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Chilling Video Helps Police Solve Beloved Dad's 2016 Homicide: "Holy Cow..."
The body of 54-year-old Don Fluitt was found mutilated in his Albuquerque garage, prompting police to question multiple men with separate potential motives.
In December 2016, 54-year-old single father Don Fluitt was found dead in the garage of his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home. According to Albuquerque Police Department (A.P.D.) Detective Matthew Caplan, the devoted dad had just dropped his 11-year-old daughter, Siena, off with her mother, returning to his suburban residence soon after, apparently unaware of the dangers that awaited.
“My first instinct going in was how put-together the house was,” Caplan told Dateline: The Smoking Gun, airing Thursdays at 8/7c on Oxygen. “There was cookies on the counter that looked somewhat fresh. Nothing was out of place until you go into the garage.”
There, Fluitt was found on his back, lying between the wall and the front of his vehicle after being bludgeoned and stabbed. The victim's gruesome fate was sealed by the slashing of his throat.
Months would go by before detectives would bring the case to a shocking close.
Who was Don Fluitt?
Don Fluitt married his first wife in his twenties, though the marriage didn’t last. Despite living in New Mexico, Don Fluitt managed to maintain a close and loving relationship with his two older children, Josh and Tiffany, who lived with their mother in Oklahoma.
Don Fluitt spent at least part of his thirties as a firefighter before meeting and marrying his second wife, x-ray technician Christine White, who lived next door to Don Fluitt's brother Dennis Fluitt.
“She made him happy,” Tiffany told Dateline: The Smoking Gun. “She was kind of quirky and silly like he was, so I think they got along real well.”
Together, Don Fluitt and Christine White had daughter Siena. But by the time the child was 4, Don Fluitt had lost his job after eight years, and financial strain pushed the couple to divorce. Still, Don Fluitt was active in Siena’s life, regularly bringing her to school and creating fun at-home music videos together.
The father-daughter duo even began a tradition called “Spaghetti Sundays,” serving pasta to the houseless and those in need as part of their commitment to the church. It was apropos, considering that by 2016, Don Fluitt found work by helping to care for individuals with developmental disabilities.
“He was an amazing father,” Don Fluitt’s mother, Sharon, told producers.
The Video Footage from the Day Don Fluitt Died
Days after Christmas 2016, a coworker visited the Albuquerque residence and found Don Fluitt dead in his garage. According to Det. Caplan, whoever killed the beloved father tried to cover his tracks, as evidenced by an empty bottle of bleach, towels in the washer, and tests that showed the killer rinsed his hands in the sink.
“The amount of injury to Don Fluitt’s neck, the amount of blood that should have been present, wasn’t there,” Caplan told Dateline’s Dennis Murphy.
The investigation twisted even more when a neighbor provided security footage. At 7:37 p.m., light on the ground indicated the garage door opened before Don Fluitt could be seen driving away in his truck. His ex-wife, Christine White, later confirmed that Don Fluitt dropped Siena off at 7:45 p.m.
But at 7:41 p.m., a figure wearing a hoodie was captured on video walking to the curb near Don Fluitt’s home and laying an outdoor garbage can on its side. The person whose face was obscured walked off-screen toward the house before Fluitt returned home minutes later. The video showed Don Fluitt parking in the garage, going outside to pick up the can, walking inside, and closing the garage door behind him.
Det. Caplan gleaned the suspect’s following movements based on the garage light casting shadows on the ground.
“And then, inexplicably, the garage [door] shoots back up,” said Caplan. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Holy cow, I think someone just snuck in the garage.’”
The hooded suspect is never seen leaving Don Fluitt’s home.
The Suspects in Don Fluitt's Murder
Don Fluitt’s brother, Dennis Fluitt, immediately told detectives to look at truck driver Terry White. Terry White had married Don Fluitt’s ex-wife, Christine White, making him Siena’s legal stepfather.
“Don told me a lot about him,” Dennis Fluitt told Dateline: The Smoking Gun. “I knew there had been some altercations in the past.”
Terry White told detectives he visited his sister until about 9:00 p.m. on the night of the murder — an alibi confirmed by the sister — then stopped at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant before heading to work. There, Terry White said he napped in the parking lot before his shift began.
Terry White told detectives he tried to avoid Don Fluitt the best he could as custody hearings between the victim and his ex continued in court.
Meanwhile, Don Fluitt’s adult children suspected their uncle, Dennis Fluitt, a man with a documented criminal history that consisted of assault and disorderly conduct. They found it “odd” that the brother obtained a set of keys to the decedent’s home and helped himself inside mere days after the homicide, according to Det. Caplan.
Tiffany said her father and uncle previously had “an estranged relationship” over a disagreement about their late father’s assets.
On top of suggesting Terry White, Dennis Fluitt also pointed a finger at Don Fluitt’s landlord, Benny Ruiz. According to the brother, Ruiz and the victim quarreled over a hole in the ceiling that Don Fluitt wanted repaired.
