Chuck E. Cheese shooting/ flying J Aurora Co

On December 14, 1993, four employees were shot and killed and a fifth employee was seriously injured at a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in Aurora, Colorado, United States. The perpetrator, 19-year-old Nathan Dunlap, a former employee of the restaurant, was frustrated about being fired five months prior to the shooting and sought revenge by committing the attack. He fled the scene of the shooting with stolen money and restaurant items.

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Hello, and welcome to Truck StopMurdering True crime podcast. I am Gary
Howard. Thank you for tuning in. If you're a return listener, if
you're a new listener. Let metell you what I do. I am
a long haul truck driver. Itravel to forty eight continental states, and
during that time I have to stayat truck stop for a ten hour break
or thirty minute break. And onthis podcast, i'll talk about what's to

(00:25):
eat as that podcast, what peoplethink about it. There's anything you might
need to know about this travel plazaisthey're called now. They're not truck travel
centers, that's what they're called now, and they're not no longer truck stops
because everybody comes here. RV's everything, and i'll talk about that if that's
something you enjoy and want to knowmore. Also talk a murder, of
course, the murder part I talkabout a murder that happens nearby. I

(00:48):
try to stay with him about fiftymiles of it, but sometimes I might
have to venture away from there.But I do try to stay close by
to the truck stop where I'm stayingat, and today I'm not there.
This was in the Auburn with Aurora, Colorado. And these are the truck
stops I love to cover because everybodyhates this place. Usually you know some

(01:11):
of them, they're fifty to fifty. Some people like them, some people
don't. Some people some truck stopstage is amazing, but displaced, Oh
my god, everybody hates it.I don't. I think I don't know.
Well, you'll find out. You'llsee if there's any five star reviews.
But there's a lot of one starreview So without further ado, let
me start. Where we're going todayis the Flying J Travel Center, number

(01:34):
six nineteen. It's on I seventyeight six eight two eighty five exit going
into Denver right there, and ithas one hundred and forty nine spots.
But being by Denver is usually I'vebeen there a few times, so I
have been here. Right now,I'm up in Washington. I've been here,

(01:56):
and some of the reviews are prettyaccurate. It's paid spots are there's
forty six paid spots, so it'sone hundred and three six one hundred and
three free spots, but they're alwaystaken up. And it's twenty dollars a
night and has all this stuff trucksthat paid parking shower Wi Fi scales.
Of course, the address is onesix seven five one East thirty second Avenue,

(02:20):
Aurora, Colorado. And if you'retraveling through there, what is there
to eat? To say, ifyou're going to Colorado and you just happen
to be traveling through here, there'sof course, as all Flying Jays have
Denny's. Yep, a lot ofif pilots are the ones Pilots and filing
Flying J's aren't connected to each other. But usually if you want something different

(02:43):
than Denny's, you would have togo to Pilot, But Flying Jays usually
have Dennis connected to them. Now, they do have their regular food trucks
of food like pizzas, hot dogsand stuff like that. Now outside of
it, there's this place called Mexicanrestaurant called Pepper, and then there's the
Burger, then Flying Jay's food DunkinDonuts, Now that could be that's a

(03:07):
one star review, only one.You know, they probably have the Dunkin
Donuts inside the truck stop. Alot of truck stops where they have the
coffee every and donuts, so DunkinDonuts probably supplies with the donuts and they
just buy the coffee beans from them. So you got your coffee, got
your donuts. Let's see what othertruck drivers think about this place. The

(03:28):
reviews of the Flying Jay Travel Centersix nine. Now I'm gonna read it
as they said, so if Idon't make no sense, normally I don't
make sense, but this is them. So starting off with the one star
review, worst truck stop ever.Security is corrupt and pulling gun on truck
drivers when broad to management attention.They just trust pass drivers from ever coming

(03:52):
back. Okay, so you getthey pull a gun on you, and
just okay by avoid this place.Another one star view unless they I give
a name. Lest they give aname, it's going to be anonymous user.
Avoid this place like the plague.Everything from the lot to the bathrooms
are dirty and the staff are rude. Okay. Another one starview accident waiting

(04:15):
to happen? How crammed everything isin there? Yeah, it is a
tight parking spot. I mean youcan't make it in there, but it
is pretty tight. Another one starview by z kid Pi y one five
are the parking lot is nasty withlots of trash everywhere, drop trailers everywhere,
and trucks parked in non parking areas. Once parked here, good luck

(04:38):
getting out and not getting hit.Okay, impossible to another one starview and
be I'm not even gonna say ournames is just ridiculous, random numbers and
letters. Impossible to park, hakecoming here. Our company only uses pilot
and flying j fuel. Only comehere when I have no choice, which,
yeah, right around that area.You don't really have much of a

