Many horror movies have derived from actual events, and Jeepers Creepers may be able to join that list.
In 1990 Michigan resident Dennis DePue became the subject of a police manhunt, after murdering his wife and dumping her body behind an abandoned school house. As the story goes, DePue shot her in the back of the head after she filed for divorce.
In Jeepers Creepers, the monster dumps bodies behind an abandoned church, much like DePue disposed of his wife, but the inspiration didn’t come from Depue so much as it did from the testimony of two eyewitnesses.
Ray and Marie Thornton spotted DePue doing his dirty deed, while driving around on a long stretch of Michigan road, and then found themselves followed by the killer, who tailed them in his van for several miles.
The TV show ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ ran a segment on the murder in 1991. The segment featured a re-enactment of the Thornton’s story, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the first half of Salva’s film.
Check out the video below, which joins together clips from both.