Mark Groezinger

A man with no known enemies is found riddled with bullets.

Mark Groezinger with a hat, beard, and sunglasses

Mark Groezinger
Marks body slumped over the front seats of his car

Mark’s body was riddled with bullets

CASE DETAILS

On Lookout Mountain, 12 miles west of Denver, Colorado, there is a shrine dedicated to Mother Cabrini, the first American saint. Her shrine overlooks the city of Denver; it is a peaceful, tranquil place. But on the morning of April 7th, 1984, a man leaving the shrine’s grounds noticed a blue Buick parked on the roadside. The driver’s window was shattered and the man decided to take a closer look. Inside the vehicle, he noticed a body, riddled with bullet wounds. The dead man was Mark Groezinger, a 29-year-old concrete cutter from the nearby town of Golden. According to his wife Judy, Mark had no known enemies:

“I don’t think anyone disliked him. He was a very nice guy. He’d help you do anything and he was kind of shy, but for a friend, you know he was a real good friend to people.”

Mark Groezinger smiling and standing next to Judy Groezinger

Judy and Mark Groezinger

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department found that Mark had been shot repeatedly, in a manner that seemed obsessive. No trace of the murder weapon was found at the crime scene. However, investigators did find a paper bag filled with .38 caliber bullets on the right front floorboard of the car. Numerous shell casings were found both inside and outside the vehicle, suggesting the gun was reloaded at least twice during the shooting.

According to Lieutenant John Dunow of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, other intriguing clues were also found at the crime scene:

“We recovered the wallet, with his driver’s licens and money he had in it. So we basically ruled out a robbery. But the thing that really was strange is the car keys were missing. And if there was a robbery, they would’ve taken the wallet and left the car keys.”

Crimse scene invenstigators marked off by yellow tape examining Marks car on the side of the road

Crime scene investigators found many clues

According to Lieutenant Dunow, Mark’s murder appeared to be a crime of passion:

“Well taking into consideration the number of bullets that were fired into Mark’s body, it’s clear to us that this is a killing of… rage, of fury, of hate, revenge.”

Sheriff’s Department investigators brought Mark’s wife, Judy, in for questioning. Judy said that around 6:30 PM on the night Mark was killed, they had eaten dinner at a local restaurant with a friend. According to Judy, Mark wanted to go out, but she wasn’t feeling well. Judy said Mark took her home around 8:00 PM. Her friend decided to keep her company at the house.

As Lieutenant Dunow investigated the case, he found several discrepancies in Judy Groezinger’s story:

“Judy indicated that they went back to their residence at approximately eight o’clock and then Mark left to shoot pool. But we contacted people that were going up to the shrine to a wedding rehearsal that evening. They told us that they observed Mark’s car there by the gate at 8:00 PM. So we have a problem there with that story.”

Despite an extensive search of the entire area around the Mother Cabrini Shrine, investigators were not been able to locate a murder weapon to match the .38’s shells. When Lieutenant Dunow ran a check on all recent .38 purchases in the Denver area, he recognized one name—Judy Groezinger:

“She had purchased the weapon in Denver at a pawnshop three days prior to Mark’s death. And we asked her why she didn’t tell us this initially and she said she forgot.”

A .38 shell on the rocky floor of the crime scene

.38 shells were found at the scene; no gun

But according to Judy, it was her husband who told her to purchase the gun:

“Mark came home one day and he asked me if I could go to the pawn shop the next day and buy a gun for somebody and I asked him why the person didn’t buy it themselves. He said they were just a little underage or something of that sort. So, I went down to Denver and I looked around and picked out the kind of gun he wanted: a .38.”

Lieutenant Dennis Potter was another lead investigator on the case. He immediately questioned the managers of the pawn shop:

“The proprietors of the pawnshop that we talked to, were very adamant about the fact that there was a man with Judy Groezinger in that pawn shop that day. While she was picking out this gun, she called this male subject over to her and said words to the effect of, what about this one, do you like this one. Those type of words.”

Then, according to Lieutenant Potter, another major discrepancy in Judy’s story surfaced:

“Part of Judy’s story was that after she and Mark finished dinner, they drove to a liquor store near their residence to buy a bottle of whiskey. We later contacted the person who was on duty that night in the liquor store. The lady says, ‘ I know Mark personally and I know Judy. And no Mark did not come in and buy whiskey that particular night.’ That person told us Judy came into the liquor store at a later time with another man, matching the description of the man that Judy was with at the pawn shop. So we have two locations where Judy was seen with the same unidentified man. One at the pawn shop and the other at the liquor store.”

