Transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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Listener discretion is advised.
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I'm your host, Allie McLaughlin-Solkowski.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
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I'm your host, Allie.
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And just like before, in the past few episodes, it's just going to be me this week coming
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to you.
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On the date of recording, it's actually my husband's birthday, so we spent all day celebrating
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Eli and what a wonderful guy he is.
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So it's actually quite late in the evening and he's already in bed.
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So it's just me coming to you.
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But this week, I found a case that, and I know I've said this before, but I was just
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truly shocked that I hadn't necessarily heard of it before and was really surprised that
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it's not like a more well-known case, you know, in the true crime community.
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So I think we should just get right into it.
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There's a lot of information.
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This was covered locally quite a bit, so there were lots of resources to go through.
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So I have quite a bit of a timeline to bring to you, but this week we are covering a cold
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case and this week we are going to be covering the Florence Beauty Shop murders.
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And this is actually a triple murder.
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So we will be discussing the murders of Dorothy Harris, Brenda Patch, and Cynthia Paulus.
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And this takes place in November of 2001 in Florence, Montana.
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But first, a little bit about the victims.
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Dorothy is 62 years old in 2001 and she is the owner of the Hair Gallery and All About
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Nails located on a busy highway in Florence, Montana.
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It should be noted that Florence is a small town.
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Around this time in 2001, they had a population of about 900 people, but it had been growing
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recently.
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There was a boom in population because of its proximity to Missoula, Montana.
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Dorothy was happily married and it was not uncommon for her to show up at her neighbor's
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house with a plate of cookies.
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She was an artist, an incredible one according to her neighbors and loved ones.
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She always was working on a new craft or art projects.
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She had painted a carousel horse on a wall in her basement just to see if she could.
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Her husband, Ed Harris says, quote, she would help anybody at any time.
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It didn't matter who they were.
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End quote.
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Brenda was 44 years old in 2001.
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She was the manicurist at the salon.
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She was a loving grandmother and also known to enjoy crafting as well.
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Her and her best friend were taking a ceramic class and they both thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Her and her husband had recently moved to nearby Stevensville, Montana to a remote area
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at the end of a dirt road because they thought it would be more safe.
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His best friend, Jonette says, quote, she's a wonderful, caring, loving person.
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She was the most awesome lady I've ever met.
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End quote.
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Cindy is 71 years old in 2001.
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She was a customer at the salon and had a weekly Friday nail appointment, a luxury that
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she indulged in in her retirement.
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Cindy loved the outdoors and according to her family was the world's biggest Grizz fan.
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Her son, Jim says, quote, she loved to fish, loved her horses.
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Everyone she knew she liked, everyone she met she liked, and everybody liked her.
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End quote.
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And now a timeline of events.
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On Tuesday, November 6th, 2001, Dorothy arrives at the salon earlier than she usually did.
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She usually arrived around 9 a.m., which is when the salon opened, but a neighbor who
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lived across the street, Jon, said that he saw Dorothy at around 8 a.m. moving empty
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garbage cans around.
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Cindy calls the salon when they open at 9 to see if she can move her usual Friday appointment
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to today.
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Brenda, the manicurist, had an opening, so it was no problem.
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Dorothy leaves the salon a little after 10 to run to a nearby bank.
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She was seen at the bank in Stevensville at 10.30 a.m., just when Cindy was arriving for
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her nail appointment.
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Jon, the neighbor, left his house just a little bit before 11 and he said he didn't see anything
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unusual.
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Right around 11 a.m., a woman arrives for her hair appointment.
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Before she enters for her hair appointment, she notices an oddly dressed man in the front
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yard of the salon.
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He's described as being in his 20s or 30s, around 6 feet tall, about 180 pounds, but
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what was most noticeable about him was what he was wearing.
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He was wearing a dark suit, a duster jacket, and a hat that's been described as either
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a top hat or a fedora.
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As the customer enters the salon, she finds Dorothy near the back door, in the fetal position,
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and surrounded by a pool of blood.
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The woman steps over Dorothy to get to the salon's phone to call 911.
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Within minutes, firefighters arrive and know that there's nothing that can be done to
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save Dorothy.
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As the police arrive and begin to take in the scene, they find the bodies of Brenda
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and Cindy in a utility closet.
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It appears that Brenda and Cindy were forced into the closet sometime during Cindy's
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nail appointment.
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Cindy's old nail polish had been removed, but her new color was not all the way on.
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Brenda's nail drill was still running when the police arrived and her iced coffee still
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had ice in it.
