Mystery in Colorado

The quiet resort town of Telluride Colorado nestles in the Great Rocky Mountains. Very wealthy people live there as it is one of the best kept secrets among the rich and famous. It is known for it's lack of crime. The kind of place where people leave their keys in their car and their houses unlocked. But on the morning of August 6th 1990, the quiet solitude was broken by the 911 call from a little girl by the name of Benta Schoen. The little girl said she had just awoken to find her mother dead in her bedroom from an apparent gunshot wound to the head. The girl then heads to a neighbor's house for help. When the neighbor arrives back at the expansive log house the girl lives in she finds Eva Schoen dead in her bedroom, having been dead quite some time.

Bill Masters, the Sheriff of San Miguel County races to the scene. He find Ava Schoen lying on the stairwell outside her bedroom. According to the children, nothing unusual had happened the night before. Their father was out of town on business and Ava had shut the dogs away in the laundry room the night before and neither her nor her brother had heard the dogs barking the night before or any other strange noises the night before.

Investigators began searching the house for clues. There was no forced entry and although the home is filled with valuables, nothing is missing. There, is however, a 25 auto shell casing from a semiautomatic Larsen hand gun. There is also another puzzling clue. There was blood on the bed sheet and within that spot of blood a section of the bed sheet had been cut out and cannot be found anywhere in the house. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation came in and did all the usual things, fingerprint, hair and fiber collection and absolutely nothing was found. It was if a Phantom and been there and left as quietly as he came.

Murder simply didn't happen in Telluride. This picture perfect town doesn't see crime more violent than window peeping at the local chalet. Investigators talk to neighbors who also hadn't seen anything unusual. Police tack down Ava's husband Sam who is on a business trip in Phoenix. The devastated husband husband has no idea why anyone would want to kill his wife. Doing a background on the victim, Investigators learn that Ava was from Norway, had a very European outlook on life and her and Sam lived a picture perfect life and had a lot in common.

A few hours later, Sam arrives home. His house is surrounded by Police and his children are scared to death. Suspicion immediately falls on him. Husband conveniently out of town at the time of the murder. This had all the makings of a murder for hire. Police immediately hop on that bandwagon. But Sam's alibi checks out and speaking with him further Sam tells the Police something that interests them a great deal. Sam and his Family own U-haul Rentals International and are filthy rich. The family has been in fighting for years and the Police need to know just how far this fighting went.

The Schoen family had split into factions. One faction had aligned themselves with Sam's father, L.S. Schoen, which included Sam, and another faction that sided with Sam's two brothers, Joe and Mark Schoen, over control of this Billion dollar a year company. It appears extremely unlikely to Police that the killing could be a random crime. There just wasn't random crime in Telluride and the Police figure that Ava must have known her killer or the person who had hired her killer. The "Hit Man" theory is shaping up stronger and stronger in the Police's minds.

A few days later, Ava's autopsy shows no sign of struggle or of sexual assault but shows something else very unusual. There are two needle marks, one in each breast. But the is no sign of drugs at either injection site. This only adds to the mystery of the whole thing. But just as there about to go searching for leads, L.S. Schoen comes forward with a shocking allegation. He claims that his two sons Mark and Joe had to have had something to do with this murder either directly or indirectly.

Sheriff Masters and another Detective head to Phoenix to talk to Mark and Joe. When they arrive at the twin towers, they are taken to the top floor to the office of Joe Schoen, the company's CEO. But before the interview has even begun, Joe flies into a rage shouting that Masters is only interested in one side of the story. One of the Detectives asks Mark, who is also present in Joe's office why he thought anyone would want to kill Ava Schoen. He replies "I don't know, shit happens". Joe forbids the detectives from interviewing any of the U-Haul employees and they are promptly escorted off the property.

There are two ways of interpreting what just happened. One is to think that a guilty minded person might act that way and another is that an innocent person who is being wrongly accused might act that way. In any case the Police are baffled. They have to wonder if Ava's death has anything to do with the feud that is accruing in the U-Haul family. In the meantime, L.S. figuring that the tiny Sheriff's office of Telluride is overwhelmed offers $50,000 to fund the spiraling costs of the investigation. Above the objections of Sheriff Masters, the town takes L.S. up on his generous offer.

