Ep. 2: A Monster Among Us, Part 1

Summary

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Blood Trails (MeatEater)

Ep. 2: A Monster Among Us, Part 1

Host: Jordan Sillars
Original release: November 6, 2025

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Overview

This chilling episode of Blood Trails investigates the 1996 rape and murder of 15-year-old Danielle (Dani) Houchens in rural Montana, a cold case that remained unsolved for nearly three decades. Through gripping interviews, original reporting, and audio from detectives, host Jordan Sillars unfolds how the surprising figure of Paul Hutchinson—a respected outdoorsman, U.S. Bureau of Land Management fisheries biologist, and family man—was identified as her killer using cutting-edge forensic genetics. The episode explores the trauma and failures in the original investigation, the breakthrough brought by family persistence and new technology, and the shocking final moments as justice caught up with a man who managed to hide his monstrous act for almost 30 years.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dual Nature of Paul Hutchinson (03:27–05:33)

• Relatives, colleagues, and hunting buddies describe Paul as “just a pretty normal dude,” albeit quirky and a bit arrogant.
  • “We thought he was a kind of quirky guy, but he was ex-military and had a fisheries biologist, wildlife biologist background.” — Paul Hutchinson, hunting partner (03:32)
• His outward life: respected government employee, family man, obsessed with turkey hunting, with aspirations of tagging birds in all 49 states where they live.
  • Paul’s own voice, calling to turkeys from his truck: “They’re so stupid.” (05:16)
• Public shock after his unmasking: How could an apparently normal outdoorsman be a murderer?

2. The Disappearance and Immediate Aftermath (07:27–13:15)

• On September 21, 1996, 15-year-old Danielle "Dani" Houchens left home to clear her head after an argument, heading for the nearby Cameron Bridge fishing access on the Gallatin River.
• Stephanie Houchens, Dani’s younger sister, paints a portrait of Dani as smart, sarcastic, tough, cool, and a mentor figure.
  • “She was my hero… she had this really dry sense of humor and sarcasm… that hilarious, snarky, sassy, angsty 15-year-old girl.” — Stephanie (08:21)
• Discovery: Dani’s truck, keys, and water bottle are found but not Dani; the family's frantic search ensues. Two family friends eventually spot her body in a marsh by following overlooked clues.

3. Crime Scene Controversies and Early Investigation Failures (13:15–18:09)

• Shocking crime scene: body face down in muddy water, signs of sexual violence and manual drowning—yet coroner lists cause of death as “undetermined,” not homicide.
• Police initially suggest accidental drowning, not murder.
  • “It never made sense what law enforcement was saying to us.” — Stephanie Houchens (14:50)
• Critical evidence overlooked or minimized: bruising, evidence of struggle, foreign hairs, and semen are not acted on with urgency.

4. The Toll on the Family and Stalled Justice (17:06–19:19)

• The failure to classify Dani’s death as homicide prevents proper investigation, entry into cold case databases, and perpetuates trauma.
  • “The failure in 1996 set up, in my opinion, a culture of not taking her case seriously.” — Stephanie (17:46)
• For years, the case languished despite efforts by some determined detectives.

5. Breakthroughs: Persistence Meets Technology (19:19–27:27)

• Stephanie launches a five-year campaign to reopen the case, culminating in collaboration with Sergeant Matt Boxmeyer and retired LAPD captain Tom Elfmont.
• Tom reviews old evidence, tracks down misplaced key exhibits (Dani’s underwear with semen), and pushes for advanced genetic testing at Astrea Forensics—one of the first U.S. labs able to extract DNA from an old hair sample.
  • “With the third and fourth hairs… on the fourth hair, they got a lot of DNA. It was only the seventh case in the United States involving a hair and DNA that was solved.” — Tom Elfmont (25:01)
• With help from “DNA detective” CeCe Moore, genetic genealogy narrows the suspect pool to two brothers and a cousin from New Hampshire—one of whom, Paul Hutchinson, had moved to Montana just before Dani’s murder.

6. The Undercover Interview (30:53–44:58)

• Under pretense of a fisheries-related inquiry, Tom Elfmont and Sergeant Court Dupuig interview Hutchinson in person at his BLM office, seeking admissions.
  • “I really wanted him to either lie to us or tell us things about where he was…” — Tom Elfmont (31:42)
• Initial small talk about his educational background and history in the region soon pivots toward the murder, with careful, indirect questioning.
  • Notable exchange:
    • Sgt. Dupuig: “Have you ever heard of the Cameron Bridge access? Have you been there before?” (38:30)
    • Paul Hutchinson: “Probably Jackrabbit Lane.” (38:38)
• As questions zero in on the night of the murder, Hutchinson becomes visibly agitated and evasive—profuse sweating and repeated room exits.
  • “He admitted going out, having trap lines out there, which would have put him in the woods… He put himself there, which was a big deal.” — Tom Elfmont (39:30)
• When shown Dani’s photo and asked if he recognizes her: “I honestly don’t. I… What’s the last name? …Does she have an older brother?” — Hutchinson (43:10)
• As the session closes, Hutchinson fails to provide an alibi or any meaningful denial, and investigators note suspicious behaviors (e.g., opening his phone’s OnX app possibly to erase sensitive data).

