Clinton man arrested in 2 unsolved 1990s Missoula homicides

Law enforcement arrested a 69-year-old Clinton man Monday afternoon on suspicion of homicide related to the killing of two elderly Missoula women more than 35 years ago.

Nickie Dean Gardiner was booked for deliberate homicide and currently sits in the Missoula County Detention Center on a $5 million bond. His arrest is in connection to the murder of two elderly women in 1990, according to a search warrant obtained by the Missoulian.

Charging documents in the case said DNA evidence directly connected Gardiner to the killings, which were analyzed by an outside laboratory earlier this year.

The case involves the death of 87-year-old Nancy Lagerquist and 85-year-old Bertha Scott, who both lived at Riverside Health Care Center on East Broadway. (The facility has since been renamed Riverside Health and Rehabilitation.)

On July 2, 1990, staff members from Riverside Health found that Lagerquist had gone missing from the center in the middle of the night. Her window screen had been cut, according to reporting from the Missoulian.

Police responded and searched the area. Lagerquist was found dead in the Clark Fork River later that morning.

Scott, who died at the health center on May 2, 1990, was exhumed in August 1990 after staff from the center reported the death as unusual. Her death was then reclassified as a homicide.

Scott and Lagerquist were sexually assaulted, according to the state medical examiner, and DNA was recovered, but no suspects were identified in the initial stages of the case.

Both women had dementia and were not capable for caring for themselves, requiring them to live at the Riverside facility, and neither could legally consent to sexual intercourse, according to charging documents.

"Both murders involved elderly, demented women in the same facility. Both involved the same modus operandi of sexual violence in connection with deliberate homicide," prosecutors wrote in the case. "Both appear to involve forced entry into the nursing home from the exterior of the facility via cut/removed window screens."

A search warrant from the Missoula Police Department (MPD) on Dec. 10, 2025, showed that new testing through DNA company Bode Technology connected the DNA recovered from Scott to a potential match from Gardiner.

"There is probable cause to believe that Nickie Gardiner was involved in the death of Bertha Scott," according to the search warrant, which sought additional DNA and fingerprints.

The City of Missoula allocated an additional $3,380 to Bode Technology on May 12, 2026, according to the city's accounts payable section of the Missoula City Council agenda.

The newest DNA analysis confirmed Gardiner's DNA connected to evidence collected from both Lagerquist and Scott, according to the charging documents.

"Despite Scott's and Lagerquist's murders occurring two months apart, Gardiner's DNA was found on both victims," the charging documents said.

Prosecutors said in the documents that Gardiner has no known ties to either victim in the case, but has an extensive criminal background. He was convicted of burglary in the 1970s and multiple DUI offenses.

In 1991, the year after the murders, Gardiner was involved with a domestic violence incident between his then-wife and daughter where he brandished a pistol, according to charging documents.

He was also named as a suspect in a sexual assault involving a juvenile in 1996, but prosecutors said charges were never filed in the case.

Gardiner was convicted of felony partner/family member abuse in 2001, requiring him to register as a violent offender, which required him to provide a DNA reference to the Montana DNA Identification Index.

Gardiner is set to be arraigned in Missoula County District Court in front of judge Shane Vannatta on Thursday, June 11 at 1:30 p.m.

Law enforcement credits DNA, cold case unit 

Missoula County Chief Criminal deputy county attorney Mac Bloom said in a statement Tuesday morning that the crimes devastated families and shook the Missoula community more than three decades ago.

“Thanks to advances in DNA technology and the perseverance of investigators, we are now able to take meaningful action to seek justice for the victims," Bloom said in the statement. "Our office is committed to moving this case forward with professionalism and transparency. We sincerely appreciate the hard work of law enforcement and forensic scientists in continuing to investigate this case years after the crimes were committed.”

Missoula County said in a statement that in 1990 law enforcement and medical personnel did not have modern forensic technology to investigate the case, but biological samples were preserved for future testing.

The Missoula Police Department said the case was reopened on three occasions for additional investigation since 1990.

In the most recent investigation, Missoula Police Det. Devin Erickson worked on the most recent follow-up investigation with the Missoula County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit.

The cold case unit was established in 2019 and began to work on the Scott and Lagerquist cases in the same year. The group is made up of retired law enforcement officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The group worked with the Montana State Crime Lab and Bode Technology to conduct new DNA testing with samples from both victims bodies. Analysis showed it was highly likely the DNA originated from Gardiner.

Missoula County Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen said in a statement that the cold case unit was successful in reviewing thousands of pages of evidence through dedication and perseverance.

"Their knowledge of advanced laboratory investigation is second to none," Petersen said in the statement. "They are an invaluable resource to Missoula County. Our thoughts now turn to the family and those who were impacted by these crimes.”

*This story had an incorrect current name for Riverside Health and Rehabilitation that was provided in a county press release.