Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
One of the oldest cold cases in American criminal history, which was solved after 65 years with the help of DNA and forensic genealogy, is the double murder of a couple in 1956 in Great Falls, Montana, also known as ‘The Montana Sweethearts’. It was 3 September 1956 when, whilst out for a morning walk not far from the Sun River, three boys discovered the body of a young man with his hands tied behind his back. The dead man was lying next to his car, which was still running and had its headlights on. The body turned out to be that of 18-year-old Lloyd Duane Bogle, from Texas, a pilot with the 29th Interceptor Squadron based at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Waco. Bogle had been killed by a shot to the head. Just one day later, a road worker found the body of 16-year-old Patricia Kalitzke, a pupil at Great Falls High School, several kilometres away from Bogle’s body on Vinyard Road. Kalitzke had also been killed by a shot to the head, but had been raped beforehand. Investigations revealed that the two were a couple who had last been seen alive on 2 September at Pete’s Drive-In in Great Falls. They had driven to Wadsworth Park, to a spot known as ‘Love’s Lane’, for a romantic rendezvous. This is a secluded spot where lovers indulge their passion, which is why the double murder came to be known as ‘The Montana Sweethearts’. The police investigated at full speed. Yet all leads came to nothing. It was not until 2001, when Phil Matteson, a detective with the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, sent a vaginal swab – which had been taken by forensic pathologists during Patricia Kalitzke’s post-mortem in 1956 and preserved on a microscope slide – to a local laboratory for analysis, that the baffling cold case finally began to make progress. The team discovered semen that did not belong to Patricia’s boyfriend. Yet years passed once again before Detective Sergeant Jon Kadner, who had been assigned to the case since 2012, sought the assistance of Bode Technology. With the support of partner laboratories, the forensic genealogists were able to create a DNA profile of the perpetrator using the preserved samples and then search public databases for possible matches. As a rule, these samples enabled them to identify distant relatives of the perpetrator. By searching public registers, forensic genealogists can then construct a family tree that leads them to the suspect, even if the suspect has never provided their DNA to a public database. This DNA test led to Kenneth Goul, who had lived in the Great Falls area with his wife and children until shortly after the double murder. The problem was that Kenneth Goul had already died in 2007 and had subsequently been cremated. The investigators therefore needed the DNA of his children, who did indeed consent and provided DNA samples that unequivocally proved that their father was the murderer of Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patricia Kalitzke. Kenneth Goul had sold his property in Great Falls just one month after the double murder. He moved with his wife and children to Tracy, then to Geraldine and shortly afterwards to Hamilton, before settling in Missouri, where he and his family lived on a farm. Kenneth Goul was a passionate horse trainer who was a loving father and husband. Kenneth never drank, never raised his voice and was also extremely popular in the neighbourhood. No one would ever have believed that Kenneth was a cold-blooded murderer and rapist who turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thanks to DNA and forensic genealogy, the mystery surrounding the double murder of Patricia Kalitzke and Lloyd Duane Bogle – which had preoccupied investigators and the victims’ families for decades – was finally solved after 65 years. May they finally find peace.