7. Sudden, Tragic Finale (45:11–46:34)

• The next morning, before police could act further, Hutchinson dies by suicide, calling 911 with “officer needs assist” before taking his own life.
  • “Just a day after their initial interview with Paul Hutchinson… Paul Hutchinson had died by suicide.” — Stephanie (45:57)
• Follow-up DNA analysis confirms, to a mathematical certainty (10.7 trillion to 1), that the DNA found on Dani was Hutchinson's.
  • “They turned it around really quickly and told us it was 10.7 trillion to 1…” — Tom Elfmont (46:18)
• Stephanie Houchens expresses fury and disappointment at losing the chance for a public reckoning:
  • “My first thought was, ‘You fucking coward.’ … I was looking forward to staring his ass down in court… and he totally robbed that from me.” — Stephanie (46:41)

8. Reflections and Unanswered Questions (49:06–51:35)

• Sergeant Dupuig’s closing interrogation technique is poignant, trying to evoke empathy from a father suspected of robbing another family of a daughter.
  • Sgt. Dupuig: “You know, you have a girl who’s—who, you know, I’ll use an old school term—innocent, right? And then somebody takes that innocence away and then murders her. I mean, as a dad, I mean, how would you feel? … I want to know what man did that to my little girl.” (49:34-49:54)
• Investigation concludes with Hutchinson’s suicide, but further questions linger:
  • Was Dani his only victim? Did his decades of solitary hunting trips provide opportunity for other crimes?
  • How do communities reconcile with the possibility of “monsters among us,” hiding in plain sight?

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Description | |-----------|---------|-------------------| | 03:32 | Paul’s hunting partner | “We thought he was a kind of quirky guy, but he was ex-military and had a fisheries biologist, wildlife biologist background.” | | 08:21 | Stephanie Houchens | “She was my hero… that hilarious, snarky, sassy, angsty 15-year-old girl.” | | 14:50 | Stephanie Houchens | “It never made sense what law enforcement was saying to us.” | | 17:46 | Stephanie Houchens | “The failure in 1996 set up, in my opinion, a culture of not taking her case seriously in the sheriff’s office.” | | 25:01 | Tom Elfmont | “It was only the seventh case in the United States involving a hair and DNA that was solved.” | | 31:42 | Tom Elfmont | “I really wanted him to either lie to us or tell us things about where he was…” | | 38:04 | Tom Elfmont | “He was profusely sweating. Clearly, he was unbelievable agitated.” | | 46:41 | Stephanie Houchens | “My first thought was, you fucking coward... he totally robbed that from me.” | | 50:46 | Sgt. Dupuig | “My daughter... was probably screaming his name, you know, asking for dad’s help. All she wanted to probably do was go home to dad, you know, screaming for her dad to save her. He couldn’t be there...” |

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 03:27–05:33 | Outward life and community impressions of Paul Hutchinson
• 07:27–13:15 | Dani’s disappearance, family search, and discovery
• 13:15–18:09 | Crime scene details, coroner controversy, and stalled case
• 19:19–27:27 | Family advocacy, new investigators, forensic breakthroughs
• 30:53–44:58 | Investigators' interview with Hutchinson: tactics, responses, and mounting tension
• 45:11–46:34 | Hutchinson’s suicide and DNA confirmation
• 49:06–50:46 | Emotional closing reflections: justice, family, and unresolved trauma

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Tone and Style

Jordan Sillars maintains a sober, investigative tone, weaving emotional testimony and technical details without sensationalism. The episode is marked by empathy for the victim’s family, a focus on methodical police work, and a haunting undercurrent as “ordinary” outdoor culture is juxtaposed with the capacity for human darkness. Testimony from both family and detectives is frank and often raw, particularly in passages where Stephanie vents her grief and anger.

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Takeaway

This episode of Blood Trails reveals a decades-old Montana murder case broken open by persistence, new forensic science, and the courage of a victim’s family. It starkly illustrates how the “monsters among us” may hide behind the most innocuous of facades, the profound impact of law enforcement failures on victims' families, and the cold comfort—and further questions—left in the wake of delayed justice. The episode closes with the assurance that the story isn’t over: Was Paul Hutchinson a rare one-time killer, or are there more tragedies scattered along his blood trails?

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Transcript

[Jordan Sillers]

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[Stephanie Houchens]

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[Jordan Sillers]

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[Tom Elfmont]

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[Jordan Sillers]

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[Tom Elfmont]

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[Jordan Sillers]

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[Stephanie Houchens]

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[Advertisement Voice 1]

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[Jordan Sillers]

That's guardianbikes.com this episode contains graphic descriptions.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Of crime scene details involving sexual violence and murder.

[Jordan Sillers]

It also deals with suicide. Listener discretion is advised.

[Stephanie Houchens]

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

[Jordan Sillers]

In 1996, a 15 year old girl was raped, drowned and left for dead along the Banks of the Gallatin river. Her murderer turned out to be a hunter and a BLM biologist. He was brought to justice nearly 30 years later, but not in the way that anyone expected. That's next on blood trails. How well do you know the people you hunt with? You know their names, what they do, where they live. If you hunt with family, you know a whole lot more. But when you venture into the wilderness to spend days, sometimes weeks alone with another person, do you ever wonder, do I really know this guy? I think they just thought he was.

[Paul Hutchinson]

A pretty normal dude. We thought he was a kind of.

[Jordan Sillers]

A quirky guy, but he was ex.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Military and had a fisheries biologist, wildlife biologist background.

[Jordan Sillers]

So we just always thought he was kind of a different guy. We went way back out in the mountains by ourselves. I didn't have any clue where we were and spent the whole day and it was horrible. It was the worst day ever. He was so mean.

[Advertisement Voice 2]

I shot my first deer ever with him when I was nine years old. And I mean, he's always, was always there and he was always the person who pushed me to get more involved with the outdoor activities.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Nobody had any idea. And thinking back on it, I remembered that he had been kind of reserved and stuff and like, yeah, I couldn't think of anything that I was never like, uncomfortable.

