Danielle Houchins – Cold Case Solved - Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
In nineteen ninety six, fifteen year old Danielle Houchins left
her Montana home for a quick solo trip to a
local fishing spot, but she never came back. What began
as a missing person search quickly unraveled into a decade's
long mystery, one that haunted her family and the community. Then,

(00:28):
nearly twenty eight years later, thanks to breakthroughs in new
forensic science and one sister's unshakable resolve, the truth behind
Danny's tragic death was finally uncovered. This is the story
of a cold case turned solved. This is the story
of Danielle Houchin's.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
and Grim, a true crime podcasting.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
The following body intended more Maure audience listener.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Happy Friday, Happy Friday, welcome back. We uh we got
all festive up in our tiny home this week.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
We did. We got wreaths on the door, we got
some Christmas decorations up, and even are many tiny Christmas trees.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
We went even smaller than usual. We did probably like
half the size of what we usually do. Yeah, so
it's teeny tiny.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
We went from like a foot and a half to
like a foot. It's really teeny tiny, but we had
some from an eggnong with it when we were decorating
and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, it was good, Yeah, it was. It's been a
good week. I hope that you guys have all had
a good week too.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
I hope so. And remember like, don't don't let consumerism
overtake your Christmas. That's not what it's about, right, It's
about just enjoying the time and being with those people
around you, even if that's hey, your dogs, get dogs.
That's what we got sitting next to us, and we're
going to be enjoying that time with our dogs come
Christmas morning, and of course there's going to be the

(02:19):
festivities like Christmas Morning.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
The moss. It was also Spotify rap this week. It
was so that was That's always. I don't know, I
love that week. It's so cool having so many people
share just I don't know that they're in the one
percent or the ten percent or whatever. I love seeing it.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
And this year is I think the first year we
are unable to actually share everyone who shared their Spotify raps.
There's just so many of you that are tagging us,
messaging us like showcasing the Spotify raps. We got so
far behind, we just we can't share them all. But
in the coming weeks we are going to be trying
to make sure that we sort through and go and

(02:58):
check out everyone who has message just and everything. So
shout out to you, thank you and sorry if we
were unable to share yours, but we seriously appreciate you
just the same.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
M hm. Yeah, it was a huge year of growth
for us, which I didn't even realize, I guess to
that point. So it was really cool. It was would
you say it was.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Humbling, humbling, sobering. Yeah, yeah, it was nice. Yeah, made
my little grinch heart swell three sizes.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh my god, a little grinch, my.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Little grinch heart.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh boy.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, do you want to get on with today's case
or do you have anything else you want to want
to discuss first?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
No, I think I'm excited for this case because I
love it when you know it like, it's awesome when
it gets solved right away, but that's not always the case.
But if it eventually gets solved, that's also good.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, this one was nearly thirty years but they eventually
they figured it out, and I'm so glad this is
a smaller, smaller case, not super well known, so I'm
happy to stories like that as well, especially when it
comes to those victims and families who who deserve to
be heard. So this is one of those stories. I
have done a couple more. You know, Perpetrator highlighted stories recently,

(04:12):
so it's nice to get back to telling those stories
that need to be need to be out there more. Yes, Okay,
let's get going. It was Saturday, September twenty first, nineteen
ninety six. Fifteen year old Danielle or Danny Houchins asked
her mom for permission to drive out to a nearby
Cameron Bridge fishing access site. Now it's a popular spot

(04:33):
along the Gallatin River just a few miles from her home.
Danny was a sophomore. She was an honor student who
had a big dream of becoming a biological engineer one
day now. She was also very outdoorsy adventurous. She was
a teen who loved hiking, rock climbing, river rafting, skiing,
and listening to grunge music. She even had a playful streak,

(04:55):
known for pulling some pranks on friends and family. In
many ways, Dan he was a typical nineteen nineties teenager
with her whole life still ahead of her. But on
this day, Danny reportedly wanted to blow off some steam
after a little argument at home, and a little solo
trip to the river was how she chose to try
and cool down. Her mother, Cheryl agreed and even lent

(05:17):
Danny her watch so she could keep track of time
and be back by mid afternoon. The family was expecting
company around two PM, and Danny had promised to return
by then. Now. She left home at around eleven am
that morning, driving her pickup truck towards that Cameron Bridge.
She was dressed in blue denim jeans and a gray
sweatshirt and wore a knee brace on her left knee.

(05:38):
Now that brace was due to a minor injury she'd
gotten horsing around on a street dance with a few
friends weeks earlier, but it didn't slower down much and
it wasn't anything like extremely serious. At fifteen, Danny was
an active and athletic girl who spent a lot of
time outdoors, so a quick trip to a little scenic
fishing spot by a bridge wasn't out of the ordinary
for her or anything. She strapped on the gold elastic

(06:02):
band watch that her mom lent her and cheerfully promised
to be back in a couple hours, and with that
she headed off in her truck, leaving the small town
of Belgrade, Montana, in Gatlin County for the short drive
to Cameron Bridge. It was just another Saturday adventure. As
the clock ticked away and ticked past two pm. With
guests arriving at the houch and home, Danny was nowhere

(06:24):
to be seen. At first, her family wasn't exactly panic though.
Danny was in fact of a very responsible teen and
it wasn't like her to be terribly late, so perhaps
she just lost track of time or whatever, and she'd be,
you know, coming through the front door at any moment.
But by three pm, worry began to set in, so
her mother, Cheryl, decided to go to Cameron Bridge herself