(04:59):
choice to park. You either havethere or you have to. Commerce city
has a TA, which is abigger parking lot now majority of us paid.
But there's your parking situation is prettytight in Denver, So either them
two places or just stop way aheadof time. Now there is one love
Set's north of there, and Ican't think of the highway, and I

(05:20):
don't want to say it's seventy eight. That's usually has a lot of openings,
but they're like an hour north.But I usually park at the TA,
even though I hate TA and petrosA like going there because I have
to pay for parking, but itputs me near my customers where I need
to be. All right, let'sget back to reviews. The Black Unicorn
says, do not even try itever. Okay, it's too tight for

(05:45):
a lot of people are saying theparking is too tight. But if you
know how they're driving back up atrailer, and have confidence in yourself and
you like your job, you shouldbe able to sneak right in there.
Okay, another one. Save yourmoney on the reserves at this location.
These people do not help you getthe parking waste of twenty two dollars.
I was better off parking like therest and getting a free reserve. Tas

(06:10):
there you go, tas better wheretha is better, has better location as
well, and you like to smokeyour bud. There's like three dispensaries around
there. Oh, here you go. Five star review parking, food restaurant.
That is all that even. Okay, I'm going to go two more

(06:30):
reviews and I'm gonna go on tothe rest of the story. Now here's
a two star review. World Wartwo truck stop. Okay, here's the
last one. Second time. Wait, no, I'll go with this and
waited seven hours. Preserve parking.Too many trucks parked for days. Trucks

(06:51):
coming in and out. Drivers parkby the curb on the parking lot,
making it impossible to get out orback in. Showers not clean. But
yeah, a lot of people witha lot of these places, what they'll
do is they'll run a clock outand they'll get there thinking there's paid parking
and they don't use I'm guessing theydon't use Trucker's Path to kind of get

(07:12):
idea. But then again, weneed to update it too. As truck
drivers and we want to rely onthe Trucker's Path, we need to update
it ourselves too, And a lotof people don't do it, or they
put the false information on hell whenhe was going there. Say a driver
goes there and says it's full,and some asshole just being a little being
a dickhead and saying it's full whenit's full full, when it's the way
let me repeat that, I'm sayingthe opposite. They say there's a lot

(07:34):
of spots, but you get there, it's filled and you ain't got no
time left. You have to makeyour own parking spot. And the way
Flying Jay and Poly are. Ifyou do reserve and it gets nighttime and
you can just park in and reservespot, they will not run you out
because they're not allowed to go outthere and run people off. So you're
just out spot. You have tomake your own spot and there you have

(07:57):
it. All right, Well there'sthe fly in. Jay could go on
and on with the one star review, but then there'll just be the whole
podcast to be telling you about howbad truck drivers hate this place. Let's
get on to a murder by theway I've been. I did the TA
when I did the Aura Theater shooting. I believe it's been a while back
ago. If you want to gocheck that out just Aurora Truck Stop Murder

(08:20):
and Truecime podcast Aurora Theater Shooting.But today we'll be talking about right down
the road from there, we're goingto talk about the Chuck E. Cheese
shoot murders, or, as Wikipediastates, nineteen ninety three Aurora, Colorado
shooting. On December fourteenth, nineteenninety three flour employees were shot and killed
and a fifth employee was seriously injuredat Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in Aurora,

(08:45):
Colorado, United States. The perpetratorin nineteen year old Nathan Dunlamp,
a former employee of the restaurant,was frustrated about being fired five months prior
to the shooting and sought revenge bycommitting the tech. He fled the scene
of the shooting and stolen money inrestaurant items. At the time, Chuckie

(09:05):
Cheese massacre was the deadliest shooting.It surpassed by six years later of the
Calibine shooting, which Eric Harris andDylan Claibold killed fifteen people at the school
in nineteen ninety nine. But thenthat was surpassed in twenty twelve. Well
that it wasn't surpassed, it cameclose to it. But the one I

(09:26):
did at James Holmes the theater shootingkilled twelve people. So that was worse
than what I want to talk aboutnow. And maybe I've already covered that
one, but eventually, I don'tknow. I'm thinking about doing the Calibine
shooting, but so many people's doneit, there's really no justice I could
give it. But yeah, solet's talk about this individual who is Nathan

(09:46):
Dunlap. Nathan Gerald Dunlap was raisedby his adoptive father and biological mother,
who married each other when Nathan wasa few months old. He had never
met his biological father. Dunlap wasraised in Chicago, Illinois, Memphis,
Tennessee, and Michigan, and thenmoved to Colorado in nineteen eighty four.
Dunlap's mother struggled with mental health issuesand was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

