Several people noticed the car parked along a residential street in Lone Tree, Colorado, twenty miles southeast of Denver, on the morning of November 21, 1985. They generally agreed that its color was cream yellow but differed on the make and model; some recalled it as a 1968 Pontiac, others as a 1976 Plymouth or a 1978 Oldsmobile.

A man no one recognized was sitting inside the car; some thought he was white while others believed he was black. All said he was staring at the home of fifty-one-year-old Roger Dean, the co-owner of the Sinsel-Dean Brokerage Co. Inc., a retail food broker which sold wholesale food to grocery chains.

Roger was usually at work before the sun rose, but on this day neighbors saw him sipping coffee outside his home at 7:00 a.m.; shortly thereafter, he went inside.

Several minutes later, gunshots were heard coming from the Dean home. Neighbors then saw a bloodied Roger running from his house screaming for help, only to be shot dead in his front yard. The killer then fled and was not apprehended.

The investigation into the murder of Roger Dean was anything but routine; after thirty-eight years, it appears justice is nearing.

 

Roger Dean

As Doris Jean (D.J.) Dean finished bathing that morning, she heard her husband call for her to come to the bedroom. D.J. said she would be there shortly. Roger called for his wife several more times, each time his voice sounding more urgent.

Upon entering the bedroom after drying and dressing, D.J. was greeted by a masked man holding a gun to her husband. From his pocket, the gunman took out duct tape and rope; he ordered Roger to blindfold D.J. and to tie her hands behind her back. After Roger did so, D.J. heard the intruder order him into another room.

While bound and lying on the bed, D.J. heard the gunman and Roger arguing. Both men’s voices were raised, but the bedroom television muffled the sound, and D.J. was unable to make out what they were saying.

After several minutes, the gunman returned to the bedroom where D.J. heard him rifling through drawers. He told D.J. her husband was tied up in the other room. In an angry tone, he then twice asked her how much money was in their bank account. Both times, a terrified D.J. responded she did not know.

A noise from outside then apparently startled the gunman, as D.J. heard him dart out of the bedroom. She then heard her husband and the gunman resume arguing. This time, she heard her husband say, in a desperate tone, that he would give him (the gunman) $30,000.

D.J. And Roger Dean

After a few minutes, the sound of loud voices was replaced by the sound of loud gunfire.

After hearing the gunshots, D.J. made her way down the steps and managed to get outside the home screaming for help. The neighbors who had heard the shots and seen the gunman chase and shoot Roger came to her aid, removing the blindfold and untying her.

D.J. Is Rescued

Paramedics and police arrived with minutes, but Roger Dean already lay dead in his snow-covered driveway. Shot five times, he appeared to have been struck four times inside the house before being killed by the fifth bullet outside his home while trying to flee.

The banister along the stairway in the Dean home was bullet scarred. The killer appeared to have panicked as his ski mask was found near the top of the stairs.

Footprints in the snow led to skid marks where the killer’s car had been parked shortly before the shooting. Neighbors had seen the gunman run to the car and speed away. Police were unable to locate the vehicle or the gunman.

Chased and Killed

Several findings at the crime scene puzzled investigators.

The gunman told D.J. he had tied up Roger, but that did appear to be the case as he had twine marks on only one wrist. When D.J. last saw Roger in their bedroom, he was wearing his glasses, but his autopsy showed he was wearing contact lenses when he was killed.

Roger’s glasses were found covered with duct tape in a second upstairs bedroom. Investigators believe that both the twine and the glasses were decoys planted to give the false impression that Roger had been blindfolded and bound.

Odd Findings

Subsequent findings revealed Roger had partaken in several shady activities which he had hidden from his wife.

D.J. knew of a recent affair between Roger and his secretary. Several weeks before he was killed, Roger had told her his fling was over. Police, however, found he had not put an end to the affair as he had been with the secretary only a week earlier.

D.J. did not know what the police investigation into her husband’s murder further revealed: eight months earlier, in March 1985, Roger had taken $32,000 from his business bank account and deposited it into his own individual private account, of which D.J. also had no knowledge. At the time he was murdered, Roger’s secret bank account contained only $200.

Dean Deceives

The investigation into Roger Dean’s murder went cold for four-and-a-half years until July 21, 1990, when D.J. received a letter whose author claimed to be her husband’s killer. Saying Roger owed him money, the writer demanded $150,000 from D.J.. The writer threatened to kill her daughter Tammy if she failed to comply.

One passage of the letter read: “Do you know that I met your daughter Tammy on a few occasions . . . .  She is a very attractive blonde and a very good model.”

Another passage read “Do not make me kill her. Your son is dead. Your husband is dead. Do not risk your daughter. She is the last one left.”

The mention of the son is a reference to Troy Dean, who had been killed in a car crash at age twenty-two in 1983.

