HENDERSON, NV — On November 8, 2010, a jogger on a roadside near Las Vegas stumbled across the dead body of Josh Dufort — beaten, strangled, and ditched in the dirt.
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The 23-year-old Dansville, Michigan, native had relocated to Vegas in order to pursue his dream of acting. Once there, Dufort discovered a second passion — boxing — and he threw himself into both endeavors with the joy, ambitions, and fearlessness of youth.
The gregarious and easy-going Dufort quickly developed a full life in Las Vegas. He embarked on a romance with local beauty Shannon Lutz. In acting class, Dufort developed a tight friendship with Nikolaos Gaitanos, a fellow student.
At the boxing gym, Dufort fell in fast with Don Juan Futrell, a former light welter-weight champion who took Josh under his wing and offered him guidance both in and out of the ring. Some observers, however, have voiced suspicions that Futrell may have been something far more concerning than just a large-hearted mentor.
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On November 7, Josh Dufort was alive and vibrant. He told Shannon Lutz he planned to jog to Don Juan Futrell’s gated community home for a workout and to discuss the fighter’s business idea about selling T-shirts on the Vegas strip.
Dufort never got there. In the last hours of his life, a panicked Dufort called his girlfriend three times from a roadside trail. As Lutz herself recalls:
“There’s three messages from Josh. And he said ‘These guys are here, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to get into the gate, they’re following me.’ He’s on the corner of Eastern and Pecos Ridge, and that he’s just frantic. And he’s like ‘You need to come get me right now, these guys are following me,’ and he repeats it several times and the phone cuts out.”
From there, one or more assailants attacked Dufort and murdered him. Futrell told police he had no idea who could have done it.
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Shortly after shrugging for the cops, Futrell promptly got in touch with whomever he needed to in order to cash in the two life insurance policies he’d taken out on Dufort. No one else seemed to know about these policies including, some of those close to the case say, Josh Dufort himself. Regardless, now that Dufort was dead, Don Juan Futrell stood to collect $1.75 million.
Getting that cash proved daunting, though. Both companies denied Futrell’s claims and sued him, pointing out the suspicious nature of Dufort’s demise. But the boxer countersued, and thereby brought to light bizarre new details in a tragedy that already seemed strange enough.
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First off, Futrell had apparently been paying for Dufort’s health insurance. That came as a surprise to everyone. More stunningly, on the life insurance paperwork, Dufort and Futrell are listed as “domestic partners.” Despite what that term usually implies, everyone close to Dufort maintains that the two men were never involved beyond just friendship.
A deposition regarding the claim quotes an exchange between an attorney and Futrell on this topic. It reads:
“Attorney: If I say the words ‘domestic partner,’ what does that mean to you?
Futrell: ‘Domestic partner’ means like married or something. I don’t know.
Attorney: Do you think domestic partners could be gay or straight?
Futrell: I think if you live together, it’s domestic.”
That may or may not be true. One indisputable fact, according to Shannon Lutz, is that Dufort and Futrell never lived together.
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An even bolder point of contention: Futrell wrote on the insurance papers that, in the previous year, Dufort’s T-shirt enterprise earned the young actor a cool $180,000. By any standard, it’s a stretch to imagine any Vegas strip sidewalk peddler making that kind of money. In Dufort’s case, friends say it’s impossible. As Isaac Rhino, another pal, put it:
“For him to make $180,000, that would change his zip code.”
On top of Futrell producing no paperwork to prove the existence of a T-shirt business, friends say Dufort lived modestly in a tiny apartment — by himself. He also hustled to make cash, taking bar jobs and one-off gigs whenever he could.
Acting coach Sharry Flaherty added, “The kid had one pair of jeans and maybe three shirts.”
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So how did Josh Dufort’s signature end up on the life insurance policies? Dufort did submit to the necessary medical exams, and attorneys for the Dufort family have theorized — but no one has established — that he perhaps misunderstood, thinking that it was all part of acquiring health insurance.
Still, police to date have filed no charges against Don Juan Futrell, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. Understandably, Futrell refuses to talk to the press.
Authorities ask anyone with information about Joshua Dufort’s murder to call Henderson Police at (702) 267-4750 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555.
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Las Vegas Sun
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Unresolved Mysteries
Crime Watch Daily
Leagle
Main photo: Josh Dufort/YouTube video [screenshot]
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