On the night of January 17, 2022, 42-year-old Luke Simpson of Columbia Falls, Montana, was found fatally shot at a residence on Flathead Drive in the Evergreen community. Deputies responded around 10 p.m. after reports of gunfire; a neighbor said they heard what sounded like eight or nine fireworks and a man’s voice, then saw two vehicles leave the area.

Detectives identified 21-year-old Tanner Doyle White of Columbia Falls from a vehicle description. Officers arrested White on January 23 during a traffic stop and recovered a firearm from his car. White told detectives he followed Simpson to the Flathead Drive residence and shot him with a 9mm handgun, saying his motive was that his fiancée had been on a date with Simpson earlier that day. White later pleaded guilty in July 2022 to an amended charge of mitigated deliberate homicide and was sentenced to 35 years on September 22, 2022.

Investigators also learned that Joseph Michael James Malinowski had been with White that night; Malinowski admitted he accompanied White and later drove Simpson’s vehicle away from the scene. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 to felony tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and received a suspended five-year sentence plus other penalties; as of February 2024 he was back in jail after prosecutors sought to revoke the suspended sentence for alleged probation violations.

Did anyone in the Evergreen area see vehicles leaving the scene that night or hear the reported fireworks-like sounds?