 |
| pic credit: Law & Crime |
On the night of the 2nd of January, 1956, a young couple from Great Falls went out on a date, but neither of them returned home as the sky darkened and the air became stiffer. They were 16-year-old Patricia Kalitzke and 18-year-old Lloyd Duane Bogle.
Patricia was a junior in high school at the time, and despite only meeting Duane a month before at her cousin's wedding, the two seemed enamored and spent a lot of time together. Duane and Patricia were last seen alive in the Great Falls area at 9 p.m. when they left Pete's drive-in. They then turned west on Central Avenue, towards a well-known lover's path near Wadsworth Park. Patricia and Duane were never seen or heard from after that.
Patricia's older sister had eloped when she was approximately Patricia's age, so her parents believed she had eloped with Duane as well. Duane was a Sergeant Second Class at Malmstrom AFB, where he had recently advanced through the ranks.
He was assigned to the 29th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at this location. They became concerned after taking a deeper look at Patricia's life and inclinations since, while the couple had discussed the possibility of getting married, Patricia was not the kind to elope. She was a hardworking student with high school classes the next day. She also wished to attend college after graduating from high school.
Furthermore, the couple was known to follow Patricia's curfew and were not expected to be out late. Duane was also well-liked by Patricia's family, who treated him as if he were a member of the family. Overall, the pair had no cause to go missing voluntarily.
Two women and two airmen drove passed a man laying on the ground between a car and a tree the same night. They didn't think much of the sighting and figured the man was too inebriated to drive and had passed asleep next to his car on the ground.
They would have learned that the man was deceased if they had stopped and checked on him. Three young boys out on a walk in the Great Falls area the next morning, on January 3rd, 1956, discovered the remains of 18-year-old Lloyd Duane Bogle.
His remains were arranged so that half of his body was covered under his car and the other half was visible from the street. Duane was shot in the head and had his wrists bound behind his back with his own belt. The car's ignition switch was still switched on, as were the headlights.
An autopsy on Duane's remains was requested by a coronial inquest, and while detectives knew he had been shot, they were unable to recover the bullet. Investigators were still attempting to recover the bullet in the hopes of gaining contextual information about the culprit. Duane had most certainly been alive for hours after he was shot, according to the autopsy.
Patricia Kalitzke's remains were discovered a day later, on January 5, 1956, in a rocky ravine about eight miles from where Duane's remains were discovered.
Her remains were discovered fully clothed near the side of a 20-foot embankment just off a highway six miles northwest of central Montana. Robbery and sexual assault were first ruled out as possibilities due to the discovery of an expensive camera in Duane's car, as well as a $5 cash in his wallet.
When Patricia's remains were first examined, there were no signs that she had been sexually assaulted. Her autopsy, however, revealed that she had most certainly been sexually assaulted. The matter was only mentioned in passing in news articles about the incident, presumably because addressing it was not socially acceptable at the time.
Despite the lack of technology to test DNA evidence at the time, coroners took a vaginal swab, which they carefully maintained for decades. They also discovered multiple blunt force trauma wounds, indicating that Patricia and the killer had engaged in a struggle.
On the same day, investigators questioned a prospective suspect in connection with the "Chinese Style Executions," as they had been termed. Without a sure, this term would not be used now, although it was far from socially inappropriate at the time.
Also Read: Top 10 Creepy and Dark Stories That Happened During Road Trips
This probable suspect's identity was never revealed, although it was revealed that he was an airman who worked with Duane. Patricia's mother had a talk with Duane a few days before the deaths because he was clearly unhappy.
She had asked him what was bothering him, to which he responded, "I've got the blues and just can't shake them." before going on to say that he had had an argument with a friend. This suspect was eventually ruled out.
In November of 1989, investigators decided to look for the bullet in a tree nearby. In an interview with the Associated Press, Cascade County Sheriff Barry Michelotti stated, "The tree ... has always been of major interest to law enforcement officers because that's where he was killed - right at the tree."
The recovery of the bullet used to kill Duane would allow investigators to identify the caliber of the weapon used to shoot him and determine if the bullet is potentially linked to any firearm confiscated in other incidents over the years.
Previous attempts to X-ray the tree had failed due to the size and density of its bark, according to Sgt. Dick Duncan in the same interview. The tree was approximately 80 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 4 1/2 feet.
According to Sheriff Michelotti, investigators planned to remove roughly 33 growth rings from the lower half of the tree. "Once we hit the 33-year mark on the tree, if the bullet penetrated through the trunk, we should notice an entry - a hole, a tunnel," he said.
When authorities discovered bullets in the cottonwood tree, their hopes of locating the offender were rekindled. The bullets, however, could not be traced to a firearm used in another crime, so the hope was short-lived.
While there were no major breakthroughs in this investigation, it never became static, and investigators pursued any and all leads that came their way. In connection with the matter, up to 35 people were questioned. Edward Wayne Edwards, who had been arrested for burglary in Montana in 1956, was one of the possible suspects in this case.
He escaped from an Akron prison in 1955 and proceeded on a nationwide robbery spree, targeting gas stations. He was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1961, and he was apprehended in 1962. In 1967, he was released on parole. He wasn't arrested again until 2009, and in 2010, he pled guilty to the murders of four people: 21-year-old Billy Lavaco, 18-year-old Judith Straub, 19-year-old Tim Hack, and 19-year-old Kelly Drew.
