On April 11, 1974, the quiet life of 39-year-old Donna Lorraine Pounds, a White/Caucasian female, was brutally cut short in her Missoula, Montana, home. That afternoon, after returning from her part-time job at a Christian bookstore, she was confronted by an intruder in her own bedroom. The man was armed with her husband's. 22 caliber rifle. Using a white clothesline he had brought with him, he bound and then assaulted her.
The assailant then forced Donna down to the basement of her
home. There, he tied her to a chair and shot her five times in the back of the head at point-blank range. Her husband, Harvey, discovered her body later that evening upon his return from work. The scene was disturbing, with the firearm left grotesquely positioned.
Suspicion soon fell upon Wayne Nance, an 18-year-old high school senior who was an acquaintance of the Pounds' teenage son and a frequent visitor to their home. Several eyewitnesses reported seeing Nance in the vicinity of the Pounds' residence around the time of the murder. He knew where the family kept the rifle used in the attack. Despite being questioned by police and the discovery of a latex glove at the scene, there was insufficient evidence at the time to formally charge Nance with the crime.
Wayne Nance was never arrested for the murder of Donna Pounds. He died in a shootout in December 1986 while committing another home invasion. Following his death, a search of his belongings uncovered evidence that further linked him to Donna Pounds' murder and several other homicides, solidifying his reputation as the serial killer known as the "Missoula Mauler." Though never convicted in a court of law, authorities are confident that Wayne Nance was responsible for her death.
