The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski .
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
Welcome back everyone.
Just wanted to take a quick minute here at the top.
At the time of recording, we're quickly approaching Thanksgiving, so we are going to take a break
next week and take the week of Thanksgiving off.
We have some family coming into town, so we'll be doing lots.
So we're going to take next week off, so I hope you enjoy time with your friends and
family if you're celebrating here in the United States, or even abroad if you're celebrating
with a good family meal next Thursday.
I just have to add that that is the first scheduled break Ali has put into place for
this podcast.
And we are going on our third year of doing this podcast, so I'm just kind of in shock
because I didn't know that she was going to say that in opening this episode.
But with that, let's get into episode 110.
Let's do it.
So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve mentions of sexual
assault.
Today, we are talking about the murders of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist, which took
place in 1990 in Missoula, Montana.
But first, a little bit about Bertha and Nancy.
Bertha Scott was 85 years old in 1990.
She was born March 19th, 1904, and was raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
She had married Charles Scott in 1924, but he passed away in 1963.
She loved gardening, traveling, flowers, house plants, needlepoint, and painting.
She moved to Missoula, Montana in 1988 to be closer to her daughter.
She lived at the Riverside Health Care Center, and she suffered from Alzheimer's.
Nancy Zelma Lagerquist was 87 years old in 1990.
She was born in Hamilton, Montana on December 13th, 1902.
She graduated from high school and she went on to work as an executive secretary.
Nancy had lived most of her life in Missoula.
She had never married and had moved into Riverside two years earlier in December of 1988.
She didn't have any close family.
She lived in a private room, and she could not walk and needed to be pushed in a wheelchair
to get around.
And now, a timeline of events.
On May 2nd, 1990, Bertha is found dead in her room.
At first, her death appears to be of natural causes, and it's reported as such.
There was some discoloration around her neck, but her death certificate is signed by a medical
doctor attesting to natural causes.
A Riverside administrator, Neil Ostiles, says, quote, nothing seemed out of place in her
room at all, end quote.
Bertha was found still in her bed with her restraints in place.
It appears that during the early 1990s, they would restrain Alzheimer's patients, and
this is something that is not recommended to do today.
However, in the Riverside Center, they did notice that a window was left open in the
physical therapy room, and this was unusual.
On July 1st, 1990, it's been almost two months to the day since Bertha was found dead in
her bed.
There were five people working the night shift that evening of July 1st.
Workers at the nursing home were doing routine checks of all of the residents.
They do them every hour, and at the 3.30 a.m. check, all was normal at the facility.
There were alarms on all the doors that led to the outside, and all of the alarms were
functioning, but none of them would go off that night.
At the 4.30 a.m. check, Nancy was missing from her room.
Immediately, the staff began to sweep the facility.
She could not move on her own, so someone must have picked her up to move her.
The window screen in Nancy's room had been cut.
At 4.41 a.m., the center calls the police to report Nancy missing.
Police begin searching the nursing home grounds.
They also call the fire department to bring a boat to help them search the Clark Fork River
that flows behind the nursing home.
Nancy's window faced the river.
At around 6.30 a.m., police find Nancy's body in the river.
Her body had gotten caught in some willows about 100 feet downstream.
She was still in her sleeping clothes, but the diaper that she needed to wear was missing.
Years later, Detective Bob Reed, who will work the case, says, quote,
It was fairly gruesome.
It appeared to be ritualistic.
It wasn't the usual sort of case.
It depends on how Freudian you want to get, with the river and all, but certainly there
were things that were done that weren't necessary to cause her death.
End quote.
Nancy's death was horrific.
She had been sexually assaulted with an object, and during the course of the assault, the
object pierced both her abdomen and chest.
Police begin processing the scene.
They're unable to find the murder weapon that was used in Nancy's assault.
Also missing is her diaper.
Police try to locate it, but are unable to find it.
They think it was tossed in the river.
They ask the public that if they find a discarded adult diaper to please call them.
Please take the sheets from her room as evidence as well.
Police begin to question the workers and residents of the nursing home.
Other residents had talked about seeing a man lurking around the nursing home at night,
but the staff had never seen him, and they weren't sure if he actually existed.
Detective Bob Reed says, quote,
The problem is the staff was dealing with folks who, because of their conditions, might
not be the most reliable witnesses.
End quote.
