Speaker 1: Warning.
Speaker 2: This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as
Speaker 2: talk of sexual assault. Please listen with discretion. All witnesses, suspects,
Speaker 2: and purses of interest are considered innocent until proven guilty
Speaker 2: in a.
Speaker 1: Court of law.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk
Speaker 2: right now on true crime, and then together we're going
Speaker 2: to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys,
Speaker 2: welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie.
Speaker 2: We are going to get into a little right now
Speaker 2: in true crime, and then we're going to get into
Speaker 2: this week's case. So very More feu'sed trial has officially
Speaker 2: been scheduled to begin on July nineteenth of twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 2: and they are expecting it to last for at least
Speaker 2: six weeks. Now, if you remember, he was originally going
Speaker 2: to be going to trial this year, but they have
Speaker 2: since postponed it and it will officially be happening in
Speaker 2: the summer of next year. So we are about a
Speaker 2: year away from very going to trial. So let's talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about this case out of Ohio. I
Speaker 2: kind of alluded to it last week that I wanted
Speaker 2: to talk about it, but I wanted to get a
Speaker 2: little bit more backstory and familiarize myself with it a
Speaker 2: little bit. But honestly, it seems like every single day
Speaker 2: there's been new things coming out and it's just ever evolving.
Speaker 2: There is a lot going on. So we are just
Speaker 2: going to start with what we know. So this took
Speaker 2: place in Venton County, Ohio, and law enforcement responded to
Speaker 2: this home in response to something not related and when
Speaker 2: they went into the home, they found four people and
Speaker 2: sixteen children living in an absolute hot mess, disaster of
Speaker 2: a home and squalor basically. So the people who were arrested,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go through who they are and their relation.
Speaker 2: So Gary Sider Senior, he is seventy three years old.
Speaker 2: He is married to Christina Siders, who is sixty seven.
Speaker 2: They have a son, Gary Siders the second. He is
Speaker 2: thirty six, and Elizabeth Siders is his wife and she
Speaker 2: is thirty three. So they have all been arrested and
Speaker 2: charged with second degree felony child endangerment, and there are
Speaker 2: other charges that have been reported to be pending. Possibly
Speaker 2: there could be more charges coming. So these sixteen kids
Speaker 2: were in a twelve x twelve room that was absolutely disgusting,
Speaker 2: full of human waste. Basically, they were living in their
Speaker 2: own filth, and it seems that they have been living
Speaker 2: in that room for a long time. The kids range
Speaker 2: in age from one and a half years old to
Speaker 2: eighteen years old, and it is believed that Elizabeth gave
Speaker 2: birth to all of these children, including a couple of
Speaker 2: twins who were born conjoined and passed away shortly thereafter.
Speaker 2: All of the children, of course, were removed from the
Speaker 2: home and were being treated in the hospital. Two of
Speaker 2: the children had to be airlifted to a hospital for
Speaker 2: immediate medical attention. They said some of these kids were
Speaker 2: literal days away from not being alive if they didn't
Speaker 2: get the medical intervention they needed. So this was a
Speaker 2: very dire situation. These kids were obviously being abused, they
Speaker 2: were living in their own filth, and there was just
Speaker 2: a lot going on inside of this home that nobody
Speaker 2: knew about. They are also running paternity tests on all
Speaker 2: of the children because there is a lot of rumor
Speaker 2: and speculation that Gary Sider Senior might have fathered some
Speaker 2: of these children. That is just kind of what is
Speaker 2: going around right now. But that is definitely going to
Speaker 2: be part of this ongoing investigation because there is a
Speaker 2: lot going on here. So Gary the second was eighteen
Speaker 2: years old when he married fifteen year old Elizabeth. Now
Speaker 2: she was pregnant at the time with this child who
Speaker 2: is now eighteen years old. However, from what I have heard,
Speaker 2: Gary was not the father of this child, but he
Speaker 2: married her when she was fifteen years old, and it
Speaker 2: truly does seem that ever since she had this first baby,
Speaker 2: that she has been pregnant very very frequently and often
Speaker 2: and living in not.
Speaker 1: So great conditions.
Speaker 2: So there's also been a lot of again rumor and
Speaker 2: speculation online due to one of the mugshot photos of Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: you can see a mark on her arm that almost
Speaker 2: looks like a mark that is from like a restraint
Speaker 2: or something. So there's a lot of people that are
Speaker 2: saying that she very well could be a victim as well,
Speaker 2: and was obviously very young when she was brought into
Speaker 2: this family, and she has been having baby after baby
Speaker 2: after baby four years and years and years, and there
Speaker 2: are a lot of people who are looking at her.
