Clinton man pleads not guilty to 2 unsolved 1990s Missoula murders

A Clinton man had his first court appearance Thursday on charges accusing him of killing two elderly Missoula women more than 35 years ago.

Nickie Dean Gardiner, 69, was arrested on two counts of deliberate homicide Monday and taken to the Missoula jail on a $5 million bond. He appeared for arraignment before Judge Shane Vannatta in Missoula County District Court and pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The homicides have been unsolved since they occurred in 1990. But law enforcement linked Gardiner to the killings through modern technology that allowed them to reanalyze DNA evidence, according to charging documents.

The victims, 85-year-old Bertha Scott and 87-year-old Nancy Lagerquist, both lived at Riverside Health Care Center on East Broadway, since renamed Riverside Health and Rehabilitation.

According to charging documents, Scott, who had dementia, was found dead in the early morning hours of May 2, 1990. While her death was initially thought to be natural, staff from the center were left with the feeling that it was unusual.

Two months later, on July 2, 1990, Lagerquist went missing in the middle of the night, with her window screen cut. The next morning, police searching the area found her dead in the Clark Fork River. She had been sexually assaulted, with injuries that marked her death as a homicide.

Because of Lagerquist's murder and other suspicious activity reported by residents, Scott's body was eventually exhumed. An autopsy revealed that she'd been raped and strangled, and her death was reclassified as a homicide.

DNA was recovered from both women, but no suspects were identified at the time, and 1990 law enforcement didn't have the necessary technology to investigate that DNA, according to a Missoula County statement. According to an MPD press release, the case was reopened three times for further investigation.

The Missoula County Sheriff's Office's cold case unit started investigating the murders upon its founding in 2019. The group is made of retired officers from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

The group sent the DNA to the Montana State Crime Lab and outside lab Bode Technology to test the DNA collected, this time with modern technology.

In 2001, Gardiner registered as a violent offender after a partner/family member assault conviction, requiring him to provide a DNA reference to the Montana DNA Identification Index.

When the DNA was analyzed again, it matched his profile. The Montana State Crime Lab identified Gardiner as a suspect on April 2, 2025, according to charging documents, and the Missoula Police Department got a search warrant for additional DNA and fingerprints from Gardiner in December 2025.

According to charging documents, both victims had dementia and were incapable of living independently or consenting to sexual activity.

Each of the deliberate homicide charges carries a possible sentence of either life or 10 to 100 years in prison.

Gardiner's next appearance is scheduled for Aug. 20 at 1:30 p.m.