Missoula County charges man in 1990 killings of two elderly women

Two women who could not care for themselves were killed inside the same Missoula nursing home more than 36 years ago, and prosecutors now say modern DNA has finally put a name on the case. Missoula County filed two counts of deliberate homicide against Nickie Dean Gardiner in the deaths of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist, both residents at Riverside Health Care Facility, now Riverside Health and Rehabilitation, on East Broadway.

The killings were brutal and separated by two months. Bertha Scott was killed in the early morning hours of May 2, 1990, in her room at the facility. Nancy Lagerquist was taken from her room on July 1, 1990, then murdered and thrown into the Clark Fork River. Both women had dementia, and one account identified Scott as an Alzheimer’s patient.

At the time, investigators did not have the forensic tools that exist now, and no formal suspect was charged. That changed after the Montana State Crime Lab and Bode Technology reexamined preserved biological evidence over the past year and produced new DNA results. County officials say the evidence strongly links Gardiner to both victims, with one match carrying statistical support in the tens of millions. In one case, Y-chromosome evidence from fingernail clippings suggested the victim scratched her assailant.

Missoula County officials said investigators found no innocent explanation for Gardiner’s DNA being on the evidence, and they emphasized that he had no known connection to either woman. Because of the DNA findings and Gardiner’s criminal history, the state sought a $5 million arrest warrant. Gardiner, 64, lives in Clinton, Montana, and he was being held in the Missoula County Detention Facility.

Gardiner made his first court appearance in Missoula District Court on June 11, 2026, and pleaded not guilty. The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit said the murders remain an active part of its work, and the county’s case page notes that the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office recently requested the unit’s help.

For the families of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist, the case has moved from a decades-old nightmare to a courtroom fight built on preserved evidence and new science. The charges are a major step, but the question now is how far cold-case justice can go when the victims were among the most vulnerable people in the building.