Marvin John Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 – June 4, 2004) was an American welder and automobile repair shop owner who, in an act of revenge, demolished numerous buildings with a modified bulldozer in Granby, Colorado, in June 2004. Heemeyer's machine was posthumously labeled by some members of the media and later adopted by some of Heemeyer's supporters as the "Killdozer".
Over the 12 years prior to the attack, Heemeyer became embroiled in disputes with Granby town officials, neighbors of his muffler shop, the local press, and other citizens of Granby, including over zoning rules which Heemeyer believed impaired his muffler repair shop's business. Motivated by his frustration, Heemeyer began secretly armoring a Komatsu D355A bulldozer with layers of steel and concrete in 2002 with the intent of using it for destructive purposes.
On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer used the bulldozer in a vehicle-ramming attack to demolish the Granby town hall, the house of a former mayor, and several other buildings. He killed himself after the bulldozer became stuck in the debris of a hardware store he was destroying. No one else was injured or killed.
Background and personal life Marvin Heemeyer was born on October 28, 1951, on a dairy farm in South Dakota. Heemeyer never married and remained childless.
In 1974, Heemeyer moved to Colorado because he was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base. He lived in Boulder and operated muffler repair shops around Denver. In 1989, he moved to Grand Lake, about away from Granby. His friends said that he had no relatives in the Granby–Grand Lake area.
Heemeyer enjoyed taking snowmobile trips with friends. He led a rescue effort on one such trip after a friend became trapped in a small avalanche. He was also a doomsday prepper.
Heemeyer was strongly in favor of gambling legalization and campaigned for the cause on several occasions. At one point, he began disseminating a newspaper of his own on the issue, as he believed the local newspapers were biased against this cause. In 1994, a measure was proposed that would have legalized gambling in Grand Lake and Heemeyer was so passionate about the cause that he nearly came to blows with a local reporter who was opposed to the proposal.
John Bauldree, a friend of Heemeyer's, said that he was a likable person. Heemeyer's brother Ken stated that he "would bend over backwards for anyone." While many people described Heemeyer as an affable person, local resident Christie Baker claimed that she was told that Heemeyer threatened her husband after he refused to pay for a disputed muffler repair. Baker said her husband later paid Heemeyer $124.
Dispute
Zoning and sewage dispute In 1992, Heemeyer purchased of land for $42,000 () at auction with plans to lease the property to a friend who intended to build an auto repair shop on the site. Present at the auction was Cody Docheff, whose family had previously owned the property. Heemeyer claimed that Docheff had berated him for several minutes afterward out of anger towards losing the property; however, no other party present recalled any such interaction.
The property had a rudimentary sewage storage solution in the form of a buried cement mixer left by the previous owners. The cost to update the sewer system would be nearly double the $42,000 Heemeyer paid for the property.
City officials told Heemeyer that putting in a septic tank was a less expensive alternative, but he rejected both options and said that the government not paying for the sewage line hookup was "extortion by government fiat". Despite these setbacks, he did not withdraw his annexation request and subsequently became part of the sewer district.
By 1993, Heemeyer had abandoned plans to rent the property to a friend and instead opened a muffler repair shop on the grounds. According to Heemeyer, his friend had lost interest in the property in around April 1992 because of oil spills and environmental issues.
Opposition to sell to concrete plant In 1997, the Docheff family planned to expand their business to include a concrete batch plant and were buying up the land around their current lot, hoping to lease the remaining 23 parcels to small manufacturers. They were informed by the town planning commission that they needed a "Planned Development Overlay District" permit to construct the plant as part of their Mountain Park Concrete development. The commission also suggested that the Docheff family ask if they could purchase Heemeyer's plot to keep the plant away from the hotels and businesses on Route 40.
Heemeyer asked for $250,000 () for his property, but later claimed he had had the lot reappraised and asked for an additional $125,000 (). The Docheffs managed to collect $350,000 (), but according to Susan Docheff, Heemeyer again upped his asking price, claiming he had the property appraised again at a higher value, this time asking for $450,000 (). This negotiation happened before the rezoning proposal had a public hearing at town hall.
Heemeyer launched a public campaign against the planned concrete plant. His campaign was initially successful, with members of the public concerned about potential environmental impacts packing into hearings on the construction proposals. The Docheffs addressed these concerns by promising to install additional measures against dust and noise and presented miniatures of the plant to concerned citizens. Opposition to the proposal dwindled, and the plan was set to move forward again. In November 2000, Heemeyer filed a lawsuit to block the project.
By January 9, 2001, Heemeyer had lost most of his allies in opposition to the concrete plant, and city officials almost unanimously approved its construction. This made the final approval by Granby's zoning commission and trustees in April a formality.
