Case still a mystery

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By GWEN TIETGEN / Lincoln Journal Star

Gregg Olsen spent two years retracing Eli Stutzman’s footsteps prior to and after Danny Stutzman’s death for the book, “Abandoned Prayers: An Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession and Amish Secrets.”

He made several trips to Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and Ohio, all places Stutzman set foot before and after he abandoned his son’s 9-year-old body in a ditch near Chester.

Olsen, like Thayer County Attorney Dan Werner and former sheriff Gary Young, believe there’s more to Eli Stutzman’s story.

The book might leave that impression. It talks of how Danny’s mother, Ida Stutzman, died in a suspicious barn fire while she was pregnant with a second child.

The Amish don’t believe in talking to law enforcement and didn’t question, but always suspected, foul play in Ida Stutzman’s death, Olsen said.

Afterward, Stutzman left the Amish community, his son in tow, and revealed he was gay.

He had gone to Texas and was later convicted of killing a roommate in the spring of 1985. He left the boy with a foster family in Wyoming for six months. He fetched him, saying they were going to Ohio’s Amish community for Christmas. Danny never made it there.

After dumping his body in Chester, Eli Stutzman visited a boyfriend in Mound Ridge, Kan., authorities said.

Eli Stutzman told Amish relatives Danny died in a car wreck in Utah. Relatives later found out the truth.

Olsen said he has a pile of letters Stutzman wrote to relatives, lying about Danny’s whereabouts.

“I have one letter where he was pretending to be Danny after he had been dead for four months,” Olsen said.

Stutzman said he found his son dead in his vehicle while the two were driving to Ohio from Wyoming. He had reportedly developed a respiratory condition and Stutzman, at the time, said he had become scared and discarded the body for God to take.

“It’s one story that doesn’t go away. He’ll always be ‘Little Boy Blue’ to everybody forever,” Olsen said.

The book, published in 1990 and re-released in 2003, became a New York Times Bestseller.

“It’s one of the all-time mysteries. I wish there was somebody in  Thayer County that said we should take a look at this,” Olsen said Thursday. “Forensic science has changed in 20 years. Maybe they’d find something this time around.”

Reached at his Fort Worth, Texas home, Eli Stutzman, now 55, would not comment. He was released on parole in March 2002 from a 1989 murder conviction.

Reach Gwen Tietgen at 473-7242 or gtietgen@journalstar.com.