Dennis Fluitt’s suspicions grew after he found the landlord in Don Fluitt’s home just days after the murder, according to detectives.
“Benny claimed he was feeding the dog,” said Caplan. “Dennis claimed, ‘Well, I don’t know if he’s messing with the crime scene.’”
A.P.D. detectives also wondered if Don Fluitt fell victim to any of the houseless individuals he regularly served.
Terry White, Dennis Fluitt, and Benny Ruiz volunteered their fingerprints and DNA as police continued their investigation.
A "Discrepancy" in Terry White's Alibi
Det. Caplan looked into all three persons of interest, but suspicions rose when he found a “discrepancy” in Terry White’s alibi. A review of surveillance video from Terry White’s trucking job showed him arriving at the parking lot and, instead of taking a nap, getting out of his vehicle and entering the building.
“His story changed,” Caplan told Dateline: The Smoking Gun. “He didn’t pull into the parking lot, as originally expressed, he went around the corner to a dark area and fell asleep there, and then pulled into the parking lot.”
Terry White also added that he stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a new sweatshirt.
“It tells me that there was probably a lot of blood on him and that he needed something to wear when he went to work,” said the detective.
Twelve weeks after Don Fluitt’s murder, authorities believed they had enough to arrest Terry White. That was until his wife, Christine White — the mother of Don Fluitt’s daughter, Siena — reported her new husband missing.
Det. Caplan claimed Christine White became uncooperative with police. Authorities executed a search of the woman’s car in their continued search for Terry White, and there, Caplan said he found something “extraordinarily unusual” in the glove compartment: Terry White’s last will and testament.
Days later, deputies in Arizona, about 200 miles away from Albuquerque, found Terry White inside his vehicle. The suspect had connected a hose between the exhaust and the cab, which indicated to responding authorities that they found him amid a suicide attempt.
“Terry White is red-faced, probably from the carbon monoxide, looks a little bit drowsy and out of it,” Caplan said. “He’s arrested right then and there.”
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A Prison Informant Accuses Terry White of Don Fluitt's Murder
Suspicions on Terry White were further raised when the victim’s brother, Dennis Fluitt, received an online message from a woman claiming to be the girlfriend of Terry White’s jail cellmate, Rodrick “Rod” White (no relation).
The details Rod White later provided to homicide investigators proved invaluable. He said Terry White admitted to tripping the garage door and “ended up getting underneath the guy’s f-cking truck.”
Terry White allegedly confessed that he knew Don Fluitt regularly took smoke breaks in the garage and that he waited for him to come out before the planned attack. He said he used a tire thumper — regularly used by truckers — and “hit him so hard” that the club split “in three pieces,” Rod White said.
“He fought for his life,” Terry White reportedly told his cellmate.
Terry White allegedly confessed to using a steak knife he found inside the home to ensure Don Fluitt was dead. He said he’d had a plan B, deciding he’d take an axe from the garage wall to finish the job if all else failed, the cellmate stated.
An axe on the wall was a detail only an insider would have known.
Testing also determined that DNA found underneath Don Fluitt’s fingernails matched that of Terry White. Terry White reportedly knew leaving DNA evidence was possible because, according to Rod White, Don Fluitt injured his killer’s inner lip with his finger in the chaos of the violent attack.
The informant shared another piece of information with detectives: “[Terry White] told me several times, several occasions, that he did it for [Christine White]... That she’s the one that told him, ‘We’ve gotta do this now. You gotta do this for your family.’”
The informant said Terry White agreed to kill himself and tried to do so on three separate occasions so that his wife and Siena could benefit from his $250,000 life insurance policy. Christine White was reportedly disappointed when his final suicide attempt had been interrupted by his arrest.
A.P.D. investigators arrested Christine White on first-degree murder charges, but due to a lack of evidence, the charges were ultimately dismissed.
The Motive Behind Don Fluitt’s Murder
According to Rod White, Terry and Christine White referred to Don Fluitt as a “black cloud” who stood in the way concerning custody over Siena. When asked why he killed Don Fluitt, Terry White allegedly told his cellmate, “The motherf-cker just wouldn’t go away,” per the latter’s courtroom testimony.
Still, prosecutors faced challenges in the case against Terry White when so much depended on the testimony of an admitted methamphetamine addict with a criminal history. Ultimately, it rested on the suspect’s DNA found underneath the victim’s fingernails, sealing Terry White’s conviction for first-degree murder.
In August 2018, the defendant was sentenced to 42 years in prison.
Christine White was never charged in connection with Don Fluitt’s murder, but according to loved ones like the victim’s mother, Sharon, she should have been.
“The puppeteer is still pulling the strings,” said the grieving mother.
Christine White declined an interview with Dateline: The Smoking Gun, but in a letter to production, she stated she and Don Fluitt never disagreed on custody of the child. Rather, they didn’t see eye to eye on decisions about school and tuition.
She denied having any inside knowledge about Don Fluitt’s murder, though prosecutors said the investigation into the ex-wife is still open.
Watch all-new episodes of Dateline: The Smoking Gun, on Thursdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.
