The Tragic Tale of The Livingston Ladies Part 2: Hallie Ganje

Hallie Ganje was a 17-year old living south of Livingston, Montana when she went missing in 1991. She had just atteneded part of a three day party happening on Siebeck Island, and no witnesses can agree on the events that happened on Monday morning. 10 months later Hallie's body is pulled from the Yellowstone River. Did Hallie Ganje commit suicide like investigators report or did something occur at the party that lead to Hallie Ganje to wind up in the river 10 months later? This is Part 2 to The Tragic Tale of The Livingston Ladies.

Episode Transcript

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A three day party ends with thedisappearance of a young woman from Livingston.
But when a dead body is foundin the Yellowstone River, conflicting stories and
timelines emerge, giving rise to thequestion was the tragic end of Hallie Gangy's
life one of suicide or murder?This is the season eighth finale in Part

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two of the Tragic Tales of theLivingston Ladies. This is the season eighth
finale in Part two of the TragicTales of the Livingston Ladies. Welcome to
Montana, Murder Mysteries. I'm yourhost, Mattie Olsen. A skeleton of

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a young woman was found on theYellowstone River bank between Laurel and the Duck
Creek Bridge March first. It wasidentified as Hallie Linnette Gangy of Prey,
Montana, who was reported missing inLivingston in May nineteen ninety one. End
quote amidst articles talking about the triumphsand tragedies of the year, nestled in

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between entries of children going to sportstournaments, a burger king opening in town,
and reports of past house fires throughoutthe year. This single sentence is
the entirety of Hallie's story, aspresented in the Laurel outlook at the end
of nineteen ninety two. But don'tlet its brevity mislead you. While those

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details are technically correct, they don'tdo the complexities of the days leading up
to Hallie's disappearance justice. Contrary tothe officials report, her family and friends
do not accept that Hallie simply committedsuicide. Hallie's story came in as a
tip to Montana Murder Mysteries. Theemail simply said, quote, Hello,

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I'm writing this to see if youcould possibly do a podcast on a family
member from the nineties. Her namewas Hallie Gangy. End This brief question
would lead to cascading information, articlesand leads that would contribute to our discovery
of so many of the cases inLemmingstone that have been left unresolved, including

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those that seemed suspicious to friends andfamily. In addition to Hallie Gangy,
our uncovering of the cases of AngelaBrown, of Amy Johnson, and of
Sheila Felang Jordan all started with thisemail. Hallie Lynette Gangy was born on

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November fifteenth, nineteen seventy four,in Livingstone, Montana. By the time
she was thirteen, her family movedabout twenty miles south to Pray, Montana,
where she was raised with her twobrothers and three sisters. Hallie unfortunately
didn't have the easiest time during herlast few years. She spent many nights

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away from home with friends and CouchSurfingfrom house to house. She was even
looking into becoming legally emancipated from herparents at age seventeen in order to be
fully independent. She was known asan incredibly private person to the people in
her life, even close friends.A lot of those friends were deep into

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the party scene, and Hallie likedto join in. She mostly stuck to
drinking, but her friends say thatshe would occasionally smoke marijuana with them.
Over time, she started accumulating asmall police record from her underage drinking bus.
Now, before we get into thedetails of the party leading up to

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Hallie's disappearance, we want to goover the who's who and where these events
take place. With so many peopleand conflicting stories, things get complicated fast.
Everything takes place at a party onCybeck Island where we had Hallie,
Jessica Brewer, David's story and Jamesand Joshua Hayes. Jessica is a friend

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of Hallie's from before the party.They were about the same age, and
as you will learn, they showedup together at the same time. David's
story was the host of the partyand a popular guy in Livingston and was
twenty one years old because of hisconnections and stories of the parties he had
thrown in the past. He wasasked to coordinate the party by Chris Gilberg,

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whose family owned the house and partywas to be held at The Hayes
brothers would show up a little laterafter the party had started to get going.
They had a third brother, Brian, but he was not present at
the party. It's also unclear ifJames and Halle were officially an item at
one point, but their interactions atthe parties show that they had some form

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of history. And while we're atit, we want to give credit where
credit is due. Brian d Ambrogio. And while we're at it, we
want to give credit where credit itis due. Brian Dambroggio at the Montana
Press writes feature articles about different coldcases in Montana in his Unsolved Montana series.

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They have been a resource that ourteam has used in the past,
and an article he wrote at theend of twenty twenty two was a big
source for this episode, as newspaperarticles don't go into the details of the
party. If you are interested,you can find his article Unsolved Montana who
Killed Hallie Gange on Montana Press dotNet. On May seventeenth, nineteen ninety

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one, Holly was meant to spendthe night at her friend Amber's house.
There was a huge party being thrownon Sybeck Island, but Amber was grounded
so she wasn't allowed to go.Amber's parents were sympathetic towards Holley's tumultuous family
life, so she was still allowedto stay over for the weekend. But
Holley never stayed over at Amber's house. Instead, she used it as a

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cover and went to the party,and it might have been the thing that
led to Halley's disappearance in the earlyhours of May nineteen Sibeck Island is a
part of Livingston completely surrounded by theYellowstone River, with Ninth Island Drive running
along most of the mile long isle. On the weekend of May sixteenth,
nineteen ninety one, a local Livingstonresident, Chris Gilberg, wanted to throw

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a huge party while his parents wereout of town in order to achieve this
successfully, he brought in twenty oneyear old David's story to help. Cybeck
Island is a part of Livingston completelysurrounded by the Yellowstone River, with Ninth
Island Drive running along most of themile long aisle. On the weekend of

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May sixteenth, nineteen ninety one,a local Livingston resident, Chris Gilberg,
wanted to throw a huge party whilehis parents were out of town. In
order to achieve this successfully, hebrought in twenty one year old David's story
to help. The story of Halley'sdisappearance starts the same way, according to
all parties. Hallie joined the partyabout halfway through, when she and her

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friend Jessica Brewer were brought back tothe house after a few partygoers had left
to go get more drinks. Halliechipped in a hundred dollars to buy some
alcohol, thus securing their ride tothe house. Almost immediately, the story
begins to unravel as multiple witnesses havedifferent accounts of what transpired, even something

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as seemingly minor as whether or notshe showed up dressed in her McDonald's uniform.
One thing we do know is thatHallie and Jessica had been enjoying their
time for the first evening, andHallie had a conversation with her friend Amber
over the phone early Sunday morning.So we'll start with who Halley entered the

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party with, Jessica Brewer. Jessicaremembers that James Hayes and his brother Joshua
entered the party shortly after Hallie andJessica got there. Jessica believed that James
was someone who Holley had fooled aroundwith in the past, though she was
unaware of the seriousness of their relationship. The brothers were allegedly known around town

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for getting rowdy at parties and hadgarnered a reputation of disrespectful behavior, so
it makes sense that the brothers werenot invited to this specific house party.
After showing up, Brewer remembers afight breaking out between the brothers, Halle and David