(06:45):
to check in on Danny. She brought along one of
the family friends and together they drove the route that
Danny would have taken, hoping to you know, maybe pass
her on the way there or find her. When they arrived,
still relaxing the river, not realizing what time it was,
when hold into the dirt parking area at the Cameron Bridge,
Cheryl immediately spotted Danny's truck. It was parked where visitors

(07:07):
often leave their vehicles, but something was off. When they
approached the truck, the doors were unlocked and Danny was
nowhere in sight. Cheryl also saw Danny's belongings inside a
stack of her CDs and even her father's laptop. The
fact that the truck was left unlocked with these valuables
inside it was very unlike her, and a prickling sense

(07:27):
of dread began to form in Cheryl's stomach. Now it
was nearby. As the search began. That on a little
trail leading from the parking area towards the river, Cheryl
and her friend made an alarming discovery. They found Danny's
water bottle and her keys laying on the ground. Now
Cheryl knew that her daughter wouldn't just abandon her keys

(07:49):
in water like that and wander off the trail. Something
seemed to clearly be wrong. They continued searching the area,
calling out Danny's name, hoping for a response. For an
exp of what's going on now. The Cameron Bridge site
spans a mix of open fields brush patches of wood
near the river, and there's footpaths, boat launches, and river

(08:10):
banks all over, plenty of ground to cover, and as
minutes ticked by with no trace of Danny, their search
became increasingly frantic. For two hours, they scoured the vicinity
with growing desperation as they went, and by five PM,
with daylight starting to wane and an ominous feeling that
you know, they might not be able to find her

(08:31):
on their own, Cheryl made the decision to call the
authorities for help. Once she contacted the Gatland County Sheriff's office,
search efforts ramped up quickly. Sheriff deputies arrived at the
Cameron Bridge site, and soon Gatland County Search and Rescue
teams and local volunteers joined the hunt. The community mobilized fast.

(08:52):
This was a small Montana town and a missing local
teenager prompted immediate concern. Volunteers who knew the train came
to help, and sheriff personnel coordinated the whole search in
the wooded area, the marshy area, around the river, all
of it. They're doing their best to try and find
this missing teenager. As the following afternoon turned to evening,

(09:13):
searchers spread out along the river's edge, through stands of
trees and into the tall grasses of the marshland. But
as the sun dipped low, the conditions grew challenging. The
bridges area also includes swampy overgrown sections. It's all along
the river's edge, and losing daylight might be dangerous to
continue trudging through that difficult terrain, and after hours of

(09:35):
fruitless searching, the organized effort was reluctantly called off for
the night once darkness fell, with plans to resume at
first light.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
It does seem like it's a pretty tough area to search, Hey,
it is.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Once you get you know, along river's edge, you get
you know, cut banks, you get drop offs, you get water,
you get swampy areas, you get trees, it's all of this.
So if you don't have light, don't have footing, someone
could even fall in the river. And yeah, I don't
know how fast this river is flowing or how deep
or anything, but potentially it could mean you know, another
person being taken.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Off another search outretch.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, So regardless, it's just a massive safety concern. So
first light is when they decided to officially conduct the
search once again. However, Danny's loved ones were not about
to give up. Even as searchers left for the night,
a few determined individuals kept looking. Amongst them were two
brothers who lived nearby and knew the landscape well. One

(10:34):
of the brothers had a son who was good friends
with Danny's sister, Stephanie, which made the situation even more
personal for that family. At the urging of that sun,
the brothers decided to continue the search on their own
that night. So armed with flashlights and an intimate knowledge
of that local train, the brothers navigated the shadows and

(10:54):
muck along the river. It was around nine thirty PM,
roughly forty five minutes after they began their private search,
when one of the brothers made a heartbreaking discovery. They're
only about two hundred feet from where Danny's truck was parked.
They spotted a figure in a very swampy, marshy patch
of ground near the river's edge. The flashlight illuminated the

(11:17):
devastating site. There was Danny Houchin's lifeless body lying face
down in a shallow pool of water.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
The last thing you'd want to find.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Real ly, the worst fear was basically concerned, Yeah confirmed
in that moment. Everyone hoped to find her safe, of course, right,
like you know, maybe injuries are lost, even scared for sure,
but like at the very least alive.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
And instead, you know, you have this vibrant fifteen year
old who's.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Now just found lifeless.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
She's gone, yeah, but in this case specifically, she's half
submerged and barely a foot or two of swampy water.
There's mud, there's rocks and weeds all over, and she's
just face down. The scene was eerie, something straight out
of a nightmare. And now Danny was still fully clothed
in the same jeans and sweatshirt that she'd worn that day,
but something was very wrong with how she was positioned.

(12:09):
It looked as if she might have been dragged into
this spot. One of her shoes, which was reportedly a sandal,
was missing from her foot, but it was later found
not far away, as it had fallen off from a
potential struggle. The watch that Danny had borrowed from her
mother will. It had been pulled up part way off
of her hand, as though someone might have been yanking
on her arm, and the watch could have possibly slidden

(12:30):
off part way. The brothers who found her ran right
away to get help, and one of them on his
way out while he coincidentally encountered Danny's father, who was
also out searching that evening too, Rex Houchins, he was,
you know, out there for a last last search attempt

(12:51):
of his own, and in an agonizing exchange from one
father to another, the man delivered the news no parents
should ever hear was found and she was clearly dead.
Detectives secured the scene in the darkness and began collecting
whatever evidence they could find around Danny's body. Investigators recovered

