Roger Dean Murder

[AVERMAN]

I don't know if a thread on this story has been posted. If so, apologies.

In November 1985, Roger Dean and his wife were victims of an intruder which came into their house in Denver just after 7:00am. The man was wearing a balaclava and tied Mrs Dean (I forget her first name) to the bed and blindfolded her. Roger and the intruder went and scuffled in another room and the intruder demanded their life savings, which Roger stated was $30,000. As Roger walked down the stairs, the intruder shot Roger several times. Roger fell in the front yard and died before paramedics came to help.

In July 1990, almost 5 years after her husband's death, Mrs Dean recieved an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to be the killer of her husband, demanding that she paid them $100,000 or her daughter would also be killed.
With the help of Police, Mrs Dean co-operated with the assailant. She was asked to drop off the $100,000 at an alley in downtown Denver at night, but with police supervising the package until dawn, the assailant never showed up to make the pickup. Soon, the assailant rang the Dean's and claimed that Mrs Dean didnt co-operate and would now have to face the consecuences. The segment ends here.

There were some oddities surrounding the case at the time.

* Roger's glasses were found duct-taped upstairs in the house, despite the fact that Roger was wearing contacts that time of his death.
* Just before 7:00am, Roger was seen standing at the front of the house with the garage door open. This was unusual because it was stated that Roger normally left for work no later than 6:15am.
*It was later beleived that Roger had been taking money from his company, believed to be $30,000.
*Nobody noticed the car that was parked near the Dean's house, with the man sitting inside for a certain amount of time.

Could the whole thing have been staged??

If you take in mind that Roger had $30,000 stashed away, he could have used the robbery as a way of getting rid of the money, because he felt guilty. Roger was seen standing at the front of his house just before 7:00am. Could he have possibly been waiting for the "intruder" to show up. But if this whole thing was a setup, then why did the assailant shoot Roger?

I believe the killer is somebody who knows Roger's family, and knew of the $30,000 that was stashed away. Could it have been a simple revenge killing for the laundering of the money from the company.

Has there been any updates on this case??

[dynoguy88]

To my knowledge, there has never been an update to this case. Which makes me wonder how D.J. and Tammy Dean have been the last 15 years.

Are they still living every day in total fear with police protection or did Roger's killer simply give up?

[wiseguy182]

yeah, that hanging around his garage at 7 was weird, given that he usually left at 6:15. points to inside job, although even weirder was that he ended up murdered, I wonder what his original intent was, I don't think it was to get murdered.

I really felt bad for the wife and kids, as they had lost a lot of relatives in the years preceding this incident, then had to endure threats themselves in the years following it. sad case.

[mozartpc27]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

yeah, that hanging around his garage at 7 was weird, given that he usually left at 6:15. points to inside job, although even weirder was that he ended up murdered, I wonder what his original intent was, I don't think it was to get murdered.

I really felt bad for the wife and kids, as they had lost a lot of relatives in the years preceding this incident, then had to endure threats themselves in the years following it. sad case.

I don't know. It could have been an elaborate "suicide." Say he knows he' about to go down in flames for embezzlement from his company. He doesn't want to go to jail, doesn't want to face the embarassment of the whole thing, etc., is maybe depressed anyway, and so decides to kill himself. But, he also wants no trouble for his wife and family about the missing $30,000 after he's dead. So, he hires a hitman for the $30,000 to come to his house, essentially stage a robbery, and kill him. This way, after he's dead, no one from his company, he figures, will drag his wife and daughter to court to try to recover the stolen money, since it was "stolen" by this assailant during an armed robbery and they don't have it. Not only that, but it guarantees a life insurance settlement for his family, since he was "murdered." Maybe even a double pay out.

Later, the same killer, desperate for cash, figures the family still has some from a life insurance settlement, and tries to extort it. His attempt is clumsy, and he realizes he best abandon it.

Haven't seen the case in awhile, so I apologize if my theory contradicts known facts of the case!

[synthisislab]

Originally Posted by mozartpc27

I don't know. It could have been an elaborate "suicide." Say he knows he' about to go down in flames for embezzlement from his company. He doesn't want to go to jail, doesn't want to face the embarassment of the whole thing, etc., is maybe depressed anyway, and so decides to kill himself. But, he also wants no trouble for his wife and family about the missing $30,000 after he's dead. So, he hires a hitman for the $30,000 to come to his house, essentially stage a robbery, and kill him. This way, after he's dead, no one from his company, he figures, will drag his wife and daughter to court to try to recover the stolen money, since it was "stolen" by this assailant during an armed robbery and they don't have it. Not only that, but it guarantees a life insurance settlement for his family, since he was "murdered." Maybe even a double pay out.

Later, the same killer, desperate for cash, figures the family still has some from a life insurance settlement, and tries to extort it. His attempt is clumsy, and he realizes he best abandon it.

Haven't seen the case in awhile, so I apologize if my theory contradicts known facts of the case!

