242 - The Murder of Randy Church

Twenty-three year old Randy Church was a bright, talented and driven student attending Montana State University.  Majoring in electrical engineering, Randy was excited for what opportunities the future would afford.  Living off campus in Bozeman at the time, Randy picked up a part time job at a local Pizza Hut.  He quickly was promoted to the position of shift supervisor.

On the evening of Saturday, February 9th, 1985, Randy was scheduled on a closing shift.  Locking up just after midnight, he stayed behind with one other employee to clean and prep for the next day's business.  At approximately 3 AM, Randy's co-worker left and sometime shortly thereafter, an armed individual gained entry to the restaurant.

The next morning, co-workers discovered Randy's body.  The college student had been shot two times during what appeared to have been a robbery gone wrong.  No one has ever been charged, no suspect officially named, no motive confirmed.  Was he the victim of a random crime, perhaps committed by two escaped prisoners on the run?  Was he targeted by a local violent criminal or was he murdered by someone close, perhaps a friend or co-worker?

More than forty years later, Randy's murder remains the sole unsolved homicide on the books in the city of Bozeman.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This episode is dedicated to the memoryof Dustin Schillinger. Twenty three year old
Randy Church was a kind, caring, and hard working young man attending Montana

(00:20):
State University in the city of Bozeman. A native of Montana, Randy had
come to school seeking a degree inelectrical engineering, one of his true passions.
In order to put some cash together, he'd picked up a job at
the local pizza hut, where hequickly worked his way up the chain and
obtained the position of shift supervisor.He enjoyed his work and was dedicated to

(00:42):
it, known to fellow employees asone of the most reliable and hardest working
supervisors. They had one cold andsnowy weekend in February of nineteen eighty five,
Randy had agreed to cover the closingshift of another employee who needed the
weekend off. After locking up atmidnight, Randy stayed behind to deep clean

(01:02):
the store and prep for the nextmorning's business. He allowed other employees to
go, staying by himself in therestaurant. Some time that night. By
means no one has yet determined,one or more persons entered the business and
held Randy at gunpoint after forcing himto hand over all of the available cash.

(01:23):
The assailant needlessly raised the gun andfired two shots, killing the twenty
three year old instantly. For nearlyforty years, Randy's brutal murder has remained
the sole unsolved homicide on the booksin the city of Bozeman. Despite a
diligent investigation, no suspect has everbeen officially named, and no charges have

(01:44):
ever been filed. While some believeRandy was the victim of a random crime,
a robbery gone wrong, others theorizedthat he may have been targeted by
someone he knew and thought he couldtrust. Tragically, Randy himself may have
opened the door and welcomed his killerinside, never imagining what would happen next.

(02:04):
This is Trace Evidence, Episode twoforty two, The Murder of Randy
Church. Welcome to Trace Evidence.I'm your host Stephen Pacheco. In today's
episode, we examined the mysterious andsenseless murder of twenty three year old Randy

(02:28):
Church, a smart, dedicated,and hardworking Montana State University student whose life
was cut short during an apparent latenight robbery. This is the Murder of
Randy Church. It was a coldand snowy night in Bozeman, the fourth

(02:53):
most populous city in the Big SkyCountry of Montana. Strong winds swept in
from the west and instead of thickdrafts of snow and precipitation, making the
night difficult to traverse and hard tosee through. For twenty three year old
Randy Church, it was just anothernight where he'd find himself working the closing
shift at the local pizza hut.A student at nearby Montana State University,

(03:17):
Randy was a fun, loving,kind and friendly guy who almost everyone enjoyed
being around. No one could haveever imagined that a cruel and calculating killer
would cut his life short, robbinghim of his dreams and his family of
their beloved son and brother. RandalRoy Church was born on Thursday September twenty

(03:40):
eighth, nineteen sixty one, inhar Hill County, Montana, to parents
Richard and Darlene Randall. Was thecouple's fourth child and would be the second
youngest when they rounded out the familywith the birth of their fifth. Richard
had married Darlene A have Her Nativein nineteen fifty five and supported the family

(04:00):
while working as a machinist with theGreat Northern Railway, which carried many jobs
to have her and smaller cities locatedalong the east to west corridor of US
Highway too. Richard worked a toughjob based out of a train repair and
fueling station located not far from thefamily home. Though he enjoyed his work,

(04:21):
the hours could be grueling, asfor much of his career he would
work the two to eleven PM shift. Darlene split her time, dedicating much
of it to raising the children andmaintaining the home, but she worked several
jobs in the food service industry,normally in the kitchen. According to the
Montana Review, she was the headcook of a highly popular breakfast restaurant,

(04:45):
the Pancake House. Randall, orRandy, as almost everyone in his life
referred to him, was very closeto his mother and often accompanied her to
work, as well as on visitsto the train depot, where they would
deliver home cos dinner to Richard onhis lunch breaks. According to friends and
family, from a young age,Randy was always a kind, fun,

(05:08):
loving and caring person who had aclose connection with his family. His brother
Rick explained quote Randy was the mostsensitive of the siblings. He was the
person who kept the family connected andwho could relate to everyone in the family.
Dad was a hard guy, andRandy would communicate and connect with everyone,
including our father. End quote,Smart, sensitive, and determined.

(05:33):
Randy love being together with his siblingsand parents, as well as out having
fun with a large circle of friendsthat was always expanding. According to the
Montana Review, Randy loved spending timerunning around outside, riding bikes and playing
hide and seek, but an asthmadiagnosis would require him to curtail some of

(05:53):
that activity due in part to spendinga little more time inside, Randy developed
a keen interest in electronics and computers, learning about circuitry and soldering. His
interests were not limited only to homebased systems, though, as he also
developed a love for engines and musclecars. Randy was described by many people

(06:14):
in his life as creative, selfmotivated, industrious. He wasn't the type
to wait for things to happen.He was more focused on doing what he
could to achieve his own goals.When he was younger and didn't have access
to money outside of an allowance,he disregarded the idea of store bought gifts
and instead devoted his time and energyto doing something nice like waxing his father's

(06:36):
truck. For instance, when hedid want a little pocket change, he
didn't ask his parents, but insteadwent out and got hired on as a
shoeshine boy at a local barber shop. As a teenager, Randy would attend
have Her high school, where heperformed very well academically. He had a
zest for life and often wanted tobe out, having a good time with

(06:59):
friends and getting his hands dirty underthe engine, but he never sacrificed his
education, working hard and studying beforehe went out. His brother Robert explained,
quote, I was one year olderthan Randy, but we were in
the same grade. Because I gotleft back. We were in the same
classes. Randy was always very balanced. I'd come home and he'd be studying.