(13:11):
at least four strands of hair from Danny's body, hairs
that did not appear to belong to her.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
These foreign hairs were collected as evidence, preserved in hopes
that they might one day help identify who had been
at the scene that night with Danny. Now, there's also
other critical evidence that was gathered as well. There was
indication that Danny had in fact been sexually assaulted, and
the exact position and state of her clothing suggested a
violent struggle. For instance, Danny's bra was found pushed up

(13:40):
from under her shirt and her underwear was a little
bit disturbed as well. It was obvious something terrible had
been done to her. The entire Houchin family was devastated
to learn these things. A memorial service for Danny was
held only a few days later, on September twenty fifth,
nineteen ninety six, drawing over four hundred mourners who came

(14:02):
to pay their respects to a young life cut way
too short. Everyone assumed this was obviously a murder, a
heinous sexual assault and killing of a teenage girl in
what should have been a safe outdoor haven. However, shockingly,
the early official handling of this case did not reflect

(14:22):
the urgency and focused you would expect in a homicide investigation.
In fact, within days of the body being discovered, Gatlin
County authorities seemed to portray that they were not entirely
sure what had even happened to Danny, even entertaining the
possibility that this might be an accident instead. Now, an
autopsy was performed on September twenty third, nineteen ninety six,

(14:45):
by the Montana State Crime Lab. The medical examiner's findings, well,
they were quite perplexing, and to Danny's family they were
infuriating because, on one hand, the autopsy revealed clear signs
of assault. Because there was muddy material quote on quote
found in Danny's stomach as well as in her airway,
suggesting she had inhaled an even swallowed mud and water

(15:08):
while she was still alive. Now, this is not something
that happens in a simple accidental slip and fall drowning scenario.
It indicated that her face had been forced down into
the marsh repeatedly or for a prolonged amount of time.
And in addition, the autopsy had also noted a recent
vaginal laceration, which was evidence of sexual trauma. All of

(15:32):
these details screamed homicide to anyone who looked at them,
and yet the officials well. Their conclusion from state medical
examiner Gary Dale, was that danny Her cause of death
was drowning, with the manner of the death being unlisted
as undetermined. In other words, the forensic report did not

(15:53):
label it a homicide nor definitively an accident. As well,
it left the case open to interpretation despite the tailtale
signs clearly a violence.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
What the hell I feel like that's someone not wanting
to go the extra not even an extra mile, really
like put any effort into figuring out what the hell happened?

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, definitely. There's a lot around this case with scrutiny
towards the investigation team and officials in regards to how
they handled it, because it seems like they didn't even try.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense though, Why wouldn't you,
Like this is a fifteen year old girl, You think
that would give you all the gusto to try to
get this solved.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
No, kidding, well, and not only that, but it's like
there's there's clear signs that there's something else happening here. Yeah, okay,
sure you might have say, might say she tripped and
fell and face first into water, whatever, Right, but why
are her keys and water bottle left on the trail?
Would she trip and fall and then like go several
meters off into this bush into the swampy area, like

(16:54):
stumbling like all this way? That doesn't make any sense now.
The very next day after the autotopsy, Gatlin County Sheriff
Bill Slaughter spoke to the press and downplayed the likelihood
of murder, citing the fact that Danny's body supposedly didn't
have any obvious cuts or bruises, saying, quote, I think
we've got to be prepared for the fact that this
may have been an accidental drowning. Now he even speculated

(17:18):
that perhaps Danny, who had the knee brace on, might
have slipped, been unable to get up, and drowned in
only a few inches of water. Just as your face shows,
you're a little bit shocked. Danny's family. While they were
shocked to at any suggestion that her death was accidental,
the evidence of a sexual assault alone should have put

(17:39):
the accident theory to rest. But to make things worse,
Danny's parents were initially told by investigators that their daughter
quote died a virgin, which was a blatant lie given
the autopsy findings of vaginal injuries.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
What the heck? So okay, I can't imagine how frustrating
or heartbreaking this is. They know something is wrong here, yeah,
and no one is taking it seriously exactly.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
And it's not only the family who knows, because like
they're close to the case, it's their daughter. The entire
community is just like.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
What, yeah, okay, how can that person even stand up
there and just say this sort of thing without feeling
like a complete idiot.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
It almost seems like some officials, like in nineteen ninety six,
were actively withholding information, or at the very least misleading
the family. Maybe I don't know, Maybe they're trying to
avoid like having fear strike into the community. I don't know.
They maybe they didn't want to admit that a murderer
was loose. I don't know. But regardless, it was either
complete lack of due diligence showing nothing but ignorance, or

(18:42):
severely in moral ways to investigate. It's one of the two.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, I mean, what they're doing doesn't seem quite right,
because people do. I mean, I get they have to
withhold some information and stuff, but if it's like a
murder versus not, that's something people probably should know.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Now, the family knew this was complete nonsense. The whole
idea of an accidental death simply because she wore knee
brace well, it's absurd, and as Danny's sister Stephanie would
say years later, quote anyone who saw the details could
confidently say this was a homicide. It's always been a homicide. Now.

(19:21):
Frustration with the investigation only grew as time passed. No
suspect was immediately identified in nineteen ninety six, and given
the initial undetermined ruling, it seemed the case lacked the
urgency of any sort of murder hunt, Sheriff Slaughter and
his administration, according to later critiques, just didn't pursue with vigor.