(10:13):
at least twice. In Dunlap's juniorhigh school year, he attempted suicide.
When Dunlap was fourteen. His adoptivefather asked a psychiatrist at Overland High School
to evaluate him and tests and revealedsigns of hypomania. No further treatment or
formal diagnosedicist was applied. He committedseveral armed robberies at the age of fifteen,

(10:35):
using a golf club and then firearms. He spent time incarcerated in juvenile
the Detention Center, and due toerotic episodes, he was sent to a
psychiatric hospital. When released, hebegan selling drugs. Dunlap was arrested five
times mister Meter offenses in nineteen ninetythree. Dunlap began working at the restaurant
in May nineteen ninety three and wasfired in July after a disagreement he had

(11:00):
with his supervisor over scheduling hours.They weren't giving him enough hours. Acquaintance
of Dunlap said he was frustrated overthe firing and total former coworker that he
planned to get even about determination.So on December fourteenth, nineteen ninety three,
Nathan Dunlamp entered the restaurant at ninepm, where he ordered a hamicheef

(11:20):
sandwich and played an arcade game.He then hid in the restaurant restroom at
nine point fifty. He exited therestroom after closing at ten o five and
shot five employees. Dunlap first shotSylvia Crowell nineteen, who was cleaning a
salad bar. She was hit fromclose range in the right ear and was
mortally wounded. Ben Grant seventeen wasfairly shot near the left eye as he

(11:45):
was vacuuming cold and O'Connor seventeen pleadedfor his life and sang to her knees,
but Dunlap Failey shot her once throughthe top of the head. Bobby
Stevens, twenty, the lone survivorof the shooting, returned the restaurant to
take a smoke break outside, thinkingof noise that he heard was inside the
restaurant where children were popping balloons nearby. As Stevens walked in, the restaurant

(12:09):
unloaded utensils into this washer. DumbLuck came through the kitchen door, raised
the handgun at him and fired ashot that struck Stevens in the jaw.
Stevens trailed to the floor and playeddead, which I've always had How can
somebody do that just you know,have a bullet wound in their head and
the arm or chest whatever. I'vedone the other episodes, but they had
the mindset just fall over and actlike they're dead. I don't know if

(12:33):
I could do that. There's aquestion if when you listen to this,
if you get this far, letme know in my Facebook group, would
you you think you'd be able todo this, just get shot in the
head or anywhere and just act likeyou're dead. But you had. Downlap
then forced Marge Kolgeberg fifty, thestore manager, to unlock the safe.
Safe. After she opened it,Dunlap shot her in the ear he was

(12:56):
taking the cash out of After hewas taking a cash how the safe,
Downlap fired a second fatal shot throughher other ear after he knows she was
still moving. The manager who fireddurnal Lap was not president at the restaurant,
so none of these people knew theymight not even note him, knew
who he was, had nothing todo with his firing. Stevens escaped through

(13:18):
a Stevens escape through the back doorand walked into the nearby pillbound apartment complex,
where he founded on the door toalert someone that he and others have
been shot at the restaurant. Stephenwas hospitalized at Denver General Hospital in fair
condition. As authority has arrived onthe scene, they found two bodies in
a restaurant restaurants hallway, a thirdin a room off the highway in the

(13:41):
hallway, and the fourth in themanager's office. Crowell was sent to Denver
General Hospital, where he was declaredbraindead. She died from her injuries and
the next day at the Regional MedicalCenter. Of course, Dunlap fled with
the scene with fifteen hundred dollars worthof cash and tokens. I guess he
was planning on going back and playingsome games. After he killed all these

(14:03):
people, he stole them from insidea restaurant. He was arrested at his
mother's house just twelve hours later.Dunlap was found guilty of four counts of
first three murder, attempted murder,robbery, and burgery in nineteen ninety six.
On May seventeenth, of that year, Dunlap was sent to death in
additional one hundred years. During hissentencing, he swore repeatedly in an outbursts

(14:26):
elasted for three minutes. In twothousand and eight, Dumblap filed the habeas
corpus potentially with the Federal District Court, arguing that his trial attorney was ineffective
by not presenting a defense on hismedical health issues and child abuse. In
August twenty ten, the federal appealwas rejected. Senior US District Judge John

(14:46):
L. Kane wrote that Dunlap wasfairly tried, competently representative, and justifiably
sentenced to death. On April sixteen, twenty twelve, the Tenth Circuit Court
of Appeals denied dunlaps peal of hisdeath sentence. Dunlaps lawyers argue before the
Tenth Court Circuit Court that dunlapse triallawyers was negligent ineffective let's go with that

(15:11):
during the sentencing by providing evidence thatDunlap suffers from a mental illness. They
argue that if the jurors heard evidencethat Dunlap's mental illness, this was spared
Dunlaps from being sentenced to death.May one, twenty thirteenth, Judge William
Sylvester announced that the execution day ofDunlap would be in mid August twenty thirteen.

