True Crime Campfire - Left Where God Could Find Him: Amish Serial Killer Eli Stutzman, Pt 3 FINALE

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

When we last left you, former Amishman Eli Stutzman was having a little trouble with the law. He’d abandoned the Amish lifestyle after the suspicious death of his wife and was currently going on a tour of the US, sleeping with any man with a pulse. His son, Danny, was starting to show signs of severe abuse, but no one in his life stepped forward to report it. Finally, Eli’s roommate/employee was found murdered in a ditch in Texas. Join us now for the conclusion of this chilling true story.Sources: Gregg Olsen, Abandoned Prayers: An Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secretshttps://amishamerica.com/do-amish-believe-taking-a-photo-captures-their-souls/ https://www.ohiosamishcountry.com/articles/photography-and-the-amish https://www.ohiosamishcountry.com/articles/the-traditional-amish-youth-period-of-rumspringa https://language.mki.wisc.edu/essays/pennsylvania-dutch/#:~:text=While%20most%20Amish%20and%20Old,Lutheran%20or%20German%20Reformed%20affiliation.Investigation Discovery's "Murder in Amish Country," episode "Amish Serial Killer"Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

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We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. and we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. When we last left you, former Amishman, Eli Stutzman, was having a little trouble with the law. He'd abandoned the Amish lifestyle after the suspicious death of his wife and was currently going on a tour of the U.S., sleeping with any man with a pulse. His son, Danny, was starting to show signs of severe abuse, but no one in his life stepped forward to report it.

Finally, Eli's roommate slash employee was found murdered in a ditch in Texas. Join us now for the conclusion of Left Where God Could Find Him, Amish serial killer Eli Stutzman. So, Camper is where we're here. back in Pilot Knob, Texas, on Mother's Day, 1985. A badly decomposed body had been found in a ditch near some farmland. The homicide detective that arrived on the scene remains anonymous, but in his book Abandoned Prayers, Greg Olson dubbed him Jerry Wiggins, so I guess we'll just do the same. Jerry is a cop right out of a pulp novel. Dvorized, smoked like a chimney, and had a bushy mustache that sat on his lip like a lazy cat. He was the real deal. He studied the body clear. He studied the

body closely. Most of the investigators on scene were too squeamish to get closer, but he leaned in. He noticed that the body, a man, was wearing cut-off jeans that were pushed down his legs. He wondered if it was one of those homosexual murders. The body, quote, wore no shoes, underwear, or shirt. And though the decomposition was intense, he could tell there was a gunshot wound through the head. They found a shotgun shell near the body, two rustling. to have been part of such a recent scene, but they bagged it anyway. Nothing else came from a search of the scene. Wiggins' partner, Gary Cutler, was off that day, but they'd fill him in on Monday.

The coroner went to work trying to find out what happened to their John Doe. This is a pretty grim description, so if you need to fast forward about 30 seconds or so to skip it, please do. He was too badly decomposed to get a blood type, but the coroner could use the loose skin from the victim's placed carefully over his own in order to get fingerprints. They had to remove both of the body's jaws to get dental x-rays done. Inside the skull, they found a 22-caliber bullet that was severely disfigured from where it impacted the victim's skull.

It wasn't likely they'd be able to identify the weapon from the bullet due to the damage, but they carefully photographed and stored it anyway. Because of the angle of the shot, the coroner thought that the victim was either lying down when he was shot, or shot by someone shorter than him. The victim measured at about five, six. The coroner also noted that he'd had his appendix out, which made identification slightly easier, and that he'd been dead for four to six weeks. Gary Cutler was going to take lead on this case. Cutler, according to Olson, was the spiritual opposite of Jerry Wiggins. He wrote, if Wiggins was detective as scientist, Cutler was action and show. For Cutler being a cop,

was an ego boost. Cutler and Wiggins were nothing like the small-town yokels that investigated Ida Gingrich Stutzman's death in the last episode. They had real, actual experience. Most famously, they investigated three Austin murders that were linked to Henry Lee Lucas, the infamous confession killer, who's had over 250 murders attributed to him.