(19:41):
One of the first deputies on scene, Keith Farquhar, recalled
feeling that his department's leadership was too quick to dismiss
the death as an accident or hint at the possibility
of suicide, and that it never felt like they were
treating it as a full on homicide investigation.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Quote.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
His attitude from every thing I saw was we just
want this over with end quote.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
M that Okay, I just feel like there's something else
going on here, because I feel like a young girl
getting hurt is enough motivation to do almost anything if
you're in that position of power. So I just feel like,
what are they hiding or what's going on here? It
seems like there's just more to this.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
But there's so many people in the world who just,
you know, they just do the bare minimum to get
away with their job, right.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
I guess. But when when it's like a this is
like a life death kind of thing, you think you
wouldn't be doing the.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Bare minimum, but people still do.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, they get complacent or whatever. I guess right.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Complacent's a good word, and I think that's what's happening
here now. This whole sentiment was also echoed by other
deputies and detectives too. It wasn't just him. Cindy Botek,
a Gatlin County Sheriff's detective who joined the force just
days before Danny's death, later said, quote, it never appeared
to be a priority. Now, that's basically for the original

(21:01):
investigators to chase down leads on a murder case sort
of thing, right. But despite these internal doubts, though official officially,
the case well, it just sat stale and with no
arrests and no public naming of even a person of interest,
Danny's murder simply became a cold case. But that didn't
mean it was forgotten, not entirely anyways. Over the years,

(21:23):
some investigators, like Detective Bodick would circle back to the case.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Now.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Bodeck herself ended up picking up the file around two
thousand and six when she joined the detective unit and
tried to find new leads, And when she did, she
found that she was stonewalled by some of the very
officers who had worked the original investigation, the implication being
that they didn't appreciate scrutiny on what might have been
something that was mishandled, so they didn't want to be

(21:50):
proven wrong or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Oh my gosh, EGO should not be brought into this.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Shouldn't be But that's exactly what she was finding. So
it was very much so an op pill battle. But
she made an attempt regardless though now. She eventually retired
in twenty sixteen without seeing Danny's case solved, and all
through that time, through the late nineties and even through
two thousands, the Houchin family well, they lived a very
painful limbo existence. They knew Danny had been murdered, but

(22:18):
they had no justice and worse, no answers. Yet years
turned into decades. Sheriff Bill Slaughter retired in the year
two thousand. Subsequent sheriffs inherited the cold case, but as
I already kind of eluded, they made little headway, and
the question of who killed Danny Houchins lingered quietly in
the background. All the while. Stephanie Houchin's especially was deeply

(22:42):
scarred by the loss of her sister and the lack
of closure. She was only twelve years old when Danny died,
and Stephanie grew up under the shadow of this trauma,
involving nightmares, waking up sobbing in the middle of the night,
those sort of things. Like most everyone else, she always
knew it couldn't have been an accident. She knew it

(23:02):
had to have been a murder, and by late twenty tens,
over twenty years had passed since Danny's death, but Stephanie
had not given up hope that her sister's killer could
be found. In fact, a revolutionary development in another case
would soon inspire her to urge a new approach to
Danny's Colt case. It was April of twenty eighteen when

(23:26):
true crime history was made with California authorities announcing the
arrest of the infamous Golden State Killer after decades of
eluding justice. And it was all thanks to a cutting
edge technique known as forensic genetic genealogy.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Now.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
This case was solved by matching crime scene DNA to
distant relatives in genealogy databases places such as ancestry dot com,
and it made headlines worldwide when they caught this guy.
One person who was paying close attention to those headlines
was Stephanie, and she wondered, if such a technique could

(24:05):
catch a serial killer you know from the seventies or eighties,
why couldn't it be applied to identify a person who
murdered her sister in nineteen ninety six. So Stephanie began
contacting the Gatlin County Sheriff's office repeatedly in twenty eighteen
and twenty nineteen, urging them to consider using DNA genealogy
for Danny's cold case. At first, she just got mild

(24:28):
in lukewarm responses, but Stephanie did not let up. She
knew there was DNA evidence from the crime scene, the
strands of hair being found and possibly preserved all those years,
so she was determined to see it tested with the
latest methods. Her persistence coincided with some changes in the
Sheriff's office, too, and that would ultimately prove to be crucial.

(24:52):
It was twenty nineteen when a new sheriff, Captain Max Boxmeyer,
took an interest in the Houchin's case. He quietly began
reinvestigating the final that year. He even reached out to
the Houchin's family in early twenty twenty to discuss the
sensitive prospect of you know reopening the case, knowing it
would mean stirring up some old pain, but the family, well,

(25:13):
they quickly agreed they could deal with those old wounds
being reopened if it meant finding the truth. However, lingering
distrust in authorities left them with some hesitation, but nonetheless
they were still willing to work with any officers who
were genuinely committed to solving Danny's case. So now a

(25:34):
significant turning point came. In twenty twenty one, Dan Springer,
who had actually been a young deputy in the department
at the time of Danny's murder, was elected as the
new Gatlin County Sheriff. Springer had never forgotten the case
that occurred just five days after he was sworn in
back in nineteen ninety six, and upon becoming sheriff, Springer

(25:58):
vowed to bring fresh eyes to this cold case, and
he assembled a small team dedicated to going wherever, and
I mean wherever the evidence led, no matter how much
time has passed. One of Sheriff Springer's first moves was
to bring in outside expertise, and by early twenty twenty three,
he connected with Thomas Elfmont, a retired LAPD homicide captain,

(26:21):
who had relocated to Montana. Now, Alfmont had decades of
investigative experience and now ran a global security firm, and
he was willing to lend his skills to help crack
this mystery death of Danny Springer. Swore Elfmont in as
a special deputy, granting him full authority to investigate this
case with a fresh perspective, and together they also enlisted