(07:20):
He could party and still do wellin school end quote. Looking for
more money as he got older,Randy was hired on at the Iron Horse
restaurant, where he worked as adishwasher and busboy. Later on, he'd
follow in his mother's footsteps, takingon the role of cook, and at
one point he ended up working besideDarlene while she was hired to help run

(07:43):
the kitchen. Randy seemed to presentalmost an equal balance between his parents,
having an innate ability with machinery andcircuitry like his father, as well as
a zest and drive in the foodand care service industries like his mother.
By the time Randy go he graduatedfrom Haver High, his interest had become
a little more mature, as hetraded in bikes and running around outside for

(08:07):
motorcycles, dirt bikes, and rafting, with his interest in electronics never wavering.
When he applied to attend Northern MontanaCollege in the spring of nineteen eighty
two, he listed his interest asmotorcycling, rafting, and computer programming,
specifically for labor and payroll systems.He would go on to attend Northern Montana

(08:28):
for just two semesters from the fallof eighty two until the spring, but
the university didn't offer everything he wantedto pursue, and so he changed his
focus, applying to and ultimately beingaccepted into Montana State University, where he
matriculated as an electrical engineer major.Located in Bozeman, the seat of Gallatin

(08:48):
County, some two hundred and seventymiles south of have Her, Randy was
extremely excited about all of the newopportunities and the greater and more vast curriculum
offered by the school. Bruce McLeod, a former professor, was impressed by
Randy's work, ethic, and determination, later noting quote, he worked awfully

(09:09):
hard to get through school. Hewas a typical kid from Montana. He
knew how to work, and heknew what he wanted end quote, as
he always did. Randy performed extremelywell at MSU and somehow managed to balance
his busy class schedule with friends,adventures, and depart time job. In

(09:31):
the fall of eighty three, hepicked up work at a Bozeman area pizza
hut located along Main Street. Itwas a short distance from campus and gave
Randy the ability to make a littlemoney normally on the weekends. Coworkers noted
that Randy was extremely hard working andoften went above and beyond his job requirements,
quickly being promoted as he was notjust your average college employee. He

(09:54):
began as a waiter, was promotedto cook, and ultimately became a shift
super. This was a position whichcarried heavier responsibilities, such as balancing the
books, adjusting sales, and workingto maximize payroll. When Randy returned to
MSU for the fall semester in nineteeneighty four, he returned to work at

(10:15):
the restaurant on campus. He excelledin his classes and really seemed to be
coming into his own. By theend of the semester, he'd earned three
a's and one B for a GPAof three point four. In addition to
performing well academically, he was nominatedto become a member of Tau Beta Pi,
an engineering honor society. He returnedhome to have her for the holidays

(10:39):
that year, celebrating with friends andfamily. No one had any way of
knowing at the time that it wouldbe the last Christmas the Church family would
celebrate together without the grief and lossof their brother and son. The spring
semester of nineteen eighty five began withouta hitch for Randy. He quickly acclaimed

(11:00):
to his new classes and picked upwork again at Pizza Hut. As his
plate had become a little more fullwith classes becoming deeper and more intricate.
He had his schedule set so thathe worked around fifteen hours a week.
Only by this point in time,Randy was one of the restaurant's most dedicated
shift supervisors and one of the mostreliable and trusted employees of that pizza Hut,

(11:22):
located at twenty three hundred West MainStreet, a little more than one
mile from campus. Another shift supervisorat the store had requested the weekend of
February ninth and tenth off, andso Randy agreed to take over his hours,
where he was scheduled to close onSaturday the ninth and open on the
morning of Sunday the tenth. Randyhad opened and closed many times in the

(11:45):
past, so this wasn't exactly outof the ordinary. However, as fate
would have it, Randy would bethe target of a senseless and violent crime,
leaving him to be discovered dead thatSunday morning. Reports of the time
time state that Saturday the ninth wasa normal busy day for the College area
Pizza Hut. There was a steadyflow of customers in and out of the

(12:07):
dining room, many of them collegestudents beginning their night of partying or grabbing
something to eat on the way backto campus. The restaurant made a lot
of its money through delivery at thetime, with the dorms and student housing
being the busiest areas. Saturdays wereknown to be busy nights for the restaurant,
and this Saturday was no different.At the time, the stores operating

(12:30):
hours for Saturday night had delivery andtakeout offers ending at eleven pm, while
the restaurant itself closed at midnight.A little after midnight, transitioning to Sunday
the tenth Randy shut down the frontlights and locked both the front and back
doors of the building. From thispoint forward, nighttime cleaning began, which

(12:50):
typically entailed wiping down tables, sweepingthe dining area, cleaning the kitchen,
scrubbing out the ovens, and preppingfor the next day's opening shift. Acording
to one coworker, Randy was knownas a slow closer. He didn't half
ass his work, and he wasn'tgoing to leave the store below his own
standards, and so those who werescheduled to close with him knew it would

(13:13):
usually take a little longer than normal. According to the time cards, Randy
decided to send most of the employeeshome just after midnight, keeping one behind,
simply because it was against company policyfor an employee to be in the
restaurant alone. For reasons that havenever been completely explained, if in fact,

(13:33):
an answer is known. The timeclock also reveals that Randy was still
present in the store three hours later, when at three am, he allowed
the other employee to leave. Whileinvestigators would later interview this employee, few
if any, details would ever berevealed. The employee has never been named,

(13:54):
nor have they taken part in anyinterviews or discussions about Randy or the
crime. One question this person mightpossess, which is seemingly very valuable to
the investigation, is why exactly ifRandy chose to let him go while he
stayed behind alone. It's been theorizedthat since he was opening the next morning,

(14:16):
he may have decided to do someof his schoolwork and then sleep in
the office. He was scheduled toarrive Sunday morning at nine thirty, so
he may have simply decided it mademore sense to sleep there for six hours
rather than going home and having toget less sleep. It is curious to
many who have examined this case thatthis detail has never been revealed, if

(14:37):
known. What kept Randy there thatnight is one of several lingering questions which
continue to haunt the investigation and hisfamily. At approximately nine thirty am on
that Sunday morning, an opening employeearrived at the restaurant but found the door
locked. Knocking, he received noresponse, and so he made his way

(14:58):
around on to the back door,but again could get no answer. Frustrated,
the employee went to a nearby payphone and dialed up restaurant manager Jeff
Pierce. Pierce, awakened that Sundaymorning, immediately had a bad feeling.
It wasn't exactly uncommon for a PizzaHut employee to be late or to not
show up at all, but Randyhad always been incredibly responsible and reliable.

(15:24):
If he hadn't made it to therestaurant and hadn't called to explain why,
Pierce assumed something had to have beenwrong. He never imagined it would be
a fatal situation. Arriving at therestaurant at approximately ten am, Pierce unlocked
the door and he and the scheduledemployee walked inside. They were quickly confronted

(15:46):
by a grizzly scene. Randy,clearly the victim of a shooting, lie
motionless in close proximity to a cashregister and the safe. It was apparent
from those first moments that the brighttalented and caring twenty three year old was
dead. Pierce quickly dialed nine toone one and frantically detailed the horrible scene.

(16:07):
Randy's murder would become infamous, notjust for the fact that it remains
unsolved to this day, but atthe time, he was the first victim
of a homicide inside of Bozeman's citylimits in over eight years. Investigators arriving
on the scene quickly identified two smallcaliber gunshot wounds in Randy's head. Galladin

(16:29):
County Coroner Dors Fischer, upon conductingthe autopsy, would identify one wound in
Randy's right cheek and a second inthe back of the neck. Interestingly,
the death certificate would later note quotedeceased was shot in the head from two
directions end quote. The gunshots hadnot exited Randy's skull, and the coroner

(16:49):
managed to recover the bullets, identifiedas twenty two caliber and estimated that the
twenty three year old's time of deathhad occurred at approximately three am, right
around the same time that that otheremployee had left. Two bullets would be
shipped out to the state crime Labin Missoula for further examination. On Sunday,

(17:11):
morning. As the news quickly spread, investigators noted that it was too
early for them to have developed anymotive or suspects, and that any information
would be put together pending their examinationof the scene and interviews with potential witnesses.
Sergeant Ron Green, one of Boseman'spolice department's most experienced investigators, was