Speaker 1: As a victim as well.
Speaker 2: Now, elizabeth attorney has come out and said that he
Speaker 2: does not believe that Elizabeth is evil and that he
Speaker 2: doesn't see any malice in Elizabeth. And it's also been
Speaker 2: said that Elizabeth, after she was arrested, all she really
Speaker 2: wanted to know is if her kids were okay and
Speaker 2: when she was going to be able to see them.
Speaker 2: So it's entirely possible that this girl was groomed, abused,
Speaker 2: and in this situation that she just couldn't get out of,
Speaker 2: and unfortunately it turned into what it's turned into. The
Speaker 2: attorney for Elizabeth also said that Elizabeth hasn't said herself
Speaker 2: that she is a victim. But again, it is really
Speaker 2: early in the investigation, and as law enforcement and investigators
Speaker 2: are looking into everything, I am sure things are going
Speaker 2: to be slowly trickling out and things are going to
Speaker 2: becoming a lot more clear. But the adults in this
Speaker 2: family weren't Hermit's at all. They would go out in
Speaker 2: the community, they would interact, they would go get food
Speaker 2: from a local food bank, they would go to the
Speaker 2: Dollar General, and one of the employees at the Dollar
Speaker 2: General interacted with them on a pretty regular basis, and
Speaker 2: she said that when they would come in, you could
Speaker 2: always tell when they were in the store because they.
Speaker 1: Did have a odor to them.
Speaker 2: Meaning, I'm sure that these people aren't the most hygienic
Speaker 2: humans on earth. They were living indeplorable, disgusting conditions, living
Speaker 2: literally in their own waste. And I don't want to
Speaker 2: be mean, but you can look at the pictures of
Speaker 2: them and just tell that they probably aren't the cleanest,
Speaker 2: most hygienic humans. And I can't even imagine what these
Speaker 2: poor children were living in if they had that odor
Speaker 2: to them, what the children must have been living in,
Speaker 2: because the conditions for the children seemed like they were
Speaker 2: worse than the conditions for the adults. Now, in the
Speaker 2: last twenty four or forty eight hours, there was some
Speaker 2: type of medical episode that Gary Senior had and he
Speaker 2: is actually in the hospital right now and has been
Speaker 2: temporarily released from jail due to this ongoing issue with
Speaker 2: his health. I think he fell, and there's other ongoing
Speaker 2: issues as well with him medically, and also within the
Speaker 2: last day, Elizabeth has asked that her bond be modified.
Speaker 2: It was set for a three hundred thousand dollars cash bond,
Speaker 2: and she just wants to be reunited with her children,
Speaker 2: so she has asked that that be modified, and that
Speaker 2: is still at the moment up in the air. I
Speaker 2: definitely think that this case is going to be very
Speaker 2: ever evolving. There has already been so much that has
Speaker 2: come out. There are other family members who have also
Speaker 2: spoken out. There's a lot going on in this one.
Speaker 2: It is really hard to keep up with. I am
Speaker 2: doing my best. I wanted to give just kind of
Speaker 2: a broad overview on it, and then as things continue
Speaker 2: to come out, I'll be sure to give updates. If
Speaker 2: anything major happens, I will be sure to let you know.
Speaker 2: But all I know is that I'm so grateful that
Speaker 2: the kids are out of that environment and out of
Speaker 2: that situation. I know the eighteen year old child that
Speaker 2: Elizabeth had is very delayed. She has very limited speech,
Speaker 2: and it sounds like some of the other children as well. Also,
Speaker 2: none of these children were in school, so their communication
Speaker 2: vocabulary is also very very limited. So I'll be staying
Speaker 2: on top of it, trying to keep you guys updated
Speaker 2: as much as I can with this. I follow Abby
Speaker 2: Blabby on Instagram, Facebook, and she has been staying on
Speaker 2: top of things and doing updates as they are coming in.
Speaker 2: So if you want in depth updates and reporting, be
Speaker 2: sure to go and follow her. That is where I'm
Speaker 2: getting all of my information right now on everything that
Speaker 2: is breaking in the Sider's case. If there is any more,
Speaker 2: I will be sure to keep you guys updated.
Speaker 1: And that is for right now in true crime.
