On the evening of December 14, 1993, 17-year-old Colleen O’Connor was working closing duties at a Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora, Colorado, when a former employee, 19-year-old Nathan Dunlap, emerged from a hiding spot in a restroom after the restaurant had closed to the public. Dunlap, armed with a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and reportedly motivated by revenge for being fired five months earlier, opened fire on employees present.

Two teenage coworkers, Sylvia Crowell and Ben Grant, were killed before Dunlap shot O’Connor once in the top of the head after she sank to her knees pleading for her life. The manager, Marge Kohlberg, was also killed; a fifth employee, Bobby Stephens, survived a jaw wound by playing dead. Dunlap fled after stealing cash and other items but was arrested about twelve hours later at his mother’s apartment and charged with multiple counts including first-degree murder and attempted murder.

A jury found Dunlap guilty in 1996 and sentenced him to death. His case later went through appeals, including a temporary reprieve in 2013, and his sentence was commuted to life without parole after Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020. Does anyone have memories of Colleen, her family, or the Chuck E. Cheese where she worked?