MISSOULA, MT — Missoula County authorities have arrested a suspect in the 1990 killings of two elderly nursing home residents after newer DNA testing tied him to the case. Investigators identified Nickie Dean Gardiner as the suspect and charged him with two counts of homicide.
Officials said the arrest followed a renewed review by the county cold case unit and was made after preserved evidence from the original investigation was retested.
How the case was solved
Missoula County Attorney Matt Jennings said the Montana State Crime Lab and Bode Technology examined biological evidence over the past year using updated DNA methods. That testing, he said, produced results that were statistically extremely likely to match Gardiner.
Law enforcement said the DNA evidence, along with the way the case was built, led investigators to name Gardiner as the suspect.
Victims from Riverside
The women killed in 1990 were 87-year-old Nancy Z. Lagerquist and Bertha Scott. Both lived at Riverside Health Care Center and had dementia.
Scott was found dead in her room at the facility on May 2, 1990. Lagerquist was later found dead and raped along the Clark Fork River on July 1, 1990.
Cold case review renewed
Investigators said the original probe did not produce a formal suspect, and the case was reopened three times for additional review. The most recent work came from the Missoula County Cold Case Unit, which used newer technology to develop the information that led to the arrest.
Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen said the team reviewed thousands of pages of dictation and all available evidence in the case and others like it.
Officials say justice moves forward
Gardiner was booked into the Missoula County Detention facility on two counts of deliberate homicide, according to the county attorney’s office. Officials said they found no known connection between him and either victim and no explanation for the presence of his DNA other than criminal activity.
Chief Criminal Deputy County Attorney Mac Bloom said the killings shook the community more than three decades ago, and that advances in DNA science now allow prosecutors to take meaningful action for the victims and their families.
SpeedReadNews tracks Montana and the surrounding frontier, fast and factual.