[Jordan Sillers]

The voices you just heard are the relatives, co workers and hunting partners of a man named Paul Hutchinson. Hutchinson was born in New Hampshire in 1969, but moved out to Montana in the late 90s to attend Montana State University. He earned a degree in fishery science and enjoyed a long and award winning career as a biologist with the Bureau of land management. He had a wife, two kids and a house in Dillon, Montana. He was also a big time outdoorsman. He hunted elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep and waterfowl. But most of all, he loved turkeys. He traveled to 20 states chasing gobblers and he aimed to kill a Turkey in all 49 states where they live. Most of Hutchinson's social media accounts no longer exist, but his son posted a video in 2020 of Hutchinson calling to a group of turkeys from his truck.

[Paul Hutchinson]

They're so stupid.

[Jordan Sillers]

From the outside, he seemed like a normal guy. Maybe a little off putting at times, maybe a little arrogant, but on the whole, not a bad dude to go hunting with. Then last year, that facade came crashing down.

[Stephanie Houchens]

After nearly three decades, a cold case murder in Gallatin county is closed.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

In 1996, 15 year old Danny Houchens.

[Advertisement Voice 1]

Disappeared after going for a walk by a river.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Hours later, her body was found in a swampy area.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Forensic evidence has determined Paul Hutchinson murdered Danielle Houins at the Cameron Bridge fishing access.

[Jordan Sillers]

Hutchinson was accused of raping and murdering a 15 year old girl in a community just down the road from where he lived, worked and raised a family. Investigators used cutting edge forensic technology to pin him for the crime and they confronted him in a high pressure interview. You'll hear at the end of this episode. The story rocked the small town of Dillon as Hutchinson's family, friends, coworkers and hunting buddies asked themselves how they missed the giant festering atrocity in Paul Hutchinson's past. How could a person so outwardly normal be capable of something so evil? Who was Paul Hutchinson? How did he escape detection for so long? Was anyone else in on his secret? And do his family and friends believe he did what he's been accused of doing?

[Advertisement Voice 2]

I don't think any of us know what happened. Obviously something really terrible and provable happened and there's no like denying it or justifying it or rationalizing it. Completely crazy. I mean, you hear about the stuff on tv, you never think you're going to be on the villain side of the story.

[Jordan Sillers]

And that story might not be over. Hutchinson traveled the country hunting turkeys and now investigators are wondering if he used those trips to commit other crimes. Is it possible someone could rape a 15 year old girl, kill her, and then go on to live a crime free life? Right now, no one knows for sure, but still, it makes you wonder what else could be hiding in the hearts of those we think we know best? I'm Jordan Sillers and this is Blood Trails. A Monster Among Us Part 1 Danny On September 21, 1996, Danielle Houchens needed to clear her head. She'd had a disagreement with her parents, as 15 year olds tend to do. So she asked her mom if she could drive down to the Cameron Bridge fishing access site just outside of Belgrade, Montana. Dani had recently earned her driver's license, so it was a quick 10 minute ride in her truck. It was peaceful down by the banks of the Gallatin river and she'd been there before with friends and family. Stephanie, her younger sister, was 12 years old at the time. Her memory of Dani is colored by the genuine admiration most girls have for their older teenage sister.

[Stephanie Houchens]

She was my hero. She was cool and tough, you know, she was the grunge era and it was the 90s and like she wore cool baggy flannels and listened to all awesome music like Pearl Jam and Nirvana and all this angsty, you know, kind of music. And so that there was that cool factor. And she was adventurous and, you know, seemingly unafraid to do things, but she excelled in a lot of other ways too. She was very, very, very smart and did really well in school. But she wasn't just studious smart. She had this really dry sense of humor and sarcasm that she would point at the people around her, but would also like, turn that on herself and be sarcastic and self deprecating of her humor. You know, just kind of that, that hilarious, snarky, sassy, angsty 15 year old girl.

[Jordan Sillers]

In the 90s, the Houchens didn't do much hunting and fishing, but they did pretty much everything else in the outdoors. They especially liked to ski. Stephanie's parents were both ski patrollers in Big Sky, Montana. And Stephanie remembers doing everything she could to keep up with her older sister on the slopes.

[Stephanie Houchens]

She was always the person I looked up to on anything that we were doing as a family. And so there was that innate desire to be like her, to be able to accomplish the kinds of things that she was able to accomplish, to push myself to be tougher, Whether it be on the mountain in the wintertime or up hiking and kind of pushing through that last mile of the trail before you got to the top or whatever it was that we were doing out in the woods. She was my motivator to be able to continue doing that when it sucked. Right. And when I'm like a little kid and want to give up. And so it sounds too simple to say that she was my hero, but she was my hero because she was my older sister and everything I measured myself against was measuring towards her.

[Jordan Sillers]

That Saturday in 1996, the town of Belgrade was celebrating a yearly fall festival. The festivities were taking place right across the street from the Houchen's home. And Stephanie was there at the park playing with her friends.

[Stephanie Houchens]

And I remember my dad coming over to the park and telling me that Danny was missing and that, you know, they were gonna try to look for her, but that she was missing and I needed to come home. And so I kind of ran back home.

[Jordan Sillers]

Danny had left that morning, so when she didn't come home by the early afternoon, her parents started to become concerned. But that concern turned to panic when Stephanie's mom drove down to the Cameron park bridge and found Danny's truck, but no sign of Danny.

[Stephanie Houchens]

And then pretty quickly there found her keys and water bottle on a trail leading back into kind of the marshy area of that fishing access. That was really, I think, what set off all the explosive worry for my mom.

