someone.” Roberts asked her if Janice ever talked about her background. She indicated that Janice said she was wealthy and had grown up on a large cattle ranch in Texas. According to Ruth, Janice had told her that caviar and pate every day for lunch was common for her. Yet she noticed that Janice was always asking for money for different things. “During my phone conversations with Bruce before the wedding, I would always hear Janice in the background trying to get Bruce to ask for money for a wedding gift.” Ruth said her whole family was of the opinion that Janice was a flake, “a psycho case.” Ruth confessed she had doubts about Janice upon first meeting her and always thought the young woman was a “kook” and a con artist. “I felt that way from the beginning. It’s a mother’s intuition,” she confessed. During the time her son and Janice had been together, Janice had called numerous times wanting Ruth to convince Bruce that he needed to change over the title to his property so in case anything happened to him Janice would still have a place to live. Ruth knew Janice was making out their wills at the time she and Bruce were planning their wedding. “How many brides are worried about wills at the time of their wedding?” she asked incredulously. According to Bruce’s mother, Janice would also call her all the time and say, “I just called to tell you I love you,” and hang up. She said that her other son and daughter used to joke about Bruce needing to check his brakes.
Mrs. Dodson went on to say that Bruce had purchased a diamond ring for Janice. Janice commented to Ruth that the diamond looked like a mere chip to her eyes, which upset Ruth because she knew Bruce was very proud of the ring. That sealed the deal for Ruth; she definitely had no intention of going to the wedding, “I didn’t want to go, because I thought Janice was a mental case.”
Bruce’s mother said finally that the thing that bothered her most was that Janice was always calling her and asking about finances, saying, “What if something happens to Bruce?” Ruth indicated that she had sent Bruce $13,000.00 at the time of the wedding so that he could pay off the mortgage on the home he owned in Leadville. Bruce told her he wanted to cut his expenditures since Janice had bills they needed to pay off. Before hanging up, Ruth made a final comment about her son. “You know, I thought it was strange that Bruce was going hunting, because he was such an animal lover. Bruce told me he was going because Janice wanted him to.”
One of Bruce’s friends, Ann Patton, sent a letter to the police department about the dead man. Reading the letter gave me my first real glimpse of the gentle character of John Bruce Dodson. Dry police reports and photographs of Bruce lying dead on the Uncompahgre gave me no personal perspective on the man. The letter was written in neat and precise handwriting. Included were photographs of Ann Patton’s wall depicting framed prints of several exceptionally nice landscape photographs taken by Bruce.
Estes Park
I finally have some time off. Hope you can read my handwriting. Notes about Bruce Dodson: smart, talented, capable, dogmatic, intolerant, funny, irritable, caring, independent, versatile, self-disciplined, moody, frugal, prickly, careful, sometimes lonely, seldom bored, painfully principled, thoroughly responsible, a closet romantic, an interesting human being.
As a friend, he was sometimes puzzling, sometimes painful (seemed to sabotage himself socially), sometimes amazingly supportive. We sort of adopted each other. Bruce joined the lab staff in 1988, just a few months after I did. We had many conversations. Bruce’s search for a mate was sporadic and cautious. There were two serious past relationships that occasionally entered our conversations. His first love died of cancer. He mentioned taking her on perfect backpacking trips. There was another relationship later, with a lady pharmacist, which lasted several years and left him embittered.
And then came Janice. Bruce fell head over heels. I recall when he escorted her to the lab Christmas party; he looked so proud. Janice is quite beautiful when she gets gussied up. Prior to Janice, Bruce made a couple of honest, but hesitant attempts to connect with women through dating services aimed at outdoorsy people. Now and then he would borrow my car to take one of his contacts to a concert or play in Grand Junction. (He thought his VW Camper was too suggestive.) That VW van was an important acquisition as it offered great freedom. We used it camping a few times. Most of our talking took place en route somewhere. He drove very carefully. He did everything carefully. We talked about many things—people, places, paintings, plans, ideas. He didn’t talk about his family much, but his fondness for his sister and his nieces and nephews was apparent. It is sad that none of Bruce’s family came to see him in his element—the West, which he loved.
Bruce’s maverick sense of humor sort of poked out between his many serious characteristics. So did his creative nature, expressing itself through his photographs. Bruce biked, hiked, skied, and rode horses. One summer he climbed Mt. Sneffles—alone. Bruce’s impressive frugality grew out of his determination to retire early, independently and comfortably. I moved to Estes Park in the spring of 1993 and saw little of Bruce after that. My quilting pals at the Delta lab said Bruce and Janice were still an item, but sometimes stormy—nothing specific.
When he called me at work to ask if I could come to his wedding, I was surprised and delighted for him. That spring was particularly wet, turning the slopes of Grand Mesa into a garden. So one of his hopes had come true—to own a home in his favorite country, a place where he could keep his horse and share it with a wife.
It’s really hard to believe someone would intentionally kill this gentle man. How dare they? I don’t really know Janice very well. Lauren and Gail probably know her best. Bonnie says there may be two Janices—apparently she was a quiet, mousey, colorless person when she first came to work in Delta. Janice always seemed kind of spooky—like she was on stage all the time—and vulnerable and confused. I don’t want to think she killed Bruce. I don’t want to think he had to watch his wife shoot him.
All of us who care about Bruce are pulling for you to figure this out. Frank said to me, “Who would kill this harmless man? I want to sit in the courtroom and look into the face of this person who has no conscience.”
What was in his will? I hear that Janice urged him to change his will shortly after the wedding. Did he? It seems like odd newlywed behavior; newlyweds think they’re immortal.
Good luck,
Ann Patton
Later I spoke again with Bruce’s sister, who was obviously grieving. Martha was fifteen years younger than Bruce and looked up to him as an almost heroic figure. When she was in grade school, Bruce was in college and later went off to serve in the Navy. I also had a number of other conversations with Bruce’s brother, Michael. He was angry about what happened to Bruce, but did not convey the intense feelings of sadness and loss I felt from Martha. After speaking with her, my need to bring justice to this situation intensified.
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