However, one of the staff members did see a man in the parking lot around 4 a.m., just
a half hour before they realized that Nancy was missing.
On July 3rd, it's been two days since Nancy's murder.
Police do not have any strong suspects in Nancy's murder.
They are interested in talking to a man seen in the parking lot of the Missoula Athletic
Club, which in 1990 sat right next door to Riverside Care Facility.
This man was seen around 4 a.m.
I have a strong suspicion that this is the same man that workers said they saw the night
of Nancy's murder, but police never officially say that there are two people.
So there's either two people, a man was seen in their parking lot and then in the parking
lot next door, or this was the same guy, the same instance.
When they mention this man in the future, it's always that he was seen in the parking
lot next door, not at Riverside's parking lot.
The man was white, 30 to 40 years old and weighed about 180 to 200 pounds.
He has a light brown hair, collar length hair that was cut above the ears.
He also had a mustache and brown rimmed glasses.
He was wearing a white and brown striped t-shirt.
It was not tucked in, but the tail of the shirt was longer than the front of the shirt.
He wore tan button fly shorts and white top type tennis shoes and white socks.
Police stress that they just want to talk to this man and see if he saw or heard anything.
The center's administrator, Neil Ostile says, quote, I think everybody thinks that this
was an isolated thing.
It's just bizarre.
It's something so unexpected that I don't know how to interpret what happened.
It's one of those things that happened that you never planned for.
There's nothing that anybody could have done.
We take every precaution that any nursing home in the United States would have.
End quote.
The next day, July 4th, police say that they have no suspects at this time, but they are
looking into a few people.
Police believe that Nancy was abducted between 3.30 and 4.30 a.m. and then murdered.
Police are still looking for the man that was seen near the nursing home.
Quote, we're not saying he did it.
We just want him to tell us what he knows.
End quote.
Police say that they are beginning to run forensic tests on evidence that they do have,
but they stress that the evidence is not earthshaking and that they still need more information
to solve this case.
On Friday, July 6th, it's been five days since Nancy's murder, and all of the leads
that police have pursued over the last few days resulted in nothing.
All the leads fizzled out.
Nancy's body is ultimately cremated.
According to her close friend, she didn't want any service.
Instead, they do hold a prayer service in her honor.
About a week later, on July 13th, police say that they do have several people of interest
in Nancy's death, but not enough evidence to bring charges to any one of them.
Captain Pete Lawrenson says, quote, it's still very much a mystery.
We're looking at several different people from different angles.
End quote.
They do suspect at least one employee, but he's ultimately eliminated.
By August, police are desperate for a break in the case.
They had previously asked nursing home staff if there were any other unusual deaths.
That's when a nurse mentions that Bertha Scott had discoloration around her neck and
they found a window open that should have been closed the day they found her dead.
On August 16th, six weeks after Nancy's murder, Bertha's body is exhumed and taken to a state
crime lab in Missoula for an autopsy to determine if her death was violent in nature.
However, police are initially doubtful that Bertha's death is related.
Quote, what we are trying to do is establish that there was no foul play in the death of
Bertha Scott.
End quote.
However, if they do determine that foul play is involved, the two deaths will be linked
together.
Bertha's body is taken straight to the crime lab for an autopsy.
The autopsy shows that Bertha's death had been a murder and they reclassify her death
as a homicide.
She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The bruising under her neck showed signs of soft strangulation, meaning that there were
no ligature marks.
But police stopped short of saying exactly how they believe she was strangled.
Captain Pete Lawrenson says, quote, we think we know how it happened, but that's something
only we know and he knows.
End quote.
Police are able to recover DNA from Bertha's body.
They have it sent off for forensic testing.
With the second murder confirmed, staff at the nursing home are on edge.
Administrator Neil Ostiles says, quote, we are all just flabbergasted.
I think we are feeling just like everybody else.
What the hell is going on?
End quote.
On Monday, August 20th, staff at Riverside called police in a panic.
They found a window that looked tampered with.
The week before, they had found a window with the screen removed.
Captain Pete Lawrenson says, quote, everybody out there has access to the windows, so we
don't know if someone there might have left one open or something.
They're understandably concerned about anything that seems out of place there.
End quote.
On August 21st, 1990, a $5,000 reward is offered for any information leading to the arrest
of Bertha and Nancy's murderer.
On April 30th, 1991, so it's been almost a year since Bertha was murdered, and about
nine months since Nancy was murdered.