Speaker 2: I did want to spend some time on that story,
Speaker 2: so I wanted to make that the bulk of right
Speaker 2: now in true crime. And we are going to go
Speaker 2: ahead and get into this week's episode. Alrighty, guys, Today
Speaker 2: we are jumping into a brand new case. In today's episode,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be telling you about the nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: homicides of two elderly women who were living at a
Speaker 2: nursing home in Montana. Both of our victims were elderly
Speaker 2: and in their eighties, and both of them were suffering
Speaker 2: from Alzheimer's. They were also killed about two months apart.
Speaker 2: So initially after the first death, nursing home officials just
Speaker 2: thought that the cause of death was natural causes due
Speaker 2: to the elderly age of the victim. But two months later,
Speaker 2: when a resident was kidnapped from her room at the
Speaker 2: nursing home and killed, they quickly realized that there might
Speaker 2: be something more at play. I was personally not familiar
Speaker 2: with this case. But it's been back in the news
Speaker 2: recently as they have officially named a suspect in the
Speaker 2: case and he has been apprehended, finally, after all of
Speaker 2: these years. We're going to be getting into that in
Speaker 2: further detail as the episode goes, but first, as always,
Speaker 2: I want to spend some time telling you about the
Speaker 2: two victims in this case and a little bit about
Speaker 2: who they were before they had their lives stolen by
Speaker 2: this horrific monster. Let's get into it. Bertha Scott was
Speaker 2: born on March nineteenth of nineteen oh four and was
Speaker 2: raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She married a man named Charles
Speaker 2: Scott in nineteen twenty four, and together they had six children. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: Charles passed away in nineteen sixty three. Bertha very much
Speaker 2: enjoyed gardening, traveling flowers, houseplants, needle point, and painting. She
Speaker 2: had sadly lost four of her six children and had
Speaker 2: only moved to Missoula, Montana, in nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: To be closer to her daughter who lived there.
Speaker 2: She was unfortunately suffering from Alzheimer's and had recently moved
Speaker 2: into a nursing home called Riverside Healthcare Center that was
Speaker 2: located at thirteen oh one East Broadway Street in Missoula, Montana.
Speaker 2: She was eighty six years old at the time of
Speaker 2: her death. In the early morning hours of May second
Speaker 2: of nineteen ninety Bertha was found deceased in her bed.
Speaker 2: Back in the nineties, it was very normal for Alzheimer's
Speaker 2: patients or dementia patients to be restrained due to their
Speaker 2: need to wander at night, so Bertha was found deceased
Speaker 2: and restrained in her bed. It was assumed that Bertha
Speaker 2: had passed from natural causes due to some ongoing heart
Speaker 2: issues that Bertha had. Upon the discovery of Bertha, there
Speaker 2: was a nurse that noted that she had some odd
Speaker 2: coloring on her neck, but nothing else seemed out of
Speaker 2: the ordinary. The death of Bertha was not marked as suspicious,
Speaker 2: and her family buried her without an autopsy, assuming natural causes.
Speaker 2: Nothing suspicious surrounded the time of Bertha's death, except there
Speaker 2: was a random window that had been left open in
Speaker 2: the therapy room. However, at the time, it didn't really
Speaker 2: seem like it had anything to do with Bertha's death,
Speaker 2: and for me, this makes sense. It seems obviously Bertha
Speaker 2: was elderly. She had some ongoing health issues, and it
Speaker 2: did seem.
Speaker 1: That her death was just related to natural causes.
Speaker 2: She was in her eighties, she, like I said, had
Speaker 2: a lot of medical issues going on, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: it wasn't unusual for residents to pass away at the
Speaker 2: nursing home, so this was in their eyes, just another
Speaker 2: unfortunate death, and a Bertha's family, i'm sure also just
Speaker 2: assumed that she had passed from natural causes. Didn't really
Speaker 2: ask many questions because she had been living with some illnesses,
Speaker 2: so it didn't really stand out as anything that was
Speaker 2: suspicious in any means. Moving on to our next victim,
Speaker 2: Nancy Zema Lagerquist. She was born on December thirteenth of
Speaker 2: nineteen oh two in Hamilton, Montana. She never married nor
Speaker 2: had children. She would eventually move to Missoula, Montana for work,
Speaker 2: where she worked as an executive secretary at the Missoula
Speaker 2: Mercantile Company and also the Montana Mercantile Company until her retirement.
Speaker 2: She was survived by her sister, two nieces, and three nephews.
