Missoula cold case homicide charges filed after DNA retesting

MISSOULA, Mont. — A Missoula homicide case from 1990 moved forward after investigators used newer DNA testing to revisit the deaths of two women at a nursing home.

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office said 64-year-old Nickie Dean Gardiner was charged with two counts of deliberate homicide in the deaths of Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist.

Authorities said both women were killed months apart in 1990 at what is now Riverside Health and Rehabilitation, formerly Riverside Health Care Center.

For decades, investigators did not identify a suspect in the case. The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office said its cold case unit started reviewing the case in 2019.

Officials said biological evidence from the original investigations had been preserved and was re-tested with modern forensic DNA techniques.

That work involved the Montana State Crime Lab, Bode Technology, the Missoula Police Department and the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office cold case unit.

Mac Bloom of the Missoula County Attorney’s Office said the outcome brought long-awaited answers.

“Finally having an answer and a conclusion of this is just really really important. We want to see justice done for the community, for the victims, for their families and I’m just really glad that we were able to solve this because anytime you have two murders like this and you don’t have a suspect, you don’t have any charges filed, people are fearful… it’s just good to have answers,” said Bloom.

Investigators said those advances in technology helped identify a suspect more than 35 years after the killings.

Gardiner was being held at the Missoula County Detention Facility while the case moved through court.