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Each woman did have defensive wounds, but there was very little signs of struggle in
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the salon.
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Nothing was really out of place or knocked over.
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But all three women had had their throats deeply slashed according to police, so there
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was a lot of blood.
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There were no signs of sexual assault or robbery.
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The only items missing from the salon were two beautician capes.
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Police quickly begin canvassing the area.
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They find a footprint a few blocks from the crime scene, but they're unsure if it's
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related to the murders.
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And they bring in tracker dogs to try to trace the scent of the killer.
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Based off of the circumstances of the scene, how far Cindy's nail appointment had got,
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and knowing Dorothy was at the bank at 1030 before being discovered by her customer at
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11, police believe the murders took place between 1030 and 11 a.m.
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The next day, Wednesday, November 7, police start to zero in on the oddly dressed man
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who was seen in front of the salon and later behind the salon, moments before Dorothy was
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discovered.
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The oddly dressed man had been seen by at least seven people both before and after the
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murders.
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After the murder, police are able to track him via witnesses through the streets and
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alleys of Florence, eventually making his way to a bus garage parking lot where he jumped
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the fence and he was later seen walking into the woods.
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According to the sheriff at the time, Perry Johnson, quote, He appears to be real focused.
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Obviously, it appeared he had a destination.
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He wasn't running, but he was walking with a purpose.
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The man was last seen walking into a wooded area south of Florence in the area adjacent
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to one Horse Creek Road, end quote.
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Police also begin to talk to the women's families to see if any of them could have
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been the target since it was not obvious at the crime scene.
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I took this as meaning that the women all had similar injuries, but no one woman had
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worse injuries.
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Police do not want to believe that this was just a random killing that someone just woke
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up one day and decided to do serious evil.
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The families of the victims are brought to the crime scene to see if there's anything
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missing that police didn't notice outside of the capes.
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But everything was in place.
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The women's autopsies are conducted.
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And while police do not give additional details, they do confirm that all the women's had
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their throats cut and had trauma to their upper chest and neck area.
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Police will later say that there are some additional details revealed by the autopsy
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that to date has never been made public.
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Thursday, November 8th, this is just two days after the murder.
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Sheriff Perry Johnson is asking for help from a lot of different police agencies in the
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state and as well as FBI profilers.
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He says, quote, We don't care who solves it.
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We want to solve it.
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We don't care how it's solved.
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We want to solve it.
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We want to bring some closure to the families.
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We want to do a job that we're responsible to the community and we're invested in it.
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These are our neighbors too.
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End quote.
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Police are also looking into a strange classified ad that was placed by a floor resident on
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October 14th.
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So just a few weeks before the murder that said, quote, It is time dot dot dot to pray
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for the needs of your neighbors.
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End quote.
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This isn't brought up again in the investigation, but still, it's just a really strange fact
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of this case.
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The public is very responsive and tips are being called in every day.
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On Monday, November 12th, just six days after the murder, Cindy and Dorothy's funerals
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are held.
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Over 800 people attend the services.
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Police had worked through the weekend following tips and other leads.
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They want to stress to the public that they are not looking for short brimmed cowboy hat,
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but the hat is described as a fedora or top hat.
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So very specific.
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Later that day, police conduct a grid search about a third of a mile away from the crime
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scene where the strangely dressed man was seen by witnesses walking into the woods.
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They're hoping that they can recover the murder weapon, which has not been found at
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this time, but nothing is found during the grid search.
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The next day, November 13th, Brenda's funeral is held and around 400 people attend the service.
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The Ravalli County police had gotten in touch with the Nez Perce Tribal Police since they
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had a forensic artist that had been trained by the FBI.
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The artist was to interview witnesses and to make a sketch of the oddly dressed man
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that was seen on the day of the murders.
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On Wednesday, November 14th, so this is just over a week from the murders now, police released
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the sketch created by the artist.
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Police emphasize that at this time, they do not consider him a suspect, but want to talk
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to him since he was seen so close to the murder site and are curious as to what he saw.
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However, they do concede that the fact that this man has not come forward himself already
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is suspicious.
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Police still do not have any motive in the case.
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However, they do release a picture of a pair of wraparound style sunglasses that was found
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in the middle of the crime scene.
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None of the victims' families recognize them, so they assume that either the killer lost
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them during the attack or perhaps a customer had left them there.
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They ask the public that if they recognize the sunglasses to please come forward.