Now, whether Lucas had actually killed that many people is up for debate, but it's almost certain that he was guilty of more than the three he was charged with. it. Anyway, my point is that these are real experienced homicide detectives, which makes what we're about to find out, even more infuriating. As with most John Doe's, many people called, wondering if the body was that of their missing loved one, but it was the fingerprints that got the investigators their name. The prince matched Glenn Albert Pritchett, a retired Coast Guardsman with a last known address in Missoula County, Montana. It didn't take long for them to track Glenn to his ex-wife, wife, who told Detective Cutler about his move to Austin.

On June 7, Cutler called the Austin PD up with Glenn's name and found out about that strange encounter in the parking lot that we talked about last episode, where Glenn and Eli Stutzman were stopped and questioned. Cutler got Eli and Glenn's current address and proceeded to sit on it for a week. We don't know why he did it, but Wiggins thought that maybe it was because, quote, it was just a nasty word for gay people murder. Charming. This is, of course, a tale as old as time.

In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer, whose body count hit 17, was questioned by police one night after 14-year-old Conorak Synthesisphone, drugged and bleeding, had escaped Dahmer's apartment. Dahmer told the officers that Conorak was his boyfriend and was just a little drunk, and the police, without any further investigation, let Dahmer take Conorak back to his apartment where Dahmer killed him like two minutes later. The police in that case joked on the radio

that they felt like they needed a shower after that encounter. Members of the LGBT community are often among the less dead, whose cases aren't taken seriously by authorities. Serial killers that target gay men can go for years undetected. Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, her bowmeister, Dennis Nilsen, Randy Craft, all have body counts in the double digits and were often captured by a fluke, not because the police were looking for them. It was Wiggins who finally knocked on Eli Stutzman's door. Wiggins told Eli that he was there to investigate Pritchett's murder, and Eli didn't seem surprised or upset at the news. He let the police into the house. Eli said that he lived there with three roommates, Denny Rustin, Glenn Pritchett, and Sam Miller, along with Eli's son, Danny.

Only Sam Miller was present at the time, though. Denny was at work. The report doesn't say where Danny was. Stutzman told the detective that he'd driven Glenn to the bus station to catch a bus back to Montana in May. Glenn had left, Eli said, because his son had been hurt in some kind of accident. Wiggins noticed trophies and ribbons on display for horse shows and asked if Stutzman owned a horse. Stutzman said he did and that the horse was boarded on a farm in pilot knob, alarmingly close to the dump site. Stutzman told officers that he owned two guns, a 22 rifle and a shotgun.

When asked, he agreed to let the officers take a look. Remember, they recovered a 22 bullet from Prince's body. Eli told the detectives that his roommate Denny was gay. He said he was pretty sure that Glenn was straight, but he wouldn't be surprised if Glenn and Denny had a sexual relationship. When asked about himself, Eli seemed anxious, but said he was bisexual. He said he was expecting Glenn back any day now and that Glenn had called him from payphone a few times to discuss his return to Austin.

While speaking to Wiggins, Stutzman paced nervously around the room. Wiggins thought it was odd, but he could write that off. People get anxious when cops are around, but the preponderance of evidence was starting to look bad for Eli. He owned a 22 rifle, he boarded a horse near the dump site, he was seemingly the last person to see Glenn alive, and he didn't ask any questions about Glenn's death. Stutzman agreed to go to the station for further questioning, along with Sam Miller. detectives took about two seconds to size Sam up and deemed him too naive and dumb to be part of the murder.

Stutzman, though, was a different story. They didn't have enough to charge him, so they let Sam and Eli go. On the drive home, Sam was shell-shocked. He never fathomed that he'd ever be questioned by police about a murder of all things. Sam looked over at his roommate and was struck by how worked up he was. Eli was muttering to himself as he drove. He said, I killed him. He was getting in the way and I had.

had to do something. Sam didn't respond. Eli continued, I had to, but don't worry, it'll all blow over. If they question you again, just keep quiet. Don't say anything. You don't know anything. He muttered something about having to move the body because he was afraid someone would find it. Sam, terrified and way, way over his head, didn't ask any questions. Eli left the house to call Denny, who the police were sure to question next. Yikes. Can you freaking imagine? like driving home. Denny worked at a pizza hut, and he was about halfway through his shift

when Eli showed up. Eli pulled him aside and told him the police found Glenn's body. Denny couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. What did you say? Denny said that he had no idea that Glenn was even dead, but Eli pushed on.