[Jordan Sillers]

Stephanie's mom called Danny's name and looked around the fishing access site. But still she couldn't find her. That's when she called her husband and they recruited family and friends to start the search. Stephanie remembers driving around town with a photo of Danny, asking if anyone had seen her sister.

[Stephanie Houchens]

My friend's mom drove me around and I went to the different bars and restaurants in Belgrade, gas stations. I went to the high school girls basketball game and just asked folks if they had seen her and tried to create some awareness. I guess it was kind of really all hands on deck that day.

[Jordan Sillers]

Finding Danny's truck and keys convinced law enforcement that something had happened to the 15 year old girl. The Gallatin County Sheriff's office scoured the swampy area near the fishing access until it got too dark. They didn't find anything, but two brothers who were friends of the family kept searching. They noticed a footprint and a broken cattail the searchers had missed and followed the trail over a creek until they saw what they at first thought was a dead deer lying in the mud.

[Stephanie Houchens]

And then I was home that night after Danny's body was found and I heard my dad tell my mom that she had died.

[Jordan Sillers]

Part 2 the crime scene Danny's body was found face down in about 8 inches of muddy water. Her body had been dragged 20ft and her watch had been pulled over her hand. One of her sandals was missing, but she was still wearing a leg brace due to recently torn ligaments in her knee. That brace and that injury would have made it more difficult to run away. Her face was scratched and bruised and the bruising on the back of her neck indicated that her head had been forcefully held under the mud. Even more disturbingly, if that's possible, her bra had been rolled under her shirt and her underwear had been pulled down. Later analysis found semen and male hairs in her underwear and in her genitals, along with mud in her lungs. All of this was found and recorded by the sheriff's office and the medical examiner. And yet, for reasons that remain unclear, Coroner Robert Myers did not rule Danny's death as a homicide. The death certificate lists the cause of death as drowning. But in a box where Myers was supposed to describe how the injury occurred, he simply wrote undetermined. In fact, according to Stephanie, investigators told the Houchens that their daughter may have drowned accidentally. Stephanie wouldn't see the case file until 20 years later. But even in the days and months following Danny's death, they questioned whether the sheriff was being Honest with them.

[Stephanie Houchens]

It never made sense what law enforcement was saying to us. How could she have just gone down there and accidentally died? How could there have been no marks on her? How could this just be such a mystery? And I think that they had all of that really innate gut suspicions that what they were being told couldn't possibly be accurate.

[Jordan Sillers]

The sheriff at the time was a man named Bill Slaughter. He has admitted to not telling the family everything about their daughter's death, but he has denied lying to them. It's sometimes important to withhold information to protect the integrity of an investigation. And the Houchens aren't the only family to be frustrated by a lack of information from law enforcement. It's also true that in the months following Danny's death, Slaughter told local media that he was investigating her death as a homicide. In a 1997 article published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, he said, we've always worked it as a homicide. He reiterated that position to the Montana Free Press in 2024 and said he was frustrated. The coroner and medical examiner listed the cause of death as undetermined. But in that same article from 1997, Slaughter also claimed that the evidence was not conclusive. What's more, Gallatin County Coroner Rob Myers told the media things at the time that contradicted the actual reports. Myers said there was no visible bruising to indicate that Danny had been held under the water. He also said there were no signs of a struggle, even though she did have what appeared to be defensive wounds on her hands. Slaughter also suggested that they hadn't collected any foreign hairs from Danny's body. But that wasn't true either. They had collected four hairs that didn't belong to Danny, which would end up being crucial pieces of evidence in identifying her killer. The decision not to list Danny's death as a homicide or tell the family anything about her sexual assault had far reaching effects both on the investigation of the case and the Houchen's family.

[Stephanie Houchens]

It's pretty likely that family members who suddenly lose someone to murder and then you add in a complexity of learning later that there was a sexual assault incorporated into that heinous crime probably deal with a lot of very real trauma throughout their entire lives.

[Jordan Sillers]

Once Stephanie began looking into her sister's case, the decision by the coroner to not list Danny's death as a homicide made it impossible for Stephanie to enter Danny's case into cold case databases. It also, she believes, solidified the notion that Danny's death wasn't worth investigating seriously.

[Stephanie Houchens]

The failure in 1996 set up, in my opinion, a culture of not taking her case seriously in the sheriff's office because they listed undetermined on her death certificate.

[Jordan Sillers]

Part three, the investigation. The Sheriff's department did continue to investigate Danny's case. Former detective Cindy Botek began reinvestigating the murder in the early 2000s when she joined the detective squad. And I've been told she took the case file out on a regular basis and to see if she'd missed anything. She told the Montana Free Press that the mud in Danny's lungs proved the teen didn't drown in an accident, and she was as frustrated as anyone about the lack of progress in the case. But the fact is, for any detective, it's tough to justify spending your very limited time and resources on a cold case when there are active investigations in the here and now. So the case remained cold until 2019, when Stephanie decided it was time she found out what happened to her sister.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Many times over five years, you know, kind of repeated this mantra to my sister of, like, I'm coming for you, Danny. I'm coming for you. Like, no, we have not forgotten you. And I'm coming, and I will not give up until I do this for you.

[Jordan Sillers]

At first, she hit a brick wall. The Gallatin county deputies assured her they were working on the case, but told her they couldn't release any information about an active investigation. But she didn't give up, and eventually her persistence earned her a call from Sergeant Matt Boxmeyer. Boxmeyer was in charge of Danny's case, and he told her he planned to review and digitize the entire case file.