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Police will send the sunglasses for DNA testing, but when the results come in a few weeks later,
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only the victim's DNA is found on the glasses.
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There are no other contributors.
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On Thursday, November 29th, this is 23 days now since the murder, a $10,000 reward is
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being offered for information in the case.
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The friends and families of the murder victims hope that this money motivates somebody to
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come forward with a tip that's needed to close the case.
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The police still haven't rolled out the idea that there are multiple suspects.
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Detectives have also come up empty trying to find a connection between all three women.
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It appears that they really only dealt with each other professionally.
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Some investigators still believe it was just a random attack.
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However, others believe that since a knife was used that this was personal.
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Either way, police continue to search for a motive or a link to help them close this
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case.
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On December 7th, so it's just been over a month now since the triple homicide, police
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say that they have entered fingerprints, DNA and hair fibers into the national databases.
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National databases are still pretty new in 2001.
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So they're not as robust as they are today.
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And there are no hits that come from this.
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And to date, I couldn't find that any hits ever come from them being entered into databases.
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Police do work with producers from America's Most Wanted.
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And when that airs in December of 2001, they do get a flood of tips from across the country.
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But none of them turn out.
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On December 13th, nearly five weeks after the murders, police do confirm that they have
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fingerprints and palm prints from the scene.
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And they say that the palm prints is their strongest evidence at this point.
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In February of 2002, so it's been over three months, and police release another sketch
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of the oddly dressed man.
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Typically, it's not the best practice to release multiple sketches by different artists
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since it can change the perspective of the locals and who they're looking for.
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However, this new sketch has more details in the face than the first sketch.
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And with the release come a flood of new tips.
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Police say that since the murder, they have gotten 1,300 tips in this case.
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But for the rest of 2002, I really couldn't find much in the local media, which had been
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covering this pretty heavily for the first three months following the murder.
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The next big update comes in November of 2002, so this is one year since the murders.
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And police say they are no closer to catching the killer a year after than they were the
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day it happened.
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They however stress that this is not a cold case and they're working on it every day.
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Police do confirm that they have some physical evidence from the scene, but it's very little.
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Police still urge the public to come forward.
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Detective Scott Burlingham says, quote, there's a lead out there and somebody has it.
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If this was anything but random, there has to be some sort of reason why they were targeted.
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We're asking people to think who could benefit from this?
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Who has the most to gain?
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End quote.
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In March of 2005, so it's been over three years since the murder of Dorothy, Brenda,
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and Cindy.
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There's another salon murder in Belleville, Illinois.
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Three people are also killed with a knife.
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Ultimately, Illinois police and Montana police agree that the two are not connected.
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The suspect in the Belleville case died from COVID in 2021 while awaiting trial for the
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murders.
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In December of 2005, so this is now over four years since the murder and police say they
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have a suspect in the case.
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They named Brian Walter Weber as the murderer.
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Weber in 2005 was serving time for an unrelated meth distribution charge.
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From jail, he gives an interview to the local paper where he says, quote, the bottom line
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is that I've done a lot of bad things, but I never did those murders.
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End quote.
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Police say they use jailhouse informants to really build their case against Weber.
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It takes a while, but finally in April of 2008, police bring charges against Brian Weber
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and another man, Lincoln Benevitis.
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Police allege that Benevitis was a large meth distributor and that Weber was his enforcer
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and that one of the women's relatives owed money.
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They both are indicted for drug related charges and three charges of murder while engaged
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in drug trafficking.
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It's a federal charge that also carries the death penalty in Montana.
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They both plead not guilty.
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The trial date is set for 2010, so two years from the time they're indicted due to all
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the discovery that the defense has to go through.
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However, by October 2009, Lincoln reaches a plea deal with the government.
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Because these were federal charges, the state is not prosecuting them.
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The government is.
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Lincoln reaches a plea deal to plead guilty to the drug charges and the murder charges
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are dropped.
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He immediately takes the deal, but the government is still pursuing Weber.
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A few months later though, the defense in Weber's case are able to get the drug charges
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dropped.
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They also start to argue that the murder charges should also be dropped.
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Weber's lawyer said, quote, what did these three innocent women have to do with Mr. Weber?
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The government doesn't explain the connection.
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How do you develop a defense against that?
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End quote.
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In January of 2010, the federal prosecutors dropped the murder charges and all of Weber's
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charges are dismissed.
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The murder charges are dismissed without prejudice, so Weber could be charged again if new evidence
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were to crop up in the case against him.
