Nathan Jerard Dunlap was born on April 8, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois. His early life was marked by instability, abuse, and untreated mental illness within his family. Shortly after his birth, Dunlap’s biological mother, Carole, was hospitalized for mental health issues in Waukegan, Illinois, and he was temporarily placed in foster care. He never met his biological father. His mother later married Jerry Dunlap, a former professional football player who adopted Nathan. Although the family provided a semblance of stability, the household environment was deeply troubled. Jerry was physically abusive, often hurling Nathan into walls, hitting him with objects, and punching him during fits of anger. His mother, meanwhile, struggled with severe mental illness, eventually diagnosed with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in 1987.

The effects of this traumatic upbringing were evident early on. Dunlap attempted suicide at least twice during junior high, and a school psychologist identified signs of hypomania when Nathan was 14, though no treatment followed. By his mid-teens, he had become involved in criminal behavior, committing a series of armed robberies at age 15 and spending time in juvenile detention and a psychiatric facility. After his release, Dunlap turned to drug dealing and accumulated several misdemeanor arrests by 1993.

Despite his troubled background, Dunlap held a job as a cook at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora, Colorado, beginning in May 1993. However, he was fired in July after a dispute over scheduling. Friends later testified that he expressed deep anger over his termination and spoke about “getting even.” His mental state declined dramatically in the months that followed, marked by manic behavior, sleeplessness, and erratic actions. He also returned to committing armed robberies during this period, signaling an escalation toward more serious violence.

On the night of December 14, 1993, Nathan Dunlap entered the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora, Colorado, where he had once worked. Armed with a semiautomatic pistol, he hid in the restroom until closing time. At approximately 9:00 p.m., when only five employees remained cleaning and preparing to leave, Dunlap emerged and began executing them one by one. His victims were Sylvia Crowell (19), Ben Grant (17), Colleen O’Connor (17), and Margherita “Marge” Kohlberg (50), the restaurant’s manager. All four were shot and killed. A fifth victim, Bobby Stephens, was shot in the face but survived by pretending to be dead.

The murders were premeditated and motivated by revenge for his firing five months earlier. After stealing a small amount of cash and game tokens from the restaurant, Dunlap fled the scene. He was arrested a few days later after police tracked him down through witnesses and ballistic evidence linking him to the shooting.

The crime shocked Colorado and the nation, coming just months after another mass workplace shooting. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, presenting evidence of premeditation, prior threats, and aggravating factors such as multiple victims and the especially callous nature of the killings. The defense argued that Dunlap’s history of abuse, mental illness, and bipolar disorder should mitigate his culpability. Nonetheless, on May 17, 1996, a jury convicted him on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death.

Over the next two decades, Dunlap’s case became one of the most politically charged death penalty cases in Colorado history. Multiple appeals and motions were filed, citing ineffective counsel, mental illness, and evolving standards of capital punishment. In May 2013, Governor John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap an indefinite reprieve, citing “an inequitable system” and concerns about executing someone with a severe mental illness. In 2020, when Colorado abolished the death penalty, Dunlap’s sentence was formally commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Today, Nathan Dunlap remains incarcerated in the Colorado State Penitentiary. His case is often cited in debates over the death penalty, juvenile trauma, and mental illness as factors in violent crime. The Chuck E. Cheese murders remain one of Colorado’s most notorious workplace shootings, emblematic of how personal grievances and untreated psychological conditions can result in catastrophic violence.