(26:43):
Sergeant Court Dupwig from Newport Beach, California, who was an
expert in solving cold homicide cases with DNA technology. This
new investigative team re examined everything they combed through the
old case files, evidence on toops of reports, all of
it uncovering in the process some shocking oversights from previous

(27:06):
investigators and authorities. For instance, in mid twenty twenty three,
while reviewing physical evidence, they discovered something that had been
missed or not reported publicly for decades, which was the
fact that traces of seamen were found on Danny's underwear.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Are you shitting me? Yeah, but they said that she
was just.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
A virgin and that it wasn't an assault. Yet there
was sulli, Yet there was vaginal lacerations found in the autopsy,
and traces of semen found on her underwear. How can
that be possible?

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah, that is just not okay at all.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, that's critical evidence.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, that is not doing your job at Like, oh okay,
I'm just flabbergasted here.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah. And yet these people were in power and they
knew they didn't do a good job because when people
started questioning them later, when other sheriffs or investigators started
looking at the case again, they're just like, yeah, like,
fuck off, don't question us.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Oh that doesn't make any sense to me. I feel like,
I mean, it does happen occasionally, but gosh, if you're
in that kind of position, you need to take your
job seriously.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, it's life or death for other people. And even
at the very minimum, if you're not including life or death,
it could mean, you know what, closure for an entire
family answering a question. If you don't do your job
and you just say, oh, it's an accident, now you
have this whole family and the community knowing you're lying
and living on fear this entire time.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Well, my biggest fear is that this family knew who
did it or something right, and like had a relationship
with this person and it continued or something, right, So
that's what I'm just sitting back like, oh gosh, I
hope that's not the case.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah. Now, this critical piece of evidence, as I said,
the sample of semen that was found, it had somehow
either been overlooked or not fully tested. Back in nineteen
ninety six, it was a job dropping find a definitive
confirmation of sexual assault by men predator. So in August
of twenty twenty three, armed with this new analysis, Sheriff

(29:05):
Springer officially changed Danny's manner of death from undetermined to
homicide once and for all.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Hoof, that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
It's a big deal. Meanwhile, efforts were already underway to
use the preserved DNA evidence for genealogical testing. Investigators sent
the four unknown hairs found on Danny's body to a
specialized lab in California known for handling degraded DNA. Now,
these samples, specifically weren't hairs with roots, which contain a

(29:36):
lot more DNA in them. They were rootless arm hairs,
which typically have only trace amounts of DNA. But technology
had advanced dramatically since the nineties, and the lab Arstea
Forensics managed to extract enough genetic material from one of
the hairs to build a partial DNA profile of the

(29:58):
potential suspect.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Okay, that's I was not thinking that it was going
to be our mayor's Yeah, that blows my mind. Now.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Initially, this DNA profile was run through COTIS, the FBI's
Combined DNA Index system, which holds millions of DNA profiles
of convicted offenders from arrestees. No match turned up, which
meant the person who left those hairs had never been
convicted before. So, with COTIS failing to identify anyone, the

(30:29):
team moved on to more revolutionary approaches, the forensic genetic genealogy.
So this technique that had nabbed the Golden State Killer
and many others in recent years. It worked by taking
DNA profile from the crime scene evidence and uploading it
to commercial as ancestry databases, the one that I mentioned

(30:49):
like ancestry dot com. Right, So this is going to
find relatives of the unknown suspect. Basically, if any distant
cousin or aunt or uncle, anyone who may have you
know what, submitted their own DNA to a public genealogy
service and they are related to the killer, they might
show up as a match, maybe a second cousin, whatever,

(31:09):
And then by finding these family matches, skilled genealogists can
now build out a family tree and zero in on
the suspect from there. So to tackle this complex task,
the Gatlin County team turned to one of the country's
best known genetic genealogists, CC Moore. Now CC was working
with Parabon Nanolabs in Virginia. They had helped solve dozens

(31:32):
of cases using this technology before and when the detailed
DNA from Danny's case was passed to them, well, the
painstaking research began. Months went by as CC and her
colleagues analyzed the genetic profile from these armhairs and search
for any notable matches in any databases. Bit by bit,

(31:53):
they piece together a possible family tree for Danny's unknown killer.
This is very time consuming work. They don't just plunk
it in and just get a family tree on a
website and say, oh, well, there's the killer. This often
involves historical records, obituaries, public documents, and sometimes even contacting
family members directly to ask about their extended family and relatives.

(32:15):
In this case, the genetic genealogist was able to connect
DNA from the crime scene to four of the suspects,
the unknown suspects grandparents, so they were able to confirm
whoever did the killing. These are their grandparents.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Okay, WHOA. So that's freaking exciting.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
It is. This dramatically narrowed down the suspect pool, and
before long they zeroed in on someone in this family
tree of these grandparents who had a name, and his
name was Paul Nathaniel Hutchinson. Now it's not it's very
close to Danny's name, Danny Houchins. This is Hutchinson. It's
not a relationship, right, Okay. So digging into his background,

(32:57):
they discovered why he evaded notice for so long. In
nineteen ninety six, Paul was a twenty seven year old
graduate student at Montana State University in Bozeman. He had
only recently moved to the area around the time that
Danny was killed. He wasn't a known troublemaker. In fact,
he had no criminal history at all. Paul went on

