In the summer of 1949, a 39-year-old woman named Sue Ella Horn was looking for a change of scenery and a new opportunity. She placed a newspaper advertisement seeking a job as a cook on a ranch in Montana. A man named Ray Dempsey Gardner answered her ad, and on August 9, 1949, he picked her up in Butte. However, Gardner had no intention of taking her to a job.
Instead, he drove her to a secluded area outside the city with the intent to rob her.
When Gardner attempted to take her money, Sue Ella Horn bravely fought back. She refused his demands, slapped him, and tried to escape from the car, likely to alert the authorities. In response to her defiance, Gardner shot her, stole her belongings, and buried her body in a shallow grave. For a short time, her disappearance remained a mystery, another life tragically cut short without an immediate explanation.
The man responsible for Sue Ella Horn's death was a seasoned criminal with a long and violent history. Ray Dempsey Gardner had been in and out of correctional facilities for much of his life and was responsible for other murders. His spree came to an end not long after he killed Horn. On August 14, 1949, a series of reckless driving incidents led to his arrest. While investigating these traffic offenses, police discovered Sue Ella Horn's luggage and clothing in Gardner's car, raising their suspicions about her whereabouts.
Faced with mounting evidence and a polygraph test that indicated his involvement in Horn's disappearance, Ray Dempsey Gardner confessed to her murder. He led investigators to the shallow grave where he had buried her. In addition to killing Sue Ella Horn, Gardner also admitted to the murder of a 17-year-old girl in Utah and his cellmate in North Dakota years earlier. Although he was initially charged with Sue Ella Horn's murder in Montana, he ultimately stood trial for the murder of the teenage girl in Utah. A jury found him guilty, and without a recommendation for mercy, he was sentenced to death. Gardner was executed by firing squad on September 29, 1951.