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In the motion filed by the prosecutors, they say, quote, in preparation for trial, the
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government has thoroughly reexamined the evidence upon which it will rely to prove that defendant
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Weber committed the offenses.
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The review has led the government to conclude, based on the evidence as it now stands, that
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the government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of the essential elements of these
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offenses.
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End quote.
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The defense also claims that they are able to prove that Weber was actually in Moscow,
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Idaho the day of the murders.
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With these charges dropped, police announced that they are reopening the case.
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At this point in time, it's been over nine years since the murders.
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And then that's truly the last update that I could find on the case.
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The murders have been mentioned a lot in local media coverage, especially around the anniversary
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of the murders.
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But there's no new developments or information revealed in those updates.
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Usually it's just a retelling of the story and then focusing again on that oddly dressed
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man.
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So with that, if you know anything about the murders of Dorothy Harris, Brenda Patch, or
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Cindy Paulus in November of 2001, please call the Ravalli County Sheriff's Department at
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406-363-3033.
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And the sources for the timeline today come from Great Falls Tribune, the Billings Gazette,
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Ravalli Republic, the Independent Record, the Montana Standard, the News and Observer,
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the Missouliian, the Town Talk, Rushville Republic, the Item, the Daily Spectrum, the Los Angeles
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Times, and Great Falls Tribune.
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So that is the triple homicide of Dorothy, Brenda, and Cindy.
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And as I mentioned at the top, my reaction when I first read about this case and heard
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about it was just shocked that I hadn't heard about it before, especially with this really
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oddly dressed man associated with it.
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On our Instagram, we're going to be posting composite pictures of this man that I was
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able to find during my research just because it is odd.
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It's really odd.
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And the brutalness of it all, these women had their throats, the police say deeply slit,
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that is a brutal murder and it's angry.
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That just, I mean, it's evil, right?
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That's the basis of it, but it's so evil and angry.
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And it's just so hard to believe that it would happen in the middle of the day in a beauty
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salon on a pretty busy highway.
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I think when I was reading that this highway gets up to five lanes at times, so people
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are constantly passing it.
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And I think that speaks to the seven witnesses that also saw this oddly dressed man.
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At one point when he was crossing the street, a bus driver actually had to stop to let him
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cross the street.
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So he was seen by a lot of people.
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He wasn't necessarily trying to hide his walk away.
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And again, police never publicly name him as a suspect, but they do really want to talk
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to him and identify him.
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And like they mentioned, it is odd that he didn't come forward himself if he had nothing
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to do with it, right?
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So I think some questions that come up for me is obviously around this man.
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They always refer to him as an oddly dressed man.
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And I think that's right.
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He's in a suit.
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He's wearing a duster jacket, which is like when you think of old timey Western jackets,
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they're usually pretty long and almost have extra fabric around the shoulders, almost
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like a small cape.
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And then a top hat or fedora.
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It's almost like a costume.
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It's 2001, so top hats aren't really in style.
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I could see maybe more of a fedora being in style, but still the whole outfit is like
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a costume.
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I can't think of any time I've seen a top hat casually in real life.
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It's always in a theater production or carolers going around on Christmas.
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It's always very purposeful a top hat is worn, not just like your casual going out hat in
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the 2000s.
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I've never seen that.
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And to have that fact in this case, this man seen right at the time of the murders, it's
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a very short window of time, 1030 to 11 a.m.
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That's the time frame, 30 minutes essentially, because we know Dorothy is at the bank and
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she comes back.
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And I believe, if I remember correctly, that she had come back with a bank envelope.
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So there was cash in this envelope and that was left untouched.
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None of the women's purses were gone through.
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Nothing was taken except for those beautician capes.
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And people who saw this man after the murder say that he was carrying something, but it's
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never really specific if it's like a fabric folded over his arms or if he's carrying like
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a bag or something in his hand, just something small.
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It's never really clear what the witnesses saw him carrying, but he is carrying something.
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And the only thing taken from the salon are those capes that hairdressers put around you
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so you don't get hair all over your clothes.
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A black one and a gold one, if I'm not mistaken.
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So why?
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And that's my next biggest question to so much of this is just why these women?
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Why right now?
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Why did this happen?
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Police to this date have never really been able to find a motive for the murders.
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When they bring these charges against Weber that he was this enforcer murdering on a drug
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debt, I understand that that happens, but it just seems so far fetched in this case.
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These three, in Cindy's case, older, she's in her seventies, but these three women in
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the middle of the day at a beauty salon, so many people could have walked in at any time
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just to get a haircut, just to see if they could get their nails done really quick or
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just driving by.
