Dean Templeton probably wasn’t going to win the 1976 United States presidential election as a write-in candidate. From what is documented about him, he was more of a penniless drifter than a politician.
However, it is certain he never had the opportunity to find out because he was murdered and left in a ditch next to Thorpe Prairie Road, just a few miles outside of Ellensburg.
On March 4, 1975, his decomposing body was found with two .22 caliber gunshot wounds to the head. This happened several weeks after he was last seen leaving his job at the Sunset Café in Cle Elum, one of the many odd jobs he had picked up along his campaign route.
46 years later, his case remains an open investigation with no leads—a cold case.
Full article at the CWU Observer: Link
