On a spring day in May of 1968, 12-year-old Boy Scout Michael E. Raney was on an outdoor practice session with his troop in Missouri Headwaters State Park, Montana. The young boy was asleep in his tent when an assailant cut a hole in the side and brutally attacked him. Michael was struck in the head and stabbed under his left arm. His tentmate awoke to find the sleeping bag soaked in blood and Michael unconscious.
He was rushed to a hospital in Bozeman but never regained consciousness and succumbed to his injuries. The local law enforcement was left with a disturbing and senseless crime, and initially, there were no witnesses, no discernible motive, and no weapon found at the scene.
For years, the murder of Michael Raney remained a cold case, a painful mystery for his family and the community. The seemingly random act of violence left investigators with few leads to follow. It wasn't until the investigation into a series of other horrific crimes in the area that a suspect would emerge, and the truth behind Michael's death would come to light. The name that would become synonymous with this and other brutal acts was David Meirhofer.
David Gail Meirhofer, a man who harbored dark and violent secrets, was eventually identified as a suspect in the kidnapping of 7-year-old Susan Jaeger from the same state park in 1973. The investigation into Susan's disappearance, which involved the then-emerging technique of psychological profiling by the FBI, ultimately led them to Meirhofer. As part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty for other crimes, Meirhofer confessed to the murder of Michael Edward Raney.
Meirhofer's confession revealed the chillingly senseless nature of the crime. He admitted that he had gone to the Boy Scout camp with the intention of 'getting' a child. He told investigators that he had looked into the tent and saw a young boy, but claimed he couldn't bring himself to take him. Instead, in a fit of inexplicable violence, he stabbed and beat the defenseless boy. Meirhofer's confessions also solved the 1967 murder of 13-year-old Bernard Poelman.
Shortly after providing his detailed confessions to these and other murders, David Meirhofer took his own life in his jail cell, hanging himself with a towel before he could be brought to trial for Michael's murder. His suicide closed the chapter on his reign of terror but left a lasting scar on the communities he had victimized and provided little solace to the families of his young victims.