(17:33):
placed in charge of the case whilehis career had been winding down and he
was approaching retirement. His work onthis case would cause him to push his
retirement date back several times as hebecame deeply enveloped in trying to determine who
had killed Randy and why. Examinationof the scene seemed to indicate the possibility
of a robbery gone wrong. Twentytwo caliber shell casings were recovered at the

(17:57):
scene, suggesting the shooter had leftlikely used a semi automatic handgun. Working
with the restaurant manager, police wereable to confirm that a small amount of
money was missing from the store,but strangely, Randy's wallet was still in
his pocket and hadn't been touched.There was no evidence of a struggle,
nothing to easily explain why gunfire mighthave occurred, and the autopsy failed to

(18:22):
find any wounds on the body tosuggest any type of a fight or struggle.
While investigators tried to wrap their headsaround why someone would kill a young
man to rob a restaurant but nottake his wallet, Sergeant Green was trying
to figure out just how in thehell the shooter had gotten inside. The
front door was securely locked, aswas the back as evidenced by the fact

(18:44):
that the employee that morning couldn't getin. It began to seem as though
Randy had to have opened a doorand allowed the killer inside. While the
front door of the restaurant was glassand allowed Randy to see who was there,
the back door used by employees hada peepole, but with the blowing
snow and the darkness with no lightsin the parking lot, employees noted it

(19:07):
was often difficult to actually see anyonethrough that peepole. It was theorized that
Randy was either expecting someone that nightand opened the door to a knock only
to find an armed assailant, orperhaps that the person who killed Randy was
in fact someone he knew. Throughinterviews, they would later learn it was
not uncommon for friends and coworkers tovisit late at night via that back door.

(19:33):
By the morning of Monday, Februaryeleventh, investigators were working on several
different leads. Saturday night had beena busy one for crime in Bozeman and
the surrounding area, and investigators weretrying to determine if there was any possibility
that the crimes could all be connected. At approximately nine pm, someone carrying
a small caliber weapon, possibly atwenty two, had robbed a town pump

(19:57):
gas station in Livingstone, in lessthan thirty miles east of Bozeman. The
suspect had worn a paper bag overhis head and garbage bags over his clothing,
and had fled the scene after theattendant handed over the money from the
register. The suspect was described asstanding approximately six feet three inches tall and

(20:18):
weighing around one hundred and seventy fivepounds. There was also a break in
in burglary reported at another town pumpgas station, this time in Bozeman itself.
Few details were released, however,it was noted that nine hundred and
eleven dollars was stolen and the gasstation was located just three tenths of a
mile from the Pizza Hut southwest alongMain Street or what Google maps determined to

(20:42):
be a seven minute walk. Thissecond crime, the one in Bozeman,
pequd the interest of investigators, whowondered if the suspect had broken into the
gas station and then walked over tothe Pizza Hut, assumed it was empty,
and broke in only to find Randyinside. Unfortunately, unlike the crime

(21:02):
in Livingstone, they had no witnesses, no details about the suspect, and
seemingly no solid information about exactly whattime the crime had occurred, making it
difficult to try and link it toany of the other crimes. In hopes
of obtaining more information and potential witnesses, the Bozeman Police Department sent information regarding
the crime to different law enforcement agenciesacross the state and to the local media.

(21:27):
Pizza Hut, in hopes of assisting, offered a one thousand dollars reward
for information leading to the arrest andconviction of the killer or killers. A
fund was set up to grow thereward money, allowing for donations to be
made through the Bank of Bozeman.While the restaurant would stay closed throughout Sunday
and Monday, when investigators finished workingthe scene, it was scheduled to open

(21:51):
again on the morning of Tuesday,February twelve. Back on the home front,
things were difficult for Randy's parents andsiblings. They were devastated by the
news of his murder and went througha gamut of emotions. They wanted to
know why someone had murdered such akind and loving young man, a brother
and son who would never harm someoneelse. At the time, the family

(22:14):
wasn't ready to do much press,but Randy's sister Ruby would be quoted by
the Montana Standard saying, quote,he was good and never hurt anybody.
He cared. He cared a lotabout people end quote. Randy's body was
returned to his native have Her anda funeral was held on Thursday, February
fourteenth, Valentine's Day, at theHolland and Bonin Chapel. Randy was laid

(22:41):
to rest in Highlands Cemetery, beneaththe stone with his photograph and shrine there.
A memorial service was also held forRandy at the Danforth Chapel on the
campus of MSU, where many professorsand fellow students came to show their love
and share their grief. In responseto the terrible crime. The college initiated

(23:02):
an annual scholarship in Randy's name.It was a difficult time for the Church
family, and it would only growmore painful each day his killer went unidentified
and free. Sergeant Ron Green notedthat they had been receiving a lot of
calls, some from people who believedthey had information, others from different law
enforcement departments seeking details of the crimeto compare to their own unsolved murders and

(23:27):
robberies. Unfortunately, much of theinformation relayed was quickly ruled out, As
Sergeant Green explained, quote, wesent out a teletype and people are responding
to it. We've also had alot of calls from local people who thought
they might have seen things, butso far the times don't match end quote.

(23:48):
While many of the law enforcement agenciescontacting Bozeman were within the state of
Montana, they did receive a ballisticsrequest from min not North Dakota, six
hundred miles northeast of the city.On Friday, February ninth, an elderly
couple had been murdered and local investigatorswere desperate for any possible leads. While

(24:11):
Bozeman police sent over their information,Sergeant Green didn't think there would likely be
a connection because it appeared a differenttype of weapon had been used in that
crime. They would also receive callsfrom Tucson and Phoenix, but again details
simply didn't match up well enough tosuggest any connections. Despite a lack of
developments, Green noted they were stillworking on a lot of different angles and

(24:34):
there were four officers assigned to thecase. He would tell the Billings Gazette,
quote, things are moving along inthe investigation. We are eliminating a
lot of things right now. We'vereceived a lot of calls and we will
follow them up. We're not lostend quote. Several weeks would pass with

(24:55):
investigators continuing to gather evidence and information. On Monday, February twenty fifth,
Livingston police got a break in theirinvestigation into the town pump robbery and apprehended
twenty five year old James Allen Livermore. Reportedly, Livermore had previously been in
possession of a twenty two caliber semiautomatic handgun, though he did not have

(25:17):
it on him at the time ofhis arrest. The Missoula County Sheriff's Department
assisting the Livingston PD, recovered thepistol from a local resident who reported that
Livermore had borrowed the weapon from himprior to the crime. Livermore was charged
with robbery for threatening the gas attendantwith the gun and escaping with seven hundred
dollars. While he was held incustody, investigators from Bozeman were able to

(25:42):
question him about Randy's crime, thoughLivermore claimed he had no knowledge of it
and had not been involved. Therobbery weapon was sent to the crime lab
in Missoula so that it could becompared to the bullets and shells recovered from
Randy's murder. A week later,though, the report came back that the
bullets which had killed Randy had notbeen fired from Livermore's gun, and while

(26:04):
that eliminated one potential avenue for investigators, it allowed them to focus on several
others. Curiously, it would bea pair of escaped convicts from New Mexico
that would quickly become the targets ofintense scrutiny from the Bozeman Police Department,
as well as the FBI. Fiftythree year old Ray Scrivener and thirty seven

(26:27):
year old Mark Saint Clair, alongwith several others, escaped from a state
prison in Albuquerque on Monday, Januaryseventh. After splitting up from the others,
Shrivener and Saint Clair stole a beigenineteen eighty three Mazda in Colorado and
began heading north, with their goalbeing to cross into Canada. The two

