Marilynn was still alive, but that hope was shattered pretty quickly, because the very next day they found Marilynn. And, she was sadly deceased. 

Her lifeless body was found laying in some brush next to a quiet road, halfway between her house and the old school. Poor Marilynn had lost her life after Dennis shot her in the back of the head. Now, her poor children would need to be told. How horrific would that be. Not only did they lose their mum, but also their dad, because he's going to jail. Poor kids, and poor Marilynn. 

So, the police still didn't have Dennis and he went on the run for a bit. Apparently he wrote a bunch of letters to friends and family in the days following his wife’s murder. The letters were basically him rambling on about how hard done by he was, and putting the blame on Marilynn..

There were 17 letters! He rambled on in 17 letters! And they were sent from all different states as well. This guy went on a mad road trip! The letters had postmarks from across east American states; including Virginia, Iowa and Oklahoma. He was trying to justify why he killed the mother of his children in the letters.

There's no justification for his actions!

He's a horrible excuse of a man.

In the letters he expressed his frustration about the divorce, and in one of the letters, he mentioned that Marilynn had loads of chances to treat him fairly during the divorce, but instead, she prolonged the process, deceived him, and lied to him. 

Dennis felt like he had lost everything important to him - his wife, children, and home - and believed it's too late for him to start over.

That's no excuse to kill your ex wife Dennis!

Now the kids are going to be orphans!

Did he think about that???

Then, a few months after Marilynn was killed, Dennis sent another letter. Yup, he was still on the run. olice hadn't found him.

And this new letter........ it was a hefty 13 pages long, filled with Bible verses and more of his rramblings.That was the last anyone heard from Dennis Depue.

So, some time went by..

And, a woman called "Mary" arrived home.

This was in Dallas Texas, and it was the night of March 20th 1991. This was a year after Marilynn died. 

So, at 8:30 pm, Mary noticed her boyfriend’s van in the driveway, which was unusual because he usually kept it in the garage. As she walked in, her boyfriend told her he had to leave because his mother was sick. While packing his things, he asked her to make sandwiches to keep her occupied and distracted. He seemed oddly interested in the TV show about unsolved mysteries, especially the story of a wanted man called Dennis Depue. After a few minutes, Hank left in his van, and as he drove away, Mary had a strange feeling that something wasn't quite right. Basically, she never saw him again. One of Mary's friends had also been watching the unsolved mysteries show and noticed that Dennis looked just like Hank. So, Mary's pal made a call to the hotline to report that Hank (AKA Dennis DePue), was the same person.

She gave the police his license plate number, but it turned out to be a fake.

The police already had that same false number for Dennis.

Mary and her friend also gave the police an idea of where they thought Dennis might be heading. After four hours, the cops in Louisiana spotted Dennis, and a crazy high-speed chase kicked off. The chase went on for 15 miles before Sheriff Paul Barret's team took out the truck's back tires. But Dennis wasn't ready to give up. Even after his truck's tires were shot out, he somehow managed to keep driving on the rims for another half mile before eventually stopping. After being on the run for a whole year, rather than going to jail, Dennis surprised everyone with a shocking decision.

He shot at the officers before ultimately turning the gun on himself. Dennis was laid to rest at Eagle Cemetery in Lagrange County, Indiana, which is quite a distance from where his wife was buried in Oakland County, Michigan.

What a sad story.

I really feel for the kids, and hope they are doing well.

And this brings us to the end of today's story.

You can find me on YouTube.

My name on YouTube is Kate Sharon TrueCrime