They took Sam and me in for questioning. They think I shot him and you helped. They want to talk to you, and they want to question you. I can't think of a worse place to get bad news than a pizza hut in the 80s. Hey, let me tell you something. 1980s Pizza Hut bore very little resemblance to 2025 Pizza Hut, okay? 80s Pizza Hut was heaven on earth.

I had my first date at a Pizza Hut. He played, You're the inspiration for me on the jukebox, you know, by Chicago. Damn good times. That guy was an asshole, but still jukebox, personal pan pizzas, red and white checkered tablecloths, sometimes a Pac-Man machine? Come on. Good times. My Gen Xers, y'all know what I'm talking about. Anyway, Denny met up with Eli, who gave him a Valium and told him again, hey, we're both in trouble. The cops think you helped me move the body. When Denny reported to the station, the Valium didn't seem to take any of the edge off his anxiety. Denny said he'd been out of town from April 19th until May 6th, and when he got home, Eli told him that Glenn had left the previous day.

but that would have been impossible. The body was discovered on May 12th, and he'd been dead for a month or more. He told police that he and Eli were just friends and that he hadn't known Glenn very well, contradicting Eli's testimony that the two might be hooking up. He said that with Glenn gone, he'd moved his things into his room, where he found Glenn's drawers empty. The police didn't mention any suspicion of Denny's involvement and let Denny go a few hours after he'd arrived.

When he got home, Denny took another valium, smoked a joint, and passed out. At around 2 a.m., Eli barged into his room and woke him up. He was fully dressed and appeared frantic and real worried. He asked Denny if he could borrow some money and luggage. He said, my lawyer tells me to take a vacation and leave town until this whole thing blows over. Now, obviously don't, you know, take legal advice from a podcast, but all I'm saying is I would reckon that no attorney worth their solace. would suggest that you leave town directly after being questioned

in relation to a murder investigation. That's not a good advice. Denny asked where Danny was and Eli told him not to worry about it that Danny was with some friends. Denny, now wide awake, followed Eli around while he packed and as he watched,

Eli started pulling out sex toys to take with him. Denny was aware of some handcuffs and other less intense toys, but Eli was packing stuff Denny had never even seen before, including, quote, additional handcuffs, two vibrators, a pair of nipple clamps, various cock rings, and something called a ball stretcher. There ever was an action that belongs in Katie's kinkshaming corner. It is taking your plethora of sex toys along with you when you're going on the lamp. Like, that is levels of horned up that were previously unheard of.

Hey, listen, that stuff is expensive, you know? You know how much a good ball stretcher's going to run you? What's a fugitive supposed to do? Just buy a new one every time he has to take off? Like, that's just ridiculous. By the way, my favorite part of Greg Olson's book was that he took time to explain in great meticulous detail what all the various sex toys were.

If you opened this book thinking you weren't going to find out what a cock ring was or a butt plug or a ball stretcher, you were sadly mistaken. and so just be prepared. When Eli was all packed up, Denny drove him to an empty parking lot where Eli gathered his things and just walked into the night. When he got home that night, Denny checked Danny's room, surprised to find that none of the kids closed had been moved.

What Denny didn't know was that Eli had withdrawn Danny from school in the middle of May. His speech therapist closed his file, noting that some of his skills had, quote, slipped. He continued to be seen around the house, but no one outside of Eli's strange little bubble saw Danny after that. Investigators continued to question those around Stutzman. A neighbor had heard an argument between Eli and Glenn, in which Eli could be heard yelling, you're either going to be screwing me or someone else. It's possible that Eli was using screw to mean mess with him personally or professionally, but it's far more likely, in my opinion, that he was using the baser definition.

of screw and that he was possibly coercing Glenn into a sexual relationship. That same neighbor said that Eli had asked him if the police were able to match a bullet to a specific gun. Way to keep together, brother. Really, really smooth. The police were, in fact, unable to match Stutzman's rifle to the bullet due to the damage it sustained after being shot, but that didn't matter to Eli. He was concerned that they would find his fingerprints on the gun. My dude, you handed the police your gun. It's your gun. Bless your heart. Of course there are going to be fingerprints on it.

