A dad’s mysterious disappearance captivated a small Colorado town. Twenty-five years later, cops have made a major breakthrough

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A Colorado man has been arrested on charges of murder in connection to a cold case that has gone unsolved for a quarter of a century.

James Daniel “Dan” Bishop, now 68, is charged with first-degree murder in the 1999 disappearance of Dale Williams, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced.

Williams, 42, who owned an auto body shop in Nucla, Colorado at the time of his disappearance, was last seen on May 27, 1999, when he got a call about helping a stranded motorist.

Six weeks later, Williams’s truck was found submerged in the Dolores and San Miguel Rivers, according to the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office. His body was never found.

A .22 caliber rifle in the bed of the truck with a spent shell casing in the chamber. The rifle allegedly belonged to Bishop, according to firearm purchase records, investigators said.

Sergeant Chuck Searcy, the arresting officer and lead investigator, told the Telluride Daily Planet that Bishop had been questioned about the case in 1999 after he was captured on surveillance footage taking down missing person posters from a Nucla post office. But no arrests were made.

For years, there were no new leads and the case turned cold.

But investigators never gave up, according to Searcy who said Montrose County Sheriff Gene R. Lillard kept his promise to Williams’s widow and two daughters to keep the case going.

“He was the driving force for our agency to remain involved,” Searcy said. “Sheriff Willard really put an emphasis on making sure that we work on this case and that we try to find answers for the family. That allowed me the time and the freedom to work on this case in depth along with CBI.”

In September 2023, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, with help from the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office, opened a new inquiry on the case.

Searcy worked alongside CBI Agent in Charge Brandon Ludwig, who he said gave the case “fresh eyes and some fresh perspective.”

Their investigation revealed that about a year before Williams disappeared, he and his wife Diana allegedly helped Bishop’s wife leave him and resettle in Texas at an undisclosed location.

Investigators say they believe Bishop acted together with his cousin, who has since died, to murder Williams, according to the news release. The cousin was not named in the release.

“There have been countless interviews and hundreds of hours of investigation poured into this case,” Sheriff Lillard said in a statement Thursday.

“It has taken an entire team effort of law enforcement, family and concerned citizens to bring the case to where it is today. We are grateful for the in-depth investigation over the last 25 years by the Agents of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Investigators and Deputies of the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office.”

Bishop was arrested at his home in Naturita on October 17 by the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Marshal’s Service and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

He is being held on a $1m bond.