(33:17):
built a quiet life, a respectable life, even, you may argue.
He earned a master's degree in Fisheries and Wildlife biology
and eventually took a job with the US Bureau of
Land Management or BLM as a fisheries biologist. By twenty
ten's he was working out of Dylan, Montana, roughly one
hundred miles southeast of where Danny was killed, and he'd

(33:38):
been working with BLM for twenty two years. Paul was
also married for over two decades and had two kids,
and by all outward accounts, he was a stable family
man and an avid out doorsman. It was a profile
that stunned investigators when they figured this out. Could this
fifty five year old husband, father biologist really be the

(34:01):
person who raped and killed a fifteen year old girl
back in nineteen ninety six. It was hard to reconcile,
and yet the science was pointing directly at him. Sheriff
Springer's team gathered more intelligence on Paul. Quietly, they confirmed
that in September of nineteen ninety six, he indeed lived
in Bozeman for grad school, placing him in the vicinity

(34:23):
of the crime. If he frequented outdoor spots, you know what,
it's conceivable that he might have gone fishing or exploring
at Cameron Bridge, where he may have randomly encountered Danny
that day. Investigators theorized that this was a chance encounter,
a crime of opportunity by a predator who saw young
girl alone and seized the moment. Since there was no

(34:45):
evidence that connected Danny to Paul, he didn't know her
or anything. They were just complete strangers. By the summer
of twenty twenty four, the Gatlin County Sheriff's Office had
enough confidence in the DNA and genealogical evidence. However, they
based a challenge because the DNA profile from the hair
technically was a partial profile and not yet confirmed with

(35:07):
one hundred percent certainty that it was in fact Paul Hutchinson.
They didn't have probable cause to just go simply arrest
him or take a DNA swamp to test. What they
did need, though, was DNA to test and actually compare
the two to see. So legally they needed more and
ideally they wanted to obtain his DNA for that direct comparison,

(35:28):
but doing so can take time, you know, having people
trail him wait around for the right opportunity of a
discarded cup that he'd been drinking from, or a cigarette
butt or something. So instead of waiting, they decided on
a different approach. They wanted to confront him in an
interview and gage his reaction. Sometimes a suspects behavior under

(35:48):
questioning can be quite revealing, and in the best case,
he might even volunteer a DNA sample or you know what,
admit to his crimes. So on July twenty third, twenty
twenty four, investigators made their move. They drove to Dylan, Montana,
where Paul worked, to interview him. Unexpectedly, there they found
Paul outside the BLM Field office unloading a pickup truck

(36:10):
with a couple of coworkers. They approached him with badges
in hand, you know saying who they are, and asked
to speak with them. The effect on Paul was reportedly instantaneous,
as he turned pale white immediately. Paul rarely agreed to
the interview, and for nearly two hours in a conference
room or an office at his workplace, the detectives questioned

(36:32):
Paul about the events on September twenty one, nineteen ninety six. Now,
they deliberately did not mention that he was under arrest,
because he wasn't. This was a voluntary conversation. The goal, though,
was partly to observe his demeanor and possibly prompt you
a confession or at least inconsistencies in his story to
strengthen their investigation. Now, Paul did not confess, but his

(36:58):
body language spoke volumes. According to investigators, he was a
wreck during the interview. He was extremely nervous start to finish,
sweating profusely, biting or chewing on his hand, and repeatedly
scratching on his face in an agitated manner.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Well, he would never have expected.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
This to no, especially after this long right, so he
was not prepared.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Well, yeah, I'm loving this. He should be fricking uncomfortable now.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
At one point, they presented him a photo of Danny,
and Paul visibly slumped in his chair at the sight
of this photo, as if the weight of the whole
moment hit him physically. He grew even more uncomfortable and
had no good explanation for anything. As the entire interview
went on, the detectives noticed every little telltale sign of

(37:44):
fear in the man now sitting before him, and by
the end of the questioning they were more convinced than
ever that they had the right guy. They still couldn't
make an arrest, though they needed to directly match his
DNA first, otherwise their case could fall apart. In court
after the interview, Officers kept a very close eye on
him as he drove off, and interestingly, Paul didn't just

(38:07):
head straight home calmly. Instead, he drove his vehicle in
a strange, erratic pattern, possibly even checking if he was
being followed, and investigators described it as if he were
performing counter surveillance maneuvers, perhaps a sign that he was
paranoid about being tailed and indeed he was subtly.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Being tailed well and had something to hide.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
Correct now. Eventually, though, he lost a police surveillance and
they decided not to pursue aggressively and tip him off.
You know, they were trying to keep a distance and
he was able to get away. You know, they hadn't
charged him with anything yet. They didn't want to be
too pressuring him too much, I guess is the best
way to put it. The plan now, though, was to
regroup and figure out how to get a definitive DNA sample. Then,

(38:54):
in the early predawn hours of the very next day,
July twenty fourth, twenty twenty four, as detectives were now
strategizing their next move, Paul Hutchinson made a decision of
his own. Sometime around four am, he phoned the Beaverhead
County Sheriff's office, which is the local county for Dylan.

(39:15):
He phoned from his cell phone and in a brief,
odd call, he stated that he needed some assistance with
his vehicle, gave a location, and then abruptly hung up.
After police received the strange phone call from Paul, they
were dispatched to the spot where he said he was
having vehicle trouble, which was a roadside area west of Dylan.