Heemeyer tried to appeal the decision, claiming the construction blocked access to his shop. He also complained to the Environmental Protection Agency; this resulted in the Docheff family having a professional noise analysis done.
In June 2001, Joe Docheff made Heemeyer an offer over the phone whereby if Heemeyer dropped the lawsuit, they would provide him an easement to connect a sewer line to the new concrete plant free of charge; Heemeyer simply hung up. Around this time, the buried concrete truck barrel that served as Heemeyer's sewage hole filled up. Heemeyer responded by pumping his sewage with a gasoline pump into the irrigation ditch that ran behind his property. Heemeyer also attempted to illegally connect to a neighbor's sewer line, but was caught and the incident reported to the sanitation district. At this point, the sewer district started enforcing the legal requirement to have a sewer hookup or a septic tank and fined Heemeyer $2,500 () for it and other city code violations at his business in July 2001, nine years after he was required to have installed either.
Planning the rampage
Bulldozer repurposing and construction After the lawsuit against the town was dismissed in April 2002, Heemeyer blamed the failure on his lawyer and demanded a refund. Knowing the zoning decision was now final, he traveled to California, bought a Komatsu Limited D355A bulldozer in an auction for $16,000 () and had it shipped to Granby in July 2002. He kept it outside of his business with a "For Sale" sign on it and tried to auction it, but few paid it any mind.
In October 2002, he announced the closure of the muffler repair business, putting almost all of the inventory up for sale. When the bulldozer failed to sell, he saw it as a sign from God to use the machine to enact vengeance on the town of Granby. He sold his property for $400,000 ()—around ten times the original purchase price—to a waste disposal company in October 2003 and took out a lease for half the building he had previously owned until he had "finished some work." Within a day of the purchase closing, the new owners had completed water and sewer connections.
Heemeyer planned the repurposing of the bulldozer on his Grand Lake home computer.
He erected a wall to separate his space from the rest of the building and changed the locks. While no one else could see him, he worked on the bulldozer, illegally constructing living quarters to avoid having to return to his home in Grand Lake, which he saw as a waste of time that could be spent on the dozer. During this period, he dumped his sewage into the same irrigation ditch he had been caught dumping into several months earlier.
"It is interesting to observe that I was never caught", Heemeyer wrote. "This was a part-time project over a 1½-year time period." He was surprised that several men, who had visited the shed late the previous year, had not noticed the modified bulldozer "especially with the lift fully exposed ... somehow their vision was clouded".
During this period, Heemeyer repeatedly mentioned the bulldozer to friends and associates, as well as his intention to use it for destructive purposes.
The bulldozer was a modified Komatsu D355A, which he referred to as the "MK Tank" (or "Marv's Komatsu Tank") in audio recordings, fitted with makeshift composite armor plating covering the cabin, engine, and parts of the tracks. Three external explosions and more than 200 rounds of ammunition fired at the bulldozer had no effect on it.
For outside views, the bulldozer was fitted with several video cameras linked to two monitors mounted on the vehicle's dashboard. The cameras were protected on the outside by shields of clear bulletproof polycarbonate. Compressed-air nozzles were fitted to blow dust away from the video cameras.
Three rifles, including a .50 BMG rifle, were mounted in the vehicle. At the time of the demolition it also contained three handguns and enough food and water to last a week.
Motivation Investigators later found Heemeyer's handwritten list of targets of 107 people who he thought had wronged him. The Docheff family was at the top of the list (written as "Douche-eff"). The list also included various buildings, companies, judges, politicians, newspaper editors and anyone who sided against him in past disputes. While he did not damage them, one entrant was the local Catholic Church due to their opposition to his attempts to legalize gambling, as well as theological differences, as Heemeyer was a member of the Christian Reformed Church.
Prior to the rampage, Heemeyer had scrawled a list of complaints onto an old "For Sale" sign, as well as scrap paper. These ranged from the Docheffs' unwillingness to pay the large sums he requested, the sanitation district's fining of him, and that the town had approved the plant construction. The other writings suggested that God had stopped the plant from being constructed in 1992, and alluded to a belief that God had caused the deaths of multiple people who had opposed him. Heemeyer further claimed that "I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable", adding that "Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things."
In addition to these writings, Heemeyer recorded three audio tapes explaining his motivation for the attack. The tapes contained two separate recordings on each side for a total of six recordings. He mailed these to his brother in South Dakota shortly before stepping into his bulldozer. Heemeyer's brother turned the tapes over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who in turn sent them to the Grand County Sheriff's Department. The tapes are about 2½ hours in length. The first recording was made on April 13, 2004. The last recording was made on May 22, 13 days before the rampage.