Speaker 2: She was eighty seven years old when her life was
Speaker 2: taken at the Riverside Healthcare Center. She had moved in
Speaker 2: there in December of nineteen eighty eight, and she did
Speaker 2: have Alzheimer's and she was wheelchair bound, which is an
Speaker 2: important facet of this story. She very much needed the
Speaker 2: staff's to be able to get up out of bed
Speaker 2: and get into her wheelchair. This is not something she
Speaker 2: could independently do. So it's July first of nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: and this is just two months from the time.
Speaker 1: That Bertha had passed away.
Speaker 2: In the care center, there were five people working the
Speaker 2: night shift. That night, the evening of July first, the
Speaker 2: employees did hourly rounding on the patients and they had
Speaker 2: gone into check on her around three thirty am, and
Speaker 2: all was normal and calm. Nothing stood out, nothing out
Speaker 2: of the ordinary. The facility had alarms on all of
Speaker 2: the doors, so that way, if anyone exited, the doors
Speaker 2: would make a sound, which is very common in a
Speaker 2: facility that houses patients that have any type of memory deficits,
Speaker 2: because often they will wander and they want to make
Speaker 2: sure that they are kept safe and they don't get
Speaker 2: outside of the facility. Around four thirty am, they went
Speaker 2: to make their hourly checks and that is when they
Speaker 2: noticed that Nancy was missing from her room. So of
Speaker 2: course they all began to search the facility trying to
Speaker 2: find her. It was pretty clear that whatever happened to Nancy,
Speaker 2: it wasn't on her own accord, because she couldn't have
Speaker 2: gotten up and moved on her own. There's no way
Speaker 2: she would have been able to independently get herself out
Speaker 2: of bed and into her wheelchair and leave the facility.
Speaker 2: They ended up reporting her missing at four forty one am,
Speaker 2: so this was shortly after they discovered that she was missing.
Speaker 2: They also noticed that the window screen to Nancy's room
Speaker 2: had in fact been cut, so this was obviously setting
Speaker 2: off alarm bells for the staff. Police came and they
Speaker 2: began to search the grounds that surrounded the nursing home. Now,
Speaker 2: this nursing home is set in a very very pretty
Speaker 2: area in Montana. It is surrounded by mountains. There is
Speaker 2: water behind the nursing home. It is really gorgeous views.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be posting a picture of it on
Speaker 2: my Instagram and Facebook pages. In the carousel that's going
Speaker 2: to be associated with this episode, so please check that out.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement also ended up calling in the fire department
Speaker 2: to help search the Clark Fork River that is the
Speaker 2: river that runs behind the nursing home. Nancy's room at
Speaker 2: the nursing home did indeed face the river. Unfortunately, in
Speaker 2: their search, at six point thirty am, they found the
Speaker 2: body of Nancy in the river. She was still dressed
Speaker 2: in her night clothes, but the adult brief that she
Speaker 2: was wearing was missing, and this discovery made them realize
Speaker 2: that this was no accident. Nancy had been murdered. Her
Speaker 2: death is described as ritualistic, and she had been sexually
Speaker 2: assaulted with an object that had also caused various injuries
Speaker 2: to her. This was a horrific, horrific death. Authorities searched
Speaker 2: the area where Nancy was found and they couldn't find
Speaker 2: a murder weapon, but they also couldn't find the adult
Speaker 2: brief that Nancy had been wearing, and they had put
Speaker 2: out kind of a bulletin to ask people if they
Speaker 2: found this brief to please contact them because they believed
Speaker 2: that this brief could hold potential evidence. That brief was
Speaker 2: never in fact found, it likely got washed away in
Speaker 2: the water. Law enforcement did then search Nancy's room and
Speaker 2: they took her bed sheets as evidence because they knew
Speaker 2: that whoever did this had to have entered Nancy's room,
Speaker 2: come into the nursing home and taken her from her bed,
Speaker 2: so there could be some physical evidence left over on
Speaker 2: her bed sheets. Police began their line of questioning with
Speaker 2: the people closest to the case, which, unfortunately, in this case,
Speaker 2: was the people that worked at the nursing home, and
Speaker 2: they also questioned some of the residents of the nursing
Speaker 2: home as well. Now, there were several residents that were
Speaker 2: called seeing a man lurking around the nursing home at night,
Speaker 2: but this alleged person wasn't somebody that staff had ever seen,
Speaker 2: so they weren't able to officially say if this was
Speaker 2: a real person or not. Now, of course, some of
Speaker 2: the residents of the nursing home did have memory deficits,
Speaker 2: and a lot of the times when you're questioning people
Speaker 2: about something, sometimes they see things that might not necessarily
Speaker 2: be there, so the validity of what they're saying is
Speaker 2: of course a little skewed. And due to the fact
Speaker 2: that there wasn't any staff that saw this person, they
Speaker 2: weren't really sure if this was a true story or not,
Speaker 2: or if it was just something that maybe some of
Speaker 2: the residents had thought that they had saw and due
Speaker 2: to Nancy being taken from her room and subsequently murdered.
