Dateline: On a Dark, Deserted Highway aired on NBC in March 2023. The episode revisited Lloyd Barrus’ crimes, a religious man turned into a monster who killed a County Sheriff’s Deputy with his son in 2017.
The official synopsis for the episode reads as follows:
A deadly high-speed chase in Montana leads “Dateline” on a search through 50 years of history to unravel the mystery of how one man turned into a monster and committed one of the state’s most notorious crimes.
The episode revisits how Lloyd Barrus, a deeply religious man from Idaho, whose early life was spent as a Mormon missionary, became a wanted criminal. After Barrus became deeply suspicious of the government and fell into the wrong company, his life took a turn for the worse. This change transformed an ordinary construction worker into a monster, who killed an innocent Deputy, abused his two wives and destroyed the lives of his two sons.
More on this in our story.
Dateline: An account of Lloyd Barrus’ early life
Dateline: On a Dark, Deserted Highway revisited the disturbing case of Lloyd Barrus, a religious boy from Idaho who spent his early life with dignity and honor. Barrus’ work as an adult Mormon missionary led to a chance meeting with Tracy, a fellow Mormon who was attracted to his way of life and the couple soon got married and had two sons, Marshall and Jeffrey. However, things took a turn in Lloyd Barrus and Tracy’s married life once he started attending secretive meetings, grew suspicious of the government and started abusing his wife. When the abuse escalated, Tracy left Lloyd Barrus with her two sons. When Tracy was away on a weekend, Barrus kidnapped his two sons and took them to Washington where he met his second wife Debra Del Bosque.
As Dateline revealed, Lloyd Barrus started afresh with Debra and his kids but his second marriage suffered the same plight. Debra complained that Lloyd Barrus remained occupied with secret meetings deemed as ‘CIA Missions’ and she eventually left him with her three children, with the help of a friend.
This was a turning point in Lloyd Barrus’ life as he started indoctrinating his sons, Marshall and Jeffrey, teaching them how to use weapons and preparing them for an inevitable ‘war with the US Government’. In March 2000, after Barrus escaped a DUI charge with his son, Jeffrey, he was caught by the authorities for shooting at a police officer during a high-speed chase and sentenced to 15 years in prison. As revealed on Dateline, Barrus was diagnosed with severe paranoid personality disorder and released after 13 years.
Dateline: Exploring Lloyd Barrus’ 2017 crime
Lloyd Barrus was given a second chance at life but he fell into his old ways and began posting anti-government conspiracies on social media. He also reconnected with his son Marshall, who had earned his own criminal record and the two men left for the white Suburban, which resulted in the 2017 tragedy.
As shown on Dateline, Broadwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Mason Moore, a married father of three, was found dead in his car (with several gunshot wounds) in May 2017. The surveillance footage revealed Marshall and Lloyd Barrus driving in the same direction as Moore, initiating a high-speed chase with him. After Barrus’ car went “near 100 miles an hour,” Moore was forced to stop the pair until he was hit with sudden gunshots that claimed his life.
Butte-Silver Bow police officer Rich O’Brien and other officers caught up with the pair around 50 miles down the road when their vehicle finally came to a halt. Marshall was killed on the scene after he opened fire on the officers and Lloyd Barrus was taken into immediate custody and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
You can stream Dateline: On a Dark, Deserted Highway on Peacock.
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Edited by Aashna