[Stephanie Houchens]

That was the turning point for me. I was like, okay, jumping in, head first. Let's go. Because I. I thought I was going to have to work a lot harder to get collaboration. And I was pretty excited when I heard from Matt.

[Jordan Sillers]

The sheriff at the time, Brian Gutkin, worked with Stephanie and the county attorney's office to get approval for Stephanie to see that file. That experience, Stephanie says, was both heartbreaking and infuriating.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Looking at her case file and looking at autopsy photos and crime scene photos, and she and I look a lot alike. And that was really terrible, having to do that. What happened to my sister was so much worse than anyone had ever shared with us. And so all my worst suspicions about the way her life ended and what she endured leading up to her death and then what killed her was awful. Awful.

[Jordan Sillers]

Stephanie and Sergeant Boxmeyer stayed in touch over the next few years, but the case didn't really get off the ground until Tom Elfmont came on the scene.

[Tom Elfmont]

Once I sat down with the sheriff and they told me about the case and that it was this really wonderful 15 year old girl who basically got ambushed out at the Gallatin River. I said, you know, it's a case I definitely would be very interested in investigating.

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom had been a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department, but he had since retired and moved to Montana. Dan Springer, who'd been elected as Gallatin county sheriff in 2021, had been reaching out to his contacts for someone who might be able to help with Danny's case.

[Advertisement Voice 2]

He.

[Jordan Sillers]

He'd heard about Tom through a network of retired LAPD officers, and Tom agreed to work the case free of charge. He began his investigation by reading the case file and familiarizing himself with witness testimony and available evidence. I asked him if he agrees with Stephanie's assessment that the crime scene evidence clearly pointed to rape and murder.

[Tom Elfmont]

She didn't drown. She was actually suffocated to death while he held her head down. And she had small contusions on the back of her head and also the front of her head. So it was clear to me it was, it was a clear cut homicide from day one.

[Jordan Sillers]

Next, Tom conducted his own interviews of the various parties involved. He ruled out the brothers who found Danny's body, as well as another potential suspect investigators had identified in 2010. He didn't believe any of these men were capable of this crime, so he, he turned his attention to the physical evidence that had been collected at the scene. He started with the semen that had been found in Danny's underwear. A DNA profile had never been extracted from that semen, partly because the Montana State Crime Lab is underfunded and partly because the underwear had been misfiled in the archives.

[Tom Elfmont]

So I actually drove up to the lab and I met with the people at the lab and I said, look, you have to test the semen and you have to get a DNA profile.

[Jordan Sillers]

Previous investigators had asked the lab to conduct that testing, but it had never been completed. But this time, thanks to Tom's efforts, the DNA profile was done and submitted to the FBI's DNA database. If Danny's killer had committed a felony since about the year 2000, it would pop up in that system. But nothing appeared. And the genetic information wasn't robust enough to complete another kind of advanced genetic analysis. The same kind of analysis that had caught the golden gate killer in 2018, a case that had inspired Stephanie to begin the hunt for Danny's murderer. By now, you've probably heard of forensic genetic genealogy. If you haven't, the concept is actually simpler than it sounds. If you're trying to identify someone from a DNA sample, but that information isn't in any law enforcement databases, you can look for relatives of the person, person you're trying to find in one of those genetic testing services like 23andMe or Ancestry.com. if you can find, say, the cousin or the father of the suspect, you can narrow down the search to people related to those cousins or fathers who were in the area around the time the crime was committed. The semen wasn't enough to do this analysis, but fortunately that wasn't the only physical evidence collected.

[Tom Elfmont]

In all the evidence that they had from 28 years ago, there were four hairs. And the four hairs were actually preserved fairly well.

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom got in touch with an expert in forensic DNA analysis who connected him with a lab called Astrea Forensics in San Francisco. According to Tom, this is the only lab in the country that can extract enough genetic material from a hair to perform genetic genealogy. This technology is so new that it didn't even exist just a few years ago. He sent the first two hairs to Astria, but they were too degraded to extract a DNA sequence. Tom only had two hairs left. If those didn't produce the results he was looking for, he'd have exhausted the best evidence from the crime scene.

[Tom Elfmont]

I submitted the third and fourth hairs, and with the third and fourth hairs on the fourth hair, they got a lot of DNA. And it was only the seventh case in the United States involving a hair and DNA that was solved.

[Jordan Sillers]

With a DNA profile in hand, Tom then went to one of the best genetic genealogists in the country, a woman named CeCe Moore, whose website calls her the DNA Detective. She was able to find two brothers and a first cousin who were related to the DNA that came from the hairs. These brothers and cousin were from New Hampshire. But Tom discovered that one of the brothers had moved to Bozeman, Montana a month before Danny was killed.

[Tom Elfmont]

So then we knew he was in the area where the crime occurred, and then we zeroed in on him.

[Jordan Sillers]

The man they identified was Paul Hutchinson, a 55 year old fisheries biologist with the Bureau of Land Management. Stephanie was given Hutchinson's name long before it was announced to the public. I asked her what it was like after five years of searching and nearly 30 years of wondering, to finally put a name and a face to the man who'd killed her sister.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Man, it was a pretty complex feelings. It was relieving in knowing that we were going to solve this. It was a validation that we were about to go have years of a court battle ahead of us. But it was also really weird knowing that that person who is truly a monster in my eyes had like, like I could look him up online and he had a life and he had a career and that introduces all sorts of weird, just things to wrap your head around that I was not ready for. But at the end of the day, I knew that I had done everything I could for my sister and that we were going to be successful finally finding justice for her murder.