I think that is a pretty good assessment when you think of the circumstances involved. Roger signals the guy knowing that he is going to come for the money, so why not have it for him unless he wanted it to look like a botched robbery attempt only Roger didn't have the money to give him. Where did the $30,000 go (if there was even $30,000 to begin with)?
This one is almost as baffling as the Ed Baker case.
All I know is that Roger and the killer obviously had something shady and secretive going on there. Too bad they couldn't find some connection between Roger and his killer somewhere.

[claret]

My first thought was that Roger had set this up to launder the money and wasn't supposed to die. One of two things could have happened:

1) The "intruder" was supposed to shoot to wound Roger to make it look like he really put up a fight, but the intruder still got the money (then they'd share it). But in the heat of the moment, Roger was killed instead.

or

2) The "intruder" decided he wanted all of the money himself and killed Roger on purpose.

I think the follow-up extortion attempt was someone unrelated to the murder... just someone who knew about it looking to make a quick buck.

[synthisislab]

Originally Posted by claret

My first thought was that Roger had set this up to launder the money and wasn't supposed to die. One of two things could have happened:

1) The "intruder" was supposed to shoot to wound Roger to make it look like he really put up a fight, but the intruder still got the money (then they'd share it). But in the heat of the moment, Roger was killed instead.

or

2) The "intruder" decided he wanted all of the money himself and killed Roger on purpose.

I think the follow-up extortion attempt was someone unrelated to the murder... just someone who knew about it looking to make a quick buck.

Yeah, but the $30,000 was never taken, or was it?

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by synthisislab

Yeah, but the $30,000 was never taken, or was it?

I'm pretty sure he didn't get it. From what I remember of the segment, a dropoff/pickup scenario was proposed and Dean's wife did drop off the money (while under police supervision) at a location selected by the extortionist but no one picked it up.

The extortionist called some time later and accused Dean's wife of not following instructions (I'm not sure what she did wrong, aside from notifying the police, the segment never went into that) and he threatened to kill her daughter.

I have seen this case repeated numerous times on Lifetime but have never seen an update of any kind. I'm sure we would all like to know more.

[Oldschooler81]

*Bump*

I was always really interested in this case, and I think everyone makes some excellent points here.

Also, I wonder if the stress of losing three close relatives in such a short time (circa 1983, since Stack said it was "two years earlier") could've been part of what promted this whole thing. They never alluded to any problems before this happened. Maybe aside from being heartbroken, they were short on money too?

The son's death would've been horrible to both of them (he was probably a teen, considering Tammy still looked fairly young in '91 when the segment was filmed...like late 20s), and even if it was DJ's parents who later passed away, I'm sure it was upsetting to Roger too. I'm sure him taking the $30,000 from his business behind his wife's back had something to do with his death.

BTW, does anyone know what he did for work? I'm guessing an office job.

[MissFit29]

In other discussions of this case, I've seen a different explanation.

Roger Dean was supposedly having an affair with a woman (who may or may not have worked for him as a secretary). Her son may have been the man who came to Dean's house that morning and killed him - I'm not sure if that was the intention or not. The $30K was blackmail money they demanded. I think there was something they knew, but who knows what it was.

These comments were posted with the video online a year or so ago, and that's what I remember from them. That theory is part of the reason why the police thought the letters had been written by a man and a woman.

[Oldschooler81]

^ WHOA, that's pretty interesting Missfit - thanks for the info.

I had no idea about any of that, but if it's true that really takes the case in a new direction. If Roger was having an affair, I could see that being a reason he was kinda secretive about things from his wife. Maybe it happened because of preexisting problems in the relationship (that wouldn't justify him doing that of course, but on the same token, it didn't warrant the guy being killed).

The murder was probably intentional, since the segment says he was shot four times, and he was trying to run outside as it happened (I think he collapsed in the driveway - maybe he was trying to make a break for his car).

If the gunman was the woman's son, there's lots of motives right there... and it would make it more personal.

[Clockworkhigh]

Yeah somehow or someway I always have had a feeling that Dean did something shady to warrant the attack. It wasnt random. The affair thing is an interesting look though

[MissFit29]

I wish I could remember more of that discussion. But I think something happened where the son felt like the mother had been wronged by Dean, and this was his revenge or something.

I'm not sure if there was a source or article cited for this theory, so take it with a grain of salt.

[sdb4884]

Roger Dean's case is one of my favourites, it's just so intriguing. The music at the start was kind of creepy too

[n8riley]

I believe that the police in this case like some other UM segments are holding something back or are incompetent. The police believe it was some sort of staged robbery if this was the case it was poorly planned and I do not think the glasses or rope were red herrings as for him going to work late and going in front of his house these are the red herrings used by the police to make it seem as if dean were up to something in my opinion these point toward a real robbery if he were planning this he could of had it done earlier when he would normally be home. And why not wait to kill him after getting the money because in a real robbery things go wrong and this caused the death of dean . The Idea of a women being involved points to the cops knowing much more. Are there any good articles on the case?