Do you know who murdered 86 year old Bertha Scott in 1990? In the spring of 1990, a sense of unease settled over the Riverside Health Care Center in Missoula, Montana. On May 2nd, Bertha Scott, an 85-year-old female resident who had moved to Missoula to be closer to her daughter, was found deceased in her bed. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, she required restraints at night to prevent wandering, and her death was initially attributed to natural causes, a seemingly peaceful end for a woman in her advanced years. There were, however, subtle and disturbing signs that something was amiss. A nurse had noticed a large, unexplained bruise on Bertha's neck, a detail that would later prove to be of grim significance. An open window that should have been secured was also discovered on the day she died.
Two months later, the quiet facility was shattered by a brutal and undeniable act of violence. Another resident, 87-year-old Nancy Lagerquist, was abducted from her room, assaulted, and her body was discovered in the nearby Clark Fork River.
This horrific event forced investigators to re-examine the circumstances surrounding Bertha Scott's death. The initial assessment of natural causes was cast into doubt, and a sinister pattern began to emerge, suggesting that both elderly women were victims of violent assaults. Authorities made the decision to exhume Bertha's body for a full autopsy.
The subsequent investigation confirmed the darkest suspicions: Bertha Scott had not died of natural causes. The autopsy revealed that she had been raped and strangled. This shocking discovery transformed her case into a homicide investigation and inextricably linked it to the murder of Nancy Lagerquist. Biological evidence was recovered from Bertha's body, providing a crucial DNA profile of the unknown assailant. Despite this scientific lead, a technology that was still novel at the time, the identity of the perpetrator remained elusive. Police explored various leads, including questioning a man seen near the facility and even considering an employee as a person of interest, but he was ultimately cleared. The case of Bertha Scott, a woman who should have been safe in her final years, remains an unsolved and haunting mystery in Missoula, a chilling testament to a predator who violated the sanctity of a place meant for care and refuge.