(39:38):
What they found there ended any hope of a traditional
path to justice because they found Paul Hutchinson dead sitting
in his car. He had shot himself with a thirty
eight caliber pistol, ending his life in an apparent suicide.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Okay, I was wondering if that was going to happen,
but I just feel like, Wow, he took the ease
way out there. Hey, what a complete coward.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, the man who evaded responsibility for twenty eight years
chose to evade it once again by taking his own life.
And this happened barely ten hours after the investigators had
first approached him for the interview. For the law enforcement
team and for Danny's family, the news of this suicide
was a gut punch of mixed emotions. On one hand,

(40:24):
this seemed to effectively provide a kind of confirmation of guilt.
But on the other hand, if this was true, then
his death meant there would be no arrest, no trial,
no public reckoning in a courtroom, nothing. Investigators quickly moved
Paul's body into custody, and crucially, they collected DNA samples

(40:45):
from him during post mortem procedures.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
I guess that's one way to get it, eh.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
The samples were then sent for immediate comparison to the
crime scene DNA profile from Danny's case. It was a
moment of truth, the one that everyone had been waiting
twenty eight years four. Within days, by the end of
July twenty twenty four, the results came back from the lab.
The DNA was a complete match. The profile from the

(41:11):
hair found on Danny's body match Paul Hutchinson's own DNA
with essentially one hundred percent certainty. The statistical odds of
it being anyone else was astronomically small.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
This nasty piece of shit. Hey, he was literally twenty
seven years old and she was fifteen. Yeah, like what
like that is just so disgusting.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
And then he chose to just run away from it all.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Not only that, but he's also leaving behind his wife
and children in the wake.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Well, and the fact that he got to live these
extra twenty eight years is just it's that just sucks.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
I agree. But ultimately this means Danny's killer was in
fact identified. It was bittersweet. They had solved the case
and kept their promise to never give up finding the
truth for Danny. Yet the suicide meant the case would be,
you know what, closed in a way no one idea
he wanted. There'd be no opportunity to possibly get more
information out of Paul, to ask why he did it,

(42:05):
whether he stocked Danny or it. Truly was a spur
the moment attack. You know, whether he'd done similar crimes before.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Or after, Yeah, because that was pretty brutal, you can
only expect he did other things.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Yeah, So all those answers just died with them. Now,
investigators didn't know if that Paul had no prior criminal
record and was not linked to other cases using the
genealogy testing. Still, given his extreme actions, authorities in Montana
quietly began looking into other unsolved cases in the region
to see if he might be connected, especially any assaults

(42:39):
or murders near where he lived over the years. As
of now, he has not been tied to any other crimes,
but that possibility remains open. On August eighth, twenty twenty four,
at the Gatlin County Sheriff's office held a press conference
that Danny's family had waited for twenty eight years. Flanked
by photos of Danny and aided by the diligent team

(42:59):
that cracked the case, Sheriff Dan Springer announced to the
world that the nineteen ninety six murder of Danielle Danny
Houchins had been solved and that the killer was identified
as Paul Nathaniel Hutchinson, who was fifty five years old.
He was a man who tragically would never face justice
in court because he had taken his own life shortly

(43:20):
after being identified. And standing besides the sheriff when he
announced all this was Stephanie Houchins or now Stephanie Mullett,
Danny's sister, who was thirty nine years old. Stephanie had
been the driving force from the family side, never letting
authorities forget Danny's case, and when it was her turn
to speak, Stephanie delivered a very powerful and emotionally charged

(43:44):
statement on behalf of her family and her long lost sister.
In her speech, she vividly described what happened to Danny,
how this man had raped her and then held her
down in the marsh until she choked on mud and died.
She also spoke about Paul's suicide and didn't hold back, saying, quote,
when the time came to face up and account for

(44:04):
his violence, he instead chose to end his life. He
knew of his guilt and couldn't face my family or
his family and the pain he caused. End quote. In
those words, she labeled him as a coward, without using
the word itself, a man who literally ran from justice
in the final hour. Importantly, though, Stephanie did not shy

(44:28):
away from criticizing how the case was handled back in
nineteen ninety six either. She recounted the many ways that
the system failed her sister and her family. She reminded
everyone that the evidence of the homicide had always been there.
There was, in fact, bruising on the back of Danny's
neck indicating that she was forced down, the mud found
in her stomach, the state of her clothing, the hair

(44:48):
samples found the seaman that was recovered from her underwear,
Yet those in charge in nineteen ninety six chose to
label the death as undetermined and even lie to her
parents about the sexual assault. She also revealed that some
evidence had been mishandled or lost over the years, such
as the seamen that was never mentioned. Such as the

(45:09):
very watch that her mother lent Danny that day, the
crime lab reportedly somehow lost it. Even the very crucial
hair evidence that was ultimately the thing that solved the case.
It had been misfiled for years, an astounding error that
delayed justice even further. Still, Stephanie, she expressed deep gratitude

(45:32):
for those who finally stepped up and refused to let
Danny's case remain unsolved. Danny's family at last had an
answer of who did it, a huge weight off their shoulders,
but they were left to process a very fresh wave
of grief from Danny. As for Paul's wife of twenty
four years and his two children, they were stunned by

(45:53):
this revelation. By all accounts, he had been a good
husband and father in their eyes. They never had an
inkling that back in nineteen ninety six, before he even
met his wife, and birthed his kids he had committed
such a horrible act. His wife posted a public message
of condolence to the Houchin's family after learning the entire truth, saying, quote,

(46:15):
our hearts go out to the Houchin's family. They will
let last be able to find the closure they deserve.
She also described being absolutely heartbroken and said that the
news made their own grieving from their loss so much
more complicated, as they now had to reconcile that the
man they loved was secretly a monster. In the community

