Detectives have cracked the cold case of a 15-year-old girl found dead nearly three decades earlier – with the accused killer taking his own life after being confronted about the death.
Danielle Houchins was found lying face down in a pool of just four inches of water in swampland near Belgrade, Montana, on September 21, 1996.
The case was reopened in 2019 – and Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said on Thursday that investigators had identified her killer.
Paul Nathaniel Hutchinson, 55, committed suicide on July 24, a day after police questioned him as a suspect in the teenager’s death.
His DNA was later matched to four arm hairs found on Houchins’ body, providing ‘100 per cent confirmation’ that he was the killer, Springer said.
Hutchinson, who was married for 22 years and had two adult children, was living 100 miles from Belgrade, working as a fisheries biologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Dillon, Montana.
Hutchinson and Houchins didn’t know each other, according to investigators, who described it as ‘a crime of opportunity’.
‘They believe Hutchinson and Houchins randomly encountered each other at the river, where Hutchinson raped then suffocated her in shallow water,’ Springer said.
Springer said Hutchinson ‘displayed extreme nervousness’ when two detectives questioned him on July 23.
‘Investigators noted he sweated profusely, scratched his face, and chewed on his hand,’ he said.
‘When shown a photo of Houchins, Hutchinson slumped in his chair and exhibited signs of being uncomfortable. Upon release, his behavior was observed to be erratic.’
Houchins disappeared after driving to Cameron Bridge Fishing Access on the Gallatin River after a family argument.
Her mother and a friend went to look for her after she didn’t come home, and found her pickup truck unlocked in the parking area but no sign of her.
After two hours of searching, they reported her missing to then-Sheriff Bill Slaughter’s office at 5 p.m.
The search was called off at dark, but two locals kept looking by torchlight and found her body about 9 p.m.
Houchins’ autopsy found she drowned, with mud in her stomach and airways, but her cause of death was ‘undetermined.’
Police at the time said she may have accidentally drowned or even killed herself, much to the fury of Houchins’ family who always believed she was murdered.
The case was reclassified as a homicide last year when semen was found on the girl’s panties.
Springer was sworn in as a deputy five days before the killing and renewed focus on the case, which was reopened in 2019, after he became sheriff in 2021.
‘The investigation remained open because we knew Danni was murdered and someday, we were going to have the tools available to solve this case,’ he said.
Springer decided the case needed fresh eyes and brought in retired Los Angeles Police Department captain Tom Elfmont, who had retired to Bozeman, Montana, and was running a global security firm.
Police interviewed numerous people over the decades since Houchins’ death, but only managed to rule out people known to her.
Springer said this stalled the investigation, as homicides by strangers were the most difficult to solve and relied on physical evidence.
But with new DNA technology, detectives were able to trace the hairs found on the body to Hutchinson using genealogical research.
The DNA profile was sent to a lab in Virginia, where staff trawled databases for partial matches and built a family tree that eventually led to Hutchinson being the most likely suspect.
Elfmont and Sergeant Court Depweg confronted Hutchinson outside the BLM Dillon Field Office on July 23 as he finished work and interviewed him.
At 4:17 a.m. the next day, Hutchinson called the Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office, saying he needed assistance before hanging up.
Local deputies found him minutes later on the side of the road, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police kept it quiet until DNA from Hutchinson was tested and found to be a ‘100 percent match’ to the hairs from the scene.
‘This case exemplifies our relentless pursuit of justice. We never gave up on finding the truth for Danni and her family, exhausting all means necessary to bring closure to this heartbreaking chapter,’ Springer said.
‘Our commitment to justice for victims and their loved ones is unwavering, and we will continue to use every resource at our disposal to solve these cases, no matter how much time has passed.’
Springer said Hutchinson, who had no criminal history or even a traffic violation, would never have been identified without the new DNA technology.
‘This resolution brings a long-awaited sense of closure to Danni’s family and the community,’ he said.
But Houchins’ family, particularly her younger sister, Stephanie Mollet, now 39, are extremely critical of how the 1996 investigation was handled.
‘I always knew in my heart that it couldn’t have been an accident,’ she told the Montana Free Press.
‘I’ve had a lifetime of nightmares about losing someone and how people were just going to be taken away from me, people I love. I’ll wake up sobbing in the middle of the night.
‘I’ve had to resolve my trauma. I’ve had to do therapy and figure out how to live a life and then come back and fight for her.’
Mollet accused police in 1996 of ‘lying’ to the family and ‘withholding information,’ and was critical of the ‘undetermined’ manner of death, given the evidence.
An autopsy showed that Houchins had a recent laceration in her vagina, her underwear was displaced and her bra was pulled above her breasts.
Her gold watch with an elastic band was pulled partially over her hand, like she had been dragged by her arm.
Slaughter said at the time that the lack of bruises or other injuries meant ‘we’ve got to be prepared for the fact that this may have been an accidental drowning.’
Former deputies Keith Farquhar and Cindy Botek claimed to the MFP that Slaughter wanted the case ‘over with’ and was too willing to give up.
Slaughter insisted the case was always investigated as a homicide, and that he, too, was frustrated by the medical examiner’s ruling.
‘We can tell you the manner of death because we all felt like she was a strong young woman,’ he said.
‘She didn’t fall in four inches of water or three inches of water in a swamp and drown. She just didn’t. I mean, all she had to do was roll over on her back, right?
‘We were all frustrated about that call, that it wasn’t a homicide. It seems to me it was pretty obviously homicide, and we told the parents that.’
Mollet was skeptical and said that wasn’t the impression her family was given at the time.
‘What they portrayed was, “well we don’t know, but it really just could have been an accident. You know, she had that knee brace and she kind of just tripped and fell,” ‘ she said.
Springer said police were still investigating to tie up loose ends.
‘The information we’ve received will be shared with federal and local law enforcement agencies in an attempt to locate possible victims of similar crimes,’ he said.