Speaker 2: They assumed, oh, I saw this person, it must be
Speaker 2: the person that killed Nancy. Now, there was a staff
Speaker 2: member who reported that he saw a man in the
Speaker 2: parking lot around four am, which was about the time
Speaker 2: before they realized that Nancy was missing. Put a pin
Speaker 2: in that for a minute, because we are going to
Speaker 2: come back to that statement. So law enforcement is now
Speaker 2: a couple of days into their investigation and they don't
Speaker 2: have any suspects that they have at their forefront. But
Speaker 2: law enforcement does announce that they are interested in talking
Speaker 2: to a man that was seen in the parking lot
Speaker 2: of the Missoula Athletic Club, which was directly next door
Speaker 2: to the nursing home back in nineteen ninety and that
Speaker 2: man was confirmed to have been seen around four am.
Speaker 2: And although it's not confus I do believe that this
Speaker 2: is the same man that the worker had reported seeing
Speaker 2: in the parking lot around four am. But this man
Speaker 2: wasn't in the nursing home parking lot. He was in
Speaker 2: the fitness center that is directly next door to the
Speaker 2: nursing home. I think regardless, anybody that was around the
Speaker 2: nursing home. Seen kind of loitering or lurking around four
Speaker 2: am is somebody that law enforcement would want to talk to.
Speaker 2: So this man is described as a white man, aged
Speaker 2: forty and weighed about one hundred and eighty to two
Speaker 2: hundred pounds. He had a light brown hair that was
Speaker 2: cut above his ears and a mustache and brown rimmed glasses.
Speaker 2: He was reported to be wearing a white and brown
Speaker 2: striped T shirt and had tan shorts on and white
Speaker 2: top tennis shoes. Investigators, of course, tried to make sure
Speaker 2: that the public realizes that this person is not a suspect.
Speaker 2: They are not a person of interest. It is just
Speaker 2: somebody that they want to talk to to see if
Speaker 2: this man saw or heard anything, because if this person
Speaker 2: was around when Nancy was kidnapped, he might hold all
Speaker 2: of the clues for what happened that night. He might
Speaker 2: have saw something he didn't even realize that he's at
Speaker 2: saw or again, this could be the person that committed
Speaker 2: the crime because he is loitering in the parking lot
Speaker 2: at four am for.
Speaker 1: An unknown reason.
Speaker 2: At this point in time, police also disclosed to the
Speaker 2: public that they have begun the first stages of running
Speaker 2: forensics on some of the evidence that they have collected.
Speaker 2: But please remember it was nineteen ninety and things were
Speaker 2: a heck of a lot different back then when it
Speaker 2: came to forensics and crime scene analysis.
Speaker 1: So law enforcement is continuing.
Speaker 2: To follow up on leads, questioning people that they feel
Speaker 2: like they need to question, and they are unfortunately coming
Speaker 2: up empty handed every single time. Nancy's body is ultimately
Speaker 2: cremated and Nancy opted out of having a service, So
Speaker 2: investigators at this point are at a loss.
Speaker 1: They have no idea who did this to Nancy or why.
Speaker 2: They initially had looked into an employee that worked at
Speaker 2: the nursing home, but that individual was ultimately cleared. So
Speaker 2: at this point we are well into August of nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety and they still don't have any leads. So investigators
Speaker 2: decide to ask the employees of the nursing home if
Speaker 2: there had been any other suspicious deaths that had occurred
Speaker 2: at the nursing home in the recent months. A nurse
Speaker 2: brought up Bertha Scott and her death. The nurse disclosed
Speaker 2: that it was assumed that she had passed away from
Speaker 2: natural causes, but the nurse brought up that she had
Speaker 2: noticed some unusual coloring around her neck, and they also
Speaker 2: brought up the fact that the window in the therapy
Speaker 2: room had been noticed to be open and that kind
Speaker 2: of coincided with Bertha's death. So investigators made the decision
Speaker 2: to exhume birth of Scott's body on August sixteenth of
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety, so this was about six weeks after Nancy's death.
