Dennise was on vacation from from Connecticut with her mother and mother's fiance in July 1961. They encountered an adult male who claimed he had car trouble near Dead Horse Point. The male then demanded money from the couple and displayed a gun. Jeannette Sullivan, a divorced mother from Rockville, Connecticut, threw $250 on the road, and turned to get into her car. She was fatally shot in the back of the head.The man shot her companion, Charles Boothroyd, in the face twice. The Rockville resident was left for dead, but he survived to tell officers about the crime. Sullivan's 15-year-old daughter, Denise, had stayed in the car. The girl started the vehicle and tried to drive away, although she had never driven.The gunman chased her down in his car, forced the car off the road and kidnapped her.The suspect was known to be a stocky, dark-haired man driving a light-colored car with a license plate beginning with "CJ." The suspect was Abel B. Aragon, 35, an unemployed WWII Marine Corps veteran from Price who had earned the Navy Cross.About 10:30 p.m. on July 7, 1961, lawmen stopped the suspect's car at a roadblock at Crescent Junction.