Nickie Dean Gardiner, accused of killing two women in 1990, made his first court appearance on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Missoula District Court on two charges of deliberate homicide, where he pleaded not guilty.
Missoula County prosecutors charged Gardiner for the 1990 deaths of two elderly patients at Riverside Health and Rehabilitation after DNA evidence linked him to both deaths.
Zach Volheim reports - watch the video here:
The charges follow significant recent developments in the investigation, including advanced DNA analysis that links Gardiner to both women named in the charges, Bertha Scott and Nancy Lagerquist.
Scott and Lagerquist were both elderly women residing at Riverside Health Care Center in 1990. Both were found deceased under suspicious and violent circumstances in May 1990 and July 1990.
At that time, law enforcement and medical personnel did not have the benefit of modern forensic technology.
Over the past year, the Montana State Crime Lab and Bode Technology conducted new DNA testing on the biological evidence preserved from the original investigations.
Court documents say the testing was able to link Gardiner to the deaths of both women.
According to court documents, Gardiner, now 69 years old, had no known relationship with either woman.
