Clyde Peterman (Photo provided by the Grand Junction Police Department)
The landlady at the apartment building at 246 Belford Ave. in Grand Junction unlocked and opened the door to unit 6.
Clyde Peterman was in his bathtub, fully dressed. But that’s not what was the most startling factor about the scene.
Peterman was dead.
Blood drops, smears, pools and spray told the story about how the 45-year-old man was killed, and what happened afterwards.
There was blood spatter on the walls of his small apartment.
There was blood on an object found on the floor of the kitchen. It appeared that it could be the murder weapon.
Blood had pooled where police believe he died on the kitchen floor.
Blood drops on the kitchen floor trailed through the living room and into the bathroom, indicating Peterman had been beaten to death, then carried into his bathroom.
But why?
When police first investigated this case in the days and weeks following the discovery of Peterman’s body on March 19, 1979, the question of motive puzzled them more than anything.
What drove the killer to take the life of this quiet, peaceful, friendly former librarian was difficult to pinpoint.
The man read a lot in his apartment and kept to himself most of the time.
Not many people in the Western slope city knew the newcomer at all.
Finding the person who wanted to kill him in so violent a manner was even more difficult. It remains a mystery 35 years later.