On the other side of the family, Joe and Mark have launched an investigation of their own. They hire a team of five private investigators who immediately hire a physic. They immediately began gathering information on the person they think is the prime suspect.. Sam Schoen. They are continually feeding information to the Sheriff to try to implicate Sam, but most of which are lies and have little significance.

Weeks after the murder the Police still have little to go on. With accusations in the Schoen family flying in every direction the bad blood seems to be getting worse, especially with L.S. continually going on the local news to publicly accuse his sons Mark and Joe of having something to do with the murder. It is fair to say that L.S. was probably not going to get an invitation to Christmas dinner that year from Mark and Joe Schoen. But just who were the Schoen family and what exactly was this bad blood all about? The Police were about to find out.

L.S. Schoen is one of the great entrepreneurs of the 20th century. He rates right up there with Henry Ford. Like many American success stories, his wealth is born out of the prosperity that followed the American economy out of World War II. It all started when he had to move his family from Southern California to Oregon. Back in those days what a person did in this situation was to sell most of their belongings and strap what was left to the roof of their car, move and then buy new belongings once they got to where they were headed. L.S. didn't want to do that.

So he got the idea of making a pull behind trailer. The idea worked so well he decided to make a bunch of trailers and rent them, especially one way. With just $5000 and his welding torch L.S. began building trailers. He then went around to service stations and talked the owners into letting him put his trailers on their lots for rent. The idea took off over night. It has been said that there were four things that made the making of modern America possible in the early days: 1) The Interstate highway system, 2) Howard Johnsons, 3) McDonald's restaurants, and 4) U-Haul trailers.

Meanwhile L.S.'s family is growing as fast as his company. He and his wife, Anna Mary, had six children had six in eleven years. But the bliss was short lived. In 1955 Anna Mary died of heart failure. He now had six children to care for, the youngest of whom was an infant, and try to appropriately run a billion dollar a year company. About two years after Anna Mary dies L.S. remarries a woman named Susan Gilbae. By the mid 60's L.S. had five more children. By now, U-Haul employed over 1000 employees and had a fleet of nearly 50,000 trucks and trailers.

L.S. begins giving each of his children controlling stock of his company. He wanted his children to one day own the company. As long as his children were minors he could vote the company anyway he wanted. Thanks to their Dad's benevolence even the kids in diapers became millionaire partners in their Dads business. It was a decision that would haunt him but for now he had his children living like royalty.

On a whim 1n 1960, L.S. decides to relocate his family to Phoenix. He buys a run down mansion there and has it refurbished into a show piece. But with all that money around the children , as they grow older, become unmanageable, especially Joe and Mark. They were very hostile and antagonistic, especially to their step mother. One story is told that one day Joe took a gun to the house and waited for his stepmother in the darkness for her. But he apparently changed his mind and left without shooting anyone.

L.S. tries to solve his family's problems with money because he blamed himself for being away at his business so much. By the time Joe and Mark are teenagers they had a company credit card, a company car, and were on the payroll even though that didn't work. As they grew up L.S. assumed the boys would come to work for the family business. But the two eldest, Sam and Mike had different ideas. Sam entered Medical school and began his residency. Mike went to law school and opened a small practice. Joe saw his self as the heir apparent to his fathers throne.

After finishing his MBA at Harvard Joe came to work full time at U-Haul. But L.S. wasn't satisfied. He formed the opinion that Joe simply lacked the temperament to take over the company. As the company faltered in the 1980's oil crisis, L.S. turns to his eldest sons for help. Sam decides to put his medical practice on the back burner and come in the company to help. Joe must have been furious. Here he was with a Harvard MBA being passed over for a guy with no business background. The battle was just getting started but the question for investigators was who would get caught in the cross fire.