In Mark’s car, investigators found evidence that someone had stopped at a liquor store on the night Mark died. They found a six-pack of beer, but the receipt showed it was purchased from a different store than the one Judy named.

The murder of Mark Groezinger seemed to raise nothing but unanswered questions. Why had he been at the shrine, such an isolated, out-of-the-way location? And who had a motive for killing him? All investigators knew was that he was shot from the passenger side of his car and that his murder had all the earmarks of a crime of passion.

Without any clear leads, investigators brought in the only person who could verify Judy’s alibi—the friend who had stayed with her after Mark dropped her off at home. She said she had watched TV with Judy until around midnight, then slept over on the couch. But according to Lieutenant Potter, rumors about the two women began to surface, casting suspicion on the friend’s credibility as a witness:

“We interviewed friends and acquaintances and more than one acquaintance said that the relationship was more than just friends.”

The day after Mark’s murder, Judy’s friend moved in with her. After living together for a few years they bought a house. However, according to Lieutenant Potter, investigators still don’t have enough concrete evidence to charge Judy Groezinger with murder:

“We have no… evidence to place her there that night in that car. All we have is circumstantial evidence that indicates that she may be deceitful in some of her statements. We just don’t know.”

The murder of Mark Groezinger is a case filled with loose ends which may never be completely tied together. Throughout all of it, Judy Groezinger has maintained her innocence. She even took a lie detector test, which supported her story. But the discrepancies remain, and Judy Groezinger is still considered a person of interest. All that is known for certain is that Mark’s killer is a free man… or woman.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

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14 Comments

  1. Alex

    Pretty sure Judy is on facebook…I was nosy and had a look through what pictures I could and there’s no indication she was ever married or had posted any “throw back” pictures at all. Seems strange. Maybe I’m wrong and it’s the wrong Judy, but it sure does look a lot like her! I just feel that if my husband was mysteriously murdered I would have atleast ONE post of him or something about him. Weird…..

    Reply

  2. Quinn

    There will be justice for this man. If Judy did it or had anything to do with it, God knows. God sees everything.

    Reply

  3. Anonymous

    In 1984, there were no cell phones, with their complete listing of all calls that were made from a given phone. No cell towers either. Today, it would be easier to determine the wife’s exact involvement in the murder just through analysis of cell phone data. It would also be a way to unmask the man the wife was seen with in the pawn shop & the liquor store. Also, in 1984, CCTV was rare. It would be MUCH Easier to disprove wife’s account of events with 2016 technology. … joseph.kulik.919@gmail.com

    Reply

  4. kevin

    Judy

    Reply

  5. Lev Bronstein

    Judy Groezinger is guilty as sin.

    With that said, has anybody considered the possibility that there was no mystery man? That the “man” seen with Judy at the pawn shop and liquor store was in fact her friend dressed up or disguised as a man?

    Reply

  6. Chanita

    This is so crazy Why would people Kill that man?

    Reply

  7. Anonymous

    She is definitely on facebook with the other woman. She is not even hiding. Her profile is open.

    Reply

  8. Anonymous

    What a joke! Unsolved mysteries should have been sued over their slander and misrepresentation of the facts. Judy was cleared of ANY and ALL wrong doings in this case!

    Reply

  9. Anonymous

    And how do you forget that you bought a gun? This whole story reeks of his wife having something to do with it!

    Reply

  10. Anonymous

    That lady Judy is a sneaky mulipative person. First her “friend”……. So they say. I say lover … Gave Judy an abili then ” moved” in with her and lived with her for years. creepy..Judy planned to have her husband killed. She went to the gun shop with the guy she was seen with. got the gun and planned his death. He probably found out about Judy’s”friendship”/lover. Judy planned the whole dinner night. They went to dinner she never went home like she said. She met up with that man. He probably followed her up to the spot. Maybe both her and that guy took turns pulling the Trigger maybe it was just him. She took the keys out of the engine and they drove away.Diffently they guy she was seen with at the gun store and the liquor store is involved in her husband’s death. The statement she made about the .38 case shellings oh I forgot three days before he was found murder that he asked me to buy a gun for an underage person. Come now. She didn’t act like a normal devasted wife would act if their husband was found murdered. Yea she passed the lie dectator test but someone needs to find that guy she was with and ask him questions. Something diffently so rotten…its her story; her “friend” and that creepy guy. Feel bad for that poor husband and how his life ended.. Rest in peace.

    Reply

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