So dumb. Yeah. What he should have been worrying about is the fact that he told everyone and their mom that Glenn Pritchett was shot with his gun while insisting that it didn't mean he was the person who shot him. What a guy. You know, remember we're dealing with an eighth grade education right now. Despite the pretty strong circumstantial case building against Eli Stutzman, by July the case was cooling and Eli Stutzman had taken his son in fled town. In fact, he returned to Durango, Colorado, and people noticed a marked difference in Danny. His stutter had gotten so severe that no one could understand him. One friend said, the kid was a mess. He couldn't do anything. He was like a baby. When he wanted to get a toy that was on the other side of the walkway, he just stood there and cried for his daddy to get it for him.

I know. Stutzman, seemingly out of nowhere, decided he was going to take Danny to Wyoming to live with some foster parents for a while. The foster parents, Dean and Margie Barlow, no relation to Eli's ex Larry Barlow, had taken care of Danny for stints before and were always happy to look after him. The Barlow's relationship with Eli was very modern. Eli and Dean were absolutely fucking, and it's probable that Margie knew about it and consented. Like every man in Eli's life, Dean was more into him than the other way around, and whenever Eli came around, Dean would hop to and give him whatever he wanted. In July, Stetsman gave the Barlow's legal guardianship of Danny, as well as a couple of child

support checks. The Barlow's knew vaguely about Glenn Pritchett's murder. Eli told them he was going to find the murderer himself. Oh, okay, OJ. I'm going to find the real killer. Meanwhile, Ida's family had somehow heard about the trouble that Eli was in, even from their Amish community in Ohio. They wrote to the Austin PD, hoping for news about Danny. The Austin PD said that Danny was with Eli, and they couldn't reveal any further information about his whereabouts due to privacy laws, which was technically true, but they didn't say that they had no idea where Eli was, nor did they know that Danny had been abandoned by his father.

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Tise and Cs apply. Friends of Eli in Colorado were concerned about him. They didn't understand why he didn't just go back to Texas to clear this whole mess up himself, but Eli insisted that his lawyer told him to get out of Dodge and that he didn't want to be arrested just to lose custody of Danny. He was worried that if he was arrested, Danny would be sent back to live with the gingriches. He said, I'd much rather see Danny dead than have him. have him live with the Amish.

Wow. Danny missed his dad. The only quality time they spent together was when Danny traveled to visit his dad near Halloween. Nine-year-old Danny was destructive, Eli's roommate said. He would go into the chicken coop and break eggs

or destroy stuff around the house. The only time Eli seemed to pay attention to him was when he asked Danny to take photos of him for his personal ads in the advocate, including one of his Levi's clad backside. a request that didn't seem to faze the poor kid. When Eli sent Danny back to Wyoming, Danny cried the entire drive. Eli, though, maintained to his Amish relatives that Danny was still with him

and wrote a letter to the Gingriches posing as his son, even adding misspellings and taking care to make his handwriting look childlike. The Gingrichs didn't fall for this foolproof ruse, though. Surprise, surprise. They knew that letter wasn't from Danny. They figured it was just easy. Eli's response to their letters to the Austin PD. In November, Eli and some friends were at dinner in Durango when David Tyler approached them.

Remember, David was a friend of Eli's, a small-time drug dealer who owned the transmission shop in town. Eli didn't like that at all. He told David, get the fuck out of here, and David retreated to the bathroom. Sussman followed, and while he was walking away, told his friends, if Tyler would pay me what he owes me, I'd never have to work again. On November 8th, Stutzman, Tyler, and some other men went to a party at the Holiday Inn where Stutzman and Tyler were seen interacting. On November 11th, a passenger on the train saw what she thought was a homeless man lying outside the automatic transmission exchange. When the train came back later that day, the man hadn't moved, so she called the police.

It was the dead body of David Tyler, who had been bludgeoned so badly that one investigator said, his head had been smashed like a hard-boiled egg his hands were tied behind his back and David's car was found parked at the Holiday Inn the investigation into David's death went nowhere and remains unsolved to this day though has been largely attributed to Eli Stutzman and if Eli did kill him just think about that

he's already under suspicion for murder he knows this and he just goes right ahead and does another one that really says something I think about the sociopathic lack of fear like they're not worried about taking risks yeah david's death really shook up the gay scene in durango everybody knew david and liked him and then things got worse two weeks after his death a friend of david's named dennis slater was found shot in the back of the head in the basement of the liquor store where he worked and cash from the register was missing dennis went to college in fort louis and was called called a gentle giant by everyone who knew him. He was one of nine kids and never started fights with any of his siblings. He didn't even need the job at the liquor store. He just liked having a little extra cash. Slater's death is also unsolved,

but like with David, many people think he was a victim of Eli's. Especially because around the time of his death, a gun went missing from Eli's roommate's collection. His roommate Kevin was probably the worst kind of gun owner, just kept all his guns scattered around the, form. Responsible. Kevin asked Eli about the missing gun, and Eli said he had no idea what happened to it.

