Van Duyn, Richard “Rick” A

Richard A. “Rick” Van Duyn, 27, was raised in the Chief Hosa area along I-70 in the foothills west of Denver with a brother and two sisters. He worked at Mount Vernon Country Club where his boss, Leigh, befriended him. They played raquet ball in their off hours. Rick graduated from Golden High School.
Somewhere along the way – his dad, Russ, doesn’t know where – Rick decided he wanted to be a cop. He took police training at Arapahoe Community College and finished second in his class at police academy. He married Leigh and they bought a house in Aurora. “Our love was unconditional,” Leigh said of their four-year marriage. “We were devoted to making each other happy.”
Rick got a job with the police department in Craig, Colorado but it didn’t pan out. The couple moved back to the Front Range. In the spring of ’86, they moved into a small house at the closed Arapahoe East ski area. Rick applied to several police departments and took a job as a security guard in the Evergreen/Conifer area.
On the night of October 19, 1986, Rick picked up the night deposit from Safeway in Conifer for delivery to the Mountain Valley Bank in nearby Aspen Park. At about 9:30 pm, a cleaning woman in the bank heard what sounded like gunshots. She looked out the front door and saw a car with its door open, money bags sitting on the trunk. A Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy parked 1/4 mile away heard the gunshots. As he went to investigate, he saw a pickup truck head away from the bank down highway 285. Low clouds and snow reduced visibility and he lost the truck. He then received a radio call telling him a shooting had taken place at the bank. Rick was mortally wounded by gun shots to the head. He had tried to draw his gun but never fired it. The killers fled without the money.
There was a knock on the door of Rick and Leigh’s rustic cabin at 3 am. She awakened to see her father-in-law, a sheriff’s deputy and the coroner. Leigh buried Rick’s ashes in a cemetery near Evergreen Lake. The placque reads “This is my beloved and this is my friend.”
No one has ever been held accountable for this murder. If you have information, please call Investigator Cheryl Moore at 303-271-5625.