Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Montana Child Murderer” David Meirhofer

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

In 1973, 7-year-old Susie Jaeger fell asleep in a tent with her siblings while on a camping trip with family. When her siblings woke up, the tent had been slashed open and Susie was gone. A team of profilers believed David Meirhofer was responsible for the kidnapping — they just had to prove it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussion of sexual assault, physical assault, abduction, murder, and suicide that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. In the early morning hours of June 25, 1974, Marietta Yeager waited by the phone just as she'd been instructed. It was exactly one year on from the worst day of her life, the day her daughter was taken. Marietta checked the tape recorder the FBI had given her, making sure it was all in working order. She didn't want to miss a second of the call she was sure would come soon.

She still hoped that her daughter was alive, and if that was the case, investigators needed every scrap of information she could get for them. At last, around two in the morning, the telephone rang. Marietta steeled herself. Then she clicked on the recorder and picked up the phone, ready to talk to her daughter's abductor, ready to forgive. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're covering the abduction of Susie Yeager and the story of David Meyerhofer.

I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the first part of this episode, we'll take a look at a crime that horrified a small town and changed a family forever. Later, we'll examine how the burgeoning field of criminal profiling helped investigators connect David to the crime and how it led to a gruesome confession. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting.

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became their day-to-day struggle. But like most horror stories, it didn't start all dark and foreboding. No, it started on a beautiful summer day. In June of 1973, 33, 35-year-old Marietta Yeager, her husband Bill and their five children loaded up for a month-long cross-country camping trip. Starting at their home in Detroit, Michigan, the family made their way to the Missouri Headwater State Park, near Three Forks, Montana. Nestled right by the river, the campsite was breathtaking, making the 2,000-mile journey entirely worth the trouble. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Marietta's parents met them at the campground for an evening

spent around the fire. but eventually the party broke up and prepared for bed. Due to the size of the group, they slept in separate areas. The boys in a camper, the grandparents in a tent, and Marietta and Bill bedded down in their truck. Meanwhile, the youngest kids, 7-year-old Susan and 13-year-old Heidi, settled into a tent on their own. The girls spent the night chatting away until they couldn't keep their eyes open.

A few hours later, before the sun had risen, Heidi awoke to a strange wind blowing through the tent. tent. When she looked to see where it was coming from, she saw a gaping hole slashed in the side of the tent. Then, to her horror, she saw that Susie was gone. Heidi immediately ran and told her parents. At first, Marietta and Bill wanted to believe that Susie had wandered off on her own. But the hole in the tent told a different story. Fearing the worst, Bill rushed into town and alerted police. Just like Marietta and Bill, authorities hoped that Susie had simply gotten lost, crimes like child abductions were a rarity for the small community of

Manhattan, Montana, but when they saw the state of the tent, the officers knew she'd been taken. Determined to find the missing girl, officers with the Manhattan Police Department and the Gallatin County Sheriff's Department spent the day combing through the area by land, sea, and air. During the search, they stumbled upon a set of footprints that led to and from the girl's tent, followed the tracks to a parking lot. But by then, the lot was deserted. Looking at the evidence, it seemed that someone had snuck up to the tent in the middle of the night, cut an opening in the fabric, grabbed Susie, then drove away. Even as they piece things together throughout the day, officers found nothing that pointed

to the kidnapper's identity. Even worse, they knew that the likelihood of finding Susie alive was getting slimmer with every passing hour. With their life on the line, more and more officers joined the investigation, and the search spread out to the neighboring rural areas. But the size of the search provided the Yeager's little comfort. Marietta was particularly distressed and was hit with a wave of emotions, at first numb, then fearful and eventually angry. Her own description of her state of mind makes it seem like Marietta was displaying clear symptoms of trauma. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg. According to a 2006 study by researcher Sarah K. Spillman, the trauma parents' experience in cases of child abduction typically manifests as increased anxiety, depression, and difficulty with interpersonal relationships. In cases of non-familial abduction, where a child is taken by a stranger, Spilman found that the distressed parents' feelings, is far greater than any other type of abduction. This is because parents have so little information to go on. As such, they're often left in the dark, unable to gauge the likelihood of their child's return. Needless to say, both Marietta and Bill felt a swirl of complicated, confusing emotions. As they struggled to understand what happened to their daughter, they could only hope and pray that Susie would be found alive. Authorities in Montana,