(26:48):
men were apprehended by the Royal CanadianMounted Police on February twenty first, at
which time it was learned that theyhad crossed the border the day after Randy
was murdered. A map recovered intheir stolen vehicle had a route drawn on
it which traveled north from Colorado,entering Montana along Highway eighty seven southeast of
Billings, and then continuing west toBosman. Several witnesses would come forward telling

(27:15):
Bozeman police they had seen two similarlooking men in the vicinity of the Pizza
Hut the night Randy was killed.Scrivener was serving a twenty year sentence for
armed robbery and kidnapping, while SaintClair was serving a thirty year sentence for
the murder of a deputy sheriff.Sergeant Ron Green traveled to Canada to question

(27:36):
the two escapees before they could beextradited back to the United States. Green
arrived on Monday, March eighteenth,and was able to interview both men,
whom he would go on to describeas the most likely suspects. He stated
that the men were linked to thecrime by several details, the map in
their vehicle, which he further expandedon, saying that it showed they had

(27:57):
traveled from Billings to Bow and backto Billings the night of the murder.
Sergeant green obtained the suspect's fingerprints,which were sent out to be compared to
prince obtained at the Pizza Hut.Unfortunately, with it being a public restaurant,
there were a lot of fingerprints tosort through. However, another detail

(28:18):
caught Greene's attention and caused him tolook deeper at the suspects. When Randy
had been killed, there was quitea bit of snow on the ground in
Bozeman, and police had taken multiplephotographs of unidentified tire prints in the restaurant
parking lot. Believing that the tireson the stolen Mazda matched up closely with
the prints at the scene, greentook the tires with him when he flew

(28:40):
back to the United States, atwhich time they were sent to the FBI.
For analysis. In comparison, Greennoted they had found footprints in the
snow at the pizza hut, andthey appeared to match up with the shoe
sizes of the two prison escapees.While would likely be impossible to get a
conclusive match, Green, they notedone of the men wore a size fourteen

(29:02):
plus shoe and the other a muchsmaller shoe, and these were very similar
to the prince left in the snow. According to Green, another thing that
made him suspicious occurred during his interviews. One of the suspects scoffed at the
idea of robbing a pizza hut,reportedly saying, quote, how much money
would a pizza place have? Nomore than nine hundred dollars end quote.

(29:26):
Interestingly enough, the actual amount stolenfrom the restaurant totaled eleven hundred, Pretty
close, Sergeant Green thought. Itwas around this time that investigators revealed a
detail of the crime that they hadpreviously kept under wraps. Following their examination
of the restaurant, investigators had recoveredboth the bank bag and the check bag

(29:47):
utilized by that pizza hut. Thebags were found along jack Rabbit Lane near
Belgrade less than ten miles northwest fromthe crime scene. These checks were also
sent into the FBI for analysis,as investigators hoped to try and match fingerprints
with the prison escapees, but atthis point the investigation drew to a dramatically

(30:08):
slow pace. Awaiting the results oftests from the FBI would take months longer
than expected. In July, fivemonths after the murder, Boseman police still
did not have any solid information.Asked about the delay from the FBI,
a spokesperson for the LAB in Washingtonnoted that it was very difficult to compare

(30:30):
the tire tracks because of all ofthe different patterns through the various manufacturers.
While the tire tracks were still upin the air, the FBI did return
that they had been unable to uncoverany fingerprints off of the twenty five checks
that investigators had sent in. Accordingto the lab, the results of all

(30:51):
fingerprint testing was inconclusive that struck SergeantGreen as difficult to accept. He would
later note in a letter to theeditor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that he
found it highly unlikely they'd been unableto find even a single print from the
pizza place where everyone has grease ontheir fingers, not even employee prints were

(31:11):
found on the checks. It didn'tmake a lot of sense to the season
detective. Although Sergeant Green sent allof his information about the two suspects into
the District Attorney's office, they electednot to hold a hearing, nor to
even bring the suspects to Bozeman foradditional questioning. Green would later state,
quote, the Gallatin County Attorney,Marty Lambert, decided not to bring them

(31:36):
to Bozeman for a hearing. Theywere being returned to prison in New Mexico,
and they were being charged for escapeend quote. Sadly, the two
men were returned to New Mexico,and while Green believed they were likely firmed
suspects, the bureaucracy of prosecutors andthe red tape of differing states seems to
have won out over the search forjustice. Sergeant Green would later express his

(32:00):
unfiltered opinion, noting his belief thatRandy's murder went unsolved because of politics and
money. He explained, quote,I really did believe they were involved.
Without my testimony at a hearing,I was lost and felt it was the
Gallatin County attorney who did not wantto waste his time if they were returning
to prison anyway. End quote.Green wasn't alone in his beliefs, with

(32:24):
many feeling that the decision had beenmade not to charge the men or pursue
further investigation because they were going backto prison and would likely never get out,
and so some may have seen itas a waste of time and money
to try and convict men who werealready locked up for the rest of their
lives. As you can imagine,no one who worked the investigation or who

(32:46):
knew and loved Randy, found thatto be even remotely close to a satisfactory
decision. Instead, investigators were toldthere was not enough evidence to link the
men to the crime and they wouldneed to pursue avenues. Progress was slow.
With the escapees off the board,investigators were reset back to square one.

(33:08):
The summer and fall would pass withno new developments or leads, or
at least none that were noteworthy enoughto catch headlines in the local or national
media. Then, in December,ten months after the murder, a new
suspect emerged. Nineteen year old MichaelLane Nicholson, formerly of Livingstone, was

(33:30):
arrested and charged with a murder inWyoming. Randy Dean Reddog of Wolf Point
had been beaten to death in YellowstonePark, not far from Old Faithful,
in the summer of nineteen eighty four. While Nicholson sat in a Cheyenne area
jail, a cell May told authoritiesthat the nineteen year old had told him

(33:50):
that he had been involved in Randy'smurder. Authorities notified the FBI, who
arrived to interview Nicholson, but thesuspect refused to discuss anything about the murder
and denied any involvement. Interestingly,just weeks prior to the murder, Nicholson
had been arrested and charged with robbingthe Heritage in in Bozeman, located just

(34:10):
two and a half miles east ofthe Pizza Hut. Nicholson would be found
guilty of the crime, with investigatorsnoting that no weapon had been used.
He was placed on probation and wasout on his own recognisus when the murder
took place. Nicholson had previously beena suspect in an arson case targeting Livingston
Middle School and was later charged withburglarizing a Livingston area grocery store the same

(34:37):
night as that fire. Regardless ofhis extensive criminal history and having committed similar
crimes. Nicholson was never conclusively linkedto Randy's murder. Without new suspects or
new evidence, investigators turned their attentionback to the crime scene and the question
that they believed was a lynchpin inthis case, how had the killer gained

(35:00):
entry to the restaurant. The backdoor was believed to have been the most
likely entry point, since Randy couldhave seen the assailant through the glass at
the front door. Also, theback door was frequently used when friends and
coworkers came to visit. However,some noted that the back door was not
necessarily the most secure either. Whilethe door was always locked at midnight,

(35:23):
there may have been a defect withthe latch. Susie Williams, a friend
of Randy's who was dating a PizzaHut employee at the time of the murder,
noted that she had been present ondifferent occasions after closing when customers had
wandered in through that back door.Apparently, the door would lock behind people
as they left, but if itdidn't close properly, it simply wouldn't lock.