The Ransom Letter

As promised in the letter, the author called D.J. six days later, on July 27. He repeated his contention that Roger owed him money and again threatened to harm Tammy. The F.B.I. traced the call to a pay phone in Denver, but they found only a vacant booth when they arrived.

D.J. received two more letters characterized by an extensive vocabulary, peppered with vulgarities and profanities.

Additional Ransom Letters

The writer also called D.J.’s home twelve times over the following fourteen months. Each time, he disguised his voice, likely by holding something between his mouth and the receiver. Most of the calls were too short to be traced; the few that could met with the same result as the first call. All were tracked to phone booths in and around Denver, but the caller had vanished by the time FBI agents arrived.

In the twelfth call, received on August 19, 1990, the extortionist ordered D.J. to drive to a King Soopers supermarket in Denver, twenty miles north of her home, with $150,000 in cash and to go to a pay phone to wait for further instructions.

D.J. drove to the locale with an F.B.I. agent hidden in her car. Surveillance cars and a S.W.A.T. team were nearby. After she waited several minutes by the pay phone outside the grocery store, the extortionist called. He instructed her to leave the money in an alley behind an apartment complex in downtown Denver; D.J. did as told.

The F.B.I. staked out the location all evening, but no one attempted to retrieve the money.

Continued Harassment

Shortly after D.J. made the drop, the extortionist called the Dean home and spoke with Tammy. He expressed anger at the police presence in the supermarket and the publicity the case was receiving. He again threatened to kill Tammy and said D.J. had not followed his instructions.

The extortionist never phoned or wrote again and, fortunately, never followed through on his threats.

Tammy Dean

Police believe the wording and language of the extortion letters suggest they were written by a man and a woman.

For several years police stated they believe the extortionist and the man who murdered Roger Dean were one and the same. Most now involved in the investigation, however, believe the extortionist is not the killer and that he was instead someone trying to financially profit from the crime.

Different Tormentors?

The motive for Roger Dean’s murder is unclear. One theory is that the killer knew about the embezzlement from his company and planned to blackmail him, only to kill him when he fought back.

It is interesting that the extortionist directed D.J. to the King Soopers supermarket in Denver. Roger, as a food broker, did a lot business with the company, but I could not find anything stating a theory that his murder could be related to his business with that particular store. I also could not find any information about his business partner, “Sinsel,” and whether he (?) knew if Roger was embezzling from their company.

Some authorities, as bizarre as it sounds, believe Roger hired a man to come to his home and kidnap him and then take him to his bank where he would withdraw the $32,000 from his secret account. The accomplice would then drop Roger somewhere so that he could report a robbery and have the money he had embezzled from his company to himself. Instead, he was double crossed and killed.

The Denver Police Department acknowledges that Roger Dean had been an informant for them for several years. He provided them information on prostitution occurring on property he owned in Denver. Investigators, however, do not think his status as an informant played a role in his murder.

Several of Roger’s extended family believe he was involved in organized crime and that his underworld associations may have had a part in his murder. Authorities, however, say there is no evidence of his involvement in such activities.

Several Theories . . .

Investigators have several suspects in the murder of Roger Dean, one of them being the son of Roger’s secretary, with whom he was having the dalliance. He matched the general physical description of the killer and was angry with Roger over the affair.

Several persons of interest in the case, investigators say, have refused to submit their DNA for testing. The authorities do not have enough probable cause against any of these people to order them to provide a DNA sample.

Roger also had an unspecified but “substantial” life insurance policy that paid to D.J. and Tammy upon his death, but both his wife and daughter were quickly cleared of any involvement in his murder.

. . . And Suspects

D.J. Dean died on August 25, 2020, at age eighty-four.

D.J. Dies without Knowing

In April 2021, over thirty-five years after the murder of Roger Dean, authorities announced that saliva retrieved from a water bottle discarded by Michael Jefferson matched that found on the ski mask left by the killer near the top of the stairs of the Dean home.

The DNA match was made using genetic genealogy.

Michael Jefferson, Circa 1985

The sixty-four-year-old Jefferson was living in New Orleans and arrested aboard a flight bound there from Los Angeles. Authorities say he was living in Colorado at the time of Roger Dean’s murder in 1985 and that he had committed several minor crimes in Denver.

Michael Jefferson has been charged with kidnapping and murder. A detective involved in the investigation says Jefferson’s voice sounds like the extortionist’s voice on the tapes, but no extortion charges have yet been filed.

The legal proceedings for Jefferson’s trial are proceeding. If convicted, he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

It is not known at this time what Jefferson’s relationship was to Roger Dean.

Michael Jefferson, 2021

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22146860/roger-marlin-dean

SOURCES:

• Colorado Springs Gazette
• Lone Tree Post
• Denver Post
• Unsolved Mysteries