weren't as hopeful. They suspected that the seven-year-old had been killed the same day she was taken. So, in addition to scouring the campgrounds for clues, they began dredging the river for a body. The process brought up discussions of an eerily similar crime from five years earlier. At the very same campsite in May of 1968, someone had broken into the tent of 12-year-old Michael Rainey, who was on an overnight trip with his Boy Scout troop. When one of the other scouts awoke the next morning. He was shocked to discover Michael unconscious and covered in blood. He'd been struck on the head and stabbed. Sadly, Michael didn't survive his injuries, and the police never caught his killer. But considering both he and Susie were targeted inside their tents

at the same state park, local authorities suspected that both crimes might have been committed by the same perpetrator. Of course, this was all just speculation. Nothing was certain without more evidence or an idea about who to question. Fortunately, reinforcements were on their way. As was routine in cases of child abduction, the FBI were called in to assist. Meanwhile, Marietta, Bill, and their kids found a place to stay in town, reluctant to leave until Susie was found. But even with the addition of federal officers, the investigation made little progress. Then the case took a turn with the arrival of a chilling call. About a week after Susie's disappearance,

a man called the home of one of the officers working the case. The voice on the other end said he had Susie Yeager, but that he'd return her safe and sound for $50,000. To prove he was the kidnapper, the man described a deformity on Susie's fingernails. It was a detail that only close friends and family members knew about and that had been intentionally withheld from the public. Based on his description, Marietta and Bill knew the caller was telling the truth, that he had to be Susie's kidnapper.

Hoping to get their daughter back, they scrambled to find the ransom money. Meanwhile, federal and local officers manned the phone lines, waiting for a follow-up call so they could arrange the handoff, but the call never came. Without the second call, investigators had no means of tracking the culprit down. That's because in the early 1970s, call tracing was somewhat difficult, especially with the second call. without advanced notice that a call was coming in. Unless the kidnapper rang again, they had nothing to go on. They were back at square one. Days turned into weeks, and soon an entire month had passed since Susie disappeared.

Marietta and Bill wanted to stand by and wait for Susie's return, but they couldn't put their family's lives on hold forever. They eventually made the painful decision to return home to Detroit, Michigan. Fortunately, they had something many parents in their situation don't have. Open communication with law enforcement. According to a 2020 qualitative study by Michael Wayne Eagle, parents of child victims often feel frustrated at the lack of information and transparency they receive from police, so much so that some of these parents even end up feeling animosity towards the officers trying to help them.

However, it appears the Yeagers had a wholly different experience. In fact, when they arrived back in Detroit, FBI officials were already waiting to meet them. According to Marietta, this made her feel that she could trust the authorities and their process. Crucially, part of that process involved help from Marietta and Bill. As the kidnapper had already called the home of a police officer, they reasoned that he might just reach out to the Yeagers too. So, federal agents began tracing all calls coming into the Yeager home. They also instructed the family to connect a tape recorder to their file.

phone line, ready to turn on if the man ever called. But Marietta wasn't content to just sit by the phone and wait. To keep Susie's face in the public eye, she set up a reward fund and organized friends and family to help distribute posters in Montana. She refused to give up on her child. Not yet. Coming up, another crime rocks the small Montana town, and a suspect emerges at last. Hi listeners, it's Carter from Parcast, and I am thrilled to tell you about a new limited series I'm hosting just in time for Father's Day. It's called Devious Dads, and it introduces you to some of the most feared, fraudulent, and fatal fathers in history. Every Sunday on Spotify, discover the men who started out as role models and ended up becoming real-life criminals. Like Wall Street financier Bernie Madoff,

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point and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Now back to the story. In June of 1973, seven-year-old Susie Yeager was abducted from her tent at the Missouri Headwaters State Park in Montana. Authorities scoured the area and tried desperately to find her, but hit an investigative dead end. Fortunately, they weren't on their own. Sympathetic locals felt compelled to do their part in the hunt for the little girl and began informing investigators of any suspicious activity. Officers followed up on these leads and met with numerous suspects.

However, none of the tips ever turned into something concrete. Even the lead federal investigator on the case, FBI agent Peter Dunbar was at a loss. With all traditional avenues spent, Agent Dunbar turned to a new fleet of agents for help. In the early 1970s, the FBI had assembled a team of experts in the emerging field of criminal profiling. Agent Dunbar had heard about successes of individual members of the team, but they'd never worked a case as an official FBI unit. Eager to prove themselves, the profilers dove into Susie's case and emerged with a thorough picture of the unknown subject or unsub who'd committed this crime.