[Jordan Sillers]

After the break, Tom catches up with Hutchinson at the BLM field office in Dylan and we hear the voice of Danny's killer. Does he admit to knowing Danny or being in the area? How does he react to seeing Danny's face in a photograph? And what is Hutchinson's next move after being confronted about his crime for the first time in nearly 30 years? That's next on blood trails.

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[Tom Elfmont]

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[Jordan Sillers]

Part 4 the interview at this point, Tom knew he had to tread carefully. The DNA evidence was convincing, and it would become even more convincing once they compared the hair on Danny's body with a current sample from Hutchinson. But even with that forensic evidence, the case would be difficult to prosecute.

[Tom Elfmont]

The first thing a defense attorney would have said is, okay, Your Honor, for 27 years, this woman's death was listed as an accident. Why are we here charging my client with murder?

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom wanted to sit down with Hutchinson and ask him questions about where he was and what he was doing in 1996. If he had those kinds of statements along with the physical evidence, prosecutors would have an easier time convicting him.

[Tom Elfmont]

I really wanted him to either lie to us or tell us things about where he was because, you know, he could have always used the alibi that a lot of criminals use. Well, I met her there and we had sex, but when I left, she was fine and I didn't want him to have any kind of an alibi.

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom also knew that if he conducted a formal interview with Hutchinson about Danny's case, he would have to read Hutchinson his Miranda rights. In Tom's experience, when a suspect is read his Miranda rights, he almost always clams up and asks for a lawyer. So Tom consulted with a criminal attorney to develop a plan that that would let Tom interview Hutchinson without reading him his rights.

[Tom Elfmont]

It was agreed that if I could interview him in a public place where he could get up and just walk away, anytime he wasn't under arrest, he was free to go. That would be okay with the courts in Montana and the federal courts.

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom and another volunteer investigator, Sergeant Court Dupuig of the Newport beach police, approached Hutchinson as he was getting out of his truck in the parking lot of the Dillon BLM field office. Normally, we would have to rely on Tom's account and police statements to learn about what happened next. But Sergeant Dupuig was carrying a camera, and we were able to obtain the footage.

[Tom Elfmont]

Hey, Paul, how you doing?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Good, good.

[Tom Elfmont]

My name's Tom Elfmont. Well, you got your hands full, so that's okay. I'll just give you a touch there. I'm with the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office. Hey, guys.

[Jordan Sillers]

How are you?

[Tom Elfmont]

We wanted to talk to you. We've been asking around. We were over in Ennis, and we've been talking to some fisheries people about some things that have been going on here at the rivers in southwest Montana.

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom didn't tell Paul the real reason they wanted to talk to him. He was concerned that if he did that Paul would end the interview then and there. So as a pretext for speaking with Hutchinson, Tom found other cases of women who had been found dead along rivers in Montana. He and Sgt. Dupuig told Hutchinson that as a fisheries biologist who spent a lot of time on the river, he would have valuable insight into these cases.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

We're working on a couple of investigations involving the water, and your name came up as somebody that's been around a long time that could probably help us. We got a couple names. You might even know these guys. But when we asked blm, obviously, you guys were working the waterways all the time. Time, they say, hey, these guys have been around forever. They know. They know the inside. Inside out of everything that's going on.

[Advertisement Voice 2]

So.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

But that's why. That's why we're out talking to you today. So appreciate you sitting down with us.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Glad to help. What's up?

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul doesn't seem overly nervous. In the initial minutes of the interview, when Sgt. Dupuig asked to use the restroom, Paul takes out his phone and sends a message to one of his techs while fielding questions from Tom about his time at Montana State University.

[Paul Hutchinson]

I went to school in New Hampshire for a year. I was a terrible student in high school. I was really lazy. And then, you know, military straightened you out?

[Tom Elfmont]

Yeah.

[Paul Hutchinson]

And I applied to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon. I got accepted to all of them, and I think it was a cost benefit. MSU had a good program, and it wasn't stupid, expensive.

[Jordan Sillers]

This might seem like mundane small talk, but remember, the investigators believed that Paul killed Danny during his first year at Montana State. And Tom and Sergeant Dupuig are trying to get more information about that time or catch Paul in a lie.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

So you went to Montana, and that was for how many years of school do you have to go to bed? Oh, really?

[Advertisement Voice 2]

Yeah.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

And then what year did you start there?

[Paul Hutchinson]

95, I think. 96. 95.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Somewhere around there.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Okay. 95 or 96. 96. Think it was 96.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

You think about 1996. Okay. Do you. Do you remember when in 96 that you came to. To Montana?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't. I mean it.

[Tom Elfmont]

Did you start the fall semester?

[Stephanie Houchens]

Yes.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Oh, okay. So maybe August? September.

[Paul Hutchinson]

It was probably earlier than that.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay. And then did you. With. Was that your first time in. In Montana?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Yes.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay, perfect. Yeah.

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul must have been wondering why these guys seem so interested in his biography. They're over 15 minutes into the interview, and Tom and the sergeant still haven't asked him a question about one of their cases. But if he's starting to get suspicious, he doesn't show it. He's leaning back in his chair with his right leg crossed over his left and pressing against the edge of the table. When Tom or the sergeant asks him a question, he looks at them and furrows his brow as he thinks, he puckers his mouth and moves it from side to side. But when Sergeant Dupuig finally mentions young women being killed near waterways, Paul's body language starts to change.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

What we're looking into is we've had some deaths that have popped up, females that have been popping up either in the water or near water. And one of the things is, these cases are cold. Have you ever heard that term before? And what we're trying to do is stimulate them to try to figure out who may be responsible for them. Obviously.