Speaker 2: They're still trying to investigate and figure out what exactly happened.
Speaker 2: So they exhume Birtha's body and they take it to
Speaker 2: the State Crime Lab in Missoula and they go and
Speaker 2: perform an autopsy. Investigators at this point and didn't think
Speaker 2: that Bertha's death was going to be related, but they
Speaker 2: wanted to just kind of mark it off as something
Speaker 2: that they looked into and they investigated, but they very
Speaker 2: much wanted to try and solve Nancy's murder, and they
Speaker 2: figured this might rule at least that connection out. But
Speaker 2: to their surprise, Bertha's autopsy showed that her death was
Speaker 2: in fact not due to natural causes. It was in
Speaker 2: fact a murder. Her death was reclass as a homicide.
Speaker 2: They determined that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Speaker 2: It was assumed that she was manually strangled while lying
Speaker 2: face up in her bed, still in her restraints. Police
Speaker 2: were able to recover DNA from her body and they
Speaker 2: sent it off for forensic testing to Quantico, Virginia, where
Speaker 2: the FBI crime Lab was located. But obviously, with this
Speaker 2: being the second homicide confirmed, everybody that had family at
Speaker 2: the nursing home and the employees were all very much
Speaker 2: on edge because it seemed like somebody was targeting the
Speaker 2: residence of this nursing home, which is just terrible. I
Speaker 2: do not understand a rationale behind doing something like this.
Speaker 2: On August twentieth of nineteen ninety, there was a call
Speaker 2: that came into nine one one and the staff was
Speaker 2: in a panic because they found a window that looked
Speaker 2: like it had been tampered with, and they were worried
Speaker 2: that this was going to happen all over again, and
Speaker 2: there was no way that the staff that worked at
Speaker 2: this nursing home could monitor every single resident and every
Speaker 2: single window and door twenty four to seven. Notoriously, nursing home,
Speaker 2: any type of care facilities like that are going to be,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, understaffed, and there's no way that. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: they could take on this job of making sure every
Speaker 2: single one of the residents was safe twenty four to seven,
Speaker 2: it's just impossible. So them dealing with what they were
Speaker 2: dealing with at this point in time, two people having
Speaker 2: lost their lives at the hands of some type of monster,
Speaker 2: and having scares of other windows in the facility being
Speaker 2: tampered with, I'm sure they were terrified that this was
Speaker 2: going to keep happening. They also noted that the week
Speaker 2: before for this nine to one one call came in
Speaker 2: that a windows screen at the facility had been removed.
Speaker 1: So obviously there was.
Speaker 2: Something going on at this facility where somebody was continuously
Speaker 2: tampering with the windows of this facility for one reason
Speaker 2: or another. And investigators were also at a loss because
Speaker 2: they didn't know if this was somebody from the outside
Speaker 2: that was tampering with the windows, or if this was
Speaker 2: potentially an inside job and it was somebody from the
Speaker 2: inside that was tampering with the windows. On August twenty
Speaker 2: first of nineteen ninety, law enforcement offered a five thousand
Speaker 2: dollars reward for any information leading to the arrest of
Speaker 2: Bertha and Nancy's killer. At this point in time, they
Speaker 2: very much did believe that Bertha and Nancy had been
Speaker 2: killed by the same person. Then, on April thirtieth of
Speaker 2: the next year, so nineteen ninety one, they finally got
Speaker 2: the DNA forensics back, but everything unfortunately came.
Speaker 1: Back in conclusive.
Speaker 2: They weren't really able to pull any of the DNA
Speaker 2: profile from the evidence on Bertha's body except for Bertha's
Speaker 2: DNA itself. The technology, of course, was not very advanced
Speaker 2: back then, so they were not able to separate the
Speaker 2: DNA into two separate DNA profiles.
Speaker 1: They were only.
Speaker 2: Able to obtain Bertha's DNA profile. And this just goes
Speaker 2: to show you how much our DNA technology has advanced,
Speaker 2: because if this happened today, it would be no problem.
Speaker 2: It also probably wouldn't take over a year for that
Speaker 2: DNA to have come back. This took a year a
Speaker 2: year's time for the DNA that they extracted from Bertha
Speaker 2: to come back, and in that they came up again
Speaker 2: empty handed. Investigators continued to be super baffled by this
Speaker 2: case because it just didn't make sense that somebody was
Speaker 2: targeting elderly residents of a nursing home. In the second homicide,
Speaker 2: they actually went as far as to remove the resident
Speaker 2: from the nursing home and dispose of them in the
Speaker 2: river behind the nursing home.
