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Confession reveals young man’s bizarre life of murderBOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — The confession of a 25-year-old handyman was made public on Tuesday, sketching a life of mindless murder that began with David G. Meirhofer’s highschool years and ended after four bfearre deaths and years of terror in this Montana com-imunity.Law-enforcement officers saidMeirhofer hanged himself with a jail towel on Sunday, hours after he wound up a dialogue in which he admitted murdering a 7-year old Michigan girl, his 19-year-old neighbor and two young boys. A transcript of the confession indicated Meirhofer’s first try at killing came in 1997 when he shot Bernard Poelman, 13, Bozeman,as the youth and a friend played on a bridge near Three Forks.The why of Mlerhofer’s penchant f6T slaughter was neverdirectly explored by those questioning him ip asession that cndpthe Moot'd Meirhofer w*sQBN•-Meirhofer’s victims included Poelman, March 19, 1967; Michael Raney, a Bozeman Boy Scout beaten and stabbed fatally while sleeping in a tent with other Scouts on May 5, 1968; Susan Jaeger, 7, Farmington, Mich.; and Sandra Dykman Smallegan,19, Meirhofer’s neighbor in the little community of Manhattan, Mont.Miss Jaeger was taken from a family tent at the Missouri Headwaters State Monument on June 25,1973. The tent was scant feet from the site of the' attack on the Raney boy.The confession revealed that Meirhofer , 25. -, cqoJjr^dis-membefed Mitnsaweger antrws. Smallegan and burned the tiny pieces.He told his questioners he had kept one of Mrs. Smallegan’s hands and several of her fingersin the freezer of his home for a time. ■ v-r ,’. ,He said he choked the Jaeger girl when die “got. HOsexually attack her. A death certificate for the child, whose family waited for over a year in the hope she was still alive, has never been issued. Coroner Robert D. Meyers said Tuesday he would issue a preliminary certificate but a permanent one would come only after a skull and other bones were examined by specialists.vleirhofer said Mrs. Smallegan suffocated behind a gag while he prepared to take her from the apartment.Asked why he killed die Raney boy, Meirhofer said: “...I went to the park where the Boy Scouts were camped and I was going to get somebody, and I opened the. tent and l saw this little boy, and I couldn’t force myself to take him I guetis I stabbed him in the buck;”;’ - HIfdenied hitting the youth,Anautopsy pnthe Ra-J»y ifvealed death was by(f p bard blow to thenot•*-V. '::rXV-f,aAn inquest is scheduled for Friday into the circumstances surrounding Meirhofer’s suicide.Meyers said the skull and other bones would be sent to experts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.A child’s skull was found in an outhouse on the abandoned ranch in the desolate Horseshoe Hills near Bozeman. Other bones were recovered from spots where Meirhofer told his questioners he had discarded them along a lonely rural road.FBI agent Pete Dunbar of Bozeman was the most frequently quoted voice in the transcript. Meirhofer answered most questions in monosylla es.Dunbar asked Meirhofer “abouta call the Manhattan nan had made to Mrs. Marietta Jaeger, mother of the dead girl. lt;The transcript indicated Mrs. JaegerCamp Pendleton, Calif. Dunbar said tickets to Disneyland had been found. “One of them was a child’s ticket,” he said.“Tickets to Disneyland are sold regardless of age,” Meirhofersaid.Dunbar ticked off a list of unsolved murders and disappearances in the state. Meirhofer denied committing any more than the four he was scheduled to confess formally in court on Monday.Dupbar said Meirhofer had delivered a combine to Kalispell, Mont., three days before Karen Tyler, 11, and Jessica Westphal, 9, disappeared on July 31, 1973. Meirhofer answered “no” toinvolvement.The agent said sheets and bedspreads found stored ih Meirhofer’s home yielded great quantities of human blood andbelieved Meirhofer had men- asked: “What were thejiuaed for tioned taking a little girl to Sandra or Susie?”Disneyland. He denied doing Meirhofer: *T don’t know, Istiqh. A former Mferine, didnT use tbem...They were in Meirhofer onc« was stationed at*they had been.”Dunbar never directly asked Meirhofer what motivated him to kill. In the closest to such a dialogue, Dunbar asked him why he went to the Three Forks-area campground where the Raney boy was killed.“Well, uh, I wanted, I wanted to get that little — to get a little kid,” Meirhofer said.Dunbar: “A kid. Did you, you were not looking for the Raney boy, is this correct? A boy or anychild.”Meirhofer: “Anyone.” Meirhofer said he acted alone.He said he used different hunting knives to dismember both female victims and said both knives still should be in his jeep.
Newspaper Details
Dillon Tribune Examiner
Dillon, Montana, US
Wed, Oct 02, 1974
Page 1
Full Page
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MT, USA 17 Feb 2022
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