So now Sam and Joe Schoen are engaged in a fierce battle over who would ramrod the company. Joe tell Sam that the company is going bankrupt. But when Sam checks this story out he finds that Joe's claims are not true. Joe's resentment at his father is poisoning the atmosphere at U-Haul. The animosity between the Schoen brothers was escalating and no one knew when the bullets were going to start flying. Many people who the detectives interview believe that a culture of violence is being promulgated within the U-Haul company.

Disgusted with his brothers behavior Sam's focus changed. In 1975 he met a beautiful Norwegian woman named Ava Berg. Within a couple of years they have two beautiful children, Benta and Aspen. Everyone who knows them describe Sam and Ava's relationship as close and loving. Even though L.S. only owned 2% of his company's stock he had always voted his children's shares as he saw fit. Little did L.S. know that behind the scenes Joe had been quietly lobbying his brothers and sisters to wrest control from L.S. One day Mark and Joe show up in Sam's office and tell him that they have enough votes to elect their own Board of Directors.

At the board meeting in 1986, Joe's plan works. L.S. Schoen, the founder of U-Haul is voted down as Chairman and CEO of the company. That family agrees that Sam is to be the CEO and president and CEO and Joe is the Chairman of the Board. But that plan fails to work. Joe wanted to run the company not just be the chairman of the board. Sam decides to leave the company and needs to divest his earnings and share of the company. But as chairman, Joe refuses to allow Sam to sell his share of the company. The only recourse Sam has is to take his brothers to court.

Sam along with his father and some of his other siblings try to extricate their wealth from the U-Haul fortune. Mark and Joe spend over $30 million opposing Sam and his father in this litigation. These were people whose Father gave them everything they ever had and were now trying to oust him. They did everything in their power to ruin there father in a completely ruthless manner so in Sam's mind it is no stretch to assume that they had something to do with the murder of Ava Schoen.

In the months leading up to Ava's murder the employees began referring to the twin towers where they worked as "The Beirut Hilton". But just as the Investigators are beginning to piece together the Schoen family, the case would take a turn no one saw coming.

Investigators are searching all over Phoenix for leads that might confirm U-Haul's involvement in Ava's death. They do a lot of interviews that go nowhere because everyone has lawyered up an no one wants to talk about the murder. They cannot turn up anything that connects U-Haul to this crime. Out of leads L.S and Sam offer a $250,000 reward for information about the murder. Some of the most bizarre leads imagined come out of the woodwork. It seems anyone who ever rented a U-Haul trailer and got a flat has something nasty to say about the company.

One character said they saw Joe Schoen passing money to a shady character in the back of a seedy bar. Another tale was that Mark Schoen was using U-Haul was using U-haul as a front for drug trafficking. Of course both these leads are false. A very frustrated Sheriff Masters had to rally his troops every day to stay committed to solving this crime. Months pass and the case is stone cold.

Then, the television show Unsolved Mysteries runs an episode about the case. The next day Sheriff gets a hot tip from New Mexico. A fellow by the name of Kelly Lemons calls and says his Brother in Law is responsible for Ava Schoen's murder. Two detectives head to New Mexico to interview to Kelly Lemons. The man Kelly Lemons implicates is Frank Marque, a former used car salesman who had been in and out of jail for years. He had numerous convictions for burglary and sexual assault. They make arrangements with Kelly Lemons to make a recorded phone call with Frank Marque. Kelly tells Frank that the show Unsolved Mysteries was on again last night. Frank tells Kelly not to worry about it he doesn't want to talk about it over the phone. But Kelly then asks if Frank is sure they can't trace anything back to him and Frank replies "absolutely".

Sheriff Masters learns that at the time of the murder, Frank Marque had been working at an auto body shop. The Detectives go to the body shop and talk to the owner and he remembers that Frank and another employee named Jeff Beal had driven to Telluride at the time of the murder. They then track Jeff Beal and Beal tells him that he and Frank had come to Telluride to go to the Jazz festival. He also tells detectives that Frank Marque had brought with him a small handgun that he had borrowed from yet another coworker. So the Detectives visit that co worker and ask him if Frank returned the gun and he says yes and produces it. It turns out to be a 25 Larsen automatic, exactly the same caliber as was used to kill Ava Schoen.

