Do you know who murdered 87 year old Nancy Lagerquist in 1990? In the early morning hours of July 1, 1990, a profound sense of unease settled over the Riverside Health Care Facility in Missoula, Montana. Nancy Lagerquist, an 87-year-old female resident, was discovered to be missing from her room during a routine 4:30 a.m. check. The situation was immediately alarming as Lagerquist was unable to walk on her own, making her disappearance from her bed a startling mystery.
Just an hour prior, a staff member had seen her sleeping, with no signs of anything amiss. The facility staff conducted a frantic search of the building, but Nancy was nowhere to be found.
The search soon ended in tragedy when her body was discovered in the nearby Clark Fork River, caught in some willows about 100 feet downstream from the nursing home. The manner of her death was brutal and violent. She had been taken from her room, assaulted, and then her body was discarded into the river. The investigation revealed the horrifying details of her final moments; she had been viciously attacked, and her death was the result of a savage assault. Despite the violence of the act, the river had washed away much of the potential forensic evidence, leaving investigators with very few clues to follow. The entrances to the facility had alarms, yet none were triggered that night, adding another layer of mystery to the crime.
The investigation into Nancy Lagerquist's murder has remained a cold case for over three decades, a haunting chapter in Missoula's history. Police explored various leads, focusing on individuals with connections to the nursing home, but were unable to identify a definitive suspect or make any arrests. The case took a chilling turn when investigators linked Nancy's murder to the death of another elderly resident, 86-year-old Bertha Scott, who had passed away at the same facility just a couple of months earlier. Initially, Scott's death was attributed to natural causes, but the circumstances surrounding Nancy's death prompted authorities to re-examine it. They now believe the two cases may be connected, suggesting a predator was targeting the vulnerable, elderly residents of the care facility. To this day, the murder of Nancy Lagerquist remains unsolved, and law enforcement continues to appeal to the public for any information that might finally bring her killer to justice.