(35:46):
Asked her thoughts about the murder,Williams was baffled, noting how liked
and friendly Randy was, she toldthe Montana Review quote, unless it was
something extremely personal no one knew about, I couldn't think of any reason someone
would want to do that to Randyend quote. Unfortunately, the case began

(36:07):
growing cold, and it went froman active investigation to one which was worked
on when time allowed, to findingits way into the filing cabinet where cold
cases were stored. In April ofnineteen eighty seven, two years and two
months after the murder, Sergeant StanTenney announced that a team which often tackled
cold and unsolved cases, the RockyMountain Information Network, had agreed to study

(36:32):
the case. Tenny noted the teamwould be given access to investigative files in
an attempt to determine if there wasany evidence or leads missed, or angles
of investigation that had not been fullypursued. Asked about the theory revolving around
the two prison escapees and the statusof the case two years later, Tenny

(36:52):
replied, quote, they were noteliminated as suspects, but there's not enough
to charge them. We're hoping foror break in the case to help us
solve it. We have so fewclues and nobody who can really tell us
what happened. It's very frustrating.It's serious and drastic enough that a guy
says, this case must be solved, but he can't spend all of his

(37:15):
time on it end quote. Tennywent on to state that the case deeply
frustrated him, saying he was completelyboggled by it. While it was not
what anyone wanted to hear, especiallythe family, Tenny noted that sadly,
some cases never get solved. Thecold case review did not appear to dredge

(37:37):
up any new information leads or suspects, or at least none which were revealed
to the public. Six months later. In October of nineteen eighty seven,
Randy's father, Richard, conducted ashort interview with the Montana Standard. He
made it clear that the murder ofhis son had devastated him, but simultaneously
expressed his frustration with a system hefelt had failed to find the killer.

(38:00):
Richard stated he had little faith policewould solve the case, and even if
they did, he didn't believe truejustice would be delivered. He explained.
Quote, if they do find theguy, they won't do anything about it.
They'll throw him in prison. Andfeed the sucker, and that ain't
good enough. In my book.They should catch the guy and give him

(38:21):
the same medicine he gave my son, and I'd like to do it.
End quote. From this point forward, the status of Randy's case and what
work being done was severely limited.When tips came in, they would be
pursued, and the file would begone through periodically, but it appeared to
be little more than a matter ofprotocol rather than a devoted and passionate investigation.

(38:45):
For the Church family, they couldnever forget, and while they grappled
with the loss of their brother andson, they found themselves frustrated by the
inability of investigators to solve the caseor even bring charges. It would turn
out that the pain and grief wastoo much for Richard and Darlene, who
would divorce. Richard remained at haveher, while Darlene sought a new environment

(39:07):
from which to start a new life. Randy's sister Ruby would later note that
throughout their childhoods, their father hadbeen somewhat distant and difficult to get close
to, while Darlene had always beenopen and warm. In the aftermath of
Randy's death, they had seemed toreverse roles, with Richard drawing his children
closer to him. As Darlene withdrew, she moved to Idaho and remarried,

(39:31):
trying to put the pieces of herlife back together. Sadly, Richard passed
away at the age of seventy sevenon Saturday, October thirtieth, twenty ten.
To his last day, he desperatelyhoped that someday the answers would be
found and justice would be served.He had spent much of his free time

(39:51):
visiting the grave of his son,and after his passing, Richard was interred
beside Randy, with the two sharinga simple stone that reach D's father son
together forever. Darlene passed seven yearslater on Thursday, September seventh, twenty
seventeen, at the age of eightyin Boise. Neither parent ever learned the

(40:13):
truth nor saw justice for their belovedson, and while they had moved forward
with their lives and tried to liveto the best of their abilities, a
never ending pain and grief remained withthem for the rest of their days.
Three of Randy's four siblings would goon to name one of their children after
their beloved brother. As the decadesrang on, They participated in interviews,

(40:37):
gave quotes to local papers, andurged investigators to finally solve the case.
The case was once again being lookedover by cold case investigators in November of
twenty ten, but considering the absenceof solid physical evidence, there was little
that could be re examined. Giventhe emergence of new and advanced forensic technologies

(41:00):
of twenty twenty one, thirty sixyears after Randy was murdered, Detective Benjamin
King made an appeal to the publicfor information. He, along with Detective
Joseph Swanson, were digging back intothe case in hopes of unearthing something,
finding some clue or lead that hadpreviously been missed, but both acknowledged if
the case was to be solved,they would need help from outside of their

(41:22):
investigation. Detective Swanson explained to KBZKNews seven, saying, quote, anything
anyone has to tell us, wewill listen to you, no matter how
small. You will not be botheringus. The DNA evidence can only be
as good as what the piece ofpaper tells us, because we want to

(41:43):
find out what the motive was orwhat all those other specifics are behind it.
End quote investigators were joined by thefamily and their call for assistance in
finding the truth of who killed Randyand why. Speaking to News seven,
Randy's sister Ruby p quote, somebodyout there knows something somewhere. They've got

(42:05):
to My biggest question is why.What was so important that you had to
kill him. If you know something, you've got to come forward. You've
got to be coming forward. Somebodyknows something, and we just want answers.
End quote. Ruby was joined byher brothers, Robert and Rick,

(42:25):
who hoped that someone would finally comeforward to tell what they knew. It
was unlikely that all of these yearslater there weren't people out there with some
knowledge of the crime, even ifonly on the periphery. Rick struggled to
accept how much time had passed andhow little progress had been made. He
explained, quote, I think ifwe had known it was going to go

(42:46):
for so long, we would havedone things differently. Here we are thirty
six years later and still no answers. If they are still around, they
need to pay the price. Endquote. The latest information from investigators came
out in October of twenty twenty one, when detectives noted they were continuing to

(43:07):
work the case, and while theycould not reveal details about new information uncovered
or what angles they were pursuing,they did note that the more attention the
case got, the more tips andtrickles of information they would receive. As
of today, Randy's murder remains thesole unsolved homicide on the Books and Bozeman

(43:27):
for the last fifty years. Aten thousand dollars reward for information remains in
place, and investigators have both atip line and an email address where tips
and leads can be submitted. Twentythree year old Randall Roy Randy Church was
murdered at the Bozeman Pizza Hut twentythree hundred West Main Street at approximately three

(43:51):
am on the morning of Sunday,February tenth, nineteen eighty five. Randy
was working a closing shift and wasalone in the restaurant, following an employee
leaving around three am. Police havenever determined how the killer or killers gained
entry, whether let Randy let themin, or if it may have been
someone he knew and trusted. Thekiller utilized a semi automatic twenty two caliber

(44:15):
pistol and shot Randy twice. Themurder was senseless and needless, as Randy
did not appear to refuse the suspectsorders to hand over the store's money from
that night, and no sign ofa struggle was found. While robbery is
considered the primary motive, others believeit may have been part of a cover
up to protect the identity of someonewho may have known Randy and remained in

(44:38):
Bozeman after the crime was committed.Thirty nine years have passed since Randy Church
was brutally murdered while working at PizzaHut. Over all of that time,
no charges have been filed, nosuspects confirmed. There have been different names
considered at different times, but there'snever been enough to move beyond the realm

(44:59):
of speculation. For Sergeant Green,he remains convinced the two prison escapees were
responsible, but he acknowledged that therewasn't enough evidence to prove it beyond a
reasonable doubt. Others believed Michael Nicholsonwas involved, though he could never be
conclusively connected. Still yet others believethat the killer is a name which is

(45:21):
never made it into newspaper articles andreports, perhaps a coworker, maybe even
that same person who moved into Randy'sformer apartment shortly before his murder. One
thing seems for certain, someone knowssomething, and unless they come forward,
Randy and his family may never findthe answers they so desperately seek. Asked