Police have waited for months for the DNA test and comparison to the blood of suspects
to come back.
But nothing comes back conclusive.
The only DNA profile that they are able to pull from the evidence was Bertha's.
They were not able to isolate the killer's DNA.
DNA testing was just not as sophisticated at this time.
Police are baffled by this case and are begging anyone with information to come forward.
Detective Bob Reed says, quote, I think it's clear from looking at the entire situation
here.
We are dealing with someone who used a great deal of caution.
That a human being was removed from a building full of people indicates the level of care
that was taken.
There's usually something in the life history of the victim that will lead you in a fairly
obvious direction.
In this case, there wasn't.
That was a bad sign.
However, police are still determined to solve this case.
Again, Detective Bob Reed says, quote, we had some initial suspicions, and some were
significantly firmer than others.
Some days I felt like I knew who did it.
Most days I didn't.
It's not like TV where the detectives knows who did it and they just have to prove it.
In spite of how difficult it's been, I don't think that difficulty has softened anyone's
resolve to stick with the case and work it as hard as we can.
I don't have any practice giving up on a case, so I won't.
End quote.
However, that is the last real update that we have on Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist's
murder.
So if you know anything about the murder of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist in 1990,
please call the Missoula County Sheriff's Office at 406-258-3302.
So that is the cold case of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist.
At the top, I think mostly what I want to say first or just talk about is I am at least
happy to know that both Bertha and Nancy lived long fulfilled lives before the ending of
their lives.
The kind of unimaginable endings.
I also think it's worth mentioning at the top.
This one I think will be difficult for me to talk about, as I'm sure it was difficult
for a lot of you to listen to.
This is truly one of the most horrifying cases I've ever listened to or engaged in with true
crime.
I'm just so glad to know these women's names.
I do have things to say, but just speaking on the cases as a whole, I'm at a loss for
words.
Yeah, these cases were really difficult for me to research.
Usually I'm somebody who can kind of put the emotion aside and just dig into the facts
and try to get the timeline, just stay really clinical with it all.
This one really got to me.
I had to take some breaks while researching and just kind of let my mind be somewhere
else because it's horrific what happened to these women.
It's really unfair that they were able to live such beautiful and wonderful lives and
then it comes to this violent sudden stop.
That's really unfair and horrifying.
Something that I think is not necessarily interesting but worth mentioning is the difference
between the two and that one was almost undiscovered to be a murder.
That birth as death was initially ruled of natural causes.
That there was such subtle unnoticeable disturbances that, and this was the 90s, granted that was
a while ago now, but still recent-ish, that there had been leaps and bounds in forensics
and detective work.
Birth as death initially going unnoticed and being written as natural causes, signed off
by a medical doctor that it was natural causes, is scary because here we have two deaths.
That's a pattern and so it makes you really start to wonder, has this happened in other
places in other nursing homes and it was just chalked up to old age or whatever ailments
may be?
Especially with Nancy's murder, it was much more obvious that she had come to a very violent
end but the subtlety of birth as is quite scary to think about when you think about
it on a larger scale.
One of the first things that I wrote down, and this is dealing with Nancy's case, something
that struck me as odd was that the screen was taken out.
Nancy's window had been cut.
The nursing home had called because they found windows with screen popped out after the murders
but Nancy's window had been cut.
That detail was particularly horrifying to me because I had the realization that it could
have been popped out from the inside or cut out from the inside which puts the perpetrator
of the crime within the building and you go into detail and cover that there was a possibility
that it could have happened from the inside and that my thought process was tracking with
that but that also adds another horrifying layer of how calculated this crime was and
that possibly the perpetrator knew these people or knew of them.
My question for you was do you think someone was able to get in and hid and waited?
I do think that it is possible that somebody could have came in and just kind of observed
but I also think that's something that they could have done from the outside as well to
kind of see when are they doing the rounds, kind of get the schedule, the lay of the land
and then make a move.
Assuming that and police do assume that both of these murders were perpetrated by the same
person it does seem like they were stalking the nursing home and figuring out which rooms
they could get into, which windows were unlocked, you know the nighttime routine of the hourly
bed check so it does seem like there was some stalking for sure.
You know in another detail I'm remembering now is that other residents at the nursing
home said they saw a man like lurking around so I think that could be the killer but the
staff there you know just kind of wrote it off because you know these are people who
might have dementia or you know might be talking about things that aren't necessarily in the
room with them so they weren't sure they could believe them but the residents kept saying
you know there's a man so yeah I think there was definitely watching, stalking, understanding
what was happening here.