Kevin assumed it must have been their other roommate. I mean, after all, Amish men don't lie. On December 10th, Eli pawned the gun he stole for $210, stopped by Kmart and bought a set of blue footy pajamas, and left Durango to go pick up Danny. On the 15th, Eli Stutzman showed up on the doorstep of a guy named John Yost, with without Danny. John had met Eli through an ad and the advocate and was expecting both Eli and his son to stay. Eli told John that Danny hadn't wanted to leave Wyoming for Christmas and Eli felt it was best if the boy stayed. In fact, by then, Danny was dead, laid to rest in a

ditch in Nebraska. Yoss thought Eli was off. His photo showed a more youthful face, but in real life he was drawn looking. Eli wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs, but John thought it was probably because he was Amish. Eli confided in him about Ida's death, about Glens, and John, ignoring that little alarm in his head, wrote it off as bad luck. He liked Eli. He hoped they could become a couple. When Eli left, John asked him to leave something important, to make sure he'd come back. Eli gave him Danny's Christmas present, a soccer ball. Eli's next stop was another lover, a man named Al Jorgensen. He'd been corresponding with Eli for months and was excited to finally meet him.

Al wasn't experienced with gay sex and was anxious to find out how wonderful it was. Eli, like many men, talked a big game. But instead of having his mind blown, Al was disappointed. It was rather perfunctory. But Al wrote it off because he felt bad for Eli. He had had a sad life and he was spending Christmas away from his son. Stutzman spent Christmas Day in Ohio with Eli Biler and and his family, yet another Eli.

Good God. I think it's Eli number four in the story. So many Eli's. And one of Ida's brother's name is Eli, too. So there's five Eli's in the story so far. Yeah. The Bailers were friends and were shocked and disappointed to learn that Danny was left behind for Christmas. The Bailers had several children and were pleased when Eli gifted them bags and bags of clothing.

Clothes Stutzman said didn't fit Danny anymore. Oh, my God. That's creepy. Oh, my God. Creepier still is that one of the coats that Eli gifted the family was the coat that Danny died in. Oh, my God. Yeah. In April, Eli returned to Durango and told a friend that Danny had died in a car accident in Utah.

The friend said that Eli hardly seemed broken up about it. Unemotionally, he explained that Danny had suffered from a massive brain injury and that his head had swelled up like a balloon. Eventually, news of Danny's death got back to the Gingriches, who were shocked and suspicious. Eli told them that the boy's funeral had already passed, and he hadn't invited them because he knew they didn't fly. Well, that was true. They would have absolutely taken a bus. Ida's father, Amos, was determined to get to the bottom of it. He wrote to the police department in Wyoming, asking to be put in touch with the Barlow's. Amos, along with his daughter and her husband, traveled all the way to Wyoming to meet with

Margie and Dean in 1986. The Barlows were shocked to learn about Danny's death. They, of course, hadn't been in any car accident and, in fact, had been in contact with Eli recently. Eli told him that Danny was attending a Mennonite school in Ohio and was playing soccer. Margie showed Amos a photo of Danny and Eli taken in front of a Christmas tree. It was taken on December 14, 1985, and was the last time Danny would be photographed alive. And this is where Abner Peterson, a year.

young Mennonite father came across the story of Little Boy Blue in Reader's Digest. Remember him from two episodes ago? He called in to the Thayer County Sheriff's Office with Danny's name. Abner wasn't the only person who recognized Danny from the article. He was just the first. Margie and Dean Barlow called it in too. Diane Schwartzen-Truber, the woman who saw porn in Danny's room, also called it in. We don't have time to get into all the minute details, especially because tracking someone down

as just one long game of telephone, but authorities eventually tracked Eli down to Azel, Texas. Asshole, Texas. Likely place for him to be. Eli had been staying in a trailer with two other men, laying low and trying to craft a new identity. He sloppily changed his middle initial from E to C on his ID card.