Based on the phone call, they knew the unsub was male. They also believed he was a woman. white and relatively young. While we can't confirm why they came to these conclusions, it was likely to do with the demographic makeup of the area, as well as the physical strength required to carry Susie away. They were also certain that the unsubb lived near the state park, likely on his own,

and had a habit of prowling the area at night. But the profilers believed that the abduction was impulsive. They reasoned that he'd likely come upon the tent late at night, then decided in the moment to take the goal. The particular time of the abduction also made FBI profilers suspect that the kidnapper had a military background, which would explain how the unsub was able to navigate the dark woods so well. Additionally, they believed that the perpetrator was someone who obsessed over his victims. He likely kept some kind of trophy, an object in Susie's possession, or even a body part.

Unfortunately for the Yeagers, the FBI profilers also agreed with both state and federal investigators. that Susie was dead, that she likely had been killed the night she was taken. Because this profile plays such a large role in this story, we're going to pause here and take a closer look at the concept of criminal profiling and its varying successes. At its most basic, criminal behavioral analysis is a fusion of psychiatric evaluation, pattern recognition, and straight-up instinct. First, profilers look at the details of the crime, like the method of murder, demographics of the victim, and location of the crime scene. Then they compare these factors to earlier crimes that share similar traits and the criminals behind them.

Eventually, they find a pattern and are able to create a profile. But does profiling work? The short answer is no, but it's complicated. In a 2007 study, a team of researchers looked at how well-trained criminal profilers could determine facts about a crime in comparison to the crime. the guesses of random people. In any other field, the experts should have outperformed the non-experts, but they didn't. The problem is the underlying assumption that someone's behavior during a crime can predict their day-to-day behavior. Unfortunately, the moment in which a culprit

commits an act of violence may be a complete departure from that person's everyday life. Simply put, it's difficult to make these types of predictions. Despite the inaccuracies of profiling, it's not a useless exercise. Behavioral analysis is often used as a jumping off point to start a search. Even if the profile is wrong, and they often are, it can lead investigators to information that ultimately helps them solve the case. In this instance, when Agent Dunbar read the report from his colleagues, he was struck by how familiar the profile sounded. In the early days of the search for Susie, a Manhattan resident had called to report the strange behavior of his neighbor, David Meyerhofer, and he seemed to fit the profile to a T.

According to the tipster, 23-year-old David lived close to the Missouri Headwaters campgrounds and had a habit of coming and going at all hours of the night. But when police arrived at his home to ask questions about Susie's disappearance, David claimed he knew nothing about the case, and the police had little reason to doubt him. Likewise, Dunbar never imagined David was the culprit. He found the young man to be sweet, respectful, and gentle.

Still, as a young white man who lived near the campground, David matched the FBI profile very closely. But a local man matching the profile wasn't enough for authorities to make an arrest. Dunbar knew he needed more concrete evidence to solve this crime. So we put aside his thoughts of David Meyerhofer and focused on finding more clues. Back in Detroit, Susie's mother continued to rally friends and community members to help in the growing search. But as strong as she seemed on the outside, 35-year-old Marietta was a swirl of complicated emotions. She felt hatred for whoever had abducted Susie and guilt for the daughter she hadn't been able to protect. But more than anything, she was determined to find the man responsible and get her daughter back.

To Marietta, the best thing she could do was to stay vigilantly by the phone in case the kidnapper called again. But being at home 24 hours a day was difficult. with four other children to raise. And when one of her kids' rides fell through one day, she had to leave the house to pick him up. The timing couldn't have been worse. Just minutes after Marietta left, the kidnapper called. Fortunately, her son Danny was home.

Just as the FBI had instructed, Danny started the tape recorder and answered the phone. Unfortunately, the call was brief, and the kidnapper offered no clues to his identity. Though before he hung up, he did hint that Susie was still alive. When Marietta learned about the call, she was devastated. For months, she'd been waiting to speak with a man who had taken her daughter,

and now she'd missed her chance. All that was left to do was hope that the FBI could trace the call. They could. Investigators determined that the call came from a bustling diner in Wyoming. However, with so many customers coming and going on any given day, employees couldn't provide officials with any useful information about who'd used the payphone. And with that, the case went ice cold. While detectives searched fruitlessly for Susie,

the community of Manhattan, Montana was rocked by a second disappearance. In February of 1974, the mother of 19-year-old Sandra Smolikin called police to report her daughter missing. She hadn't heard from Sandra in days and was worried something terrible had happened. Luckily, authorities in Montana took her concerns seriously and began searching properties throughout the rural area. While exploring an abandoned ranch in Horseshoe Hills, one deputy found a pair of women's underwear. After a little more exploration, he discovered a car in a neighboring barn. This particular officer knew Sandra, so although the vehicle's license plates had been removed,