However when testing is done on the gun the rifling has been ruined in the gun so that an exact match is not possible. Detectives suspect Frank Marque is the one who has ruined the rifling but they can't prove it. But even with all that information The District attorney refuses to file charges against Mr. Marque. Mr. Beal also tell the Detectives that on the way back from Telluride Frank had wadded up a bunch of his clothing and thrown it out of the car. Investigators take Beal on a little ride hoping for a little luck.

Four years after Ava Schoen's murder they eventually they find the clothing that Frank was wearing and on it is a hair that belongs to Ava Schoen. They then drive to Santa Fe and arrest Frank Marque. L.S. and Sam figured that Marque was a link to a much bigger plot, or conspiracy. But things were not going to turn out as they had hoped. The Police are hopeful they can get him to reveal the whole story behind the Ava Schoen murder. But Marque refuses to talk but his strange behavior in Jail only heightens Investigators suspicions.

They start hearing that Frank is washing his hair with packets of mustard. They got a search warrant for his hair and find that the rumors are true. Apparently there is a jailhouse legend that putting mustard in your hair would mess up your DNA. Finally after a year in Jail, Marque agrees to talk but his story is nothing like what investigators are expecting. While he does confess to the murder and several burglaries in the area, he says he was in Telluride to steal a drug dealers drugs and money and that he wasn't sure which house was the dealers. He actually broke into the wrong house. As for Mark and Joe Schoen, he doesn't even know them.

Further he has no idea how the injection site got into Ava's body or anything about any of the pieces of sheet that are missing. He said that Ava was in bed reading when he walks up the stairs and she starts attacking him and the gun goes off accidentlly. Well nobody believes that part of his story but the rest has the ring of truth to it. She then falls down on the bed and gets back up and collapses on the stairs. He describes the other houses that he burglarized and the Police check with the owners and sure enough they had wondered what ever happened to that stuff. Police grill Marque for hours but he never implicates anyone else in the murder. He is given great incentive to cooperate and tell them if anyone else was involved in the murder but he never wavers from his story.

The Police believe that Marques statement is consistent with the crime scene and that the murder was not after all a professional hit and was in fact a random. Sheriff Masters believes it was a murder committed out of complete chaos. Remember everyone thought that Ava's murder was the result of an expert hit man. Now it seemed it was the result of a small time hood driving hundreds of miles and breaking into the wrong house by mistake. But to Sam and L.S. the case was far from over. Frank Marquee is convicted of first degree manslaughter and is sentenced to 24 years in prison.

But despite his confession Sam and his Father believe that Marques story is completely implausible. Sam thinks the needle marks were an effort of his brothers to set him up for the murder since Sam is a physician and has access to syringes. He also thinks that the missing piece of bed sheet was also part of the plan to implicate him as it would been a valuable piece of evidence for someone to plant. While everyone believed there had to be some connection to the other side of Sam's family they simply couldn't find anything to connect them to Ava's murder.

But the years of bitter accusations and costly litigation have torn the Schoen family apart. Around the same time the criminal investigation wraps up Sam's 10 year court battle wraps up. In the end Sam and his Father win their lawsuit and are able to extricate their money from their Fathers company. The court orders U-Haul to pay 1.5 billion dollars to Sam and his Father but the amount is later reduced to 462 million. The company, including Joe Schoen, declares bankruptcy. By this time everyone involved except Mark and Joe, are tired of all the fighting and decide to leave the company. In October 1999 L.S. dies in a single car accident in Las Vegas. It is ruled a probable suicide.

Today Joe and Mark Schoen are still in charge of the U-Haul corporation. Joe has served as CEO uninterrupted since his takeover of the company in 1986. Ultimately it really didn't matter if anyone from U-Haul was involved in the murder of Ava Schoen as the family self destructed anyway. Sam Shoen has moved away from Telluride, remarried and gotten on with his life. But even now, 17 years after the murder, he consistently asks Sheriff to reopen his wife's murder as he believes that somehow, someway, someone is getting away with murder.