Michael Durenleau, 35, was murdered on the night of July 12, 1985, after he and his wife, Rebecca, left Veronica’s Tavern in Essex Junction. The couple had stayed about fifteen minutes and shared a single beer before walking to their car in the tavern’s dark, unlit parking lot. A man stepped from the darkness, struck Michael in the back of the head with a blunt instrument, then stabbed him twice in the heart. Rebecca ran back into the tavern for help; Michael was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Investigators early on suspected the killing was not random and focused on Harmon Olmstead, with whom Rebecca had been having an affair; police believed Olmstead was the man who held the knife, but no arrest followed and the case eventually cooled. In 1991 Rebecca Durenleau was arrested and tried as the alleged mastermind who incited Olmstead; she was convicted at trial, but the Vermont Supreme Court later overturned the conviction for insufficient evidence. No one has been held legally responsible for Michael’s murder.

Does anyone have memories of that night, or information about the people involved that could help finally resolve this case?