he recognized it as hers immediately. Backup arrived to scour the property, and investigators soon came across a large steel drum full of soot, ash, and human bone fragments. Looking closely in the surrounding fields, they found hundreds of additional bone shards, which were collected and sent for analysis. A pathologist assembled the fragments and compared the jaw to Sandra's dental records. It was a match. At this stage, detectives began to wonder if Sandra's murder and Susie's abduction were connected. The county was home to only 100,000 people, and violent crime of any kind was rare, so the likelihood of a single culprit seemed

high. With that in mind, the local department's working the cases agreed to meet and compare notes, but for some reason they chose to meet not at a police station, but at a diner in town. This meant that they had an audience. During the busy lunch rush, customers would listen in and interrupt with questions, and while most were just concerned citizens, one young man seemed particularly interested in their discussions. His name was David Meyerhofer. Eight months earlier, the contractor had been questioned by FBI agent Peter Dunbar about the abduction of Susie Yeager.

When Dunbar heard about David's interest in the two cases, it raised his suspicions once more. Keeping the criminal profile in mind, he started to dig deeper into the young man's life, perhaps hoping for a clue that would tie him to either crime. Unfortunately, there wasn't much information. for Dunbar to find. He ascertained that David was born and raised in Manhattan, that he had joined the Marines, and that he served in Vietnam as a communication specialist. While there was little else to uncover, Agent Dunbar came across two other troubling details. First, he discovered

that David had done some contract work in the Horseshoe Hills area, where Sandra's remains were found. Second, David had gone on a date with Sandra, but she had reportedly declined his invitation for a second. With those two striking coincidences, investigators brought him in. David seemed happy to submit to questioning, both with a polygraph machine and under the influence of sodium amatol, a barbiturate often used as a pseudo-truth serum. These days, we know that these are imperfect methods, but at the time they were highly trusted interrogation tactics. When asked about Susie and Sandra's cases, David explained that he wasn't involved. He said that he didn't know what had happened to Susie, and while he freely admitted to going on a date with Sandra, he assured detectives

that he had nothing to do with her death. According to the polygraph, David was telling the truth. As such, investigators thought they'd must have made a mistake bringing him in. However, back in Quantico, the behavioral analysis team was convinced that David was guilty. In fact, they felt that passing the tests only made David a more likely suspect. Without the behavioral analysis team, investigators may have given up on looking into David, but the unit believed there was a good explanation as to why David passed the tests. According to them, he likely lived with schizophrenia.

In simple terms, schizophrenia is a personality disorder that disconnects a person from reality through hallucinations or other forms of psychosis. As far as we know, David was never officially diagnosed as schizophrenic, but profilers felt strongly that he was somehow dissociating from reality. If their guess was accurate, it's possible that when he said he didn't know anything about what happened to Susie and Sandra, it felt true to him. Therefore, it wouldn't register as a lie. In addition to this analysis, the FBI profilers believed that the perpetrator likely obsessed

over his crimes. And while he hadn't contacted Sandra's family to claim responsibility, they predicted he'd be tempted to contact Marietta Yeager again, perhaps on the upcoming anniversary of Susie's kidnapping. Trusting the profiler's instincts, investigators reached out to Marietta and got to work laying a trap.

After a year of dead ends, everything would come down to this. Coming up, a grieving mother does something no one expects. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound

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In the summer of 1974, FBI profilers felt certain that the man who abducted seven-year-old Susie Yeager would want to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the crime. They believed that the culprit would call Susie's family again, and they wanted to be prepared. They already had a criminal profile of their suspect, one that pointed a 24-year-old David Meyerhofer. Now they just needed evidence that would allow them to finally make an arrest. With June 25th fast approaching, investigators briefed 35-year-old Marietta Yeager so she was prepared for the call. If she could keep the man talking, they hoped he would say something that could be used against him. Marietta listened carefully, clinging to hope that her daughter was still alive. Marietta was desperate to speak to the man who took her daughter, but in a different way than she

once was. In the months after Susie's abduction, she felt unbridled rage toward the the kidnapper and wanted to kill him. But now, 12 months later, Marietta's Catholic faith helped to discover something unexpected. Compassion. While it seems impossible, forgiveness towards those who have committed violent crimes might actually be an evolutionary instinct. In their 2015 article, To Blame or to Forgive, Reconciling Punishment and Forgiveness in Criminal Justice, professors Nicola Lacey and Hannah Picard explore those incongruous concepts. They write that forgiveness and vengeance are both universal human adaptations that work as strategies to reduce the risk of re-offending.