Great job, dude. Nobody's ever going to crack that code, right? On December 14th, almost exactly two years after Danny Stutzman was murdered, authorities put the grabus on Eli Stutzman. He was arrested for felony child abuse. Sheriff Young requested that the Texas authorities conduct Eli's interrogation because he was afraid that Eli would lawyer up by the time he was extradited to Nebraska. Police chief Ted Garber sat with Eli and started asking him questions about his life. He first asked about Ida Gingrich's death, Then Eli told him the convoluted story about the fire and the milk vat.

Garber said, Eli, you think I'm stupid. Eli just stared at him. So Garber continued, Eli, do I look stupid to you? I'm not really stupid. I can tell when you're telling stories. You're telling me your wife went into a burning barn. And then when she came out, she went back in all the way around to the other side of the barn.

Why didn't she go in the same doors you came out of? She was pregnant. Why'd she go in anyway? You killed her. She was a burden to you. That got a reaction out of Eli, who jumped a little at the accusation, and then stared at the ceiling and said, I'm telling you the truth. This is your idea and this is mine, and I was there. Garber then moved on to the murder of Glenn Pritchett. Eli said that he and Danny were sleeping when he heard arguing from the living room, and that was punctuated with a gunshot.

He said he was too afraid to get out of bed and didn't check on things until the next morning. morning. Again, he insisted that the only reason the Austin PD were interested in him for the murder was because his gun was used. Again, we cannot emphasize enough how much that was not the case. They could not connect Eli's gun to the murder outside of it being the same caliber as the gun that was used. Eli just made that up and then confirmed it for the investigators. It's like, is there anything else I can do to help you prosecute me? Just tell me and I've got you. Then Graber, started questioning Eli about his son. He said that Danny was sick when he picked him up from the Barlow's house and only seemed to

get sicker as they traveled. While he told his story, he rarely called Danny by name. He just called him the boy. Graber asked why Eli didn't take his son to the doctor and Eli said, I thought the boy would get better. He was quiet, sleeping on some luggage, wrapped up in a blanket in the back. Father and son stopped at a rest stop near Salina, Kansas for food. Eli said Danny didn't eat a lot, and when they got back to the car, Eli changed Danny into a set of blue-footy pajamas, and Danny fell asleep.

Eli said, as we were driving along, the boy seemed to be sleeping. I would talk to the boy, but he would not answer. I thought he was sleeping. Eventually, Eli checked on Danny and found he'd slid off the luggage and that his head had become wedged between the luggage and the side of the car. A blanket was wrapped around the child's head. As he shifted the boy's body, he noticed that his son's eyes had rolled back. Eli was passionless, as he told this story, which infuriated Detective Graber. Graber pounded on the table and said, Yeah, you're the son of a bitch that put the blanket around his face and neck. Eli said he panicked and just moved Danny back to his original position and kept driving.

Eventually, he decided to drop Danny off, so he pulled off the highway, and drove a little down a side road. He told Graber, I drove away and pulled over and got Danny out from the back seat. I took him off to the side near a ditch, laid him down, and covered him with snow. I would have buried him,

but I didn't have anything to dig with. I wanted to leave him where God could find him. Graber pressed Eli. Was Danny alive when you threw him outside into that ditch? Eli was offended. I didn't throw him. I laid him there. Graber rolled his eyes.

Sure, Eli, was he alive when you laid him there? Eli just said, that's a very good question. I don't think so, but he could have been. I'd like to remind you that the snow had melted around Danny's body, that the little boy was warm when he was laid out in the cold. Maybe he couldn't kill the boy outright. Maybe he tried to kill the boy in increments. Maybe the only way he could kill the boy was gently.

He could have left it up to the frozen air to finish the job he he'd started somewhere between Wyoming and Nebraska. Yeah. Stutzman must have known that the boy would be dead in 30 minutes in those frigid conditions. Chew, that's so awful. After this first interview, Eli lawyered up and stopped cooperating with the investigators. Neither the Nebraska investigators nor the Austin PD got very far with him. Because of the condition of Danny's body and the lack of evidence, all Nebraska investigators could charge Eli with was two misdemeanors, abandoning a body and concealing a death.