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There's so much at stake.
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Why these three women?
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Just mind boggling to me.
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I will say that I was really impressed with Sheriff Perry Johnson.
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He was the sheriff at the time of the murders.
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And the next year he actually steps down as sheriff.
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He doesn't run again because the job was really stressful to him.
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But he stays on as the lead investigator in this case because he is kind of the end all
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be all for the case.
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He knows everything about it.
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And I was really like impressed with how he reached out to so many other agencies so quickly
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just to get as many eyes on it.
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And that's something that he did throughout the years.
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He would travel the country to talk to other police agencies and kind of run this case
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by them because like he said, he doesn't care who solves it.
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He wants it solved.
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And I really commend that because that's not always the case in policing.
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A lot of times what I've seen in these cases is that they don't want to reach out to the
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FBI or other agencies, the state, neighboring counties, because they want to be the ones
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that solve it.
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You know, there's pride in that.
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For these women, it's just like all hands on deck.
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Whoever, whoever can help, whoever has a thought, whoever has experience, like get in here and
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let's talk about it, which I think that should always be the attitude for murder, missing
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people is to get as many professionals looking at it as possible and to try to work every
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single angle and all hands on deck.
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I really think that's the way forward for everything.
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I really hope that in the future there is closure for this case.
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And I hope that for all the cases we cover here, but this one, you know, with the three
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women who were so loved, like each one of them had like around 400 people at their funerals.
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Like that is truly what a testament to their lives and the people they touched and the
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people who loved them.
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Like they all showed up for these women to pay their respects and the whole town was
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affected by these murders.
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People talked about how they never locked their doors before in Florence, Montana, but
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all of a sudden they were locking doors.
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People were going to get the mail, you know, with a pistol on their hip, like just scared,
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scared because it really does seem random.
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And you know, without being able to find a motive, without being able to find a connection
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between these women that would lend itself to a motive, for me, it kind of leaves it
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at like, this was a random act of evil, like random in the way that like maybe somebody
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had wanted to do this, had wanted to commit a crime and wanted it to be a murder and had
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thought about what they were going to do and went to go execute that that morning.
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And Dorothy, Brenda and Cindy were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, just crossed
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this guy's path or more he crossed theirs.
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This oddly dressed man and you know, the costume of it all, it's like, did he want to be like
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this figure, you know, he was not necessarily scared to be seen by people.
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And I just I have to think that he's involved somehow because he just he was there right
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at the time of the murders and then briskly walked away and disappeared into the woods
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like what?
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It's really hard for me not to focus on him, which I know is not a good investigative tactic,
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00:27:03,460 --> 00:27:10,000
you know, you shouldn't just zero in on somebody, but I want to know who he is so badly and
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I want to know what he saw.
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00:27:11,940 --> 00:27:18,800
If he didn't do it, if he's not the killer, he probably saw the killer in some form.
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00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:25,080
He saw a car, he saw somebody running away, he heard something, you know, he definitely
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is a witness somehow to this, if not the perpetrator.
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So I hope that we can identify this man, this oddly dressed man and get justice for Dorothy,
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Brenda and Cindy.
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Their families are still so devastated by the loss of these lovely women that they they
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deserve those answers and that closure if that's what they want, you know, I'm going
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to be posting pictures on our Instagram at cold and missing of Dorothy, Brenda and Cindy,
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along with the composite sketch of this oddly dressed man.
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So please go over there and check it out.
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Throughout the week, I kind of post them every couple of days.
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So if you're not following us already at cold and missing, please do.
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And if there's ever any updates like how we're releasing our episodes on Thursday now, that's
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all announced on Instagram, as well as our website www.coldandmissing.com.
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There you can find transcripts for all our episodes and the YouTube videos.
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We're also on YouTube.
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If that's how you like to listen to your podcasts, you can subscribe to us over there.
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That'd be really cool.
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00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:46,400
And if you could just leave us a review while you're in your podcast app, five stars, thumbs
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00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:53,360
up, rainbows and unicorns, whatever that metric is in your podcast app, it is so helpful.
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00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:58,940
And if you can leave us a written review and Apple, I would be forever grateful.
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00:28:58,940 --> 00:29:05,000
It is so helpful to getting this podcast out there and getting this story amongst all the
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other ones that we cover out there.
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But that is truly all I have.
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So thank you so much for listening to cold and missing.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin, Silkowski.
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Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