With that in mind, Lacey and Picard point out that people have a choice between the two when confronted with violent offenders. Everyone has the capacity to seek retribution and to offer compassion, they argue, but it's the latter that is more in line with a socially liberal society. That said, it's important to remember that forgiveness isn't about excusing someone's actions or saying that the pain they caused didn't matter. It's about letting go of the need for an apology or for revenge. Marietta recognized that distinction and decided that compassion was the only way forward.

By the time investigators were preparing her for the impending phone call, she'd moved beyond her anger and sought to say, simply understand how a person could make such horrific choices. Marietta's transformation moved investigators, and they hoped that her compassion would have the same effect on the kidnapper. So in the days leading up to the anniversary of Susie's abduction, they arranged for Marietta to give a newspaper interview. In the piece, she revealed publicly that she'd forgiven the man for what he'd done and mentioned that she wished to speak to him to understand why he took her child. It was the first of her first. It was the first of her

perfect bait to ensure the kidnapper would make the call. Sure enough, in the early morning hours of June 25, 1974, the Yeager's telephone rang. When Marietta answered, the man tauntingly asked if he was speaking with Susie's mother. The man toyed with the grieving mother, claiming he still had Susie, and that he was thinking of taking her to Disneyland. Ignoring his taunts, Marietta begged to talk to her daughter, or for some proof that she was still alive. refused her desperate pleas, seemingly intent to cause Marietta more pain, but she remained calm and stayed on the line. She told him that she forgave him and said that she simply wanted Susie back. Somehow Marietta kept the phone call going for over an hour, and by the end of that hour,

she had her daughter's kidnapper weeping. It's likely he called the victim's family to feel in control and never expected what happened instead. He felt generally, an emotion for a woman he knew he'd hurt. While Marietta kept the man on the phone, federal investigators raced to trace the call. Unfortunately, a system failure kept them from pinpointing where it was coming from. He could be anywhere, and there was no time to fix the problem before the man hung up. When Marietta learned what had happened, she was understandably upset. She feared that if her daughter was alive, they'd just lost their one chance at bringing her home.

Unfortunately, a new clue soon reinvigorated the investigation. The following month, a rancher in Montana noticed a long-distance call on his phone bill, one he'd never made. Determined to understand what had happened, he examined his phone lines and discovered that someone had messed with the wires. When the rancher reported this to police, authorities looked into the unexplained charge and quickly realized it was the anniversary call made to the Yeager House. After asking the rancher some questions, they discovered that a young contractor had recently done

some work on the ranch. David Meyerhofer. Knowing that David had communications experience in the Marines, authorities reasoned that he could have easily tapped the phone line to make the phone call. And while it seemed like a smoking gun, it was only circumstantial evidence. But it was enough for authorities to bring David in and have him take part in an audio lineup for Marietta. at a time he and other participants read quotes from the call, which were sent directly through

the phone to Marietta in Michigan. The second she heard David's voice, Marietta knew he was the man who'd called her. It was the confirmation they'd been waiting for. David was their man. But investigators knew they still didn't have enough evidence for a conviction, so they let David go free while the team regrouped. By this stage, the FBI profilers had listened to the entire recorded phone call. and expanded their analysis of David.

They guessed that he could likely be dominated by women and suspected that if he and Marietta were in the same room, she could make him confess. Once again, Marietta was ready for the challenge. So in September of 1974, she met David at an office. As instructed, she tried to take control of the situation. She said she knew David had taken her daughter and told him that she'd forgiven him,

that she just wanted to bring this saga to a close and know what had happened. Unfortunately, the plan didn't work. David kept his cool and denied any involvement in Susie's abduction. Then he walked away from the meeting, a free man. It was a frustrating setback. Investigators felt like they were so close, and they couldn't find a way to reach the finish line. But then, David finally slipped up.

