Kidnapper and Killer: David Meirhofer

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minute murderer. David Meierhoffer grew up as

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an outcast. Soon after he was
born in nineteen forty nine, his parents

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moved their five kids to Manhattan,
Montana, a tiny town with a population

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of just over seven hundred. At
Manhattan High School, David had a hard

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time making friends. His peers thought
that he was weird because he was quiet,

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and he kept to himself, and
he always seemed to be depressed or

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lost in his thoughts. The year
after David graduated from high school, he

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was drafted into the United States Army. He then completed basic training in California.

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While he was fighting in the Vietnam
War, David started getting the recognition

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that he had never received as a
teenager. His superiors noticed his talent in

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military strategy and telecommunication, and he
received a collection of awards before being honorably

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discharged four years later. After his
discharge, David wanted a quiet life.

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He moved back to Manhattan, Montana, and he set up shop as a

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carpenter and general handyman. That same
year, a seven year old girl disappeared

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from Missouri Headwaters State Park, where
her family had been camping. That park

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was only a fifteen minute drive away
from Manhattan. Three days later, Susan

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Yager was taken from her family's tent. The FBI in Denver received the phone

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call. The caller claimed that he
had kidnapped Susan and said he would release

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her in exchange for twenty five thousand
dollars, but until the second call came

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through, investigators thought it was a
hoax. On the second of July,

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the same caller rang the Gallatin County
Sheriff's office. Once again, he claimed

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to be Susan Yager's abductor, but
this time he doubled down his ransom demand

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to fifty thousand dollars, wanting the
deputy who answered the phone to take him

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seriously. The caller described Susan Yeager
in detail, sharing that she had a

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deformed fingernail on one of her index
fingers, a fact that was only known

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by Susan's family and the police.
Now that they knew they were dealing with

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a legitimate caller, the police arranged
for the ransom to be dropped off,

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hoping that they would be able to
apprehend the kidnapper when he came to collect

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the money. Despite waiting for hours, nobody ever showed up. Hoping that

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the kidnapper would risk calling Susan's family, The police wire tapped the house and

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had paid off in September. When
the kidnapper called the land line at Susan's

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house, her teenage brother Daniel picked
up the phone. The caller seemed eager

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to prove that he was the real
deal. He provided details about his previous

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calls to the FBI so that Daniel
would know the call was not a hoax.

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The FBI traced the call to a
gas station in the city of Cheyenne,

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Wyoming, but it didn't bring them
any closer to catching the killer.

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Then, for months, there was
silence. In February nineteen seventy four,

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more than a thousand pieces of human
bone were found on an unused ranch in

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Three Forks, Montana. The bodies
had been burned beyond recognition, but the

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forensic analysis revealed that they belonged to
two people, a girl of around seven

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years old and a woman in her
late teens or early twenties. Four months

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after the bone fragments were discovered,
the Yager family received another phone call from

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their daughter's kidnapper. This time,
he talked to Susan's mother, Marietta,

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for all almost an hour. Once
again, he proved that he was legitimate

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by referencing previous conversations with the FBI, but shortly before he hung up,

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he informed Marietta that he would not
be able to give her daughter back.

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The FBI discovered that the call had
been made using several communications devices built into

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the telephone cables of an innocent man
living in three Forks. Although this didn't

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show the identity of the caller,
it revealed that he was more intelligent than

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they'd previously thought. This was a
highly sophisticated, meticulous man with an expertise

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in telecommunications who was determined not to
be caught. The FBI created a profile

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of the person they believed was responsible
for the crime. The profile described a

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white male in his late twenties who
had grown up in the area. They

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believed he would spend his life as
an introverted outcast, and at some point

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he either had worked in telecommunications or
the military, possibly both. There was

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one man who fit this profile exactly, David Meierhoffer. The more that the

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investigation zeroed in on David, the
more evidence suggested that he was the killer.

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He had been in Wyoming on the
day that Susan Yeager's family received a

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phone call from their daughter's kidnapper,
and he had also worked several jobs at

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the ranch where the two sets of
burnt human remains had been discovered. In

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August nineteen seventy four, David Meierhoffer
was arrested. He initially claimed that he

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was innocent, and investigators were forced
to release him, but when Susan's parents

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listened to the recordings of David's voice, they were convinced that that was the

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man that had called them. When
Susan's family received another threatening call from their

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daughter's killer in September nineteen seventy four, the FBI positively identified the caller as

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David Meierhoffer, and he was arrested
for a second time. As soon as

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he was in jail, they carried
out a search of his house, and

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in his refrigerator they found several severed
fingers, as well as an entire human

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hand. Now David was backed into
a corner, he felt as if he

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had no choice but to confess,
telling investigators that he had fatally stabbed Susan

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shortly after her abduction because he could
not get her to stop struggling. Even

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if the ransom had been paid immediately, Susan's family never had the chance to

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see their daughter again. She had
died the same day she was taken.

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David never revealed his motive for the
kidnapping. He repeatedly denied that he sexually

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assaulted her, but he made no
efforts to provide investigators with another theory.