Speaker 1: And that is a huge.
Speaker 2: Undertaking to do something like that because Nancy was completely
Speaker 2: dependent on others for all of her mobility, so she
Speaker 2: couldn't have willingly walked or traveled on her own. So
Speaker 2: the person that did this probably struggled a lot getting
Speaker 2: her out of bed and then carrying her to the river.
Speaker 2: So law enforcement knew that they were working with somebody
Speaker 2: who was very skilled and very calculated and knew what
Speaker 2: they were doing. So as of very recently, that's where
Speaker 2: this case stood. There was no new information pretty much
Speaker 2: since nineteen ninety since these crimes occurred, and there was
Speaker 2: little to no movement over the years as far as
Speaker 2: any possible or potential suspects in this case. And luckily
Speaker 2: that we know of, there were no more victims of
Speaker 2: this mysterious assailant at this nursing home. There were no
Speaker 2: more lives that were taken at least in horrible circumstances
Speaker 2: at this nursing home. So just a few weeks ago,
Speaker 2: in early June, it was announced that they had made
Speaker 2: an arrest in the deaths of Nancy and Bertha. They
Speaker 2: announced that sixty nine year old Nikki Dean Gardner had
Speaker 2: been arrested in connection with the deaths of Nancy and Bertha.
Speaker 2: So within the past year, starting in two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: they had been kind of working behind the scenes. The
Speaker 2: Montana State Crime Lab and Abode Technology conducted new DNA
Speaker 2: testing of evidence that was originally collected in nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: from both Bertha and Nancy's crime scenes, and this is
Speaker 2: how they were able to connect this individual, Nikki, to
Speaker 2: both of the crimes. He has no personal connection to
Speaker 2: either victims, and honestly, my first initial thought when I
Speaker 2: first heard the story was it was obviously probably random.
Speaker 2: Whoever this person was is probably just a creepy sexual
Speaker 2: predator and wanted easy targets, and that's why he targeted
Speaker 2: two people that were very vulnerable. They were elderly, they
Speaker 2: had cognitive deficits due to their Alzheimer's and he was
Speaker 2: unfortunately able to get away with it for a really,
Speaker 2: really long time, which is so infuriating. And I do
Speaker 2: think that he probably has more victims out there. I
Speaker 2: think it's more than just the two. That is just
Speaker 2: my personal opinion. So Nikki his name is spelled Nickie
Speaker 2: by the way, made his first court appearance on June eleventh,
Speaker 2: where he officially pled not guilty to the two homicides
Speaker 2: that he is now charged with. So let's dig into
Speaker 2: this Nikky guy a little bit. Given the fact that
Speaker 2: he is now sixty nine years of age, he was
Speaker 2: around thirty four years old at the time of the murders,
Speaker 2: and he lived east of Missoula, Montana. His criminal history
Speaker 2: includes burglary, several DUI offenses, any conviction for partner family
Speaker 2: member assault that required him to provide a DNA sample, which.
Speaker 1: Is exactly how he was caught so.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety one, which was a year after the murders,
Speaker 2: he was also involved in a domestic violence incident with
Speaker 2: his then wife and daughter where he brandished a pistol.
Speaker 2: He was also named in a sexual assault case involving
Speaker 2: a juvenile in nineteen ninety six, but charges in that
Speaker 2: case were never officially filed. So, like so many other
Speaker 2: cold cases that I cover that are eventually solved, we
Speaker 2: eventually have a suspect. The person that commits a crime
Speaker 2: like this is not some super great, outstanding citizen who
Speaker 2: has done no wrong and maybe made a mistake once
Speaker 2: or twice. These people who are named suspects in these
Speaker 2: cases always have bad things in their past, and it
Speaker 2: is a continuous pattern of making really really poor decisions
Speaker 2: and targeting other people continuously. For the most part, they
Speaker 2: unfortunately do continue to offend and reoffend until they get caught.
Speaker 2: And I will say it with my whole chest that
Speaker 2: I do believe that these two women are not his
Speaker 2: only elderly victims. I believe that this man didn't just
Speaker 2: do these two crimes and then he was a great
Speaker 2: human until he was caught at age sixty nine. I
Speaker 2: don't believe that to be true, and I assume that
Speaker 2: law enforcement is looking into other potential cases that have
Speaker 2: similar mos in Montana because it seems like this guy
Speaker 2: didn't just do this twice. Again, that is just my opinion.