(46:37):
of Belgrade and Bozeman, people remember that fifteen year old
girl with a bright smile from nineteen ninety six and
felt comforted that at long last, the question of who
killed her was finally answered. Danny's case is just one
of several across the country and even more in recent years,

(46:57):
where a suspect identified through genetic genius died by suicide
before they could ever be arrested. It's a growing trend
that showcases both the power of these new tools and
the tragic reality that some offenders, when finally cornered after years,
choose to escape legal consequences through death. In the end,

(47:19):
it's important to remember who was at the heart of
this story, Danielle Danny Houchins herself. Today, Danny would be
forty five years old. If she was alive, she might
have become a biological engineer like she once aspired to be.
Or perhaps she would have followed a different path, maybe
using her love of outdoors in an environmental career or

(47:42):
starting a family of her own. But unfortunately we'll never know,
because a vicious crime cut her life short at just
fifteen years old. But those who knew and loved her
while they keep her memory alive, and they have throughout
all these years. At the Cameron Bridge fishing access site
across stands with the words Justice for Danny written across it,

(48:05):
a tribute to a young life lost and a demand
for her killer to be found, which thankfully has now
after twenty eight years, that justice has been realized in
the only way left possible now. Danny's story is an
example of how crucial it is for law enforcement to
listen to victim's families and never give up on finding

(48:27):
the truth. It also showcases the remarkable power of modern
forensic science. How a few tiny rootless hairs saved in
an evidence file for decades held the key to solving
a crime that once seemed unsolvable. Danny Houchin's case will
forever be part of Montana's history, not just because of
the tragedy that occurred, but because of the hard won

(48:50):
resolution that followed. Now, while the ending was not the
conventional justice system outcome, the truth was still uncovered and
in remembering Danny, those who knew her her as a fun, loving,
kind and ambitious girl who brought joy to those around her.
She deserved so much more in life. Though nothing can

(49:10):
bring her back, one hope remains that she can now
truly rest in peace, and that her family can sleep
a little easier at night, knowing that the mystery that
plagued them for decades has finally been put to rest.
Danny's story shows us that no matter how much time passes,
determination can light the way to justice, and even the
darkest secrets can eventually see the light of day. And

(49:34):
that's the story of Danielle Houchin's.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Who. That is a story and a half.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
YEP.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I have a few thoughts. First of all, I feel like, well,
Paul is a nasty piece of shit. YEP, I agree.
I wonder what Paul's family would have felt, you know,
his kids, for example, hearing that their dad did this too,
a fifteen year old girl. Yeah, oh my gosh, I
just I don't even I can't even imagine.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
That's why. I mean, like the kids, I'm sure maybe
not around that age of fifteen, they could be depending
on like when they had the kids, but thinking like
that could have been me someone that did that to me.
My dad is the monster to do those things. My
dad did that, like holy shit.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
And I also just want to touch on Stephanie too.
I feel like Danny would be proud of her. I
think so she everyone needs a Stephanie. I think, right,
should we?

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Uh you want to do the honors?

Speaker 2 (50:37):
I do, well. I yeah, she's totally the badass of
the day, but what she did also shouldn't have had
to be done.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
I agree, you're right.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
So she definitely is the badass of the day because
she did, you know, she really helped everything come together
with this, but it shouldn't have had to be that way.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
And I think now would be a good time to
say that some of those those investigators and officers earlier
on in nineteen ninety six should not have been in
that field. They should not have had those jobs. Fuck
those guys, I know.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
I mean I most of the cases, I feel like
they're done fairly well, like pretty good if we have
nothing against like investigators and stuff. But if you are
in that role, you do need to take it very seriously,
or you need to find a job that doesn't need
to be taken that seriously. I guess.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah, exactly, like you need to treat a homicide with
more diligence than flipping a burger like, oh, okay, well
maybe I didn't cook the burger quite right. Whatever I mean.
I mean that technically still has implications if you have
raw or something like that. I guess, But I digress.
This is a person's life. This is affecting families, communities

(51:47):
so much more.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Someone got to live twenty eight years because of you.
And imagine like an extra twenty eight years when they
should not have them, when they should have been in jail.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Yeah, and imagine if he fed off that and he
became a serial killer. Oh imagine the lives that could
have cost potentially still have costs we don't know.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Oh yeah, hopefully he didn't do anything remotely like this
Daniel and else.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, but he's a monster and we'll never get to
know because well he chose the easy way out.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Mm hmm he did so.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Anyways, I'm glad I got to tell Danielle's story because
she deserves it.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
She does.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
And that guy, I hope he burns for eternity. I'll
just put it that. I'll end it there. Thank you
for being here. We appreciate you. Don't forget to check
your description for all the links and everything for this podcast.
Give us a rating if you can. We really appreciate.
It goes a long way. We are an indie show,
independently produced, independently owned, written, researched, hosted. All of it

(52:48):
is done by us in our tiny home, next to
our two dogs who are curled up waiting for the
show to end so they can go outside and maybe
go for a walk and have treats and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Yeah, they do as soon as we say stay with
especially the one Ripley. She gets up and knows, okay
we can bug bug them again. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
They know when it's recording time and when to chill,
and they know when when we're done and uh yeah,
when things move on. Actually, I just looked at her
and her ears starting to twitch, so she she knows.
So with that, thank you for being here. We really
appreciate you. You guys are incredible, and until next time,
stay wicked.

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Danielle Houchins – Cold Case Solved

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Danielle Houchins – Cold Case Solved