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As well as confirming that he'd kidnapped
and murdered Susan, David confessed to carrying

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out a similar crime in February of
nineteen seventy three. That victim was nineteen

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year old Sandra Dykman, who had
disappeared while watching a basket skitball game.

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David revealed that he had been sexually
interested in Sandra, but she rejected him.

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Infuriated, he kidnapped her, tied
her up, and gagged her to

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prevent her from escaping, but he
was too aggressive with Sandra's bindings and she

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ended up suffocating to death. Once
his victims were dead, David had disposed

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of their bodies in the same way. He used a saw and his hunting

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knife to dismember them before he burned
them, then dumped the bones and ashes

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in the abandoned ranch where they were
later found. Investigators working on the case

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suspected that Sandra and Susan weren't David's
only victims. He'd abducted both girls,

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easily, been confident enough to contact
the police, and he had a clear

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thought out process for disposing of the
bodies. The theory that David was a

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more prolific killer was confirmed before the
trial when his defense attorney proposed a plea

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deal. In exchange for a void
execution, David would confess to two more

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murders. The additional victims were twelve
and thirteen years old, and had both

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been killed in the nearby city of
Three Forks. Twelve year old Michael E.

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Rainey had been fatally beaten in May
of nineteen sixty eight, and thirteen

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year old Bernard Pullman had been shot
to death in nineteen sixty seven. Bernard's

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death had initially been thought of as
a tragic accident, as the police thought

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he'd been hit by a stray bullet
from somebody hunting nearby. David had still

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been a teenager when he'd killed the
boys, and once again he did not

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admit to a motive for the murders. The only clue he gave was admitting

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that before murdering Michael Rainey, he
had thought to himself that he wanted to

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get a little kid. Still,
the investigators were suspicious that David had only

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confessed to murders that had taken place
in Gallatin County, Montana. They believed

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that the four crimes were only the
tip of the iceberg, but they would

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never find out the true extent of
David's crimes. The jailers who were responsible

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for David Meierhoffer had never been informed
that he was arrested for murder, so

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in a massive oversight, he was
never regarded as a suicide threat. Only

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a few hours after confessing to Michael
and Bernard's murders, David used a towel

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to hang himself to death in his
jail cell. More than a decade after

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David's suicide, his little brother,
Allan was convicted for raping several children in

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Washington. He spent almost twenty years
behind bars, surrounded by rumors that there

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was a connection between David's murders and
Allan's crimes. Allan refused to give any

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statements about his brother, creating yet
another mystery about the motives of the men

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in the Meyerhoffer family. That's ten
Minute Murder for today, brief and binge

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able true crime. I'm Joe the
host, and thank you so much for

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taking the time out of your day
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if you've got more to go,
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don't let me stop you keep on
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and you can more easily catch up
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a side note, if you're listening
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have all of the episodes. So
if you find a podcast listening app that

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you enjoy using, use that and
you're going to get all of the episode.

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There are more than three one hundred
and fifty somethings. There's a bunch,

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so there are a lot too for
you to catch up on. Connect

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with me on social media see the
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Never gross, never graphic stuff though, and usually about this time is where

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I will read an email from one
of you that listens asking me a question

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about anything under the sun. Today, I'm going to read an email,

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but it's not a question, and
I'm only reading it here because it made

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my day and I want to say
a public thank you, So here it

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is. This is from Andrew in
Chattanooga. Joe, Greetings from Chattanooga.

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First of all, I just want
to say thank you. I got into

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your podcast toward the beginning of this
year and became quickly hooked. I listened

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all year whilst walking on the treadmill, driving, doing yardwork, doing real

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work, and most other activities in
life that I could get away with listening,

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and finally made it all the way
through last week. It has definitely

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become my wife and I's favorite.
The format, your sense of humor that

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somehow weaves in nicely with darker subjects
in the artful way you put the stories

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together in a larger context of mental
health, just brilliant. I hope you

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continue to put out great content in
whatever format you choose for the future,

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and I will be there to listen
always. So I just wanted to really

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express my gratitude first and foremost.
Second, I thought i'd throw casier way

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that is relatively close to home for
me that I thought you might be interested

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in doing for the podcast one day, and then he goes into tell me

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about this really, really interesting story
that I'm not going to spoil now.

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I'm gonna do more research on that, but i'll get back to But Andrew

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and Chattanooga, thank you. I
read this the other day and it absolutely

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made my day. Now, obviously, we all like to hear nice things

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about themselves, but when it's something
that I put so much time and effort

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and money into this podcast to be
appreciated for that, it makes it feel

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worthwhile. And by the way,
I've mentioned before that I live in the

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South. I don't live in Chattanooga, but I live close enough to drive

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and I go to Chattanooga pretty often. I say pretty often, but not

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super often. I go to visit
the Otters at the aquarium there, and

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Chattanooga is one of my favorite cities
in the South. But anyway, Andrew,

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thank you so much for the email, and thank you and your wife

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for listening to all of the episodes. You'll find in the near future that

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I'm striving to put out more content
than I have previously, Like this past

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week there were three episodes instead of
two. I can't do that every single

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week, but I'm going to try
and do it more and more often.

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But anyway, that's it. That's
your episode for today. Thank you so

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much for listening to ten minute Murder