Oh, my God. Yeah. At his trial, Eli changed his story again. He said that he asked Danny, who was quite ill, if he wanted to stop and see a doctor, but Danny insisted that he'd be fine with a nap. I cannot believe that he thought this made him look better. Like, dude, you are the parent. Your kid does not decide when he needs to go to the doctor. That's you, man. You're the father. Yeah, he pretended to be confused about, you know, the outside world. And why would, why, you don't go see a doctor. You, you, you. you go, you know, gather, gather your family members. It's like, my dude, you have not lived with the homage. Yep. He also said that when he realized Danny stopped breathing, he tried to perform CPR on him.

When it didn't work, he left Danny's body in the field. Eli was found guilty of both misdemeanors and was sentenced to one year for abandoning a human body and six months for concealing a death, both terms running concurrently. Oh, my God. Not even enough. Concurrently. Like, you couldn't even get a consecutive sentence for God's sake. In 1989, Eli was brought up on the murder charges for Glenn Pritchett in Austin, Texas. His appearance in court was somewhat deflated, partially because of prison food and partially because the HIV he'd contracted was catching up with him.

Their case was largely circumstantial, but the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. Bafflingly, after serving just 16 years, Eli was paroled in 2000. 2005. I really cannot imagine a worst candidate for parole. And this was Texas. Like, it's not like... I know. It's really strange, isn't it? Yeah. I think it's because he was Amish. Honestly, like Amish, that that definitely got him some consideration, I think, which is bizarre to me. Oh, 100%. Eli moved into an apartment and got a dog. Two years later, yeah, yeah. Two years later, neighbors who hadn't seen him in a while, called for a wellness check. Police found Eli, dead by suicide, in his apartment.

His dog was rescued, because I know some of you would be worried about that. This case is frustrating, not only because the killer seemed to get off easy, but because four of the five murders are still unresolved. Ida Gingrich's death is still considered accidental. Both David, Tyler, and Dennis Slater's death are still unsolved, and no cause of death was ever determined for Danny Stutzman. author Greg Olson believes, as we do, that all of these murders were at the hands of Eli Stutzman. He had motive, means, and opportunity for all of them.

All of these people were in Eli's way. Yeah. Ida was preventing Eli from living the life he wanted to live, and with her second pregnancy, his life was about to become much more difficult. Just before Dennis and David died, Eli was heard complaining about needing money. David, according to Eli, owed him quite a bit. and Dennis was killed during a robbery. And I think we have to take Eli at his word when he said that he'd rather his son die

than live with the Amish. The only murder that we don't actually have a clear motive for is the one Eli was convicted of. It's not really clear why Eli killed Glenn Pritchett. It's possible that Glenn knew something about Eli that Eli did not want to get out. He was methodical about controlling the perception people had about him.

Gene Samuelson, the pastor that organized Danny's burial, said, I think he's kind of naive and innocent. Certainly he got into some bad stuff. He's got a vulnerability. Are you freaking kid? Yeah, he's so vulnerable that he had a giant cash of sex toys that would make a porn star blush. So he's so vulnerable and naive and unworldly. This woman spoke at Danny Stutzman's funeral, but Eli has her so snowed that she talks about him like he's the teenage boy that got caught shoplifting. And I don't think that's because she's dumb. I mean, I really think Eli was just a really good manipulator.

And if anybody endangered that mask that Eli had carefully crafted for himself, would he lash out? We'll never really know why Eli believed that Glenn Pritchett had to die. That secret died with him. I'll leave you with this, campers. Danny Stutzman is still resting in check. Esther, Nebraska. His real name was inscribed on the headstone, and every Christmas, visitors leave him gifts, stuffed animals and action figures and trucks and flowers, all to make up for the Christmas he missed. So that was a wild one, right campers? You know we'll have another one for you

next week, but for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Adam, Rebecca, Rita, Derek, and John. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back. And if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out. Patrons of our show get every episode ad-free, at least a day early, sometimes more, plus tons of extra content, like patrons-only episodes and hilarious post-show discussions. And once you join the $5 and up categories, you get even more cool stuff. A free sticker, a rad enamel pin or fridge magnet while supplies last, virtual events with Katie and me, we are always looking for new stuff to do for you.

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