I'm obviously as I'm sure with you and our listeners now very interested in the parking
lot man.
Like who was that?
Were there exterior cameras?
Was there a license plate?
I mean there is such a vivid description of him but never figure out who that person is.
Yeah as far as I know nobody saw him you know get in or out of a car or you know make or
model or anything like that.
You know they mentioned they saw a man in the nursing home parking lot and then over
the course of the next few days a man is seen in the parking lot next door of the Missoula
Athletic Club which was just right next door to the nursing home.
I do think that they're the same person you know it just kind of got clarified in the
reporting but it is a very detailed description and yet you know there's no suspect sketch
that I could find or that was ever circulated.
It's not mentioned in any of the reporting and it really is kind of you know that could
be anybody.
It describes a lot of people.
It's frustrating to have a really clear description of somebody but not no face, no identifying
features, no make, model of car, nothing else to tie to them to even narrow it down a little.
I think something that we can say is a certainty in this case in these cases is that it was
planned.
You know law enforcement even said like the person who did this was cautious and calculated.
It's just so ugly.
It's unimaginable.
My brain actively tries to force out how someone could plan to do this because I simply don't
want to think about it.
Police definitely think this was planned and I think that goes into you know how they were
able to slip in and slip out without anybody seeing them is how planned it was.
But police do seem to think that the victims themselves were more random.
Like it doesn't seem like these women were targeted for specific reasons but more they
were targeted because maybe that was the room where the man had the easiest access.
Something I'm grateful for even though I think it's very sad when this has to happen, I am
glad that Bertha's body was exhumed and that they just that they had the thoughts at the
time to take a second look because even though they mostly pulled her DNA profile there was
other DNA there whether it's something that popped up in a system which it seems like
it didn't there's still the possibility of evidence being there and a suspect profile
coming from that in the future.
I'm very glad that they did that and found out the details of what actually happened
to her.
Everything that they did was course corrected in those actions and I'm just so happy that
they have all of that information and evidence now even though it is not playing out and
revealing anything to us in the moment I am hopeful that it will reveal something in the
future.
Yeah, in 1990 DNA evidence was really in its infancy.
When I was reading reports on this they really go in and explain what DNA is and how it could
be used to pinpoint somebody.
It was very much just kind of entering investigations.
They were able to pull DNA off of Bertha's body and when they ran their initial DNA testing
they were only able to isolate her DNA.
Unfortunately from my understanding of DNA testing once you test like a swab for instance
it's destroyed after the testing they can't go back and retest that same swab.
So what I hope is in this case is that they still have some things that need to be tested
with more sensitive and sophisticated equipment.
We know they have Nancy's sheets and contact DNA is that wasn't even a thing in 1990 and
today it's something that we have.
So all those I really think that there's opportunity to retest some of the evidence in this case
and possibly pull a DNA profile of the suspect.
One thing I want to mention to our listeners, you know I searched really hard to try to
find pictures of Bertha and Nancy you know going back through the newspaper archives,
the obituaries, Google searches, internet searches all of that and I just couldn't find
a printed or published photo of either woman.
So unfortunately we don't have pictures of these women to show you but we will have a
picture like kind of an aerial view of Riverside Care Facility.
So you can kind of see the layout and the river that runs right behind it.
We'll also have some pictures that were in newspapers of just the investigation happening
there so that will be on our Instagram at Cold and Missing you can find us there and
if you're not following us please follow us there.
We've had a lot of new followers recently so thanks for joining us over there but like
I've mentioned before and I'll say it again if we ever have any updates you know if we
have to postpone an episode because something unexpected pops up it'll all be there.
Also thank you to everyone who has taken time to rate and review our podcast it's so helpful
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helps these stories get out there.
And if you are looking for other episodes maybe you're new here and you're sad we're
going to be taking the next week off and you're looking for some more episodes you can go
to coldandmissing.com and it has all of our back catalog on there as well as transcripts
so if you or someone you love is hard of hearing you can follow along there.
And again if you know anything about the murder of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist in 1990
just call the Missoula County Sheriff's Office at 406-258-3302.
But that is all I have for you this week thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing
we'll be off next week.
I'm your host Allie and I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a good couple of weeks and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.