Not long after Marietta returned home, she received another call. The man introduced himself as Mr. Travis and claimed that he and not David Meyerhofer had kidnapped Susie. Then, to prove his point, he played a recording of a child he claimed was Marietta's daughter. Marietta saw through the paper-thin ruse. She knew she was speaking to David. She also knew that the recording wasn't her daughter. When she refused to play his game, David became increasingly frustrated. That's when he made a mistake.

mentioned something that he and Marietta had discussed during their face-to-face meeting, inadvertently giving himself away. It took him only seconds to realize what he'd done, and in a fit of anger, he hung up. Fortunately, this time around, authorities were able to trace the call to a hotel room in Salt Lake City, Utah. They raced to the hotel, but when police arrived at the room David had rented, he was nowhere to be found. Fearing that his frustration over the phone call might make him violent. Officials obtained an arrest warrant and made their move. They eventually tracked David down and took him into custody for the abduction of Susie Yeager. Around the same time, authorities finally got a warrant to search David's property in the hopes they'd finally uncover the physical evidence

they'd long needed, but they weren't prepared for what they were about to discover. Inside David's home, they found some blood-soaked bedsheets and a horrific package inside his freezer. The parcel was marked with Sandra Smoligan's initials and contained a severed hand clutching two fingers. The stomach-churning find put all doubts to rest. David was guilty of murder. When he heard about the evidence in his client's home, the 25-year-old's attorney arranged a plea deal. If prosecutors took the death penalty off the table, David would confess. So, in the fall of 1974, David finally admitted.

to a string of murders, starting with two no one expected. He revealed that he'd first killed years earlier in 1967. That march, he'd seen two boys playing in the woods and shot one of them, 13-year-old Bernard Pullman, dead. A year later, in 1968, he came upon a Boy Scout troop at the Missouri Headwaters State Park. He explained that he initially wanted to kidnap one of the scouts, but that he'd changed his mind

and stabbed 12-year-old Michael Rainier. to death. Five years later, in 1973, David returned home from a stint in the Marines and wasted no time in finding his next victim. That summer, he came upon the Yeagers in the state park, right where he'd murdered Michael Rainey. He heard Susie and her sister chatting in their tent and waited until the girls were asleep before making his move.

Around two in the morning, he cut his way into the tent and strangled Susie until she fell unconscious. Then he took her to a nearby ranch in the Horseshoe Hills and molested her before he choked her to death. Afterwards, he dismembered and burned her body. Eight months later, in February of 1974, David broke into the home of 19-year-old Sandra Smolikin and attempted to abduct her. It's unclear if he planned on killing Sandra all along, but he told detectives that it was an accident. He covered her mouth with duct tape to keep her quiet and didn't realized that the tape was also covering her nose. While he was loading some of Sandra's belongings into her car, she suffocated to death.

Once again, David dismembered and burned his victim's body, then scattered the bone fragments on a remote ranch. But there was one part of Sandra he couldn't bear to let go. Following Susie's abduction, the FBI profilers guessed that the culprit would be tempted to keep a trophy to remember his crime. But while there's no evidence David kept anything, anything of Susie's, it's assumed that the severed hand belonged to Sandra, a woman he once pursued romantically. With his confessions finally on record, the case should have been a simple trial with a swift and decisive outcome, but it wasn't to be.

Just hours after admitting to four murders, David died by suicide in his cell. His death is puzzling, given that he'd confessed to avoid facing the death penalty. perhaps the reality of finally owning up to his crimes was too much for David's conscience. But his reasons don't change at the story's ending. David Meyerhofer was dead. As a result, the case was never brought to trial. It's possible that as a result, other information about David was lost. The details of his life and crimes are scant, making it hard to piece together a full picture. Even still, David Meyerhofer's crimes left an indelible mark on the state of Montana, and the case is well remembered as one of the earliest successes of criminal profiling.

But instead of pointing to this story as an example of a psychological guessing game that got it right, we should nurture the legacy of a mother who overcame tragedy and found renewed strength and purpose. As Marietta Yeager came to terms with her daughter's death, she discovered a sense of clarity. In the years since then, she dedicated herself to helping victims of violence, find healing and forgiving. and acceptance. For the survivors of violent crime, uncovering the truth might bring satisfaction, but it's less likely to bring peace or a semblance of closure. Punishment can feel vindicating, but forgiveness can bring healing. And as a story wraps up, one feels altogether more impressive than the other. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode.

You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Russell Nash, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro,

Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Katovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by John McDonough, with writing assistance by Jane O. and Joel Callan. Fact-checking by Haley Milliken and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hey there, Carter again. As we close out, here's a reminder to check out my new Parcast Limited Series Devious Dads. For 10 weeks, we're exposing the men who were far more flawed than fatherly,

ruining anyone who stood in their way, even their own families. Follow Devious Dads free only on Spotify. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcast this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat

on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves.

Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.