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul leans forward in his chair, arms folded, and then immediately leans back. It's like he can't decide whether to lean forward and look more closely at the end images in front of him, or lean back and act nonchalant. It ends up looking like he was hit with a small bolt of lightning. The sergeant shows Paul images of two women who were killed along rivers in Montana, and Paul says he doesn't recognize them. At one point, pushing the pictures farther away from him on the desk. Then Dupuig poses the question they're really there to ask.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay, this is Daniel Couchin. She was. She was killed in September of 96, and she was found off the Gallatin River. Did you ever fish up there?

[Jordan Sillers]

By this point, Paul had likely figured out what was going on. Tom remembers noticing how difficult it was for the fisheries biologist to keep himself together.

[Tom Elfmont]

I mean, he was profusely sweating. Clearly, he was unbelievable agitated.

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul has a receding hairline, and even in the body cam video, you can see a sheen of moisture on his forehead.

[Paul Hutchinson]

I. I trapped on the Gallatin, but never fished the Gallatin.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay.

[Paul Hutchinson]

I never Fish? I don't fish the big rivers.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

It's always the streams.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Yeah, a little. The backcountry stuff.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay, so. And do you. Have you ever heard of the Cameron Bridge access? Have you been there before?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Probably Jackrabbit Lane.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Yeah, exactly. Is that where you trap?

[Paul Hutchinson]

No, I trapped over Alberta Angus. I travel back and forth.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay. And do a loop right around that time. And were you. Was this back in 96, 97, 98. Before you shot down here?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I trapped up until three years ago. So, yeah, I would have been in.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

That area then back in 96.

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't know if I trapped in 96. That was my first year of college.

[Jordan Sillers]

Again, this line of questioning isn't random. They're trying to get him to admit to being in the area around the time Danny was killed. And even though he equivocates a little, Tom believes his answer was close enough to an admission.

[Tom Elfmont]

He admitted going out, having trap lines out there, which would have put him in the woods trapping whatever he trapped. Bobcats, skunks, coyotes. And so he was creeping around the woods out there. So he put himself there, which was a big deal. That was a really big deal.

[Jordan Sillers]

As Paul's discomfort grows, he excuses himself from room the for a third time during the course of the interview, which had only lasted about 30 minutes. At that point, he says one of his techs needs his help and turns his phone towards the investigators to imply that he's just received a text message. But as he does so, you can see in the video that he's just opened the Onyx app. Maybe he had a sudden urge to do some online scouting, or maybe he wanted to delete some pins. He'd have trouble explaining if an investigation where to find them. But when he returns and the interview continues, he tries to play things as cool as he can.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Going back to Cameron Bridge access. And obviously, Danny was killed in. Well, she was found in September of 96. Danielle.

[Paul Hutchinson]

This one?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Yeah. Houchins. Yeah, this one. Do you remember hearing about this murder or anything about. About that?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't. I mean, I. I might have.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

It was a big case just because she was so young. And obviously for Bozeman, that's.

[Jordan Sillers]

That's.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

That's big news, you know, especially in Montana. This. It wasn't common, obviously, back in the day. I mean, do you remember this mother or hearing her name?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't. I mean, what was that 20, 30 years ago?

[Jordan Sillers]

The investigators press Paul on whether he knows any fishing guides or local fishermen who might have been on the gallatin around the time Danny was killed, Paul reiterates multiple times that he's not much of a fisherman. And even though he is a big time outdoorsman, can't think of a single angler who might be able to help them.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

No, I'm saying like any local fisherman back in the day that you knew around Cameron Bridge that might have information for us back in 96.

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't remember 96. Honestly, I don't. I mean.

[Jordan Sillers]

Okay, next. Tom and the sergeant press Paul harder on his interactions with Danny.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Okay, and what about Danny Hou? Do you recognize that name?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

And do you, do you know, if you, do you remember if, do you know her?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Was, was she in school when I went to school?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

No, she was in, she was over at Belgrade High School. When you were, when you were in school?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Don't think so. I mean, I don't know where, what circle I would have ran into.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Yeah, I mean, she's a 15 year old girl. That's what I'm saying. So do you, do you recall or does she look familiar to you at all?

[Paul Hutchinson]

No, honestly, I don't recognize any of them. But I mean, if back then that would have been what, on the news with the newspaper? So both.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Yeah, yeah. It was a big, I mean this, especially this one, because it was in Bozeman, Danny was, would hang out at the Cameron Bridge access road. Do you remember seeing her there or a similar face?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I honestly don't. I, I mean, I probably. I've been to a bunch of fishing access sites for one reason or another. I don't recognize either one of them. Either one was she.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

And I mean, Danny does not look familiar to you at all? You don't know her?

[Paul Hutchinson]

No, I, I. What's the last name?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Houchens.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Houchens. Does she have an older brother?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

No.

[Paul Hutchinson]

No.

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul maintains a baffled but concerned expression and shakes his head and blinks a lot. The rest of the interview circles around the same kinds of topics. Paul eventually admits that he may have tubed the Gallatin in 1996, but he delivers most of his answers with a shrug. Tom and Sergeant Dupuig never accuse him of anything directly, but they do come close. And at one point, Paul almost asks the question that's likely been so spinning around his mind throughout the interview.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Is there any reason or do you think there's any possibility that you could have been in the area when this happened? You remember a girl screaming or anything like that?

[Paul Hutchinson]

I don't.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Is there a possibility that you were there when she was Murdered?

[Paul Hutchinson]

No.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

You don't remember any screaming or anything like that? You weren't trapping or anything during that time?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Not in September. I would have have been. Are you asking me?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

I mean, I'm just asking if you remember anything during that time.