(45:44):
about the crime remaining unsolved all ofthese decades later, Randy's brother Bob told
News seven, quote, for peoplethat may know something about this, if
they could imagine if they had someonethat they really loved that it had that
happen to them, how would theyfeel. Imagine someone is taken away from

(46:04):
you and someone knows something about it, you'd want them to speak up too,
because it's totally wrong. Because someonetook him away for no freaking reason.
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(48:23):
com slash trace. Nearly forty yearshave passed since twenty three year old Randy
Church was violently and senselessly murdered.Sadly, for the vast majority of that
time, there have been few breakthroughsand developments tracking the case. It was

(48:44):
active for the first two years,and then, for whatever reason, things
began falling off. A lack ofevidence, a lack of tips, a
lack of avenues to explore. Astime moved forward. For the residents of
Bozeman, it was frozen. ForRandy's family and friends, they couldn't understand
how someone could commit such a heinousand needless crime and just walk away without

(49:07):
ever being captured or even identified.Perhaps what stung most was knowing that after
those first few years, the casegrew dormant and it didn't seem like anyone
was really trying to find Randy's killer. The case had grown cold, and
newspapers even saw it as old news. Across the last four decades, they've

(49:30):
been outspoken and have urged both thelocal community and police to do whatever is
necessary to solve the case and tobring their brother's killer to justice. Several
theories developed Over the years, differentpeople were considered suspects, but there was
never a charge filed or an arrestmade. For investigators, it always seemed

(49:51):
that they were just one key pieceof evidence away from being able to move
forward, but it never materialized.The FBI was unable to match the tire
prints to the tires taken off theprison escapees car. No fingerprints were recovered
from the checks found after the murder. They never found the murder weapon and
have been unable to match the slugor shells to any gun that they've tested.

(50:15):
In twenty fifteen, investigators began talkingabout DNA and sought to get samples
from members of the family, butwhat that DNA was compared to has never
been explained. Investigators have mentioned runningold evidence through new technology, but they've
never made clear what that evidence is. While detectives have expressed the importance of

(50:37):
keeping some information close to the vestthe family has been frustrated by the utter
lack of transparency and have sought tofind answers to questions they've been asking since
nineteen eighty five. While the familyhas been very cordial about the investigation publicly
and how it was handled, it'sclear as time has gone on that they

(50:59):
may regret the way things were done, and in hindsight they wish it had
been handled differently. In an unsolvedcase like this, where a young man
is murdered at work in a publiclocation at a time when he probably shouldn't
even have been there, it's hardto imagine it was just random. Many
people think there has to be someconnection between Randy and his killer, with

(51:21):
police arguing that the only way thekiller got inside that pizza hut was to
have been either let in by Randyor if the door wasn't latched right.
As you might imagine, a lotof different theories have developed over these thirty
nine years. Only one really receiveda lot of coverage and in depth investigation
into this day. Remains the primarytheory held by original investigator Ron Green,

(51:46):
the theory that Randy was killed bythe duo of prison escapees Ray Scrivner and
Mark Saint Clair. From the getgo, the two pretty much fit the
bill of the kind of suspects youmight be looking for in this case.
Saint Clair was serving thirty years formurder of a law enforcement officer, while

(52:06):
Scrivener was serving twenty for armed robbery. And kidnapping. The two escaped from
a prison in Albuquerque on January seventh, thirty four days before Randy was killed.
According to investigators, the two menstole a car from Colorado and started
heading north with plans of crossing intoCanada. The journey to Bozeman would carry

(52:27):
the two escapees more than one thousandmiles, and while there seems to be
a lot of information about the endand how they were captured, there are
few details about the trip itself andwhere exactly they had been. Scrivener and
Saint Clair were considered potential suspects ina number of crimes over the course of
the next few weeks. On FridayFebruary ninth, approximately thirty six hours before

(52:51):
Randy was killed, Charles and CoraAbernathy, an elderly couple living in Mino,
North Dakota, were brutally murdered intheir home. Both had been shot
through the head and had their throatsslashed. Cora was found in the couple's
bed as she was in mobile recoveringfrom hip surgery, while Charles was found
on the living room floor. Thehome had been ransacked, but the couple

(53:15):
were hardly wealthy and it was estimatedthat whoever had committed the murders made off
with little more than three hundred dollars. Curiously, as was the case with
Randy, while robbery appeared to bethe motive, Charles Abernathi still had cash
in his pocket that the killers nevertook. While there were differences between the

(53:36):
two crimes, there were some similarities, and initially, min not authorities reached
out to the Bozeman Police to compareforensics and ballistics. Ultimately, it was
determined that the gun used at theabernathis was not the same as the one
that had killed Randy. Either way, when Scrivener and Saint Clair were captured
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,they were taken to Mine I for questioning.

(54:01):
Neither of the escapees was involved inthe double murder, with authorities later
arresting Calvin Arthur Newman and Kevin Austen, who were convicted of the heinous crime.
While there was little if any evidenceoutside of their criminal records to link
either Scrivner or Saint Clair to theAbernathy murders, there was some compelling evidence

(54:22):
that suggested they had been involved inRandy's murder. There was the map found
in the stolen vehicle, which showeda hand drawn route that would carry the
escapees into Montana via Highway eighty seven. They would proceed to Billings then turn
west to Bozeman. This placed themin Bozeman around the time of the murder,

(54:42):
and, as chance would have it, the two men crossed into Canada
the very next day. According toSargent Green, several witnesses had stated that
they believed they had seen people matchingthe escapees' descriptions in the area of the
pizza hut in the hours leading upto the crime. These sightings, however,
do not appear to have ever beenfully corroborated. Sergeant Green, believing

(55:05):
these men were his suspects, traveledto Canada, where he was able to
question them, and, according tohim, they made several statements that he
found suspicious. One of the felonsnoted he wouldn't bother robbing a pizza hut
as he would only expect to getno more than nine hundred dollars. As
it turned out, the amount stolenthat night totaled nine hundred in cash and

(55:27):
touched just eleven hundred dollars when thechecks were added In coincidence or was this
an indication the man had knowledge ofthe crime that only the person responsible could.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to goon, so Sergeant Green grabs the
tires off the car and has themshipped to the FBI for comparison to the
tracks left at the restaurant, butthey can't make a link. The bag

(55:51):
of checks found discarded in the streetafter the murder is also examined, but
no fingerprints are captured on any ofthe twenty five checks. It's difficult to
simply dismiss this evidence as circumstantial,but at least in the eyes of the
District Attorney's office, detectives did nothave enough to warrant bringing the two men
to Bozeman for a hearing. Strangely, there was vastly less evidence linking them

(56:15):
to the mine not double homicide,and yet their DA certainly felt it was
worth bringing them in for questioning.But as has been made clear through a
lot of the coverage of this case, while some seek justice at all costs,
others would prefer to balance their budgets. For their part, neither Scrivner
nor Saint Clair ever admitted or evenalluded to their involvement in Randy's murder.

