Jeepers Creepers Coldwater Van Murder
On Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990, Ray and Marie Thornton were driving outside Coldwater, Michigan, when a speeding Chevrolet van blew past them and later reappeared by an abandoned schoolhouse. As they drove by, they saw the driver carry what looked like a bloody sheet toward the rear of the building, and when the van soon roared up behind them again, he tailed their car for miles in a terrifying chase.
The Thorntons turned back, saw the man changing his license plate, and noticed blood inside the open passenger door, so they went to the schoolhouse, found the bloodstained sheet, and called police. Investigators later tied the van to Dennis DePue, who had murdered his estranged wife Marilynn that day, and the disturbing encounter became the real-life inspiration for the opening of the horror film "Jeepers Creepers."