Dexter Stefonek, a 67-year-old widower, left his son’s farm in Corbett, Oregon on November 18, 1985, intending to drive back to his home in Wisconsin. A day later his brown Plymouth Horizon was found burned inside at the Bad Route rest area on Interstate 94 in Dawson County, Montana; investigators determined the fire was arson and the driver’s seat was pushed far back, suggesting someone taller than Stefonek last drove the car. Dexter himself was missing and a monthslong search followed.

In March 1986 a landfill worker found a wallet with Dexter’s driver’s license, his suitcase, other belongings, and a human foot; the body was identified as Dexter Stefonek. Autopsy results showed he had been brutally beaten and shot twice in the head. Money was recovered from his luggage, so robbery was ruled out.

Witnesses in 1985 reported seeing a suspicious white Chevy 4x4 with a blue stripe and Arizona plates and described a tall, light-complected driver. In January 2024 authorities named Charles Gary Sullivan, a 79-year-old incarcerated man with matching travel patterns and plates from that period, as a person of interest but said evidence was insufficient to charge him; no arrest was made in connection with Dexter’s killing. Did anyone who frequented that rest area in November 1985 see the described truck or the man who was last at the scene?