{"id":20036,"date":"2020-07-17T09:52:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T14:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=20036"},"modified":"2020-07-31T16:30:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T21:30:20","slug":"unsolved-madison-mysteries-chad-maurer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/unsolved-madison-mysteries-chad-maurer\/","title":{"rendered":"30 years later, Chad Maurer’s death remains an unsolved mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re anything like me, you tore through Netflix\u2019s reboot of the iconic Unsolved Mysteries<\/em> investigative series within days of it going live.<\/p>\n

From the bizarre death of Rey Rivera<\/a> to the massacre of the Dupont de Ligonnes family<\/a>, the new Unsolved Mysteries<\/em> is a welcome (albeit morbid) distraction from reality. And it got me wondering: did any local mysteries make it onto the original show? A December 1991 episode provides an answer: Chad Maurer.<\/span>\n

\"Chad<\/p>\n<\/span>In 1990, the 19-year-old from Madison was found dead in his car on the south side of Chicago, allegedly of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. From the jump there were questions about the case. The Maurer family couldn\u2019t believe it; Chad was an aspiring snowboarder working to put himself through college in Colorado. 30 years later, it seems we\u2019re no closer to finding the truth.<\/p>\n

So what happened on that day three decades ago?<\/span>\n

May 19, 1990<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a bit cliche to say Chad\u2019s last day started like any other, but it did. He had lunch at home and left for the second half of his job<\/a> at the Village Pedaler bike shop in Monona. It was a perfect gig for Maurer, an extreme sports enthusiast (and coincidentally, a doppelganger for a young Tony Hawk<\/a>). His parents, Dolly and John Maurer, had no reason to believe it would be the last time they would see their son alive.<\/span>\n

\"Chad<\/p>\n<\/span>But when the Maurers soon discovered Chad never made it to the store, panic set in. Two days later, they received a blunt call from the Chicago Police Department telling them that Chad was dead in a garage on the city\u2019s south side. Carbon monoxide poisoning, they said. Suicide, they speculated, with no apparent trauma. The Maurers didn\u2019t believe it. They couldn\u2019t. It didn\u2019t explain the blood on Chad\u2019s clothes, or the presence of a jacket that didn\u2019t belong to him. Or, more importantly, what he was doing dead in his car hundreds of miles from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really can\u2019t tell you what happened to my kid,\u201d Dolly Maurer told the Chicago Tribune<\/em> in 1991<\/a>. \u201cBut I think suicide is out of the question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sgt.<\/p>\n<\/span>Though Chicago investigators had ruled his death a suicide, they came to re-evaluate the decision. The Dane County Sheriff\u2019s Department became involved when, a few days after Chad\u2019s death, several shots were fired into the glass doors at the Village Pedaler. Weird response to a supposed suicide, right?<\/span>\n

Unanswered questions<\/h2>\n

The involvement of Madison area officials turned over several new stones. For one, the mysterious jacket found with Chad\u2019s body was lost. And the carbon monoxide levels in his system were 74% \u2014 far more consistent with him having already been unconscious when the car started running. By the time the Unsolved Mysteries <\/em>episode aired in late 1991, Maurer\u2019s death was reclassified as \u201cundetermined.\u201d<\/span>\n

\"Jacket\"Autopsy<\/p>\n<\/span>But it still doesn\u2019t do much to explain why<\/em> Chad was in Chicago. The prevailing theory\/rumor \u2014 it seems to carry elements of both \u2014 is that the teenager was somehow mixed up in what Chicago police called a \u201cdrug pipeline\u201d between their city and Madison. (Though the only concrete evidence linking Chad to any <\/em>sort of drug activity was his mom saying he smokes too much pot<\/a>. I feel that one.)<\/p>\n

Whether he was moving drugs or money, possibly against his will, has never been proved. All we know is that something seemed important enough to bail on a job<\/a> he had only had for a couple of days.<\/span>\n

\"Dolly<\/p>\n<\/span>Even now, we still have no clue what exactly happened to Chad Maurer. And as exciting as it is to dive into a local mystery, it\u2019s not really fun. Now in their 70s, Dolly and John Maurer have spent nearly half their lives trying to figure out what happened to their only son. That\u2019s the tragic footnote to the story. Even if this puzzle is ultimately put together, all it can do for the family is provide a little closure. And I think they\u2019re at least owed that much.<\/p>\n

You can watch Chad\u2019s Unsolved Mysteries<\/em> segment below. Perhaps you may be able to help solve this mystery: if so, send a tip here<\/a>.<\/span>\n