(56:37):
As far as we know, theywere later returned to New Mexico, where
they faced additional charges, and accordingto local reports, both men later died
of natural causes while serving their sentences. It would appear, if, in
fact they were responsible for Randy's murder, something more would be needed to confirm
it. No gun was found intheir possession, no evidence from the pizza

(57:00):
hut, nothing to conclusively link them, and as it stands today, they
are a popular theory but little morethan that. Given Sergeant Green's devotion to
the case and his determination to solveit, it would seem that he did
everything he could to try and provetheir involvement, but he just couldn't.
Whether or not things would have gonedifferently had the district Attorney elected to bring

(57:22):
them to Bozeman for questioning is,sadly, just one of those questions will
never have an answer to. WhileI believe Scrivener and Saint Clair are good
possibilities and certainly should have been questionedand investigated more deeply, there's also a
part of me that can help butfeel like while they fit the bill of
what you might be looking for here, They don't really fit in any way

(57:45):
that can be proven. For me. The issue is this, you're on
the run. You need a car, so you steal it. You need
money, so you rob some placesalong the way. Of all the places
to rob, who the hell selectsa pizza hut at three am? One
would have to assume all of thecash would already be locked in the safe

(58:06):
by that time, since they closedhours earlier. On top of that,
Randy had turned off the lights andlocked up the doors hours earlier, leaving
this stor appearing dark and empty.Investigators have never understood how the killer or
killers got inside, noting that itwas either Randy who opened the door or
that someone entered because it hadn't latchedproperly. The way this pizza hut is

(58:30):
laid out is kind of strange.The building is rectangular shaped and runs north
to south and has a parking lotto the west, which is shared by
an apartment complex. The front doorto the building faces this parking lot,
while the back door faces north andis approximately seventy feet south of West Babcock

(58:50):
Street. The southern edge of thebuilding faces towards West Main Street or US
Highway one ninety one driving down MainStreet at night, the building would be
dark and would seem to be empty. For the killer to have gained entry
through the back door, he wouldneed to turn into the parking lot off
either West Main or West Babcock.He would then proceed to the back door,

(59:13):
which is situated near dumpsters and asmall storage building. Today that door
has a large window in it,but back in nineteen eighty five it had
only a small peep hole. Accordingto employees, if it was late at
night, the parking lot would havebeen dark and the peephole wouldn't really function
as looking through it, an employeewould see only darkness and vague shapes of

(59:35):
people, but no fine details.What bothers me here is that there's no
sign of forced entry that would suggestthat if the inmates were responsible, they
would have gone to the door andeither knocked on it on the off chance
that someone was still inside at threeam and let them in, or they
would try and break in, atwhich time perhaps Randy could have heard them

(59:55):
and come to check the door.We know not long before the murder that
a gas station less than three tenthsof a mile away was robbed, but
there doesn't appear to be any attemptto link the escapees to that crime.
So it would lead us to believethat on that night slash early Sunday morning,
someone was robbing the gas station whiletwo escapees were forcing their way in

(01:00:17):
a pizza hut. Surely it's possible, It just doesn't seem probable. I
guess what makes Scrivner and Saint Clairmore compelling is that they were criminals who
had conducted similar crimes. They wereon the run and desperate, They weren't
shy about being violent, and murderwas just a part of their repertoire.
It isn't difficult to imagine one orboth of them wouldn't think twice about killing

(01:00:39):
a twenty three year old man overa matter of barely eleven hundred dollars.
It just feels off to me,like, of all places to go that
night, why pizza hut? Whynot another gas station or convenience store or
any place where you can just pointa gun at someone and they'll hand you
cash. Now, maybe that's justme. Perhaps they saw something or heard

(01:01:02):
something that made them target the pizzahut, but I really struggle to rationalize
it. At the same time,crimes like this are hardly ever rational,
So we're Scrivner and Saint Clair involved. Sadly, there's just no way to
know for certain. I tend tolean against this theory. It just doesn't

(01:01:22):
make a lot of sense to me. And while I think there's plenty of
reason to consider both men capable ofa crime like this, I just can't
find a way to understand what wouldhave brought them to that pizza hut in
the first place. Moving on,we turn our attention to nineteen year old
Michael Lane Nicholson. Nicholson was arrestedin September of eighty five, five months

(01:01:44):
after Randy's murder, at which timehe was charged with the brutal murder of
twenty two year old Randy Dean redDog in Yellowstone National Park. According to
the Medical Examiner, red Dog diedas a result of massive head trauma and
skull fracture from being beaten with ablunt object. Both red Dog and Nicholson

(01:02:04):
were employed at that time by avendor operating out of the park, and
as such were kind of coworkers.In February of nineteen eighty six, Nicholson
pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in themurder. This crime seemingly showed that Nicholson
possessed not only the ability to commita violent homicide, but that he had
a propensity towards it. This,however, would be the middle of a

(01:02:28):
long list of crimes committed by Nicholson. Just a few weeks after Randy's murder,
in March of eighty five, Nicholsonwas charged with robbery. He would
go on to plead guilty, admittingthat at four am on Monday, March
eighteenth, he had climbed over thecounter of the Western Heritage Inn, located
in Bozeman, violently shoved the femaleclerk to the floor, and stole one

(01:02:50):
hundred and thirty five dollars before makingoff into the night. No weapon was
used in that robbery. Nicholson wasalso considered a suspect in an arson which
took place at Livingston Middle School onSaturday, September seventh, nineteen eighty five.
A massive fire gutted the school's woodframe central section, built in nineteen
oh four and severely damaged concrete outerwings built decades later. In addition to

(01:03:16):
that, Nicholson was also charged withrobbing a Livingston area grocery store. The
grocery store robbery, the school arson, and the murder of Randy Reddog all
happened within the same twenty four hourperiod, and at the time, Nicholson
was on probation after receiving a suspendedsentence for the Heritage In robbery. Now,

(01:03:40):
while Nicholson certainly showed a tendency towardsviolence and robbery, there was no
solid evidence to ever link him toRandy's murder. The only thing that ever
did point that way occurred when anotherinmate told authorities that Nicholson had claimed to
have been responsible for the robbery andmurder at the Pizza Hut. Earning this,

(01:04:00):
officials with the FBI sent an agentto question Nicholson, but he denied
any involvement and didn't want to speakany further. That's pretty much where his
story comes to an end. Obviouslya likely culprit and a good person to
look at as a potential suspect,but due to a lack of physical evidence,
investigators noted that they had never beenable to find anything that could confirm

(01:04:23):
that Nicholson had even been at thePizza Hut that night. There was also
nothing which seemed to show or linkhim to the use or possession of a
twenty two caliber handgun like the oneused in the murder. Nicholson comes up
here as an interest in angle topursue. He has the means and the
opportunity. Violence doesn't seem to meanmuch to him, and he murders a

(01:04:45):
twenty two year old by beating himto death, so I doubt shooting a
twenty three year old would have mademuch of a difference to him. The
problem seems to be that Nicholson targetsplaces with easy access to cash, a
clerk working behind the counter of aninn, a grocery store, places where
he can grab cash and run prettymuch. I can't give you much more
detail about the murder or why hecommitted it, but it is notable that

(01:05:09):
he then commits one more crime thatnight and is a suspect in another that
occurs the same night, much likethe escapees. Nicholson's rap sheet certainly makes
him a likely suspect, but againthere's nothing to tie him to it,
no physical evidence, no witnesses,nothing beyond an alleged jailhouse bragging confession.