(15:33):
On May twenty second, twenty thirteen, dunlaps execution was put on hold
as governor Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper decidedif that's how you say a Hickenlooper h
I c k E NPR decided againstexecuting Dunlap as grant him clemency and instead

(15:54):
of signing a temporary reprive in twentythirteen. The reprive meant that as long
as Hickeelooper was governor, Dunlap wouldnot likely be executed. According to the
governor, one of the reasons thathe did not choose full clemency was because
Dunlap would have to remain segregated fromthe rest of the prison population. Groups

(16:14):
include the NAACP contacted him requestioned thesparing of Dunlap's life, arguing that the
death penalty is disportional opposed on AfricanAmericans Hispanics. The reprive also meant that
unless the governor issued a new executiveorder, the status of the execution and
clemency request will remain on hoad HANKEA. Looper was constitutionally limited from running for

(16:37):
a third term, so on Novembersix, twenty eighteen, Jared Pollis was
elected governor. During the campaign,pola said he intended to sign a bill
repealing the death penalty in Colorado.Regarding the Dunlap case, Paula said he
had no problem following the current lawand that he did not think it was
appropriate to comment on a Pacific caseduring a campaign before actual becoming governor or

(17:03):
reviewing the case to make in theform decision. So on March twenty third,
twenty paula Is signed a bill repealingthe death penalty. Paulas also commuted
the sentence for all three men ondeath rows, including Dunlap, to life
without pro so. Dunlap remains incarceratedin the Colorado State Penitentiary in Kenyon City,

(17:26):
so there he is locked up forlife, will never see life out
of prison. My daughter Dahalia toldme about this case, but she said
five Nights at Freddy's it was basedon which they couldn't be no different.
I have not seen this movie yet. It's on Prime video right now.
It's five point five star reviews onimbdb IMDb. But it's more of like

(17:51):
a scary movie. I haven't seenit yet, but the summary says the
trouble security guard begins working at Freddy'sFast Bears Pizza. During his first night
on the job, he realizes thatthe night shift won't be so easy to
get through. Pretty soon he willunfeel what actually happened. So yeah,
in two thousand and two. Thissecond movie came out last year twenty twenty
three. Let's see what this oneperson says about it. In two year

(18:14):
two thousand and a desperate young mantakes a job at the infamous long abandoned
pizzeria with a dark past, bringinghis little sister along as they uncover their
restless spirits and vengeful animatronics with andthey must got front their own haunted memories.
With the help of police officers economicpeace officers, the battles save their
souls and unravel the sinster secrets lurkinga f Freddy's Pizza. So I guess

(18:40):
it's kind of like Chuck E Cheesewith all the Big Bear and everything going
out evil on your ass and you'retrying to get out. But yeah,
I have not seen the movie yet. I'll try to watch it with my
daughter Dahlia, but she already sawit. So anyhow, there you go.
There's the Chuck E Cheese Murder inAurora, Colorado. If you like
that, and if you're still hereto me babble on and on and on,

(19:02):
thank you for listening. Go writeand review anywhere you listen to this
at the time. Also join myFacebook group at truckstot Murder and True Crime
or you can email me at trucksttMurder and True Crime at gmail dot com.
I think it is I haven't seenin a while Truckstop Murder at gmail
dot com. Also, what areyou gonna be doing? And met?

(19:23):
Matter of fact, since this I'mcovering a case in Denver, you know
what else is going on in Denver? The True Crime podcast Paranormal Festival.
This is the third year I've went, and I'll put the link into descriptions
below. The date of this isJuly twelfth to the fourteenth in Denver,
Colorado. I will be there alongwith a bunch of other podcasters there and

(19:47):
YouTubers there. I just saw.If you like John Lorden, he will
be there. I'm trying to talkGray to go in so hopefully. I
mean, there's a lot of podcastersthere. Even if Gray don't show up,
there's still which I'm hoping he does. But John Lurner will be there
trail when Coles will be there.Of course, my friend Lady Hobbs will
be there. She's running the place, and I will be there too to

(20:08):
do a panel with, unless shechanges her mind Nina instead from the already
gone podcast. I hope to seeyou there, and if you do enjoy
me, like to support me more, better equipment, or maybe so I
can stop truck driving and maybe dothis full time. You can support me
at Patreon at ford slash Patreon,ford slash truck Stop Murdering True Crime,

(20:30):
or you could do it one timehelp on PayPal at truckst murder at gmail
dot com. So thank you forjoining me. And like I always say,
you can't fix stupid, but youcan sure numbing with the two by
four. I am OUDI here h