These High School Sweethearts Were Murdered On Valentine’s Day, And Their Case Remains Unsolved Over 25 Years Later
Less than a year after the tragic Columbine High School mass shooting, the Littleton, Colorado, community was rocked for a second time.
Stephanie Hart-Grizzell and her boyfriend, Nick Kunselman, both Columbine High School students, were found shot to death inside a local Subway.
Stephanie, who was 16 years old, had met 15-year-old Nick back in middle school. They quickly became close friends, and following the Columbine shooting in April 1999, which took the lives of 12 classmates and one teacher, the pair grew extremely close.
According to Stephanie’s mother, Kelly Grizzell, the high school sweethearts leaned on each other and were a happy couple.
“Although they had just gone through the tragedy at the high school, they were coming through it so well, and they were so happy. We just really felt like that might be the last hard thing that we went through,” Kelly recalled.
Yet, on Valentine’s Day in 2000, the teens were found murdered, and their killer still hasn’t been caught over 25 years later.
The evening before, February 13, 2000, Stephanie snuck out of her house and drove to the Subway sandwich shop where Nick worked, located only a few blocks away from Columbine High School. She planned to wait for Nick to finish his shift.
“The last thing I said to her was, ‘Goodnight. I love you.’ I’ll never forget that,” Kelly shared.
Later, at about 1:00 a.m. on February 14, 2000, another Subway employee drove past the restaurant and realized the lights had been left on. The employee went inside, and behind the shop’s counter, they found Stephanie and Nick shot dead.
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The employee also reportedly saw a white man with blonde hair slipping out the back door. He was described as being between 16 and 20 years old, standing about five feet and seven or eight inches tall, and weighing 150 to 170 pounds. He was wearing a black coat with red lining or a red shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a black baseball cap.
News of the teens’ murder quickly made headlines, and while watching TV coverage the following morning, Kelly noticed her daughter’s car was in the Subway parking lot. Soon afterward, authorities arrived at her home.
“It was just awful. I can remember somebody saying, ‘Is this the mother?’ and you can’t imagine; you’re hoping there’s somebody standing behind you, or that they’re not really looking at you, or that you’re dreaming,” Kelly detailed.
At first, she thought the case would be solved quickly, but while the description of the suspect brought in plenty of tips and even some confessions, only a few leads were determined to be credible, and the confessions wound up being false.
Moreover, despite Stephanie and Nick’s case gaining nationwide attention, the tips eventually dried up. There were some suspicions of a possible drug ring operating out of the Subway location, yet after pursuing this lead, investigators uncovered no new evidence.
DNA proved to be a dead end, too. There was little DNA evidence at the crime scene, and despite being tested, it hasn’t pushed the case forward.
“This case has been submitted to DNA and to the lab multiple times… to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. We’ve done fingerprints, all the standard stuff that we do investigating a crime, and we’ve got nothing off those,” explained Detective Elias Alberti of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Two and a half decades later, it’s unknown who took the lives of Stephanie and Nick. She is remembered as a “spiritual” young woman who wanted to live as an artist, while Nick was sporty and played guitar. Each year, their families gather where Stephanie and Nick are buried together on Valentine’s Day.
“We bring flowers, and our biggest thing is throwing frisbees off the side of the mountain,” Kelly said.
In February 2024, authorities announced an increased reward amount of $60,000 for information. Anyone with information is urged to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at (720) 913-7867.
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