(01:05:29):
I run into the same issues inquestions that I did with the escapees.
What would bring Nicholson too that pizzahut. Most of his crimes take place
where he was living at the time, in Livingston, thirty miles east of
Bozeman. Surely he could have madethe trip, and robbery does seem to
be up his alley, and he'snot shy about committing murder. But again,
how does he get into the restaurant? Where did the gun go that

(01:05:53):
he apparently used only for this onecrime. Why wasn't he more fervently pursued?
Well? Why will Nicholson appears tobe just the kind of garbage you'd
expect to commit a crime like this. There doesn't appear to be anything to
conclusively link him to Randy or thecrime. There's one article, though,
that raises an interesting question. Intwenty twenty two, The Montana Review noted

(01:06:18):
that many suspects have not officially beencleared in this case. One of those
suspects they identify as a man whoserved time for murder in Wyoming and who
was in Bozeman the night of theshooting. It goes on to note that
this suspect also knew Randy Church,though it doesn't go into detail of the

(01:06:39):
howse or wise, it sounds likethey're describing Nicholson here, as he served
time in Wyoming for the murder ofRed Dog. If there are conclusive links
between he and Randy, that wouldcertainly be more compelling, but as of
now, there doesn't appear to beany further elaboration, and in fairness,
it's possible this article could have beenreferring to someone else, although that seems

(01:07:02):
somewhat unlikely. So with the escapeBees and Nicholson out of the way,
there's really only one other possibility that'sgained much attention. There are some who
believe that there was nothing random aboutthis crime, that it wasn't a robbery
gone wrong, but instead a personalissue between someone and Randy himself. Now,

(01:07:23):
everyone who knew Randy struggled to thinkof anyone who could have had a
problem with him. He was sucha nice and caring guy. He made
friends easily. He was handsome,smart and driven. While it's hard to
understand there are people out there whowill despise you for no reason other than
the fact that other people like you, it's certainly possible that someone felt wronged

(01:07:45):
or jealous of Randy and wanted toget back at him one way or another.
To me, I've never been ableto shake the possibility that Randy was
either killed by a friend, someonehe believed he could trust, or possibly
a co worker. As we've discussedpreviously, investigators theorize only two ways that
back door opened. It didn't latchproperly, or Randy opened it unknowingly,

(01:08:11):
inviting his killer inside. There is, though a third possibility that doesn't seem
to get a lot of traction.There were other employees who had keys to
that restaurant. Randy wasn't the onlyone. I don't know how thoroughly police
dug into his coworkers, but myfocus would have first been on anyone who
had keys. Curiously, there issome information floating around out there about an

(01:08:35):
unnamed suspect who not only worked atthat restaurant, but who also rented out
an apartment that Randy had previously livedin. Reportedly, in emails exchanged between
Bozeman investigators and Randy's family, therecame mention of this person. It was
reported that prior to his murder,Randy had moved out of an apartment located

(01:08:58):
then at three ho one West StoryStreet, a mile and a half west
of the pizza hut. This coworkermoved in right after, though little other
detail is given as to whether Randyhelped this person get the apartment or what
the link between the apartment and themurder might be, if any link at
all. Either way, it perfectlyfits in with what seems like the most

(01:09:20):
likely scenario here. Another employee wouldknow the ins and outs of the restaurant,
and if they knew Randy well,there's a good chance they'd have known
he was in that building at threeam. Now, there's no way of
knowing for sure, but it wouldbe really helpful to know the name of
what employee stayed behind that night withRandy. Remember, Randy sends everybody home

(01:09:43):
at midnight except for one person.That one person stays with him, and
then, according to time cards,clocks out at three AM and presumably leaves.
It's pretty difficult to ignore the factthat the medical examiner also determined Randy's
time of death was right or aroundthree AM. One could argue that maybe
Randy and this employee didn't get alongwell, though if that were the case,

(01:10:06):
I can't imagine asking that person thatI don't get along with to stay
behind with me for three hours alonein the restaurant from midnight to three.
Also, if you're gonna murder him, why wait until three am in the
first place. It's all rather strange. But what about this case makes any
sense? The fact of the matteris, I can't explain why two prison

(01:10:28):
escapees might show up that night,or why Nicholson would, or why any
number of other potential suspects would beout in that parking lot at three am
in five degree, whether on theoff chance that someone is still inside to
let them in or that they mighttry to break it. However, an
employee is a different story, especiallyif this wasn't about robbery but was really

(01:10:49):
about killing Randy. It doesn't haveto be the person who left at three
am, though that feels really strange. What if someone else, someone who
was waiting for that other employee toleave, was sitting in the parking lot
in their car so they could letthemselves in and murder Randy for reasons unknown,
Or it could have been an employeethat Randy did let in that night.

(01:11:13):
Maybe they knock on the back doorand he recognizes them and whips the
door open, only to find himselfconfronted with a gun. The fact of
the matter is you've already got thegun in your possession, then it seems
unlikely that you're just looking to grabsome fast cash. This wasn't a crime
that was sloppy or pulled off likesomeone who didn't know what they were doing.
They fired a shot directly into Randy'sface, and then when he collapsed,

(01:11:38):
they fired a kill shot from behind. This was an execution, and
the money seems to have been completelysecondary. Remember they didn't even take Randy's
wallet. Of course, if itwas an employee, why the hell did
they take that check bag, theywould have likely have known it was just
checks and there was nothing for themto do with it. But maybe that

(01:12:00):
was all part of convincing everyone thatit was a robbery. What happened that
faithful night in February of nineteen eightyfive when Randy Church was shot to death
inside of the Pizza Hut along WestMain Street. Was it the work of
two desperate prison escapees trying to gettheir hands on as much cash as they
could in an attempt to get toCanada and start anew Was it the work

(01:12:24):
of Michael Nicholson, a violent criminalwith a tendency towards murder and robbery.
Could it have been a coworker,perhaps one who had a personal issue with
Randy and wanted to get revenge.Or might it have been a friend,
someone Randy trusted, who, forreasons unknown, decided to steal away his
life, leaving his family shattered andshrouded in grief. Surely someone out there

(01:12:48):
knows, and it's about time theycame forward, because unless they do,
or new evidences found, the murderof Randy Church will remain open, unsolved,
and very cold. If you're lookingfor more information about the murder of

(01:13:16):
Randy Church, there are several newspapersand forums discussing his case. For this
episode, the Billings Gazette and MontanaReview were the most informative. If you
have any information about the murder ofRandy Church, please contact the Bozeman Police
Department tip line at four zero sixfive eight two two zero two five.

(01:13:43):
You can also submit information anonymously bysending an email to Coldcase tips at Bozeman
dot net, and as always,you can submit information directly to me at
trace Evidencepod at gmail dot com.Remember, a ten thousand dollars reward for
information remains available. What do youbelieve happened, Tweet me at trace ev

(01:14:08):
Pod, email me at trace Evidencepodat gmail dot com, or comment in
the Facebook group. Now, I'dlike to take a moment to thank our
amazing Patreon producers, without whom TraceEvidence would not be possible. Andrew Guarino,
Ann m Bertram Brutalist, Christine Greco, Crystal Jay, Danny, Rene

(01:14:34):
Dearthy, Denise Stingsdale, Desiree Laro, Dianni Dyson, Jennifer Winkler, Justin
Snyder, Karen Morland, k YLars Jensen, Vangel leslie B, Lisa

(01:14:56):
Hopson, Melissa Brackauisen, Nick Oharshers, Roberta Janssen, Ruth Stacy Finnegan,
and Tom Radford. Thank you allso much for your amazing support and for
keeping trace Evidence going forward. Thisconcludes our coverage of the murder of Randy
Church, a needless murder and aseemingly very solvable crime. Investigators have much

(01:15:23):
of the puzzle, but they stillneed a few pieces, and they and
the family believe someone out there hasthem in their possession. Unburden yourself and
share what you know. I wantto thank you again for listening, and
I hope you'll join me next timefor another unsolved case on the next episode
of Trace Evidence,