[Paul Hutchinson]

No, no.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Nothing. Okay.

[Jordan Sillers]

When the interview concludes after a little more than an hour, Paul seems relieved. He says he'll try to think of someone who might be able to help them and promises to call Tom and if he remembers anything that might be useful.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

If there's something I haven't asked you that you think I should know this time, tell me now so that way we can.

[Paul Hutchinson]

You guys, you're the question askers, so.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

I mean, it's what. It's part of the job, bud.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Yeah, feel free to call me too, man.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

All right, bud.

[Tom Elfmont]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Jordan Sillers]

Tom told me they weren't concerned that Paul would try to flee the country, but he still instructed detectives to follow their number one suspect. They wanted to keep track of him and see if where he went and what he did might implicate him further.

[Tom Elfmont]

But Dylan was a very, very small town. It's one way in, one way out, and it was just impossible. And he was driving like a crazy man. So I told the surveillance people, back off and just sit on the north side of town and the south side of town and his house and just see where he comes and goes. And that's what they did.

[Jordan Sillers]

But whatever the plan was for the subsequent days and weeks, they never got the chance to put it into action.

[Tom Elfmont]

And then around 4:30 in the morning, I got a phone call. They told me that he called 911 and Dylan, and he said, officer needs assist, and hung up.

[Stephanie Houchens]

Just a day after their initial interview with Paul Hutchinson, Sheriff Springer found out.

[Jordan Sillers]

That Paul Hutchinson Hudson had died by.

[Tom Elfmont]

Suicide and he was dead.

[Jordan Sillers]

For most people, Hutchinson's reaction to being interviewed about Danny is evidence enough of his guilt. But when they swabbed Hutchinson's cheek for DNA and compared it to the hair they found on Danny's body, there was no doubt in Tom's mind.

[Tom Elfmont]

They turned it around really quickly and told us that it was 10.7 trillion to 1, that it was his DNA on Danny's panties. So we knew we got the right guy.

[Jordan Sillers]

I asked Stephanie how she felt when Tom called her and told her that the man who killed her sister had committed suicide.

[Stephanie Houchens]

My first thought was, you fucking cowardly. You fucking coward. I personally have had to put so much courage into effort for driving justice for my sister. And how dare he decide that he gets to make that last choice. Unfathomable. I was so just aghast at that reality. I felt like he, as selfish and as terrible as this sounds, because it's not about. It was never about me. It was always about justice for my sister. But I was looking forward to staring his ass down in court, and I was looking forward to delivering a victim impact statement and to testifying about the investigation, and I was looking forward to all of that. And he totally robbed that from me.

[Jordan Sillers]

We'll never know what Paul was thinking when he shot himself with a.38 caliber Derringer pistol. He could have been thinking about what Sergeant Dupuig told him, that they'd found male DNA on Danny's body. And as Tom said, modern technology had finally allowed them to unlock its secrets.

[Tom Elfmont]

With the recent improvements in DNA technology, I think we're getting. We're getting to the point where at some point we're going to be able to, I think, don't you agree, identify somebody?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Yeah, 100%.

[Tom Elfmont]

Yeah. I think we're going to be able to identify somebody.

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul doesn't react to this beyond nodding his head, but at that point, he must have known he was cooked. He knew he would likely go to prison or worse. And as Stephanie says, he couldn't face that prospect. But I also can't help but wonder if he was thinking about this exchange with Sergeant Duig just before the close of the interview and wondering how he could face his own family when the world discovered what he'd done.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

It rocked this community. And obviously, you know, you're a dad, you. You would understand losing your daughter and, you know, especially, you know, you have a girl who's. Who. You know, I'll use an old school term, innocent. Right. And then somebody takes that innocence away and then murders her. I mean, as a dad, I mean, how would you feel? You know what I mean? I mean, you got a daughter. I mean, if that. If she was taken tomorrow, by that, I mean, how would you feel about that?

[Paul Hutchinson]

Yeah. I mean, who. I mean, who can even say? I mean, you have kids.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

I do, yeah.

[Paul Hutchinson]

I mean, I'd be.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

I'd be absolutely devastated and I'd be pissed. I'd be pissed off, to be honest with you. You know, And I. I want answers and I want to know what man did that. My little girl. I mean, whether she's 18, she's 30. She's always going to be your little girl.

[Paul Hutchinson]

Right.

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

And that's what we're trying to answer for Danny's dad right now. And her mom, you know, who did that and why they did that. Just answer those questions.

[Tom Elfmont]

Why?

[Sergeant Court Dupuig]

Was it a mistake? Was it, you know, was this a one off? Why did this happen to her? Being, you know, 15 years old man, you know, could you imagine, I think, think an adult did it and then for them to come in and. Absolutely, just, you know, you're. You're sitting there as a dad thinking, my daughter, you know, was probably screaming in his name, you know, asking for dad's help. All she wanted to probably do was go home to dad, you know, screaming for her dad to save her. He couldn't be there, you know, and that as a dad, you know, of daughters and you and me in the same position, I mean, that just rips my heart out.

[Jordan Sillers]

Paul's suicide brought Tom's investigation to a close, but it's hardly the end of the story. Once news got out about what happened, journalists, podcasters, and television personalities descended on Bozeman to try to figure out how a seemingly normal man could commit such a horrible atrocity and then hide it for nearly 30 years. Years. They wanted to know who Paul Hutchinson was, how his family and friends were processing the tragedy, and whether Danny was Paul's only victim. That's next time on Blood Trails.

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