Edwards later admitted to killing Dannie Law Gloeckner, a 25-year-old man, in 2011. He also admitted to persuading Danny Boy, a soldier in the United States Army, to go AWOL. Danny Boy was later shot and buried in a shallow grave by Edwards.
He was condemned to death in March 2011 for his role in Danny Boy's death, however, he died of natural causes in prison just one month later. Edwards' M.O. was a figurative link between the Kalitzke-Bogle killings and the Kalitzke-Bogle deaths.
Edwards was known to target couples in lover's lanes, which was similar to where Patricia and Duane were when they were killed. The "Sweetheart Murders" were named after his crimes. James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger, a prominent criminal in the area, was also a suspect in the killings. In 1951, Bulger was arrested for sexual assault.
He was known to have been in the neighborhood at the time of the killings, but there was no proof that he was involved. With no new leads in years, the search for the individual who murdered Patricia and Duane became futile. Sgt. John Kadner, the CCSO's chief of detectives, was assigned to the case in 2012.
Detective Phil Matteson, who was investigating the case at the time, forwarded DNA evidence from the vaginal swab to the state crime lab in 2001, according to Sgt. Kadner. It was determined that the DNA was not Duane's, and it was submitted into CODIS as a result. Since then, there had been no matches.
Sgt. Kadner worked with BODE Technology to reproduce the DNA sample after being assigned to the case. They were able to effectively reproduce the sample found in 2019. They opted to compare it to DNA donated by members of the public to open-source DNA databases this time, in addition to the samples recorded in CODIS.
People who want to undertake an independent study into their family lineages use open-source DNA databases. The Golden State Killer had been captured just a year before, in 2018, when members of his family donated their DNA to a similar open-source DNA database, which led to his identification and arrest. The sample uploaded by Sgt. Kadner was compatible with those uploaded by three other people, and investigators got into contact with them and their family members.
Kenneth Gould was considered to be the most likely match for the DNA sample recovered from Patricia Kalitzke's remains after DNA samples were collected. In an interview with NPR, Sgt. Kadner noted, "It was fantastic because, for the first time in 65 years, we had a goal and a place to look into. Because until then, all we had were theories... we finally had a game, and we had a name.
It shifted the case's entire dynamic." They did, however, have a different issue. Kenneth Gould had died in 2007 and his ashes had been cremated. Authorities then contacted his children and informed them of the situation, after which they consented to contribute their DNA for testing. Investigators were hesitant to approach them at first, but they were completely cooperative.
"I wasn't sure how they were going to respond when I came to them and said, 'Hey, your dad's a suspect in this case,' but they were nice to deal with," Sgt. Kadner said in an interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald.
When their DNA was compared to the DNA obtained at the crime site, it was found to be identical. Kenneth Gould, a Great Falls local, was known for riding his horses near the Vinyard Road area, which was where Patricia's bones were discovered.
He lived near Patricia's parents at one point, but he had no other connections to Patricia or Duane. Kenneth Gould married a 16-year-old when he was 25, the same age as Patricia was at the time of the murders.
Also Read: The Oldest Murder Mystery Has Finally Been Solved by Scientists
Kenneth Gould uprooted his entire life a month after the killings, moving his family to Tracy, then Geraldine, then Hamilton, and finally moving out of Montana to Missouri, never to return. Kenneth Gould was finally named as the "most likely" suspect in the crimes, despite the fact that he was dead at the time and so his guilt could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt without a fair trial.
According to Sgt. Kadner, "Obviously, I won't be able to place the gun in his hands. But, after putting everything together, I have no doubt that he is the suspect." Sgt. Kadner was reportedly warned by Kenneth Gould's daughter, "You never know what might happen. Some folks simply have secrets that they have never shared with anyone."
Duane Bogle and Patricia Kalitzke's families were finally reached and given the closure they had been seeking for over 65 years. While the families were relieved to finally have answers, the discovery also reopened old wounds, particularly for those who had known the couple intimately.
According to Sgt. Kadner, "They're ecstatic, but it's also bringing up a lot of emotions. You had two young, energetic people who were well-liked by their friends. The investigators put their hearts and souls into this investigation. From what I've seen, they leave a little part of themselves behind." Patricia Kalitzke's sister, the family's lone survivor, had extensive dementia by the time her sister's killer was discovered.
For years, the Bogle family had been ripped apart by speculations about what had happened to Duane, including unfounded claims that he was linked with the mob. Caryn Bogle McCarthy, Duane's niece, was 54 at the time of his death.
Her father, James Bogle, was Duane's younger brother, and she had admired him since they were children. Caryn noted in an interview with the New York Times, "Everything's as if it happened just yesterday.
So, if you ask me if this fantastic modern technology is a good thing, I'd answer yes, on balance, for my generation, a generation that has passed me by. It does, however, revive old scars that have had time to harden over."
Edgar Wilson, Kenneth Gould's Missouri neighbor for eleven years, said in an interview with KRTV, "I can't believe what I'm hearing about Ken. I simply cannot believe it. He had a laid-back demeanor and spoke softly. He was a non-drinker. Cain was not raised by him. In my entire life, I have never heard him cuss. Simply said, he's a great guy."
Kenneth Gould lived on a farm with his family in Missouri, where he bred sheep and goats and worked as a horse trainer with a good reputation. Because the only three people who might have been able to shed light on the crime are all dead, it's difficult to tell what motivated it. At this point, all we know is that, as Kenneth Gould's daughter put it, some individuals just have secrets they never tell.