Speaker 2: I also think it is so insane that if this
Speaker 2: man hadn't gone the route of taking Nancy out of
Speaker 2: her bed and taking her away from the nursing home
Speaker 2: and killing her in the manner in which he did,
Speaker 2: then nothing ever would have come up, probably about her
Speaker 2: death or about Bertha's death. They never would have questioned anything.
Speaker 2: If Nancy had her life taken in the nursing home,
Speaker 2: she hadn't been kidnapped from the nursing home, it would
Speaker 2: have looked probably like just another run of the mill
Speaker 2: natural causes death of an elderly woman. And that is
Speaker 2: really a scary thought because how many other deaths like
Speaker 2: that is he tied to and they were just assumed
Speaker 2: to be natural causes. So obviously this is one that
Speaker 2: is an ongoing case. He has just been arrested, he
Speaker 2: had his first court appearance where he pled not guilty,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to be really interested to see how
Speaker 2: this one develops. So I am going to stay on
Speaker 2: top of this one, and if there is anything new
Speaker 2: in this case, I will be sure to bring it
Speaker 2: to you. I know that they are in the process
Speaker 2: of building their case against this man, and I do
Speaker 2: fully believe that with the DNA evidence that they have
Speaker 2: linking this man to both victims Nancy and Bertha, that
Speaker 2: they are going to have a pretty easy time building
Speaker 2: their case against him. There's no way that coincidentally this
Speaker 2: man's DNA ends up on two victims who were killed
Speaker 2: months apart at the same care facility in Missola, Montana.
Speaker 2: While one is killed in her room in the nursing home,
Speaker 2: the other one is taken out of her room and
Speaker 2: then dumped subsequently in the river behind the nursing home.
Speaker 2: It's just not possible that coincidentally his DNA is on
Speaker 2: both women and they both ended up deceased. There is
Speaker 2: going to be more coming out about this, I am
Speaker 2: certain of it, So, like I said, I am going
Speaker 2: to keep you guys updated on this one. I am
Speaker 2: so glad that they have finally made an arrest in
Speaker 2: this case. Nineteen ninety to twenty twenty six is a
Speaker 2: heck of a long time, and I am so glad
Speaker 2: that this monster, this alleged monster, is off of the
Speaker 2: streets because anybody that prays on children and elderly, the
Speaker 2: very vulnerable populations of our world, are the worst kind
Speaker 2: of people. Obviously, all murder is bad, but there is
Speaker 2: something especially terrible and heinous about people that pray on
Speaker 2: children and elderly. These women were in their eighties, they
Speaker 2: suffered from cognitive deficits associated with their Alzheimer's, and they
Speaker 2: were in a place that was supposed to help them
Speaker 2: and keep them safe, and unfortunately they were targeted because
Speaker 2: they had cognitive deficits and they were vulnerable, and unfortunately
Speaker 2: this individual was able to gain access to them.
Speaker 1: And that is a really, really scary thought.
Speaker 2: I know over the years, security at facilities places like
Speaker 2: this has increased significantly and there is safety measures in
Speaker 2: place so something like this doesn't happen again. Nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: was a way different time. The world was a different place.
Speaker 2: But like I said, I am going to be staying
Speaker 2: on top of this one. I am sure there is
Speaker 2: going to be more to come out about it, so
Speaker 2: I will be sure to keep you guys updated. But
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, I am very glad
Speaker 2: to be able to say that there has officially been
Speaker 2: an arrest made and hopefully we are in the process
Speaker 2: of getting justice for these two women and their families.
Speaker 2: So thank you guys so much for listening to Nancy
Speaker 2: and Bertha's story. I really appreciate you tuning in every week.
Speaker 2: Please take time if you are enjoying the show whatever
Speaker 2: platform you're listening on, to give me a five star review.
Speaker 2: It really does help push the podcast out to other
Speaker 2: people and get these lesser known obscure cases into more
Speaker 2: eyes and ears, and that is really what it's about
Speaker 2: is getting exposure for these cases that desperately need it. So,
Speaker 2: as always, I thank you guys. I hope you have
Speaker 2: a great weekend coming up, and I will see you
Speaker 2: next week for a brand new unsolved case.
Speaker 1: Bye.