SERIAL KILLER: David Meirhofer

Summary

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Crime Junkie: SERIAL KILLER – David Meirhofer

Host: Ashley Flowers
Co-Host: Brit Prawat
Release Date: June 1, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat take listeners on a chilling journey through the mountains of Montana, uncovering the story of serial killer David Meirhofer. The episode focuses not only on the brutal crimes he committed across several years, but also on the pioneering role that early FBI criminal profiling played in eventually catching him. Central to the story is the unwavering determination of a victim’s mother, Marietta Yeager, whose relentless hope and actions helped push the case forward.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Disappearance of Susie Jaeger

• [02:33] The story begins in summer 1973 when the 7-year-old Susie Jaeger is abducted during a family camping trip in Montana.
• Discovery: Her sister Heidi discovers a hole sliced through their tent and Susie missing.
• Family Response: Immediate panic sets in, and her parents spearhead a frantic search, ultimately involving local authorities and the FBI.
• Notable Quote:
  “As I stumbled around the campground searching, I was gripped by a terrible sense of separation, panic and hopelessness in my inability to see. I remember looking up at the black night sky and begging God to send the sun. The darkness was unbearably frustrating.” – Marietta Yeager (read by Brit) [04:48]

2. Early Investigation Roadblocks

• Despite thorough searches and the deployment of FBI agents, the case hits numerous dead ends.
• Tips pour in, including from psychics, but none are fruitful.
• Ransom Calls:
  • The family receives calls from a man claiming to have Susie, including specific details only the real kidnapper would know.
  • [08:44] Notably, the ransom amount escalates from $25,000 to $50,000, and the abductor requests a drop at the Denver bus depot, but never shows up.

3. The Role of the FBI and Criminal Profiling

• [25:32] FBI agent Pete Dunbar attends a training in Quantico on the new science of criminal profiling.
• Agents create a pioneering profile:
  • White male, 20s, lonely, unmarried, with military experience, physically fit, likely keeps souvenirs, and inserts himself in the investigation’s orbit.
• Brit’s Realization: “Wait, they know this is David, right? Like, I’m like checking everything off on the whole profile!” [27:07]
• Despite skepticism and reliance on polygraphs, the profile’s accuracy becomes increasingly apparent.

4. The Pattern of Calls and Psychological Torture

• The kidnapper makes periodic taunting calls to the Jaeger family, keeping hope alive and causing ongoing anguish.
• Notable Call [16:00]:
  • Caller mentions a distinctive detail: Susie’s index fingers are “humped.”
  • Chilling exchange, shifting from hope to psychological torture.
  • “Well, you’re gonna have to wait a while... ’Cause that’s the way things have to be...” – Kidnapper [16:00]

5. Connecting Multiple Victims Through Forensics and Chance

• Discovery of Remains [22:54]:
  • The investigation into another missing woman, Sandy Dyckman, leads to a remote ranch.
  • Her car and bones—along with the partial remains of a small child—are found together.
• Forensic analysis identifies some remains as Sandy’s; the other set likely belongs to a girl the same age as Susie.
• This crucial break finally links the cases.

6. Rising Suspicion Targets David Meirhofer

• David Meirhofer, local oddball, Vietnam vet, and prior person of interest, becomes the main suspect.
  • Links: Previously associated with both victims—dated Sandy, found her blouse, and was in the area for Susie’s disappearance.
  • Passed multiple polygraphs, even with “truth serum,” but FBI profilers insist polygraphs are useless against psychopaths.
• [33:40] His military experience explains his know-how for tapping phone lines—a fact critical to tracing a call made to the Jaeger family.

7. Breakthrough Evidence and Missed Opportunities

• Search of Meirhofer’s Property [34:03–37:23] yields:
  • A receipt from the Wyoming payphone used in the first ransom call.
  • Bloody sheets, little girl’s items (not linked to Susie/Sandy), cut-up newspaper articles, and a “to do” list referencing future attacks.
• Despite the disturbing evidence, Meirhofer is not initially arrested—leading Brit to exclaim,
  “In what world are bloody sheets and a little girl’s shirt, not to mention a crime to do list, not enough to arrest this guy?” [37:38]
• [38:22] Marietta and Bill Jaeger participate in a voice line-up, both identifying Meirhofer as the caller.

8. Confession and Final Resolution

• Under mounting pressure, Meirhofer ultimately confesses to four murders in a plea deal:
  • Susie Jaeger (1973)
  • Sandy Dyckman (1974)
  • Michael Rainey (1968)—a prior tent stabbing at the same park [45:47]
  • Bernie Pullman (1967)—a boy shot in what appeared an accident.
  • Chilling detail: Meirhofer admits to dismembering and burning the victims' bodies, keeping body parts as trophies.
• Crucial Evidence: Sandy’s severed hand is found in his freezer [43:28].
• [44:33] Confession:
  • “He admits to abducting Susie from her tent and taking her to his truck and then to the abandoned ranch. He says that he undressed her, but when he started to sexually assault her, Susie fought, so he strangled her...” – Ashley

9. Unanswered Questions and Reflections

• Many items recovered (blouse, necklace, lipstick) did not belong to known victims, suggesting there may be unknown victims.
• Meirhofer dies by suicide a few hours after his confession, depriving investigators and families of further answers.
• The authors reflect on the power—and limitations—of criminal profiling in this early, landmark case.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Marietta’s Desperation:
  “As I stumbled around the campground searching, I was gripped by a terrible sense of separation, panic and hopelessness...” (Read by Brit, [04:48])
• On the Profilers’ Prowess:
  “It is so astonishing to me that FBI profilers were able to peg him so well. I mean, they predicted the phone calls...it paved the way for all of the criminal profiling that came after this...” – Ashley [49:20]
• Brit’s Frustration with “So Much Evidence, No Arrest”:
  “In what world are bloody sheets and a little girl’s shirt, not to mention a crime to do list, not enough to arrest this guy?” – Brit [37:38]
• Marietta’s Confrontation:
  “Hello, David...I know it’s you.” — Marietta to Meirhofer during a phone call [40:45]
• Mother’s Dream as Unsettling Premonition:
  “It’s so vivid. She says it’s like watching a movie... she sees Susie being taken from her tent... and then strangles her...” – Ashley describing Marietta’s dream [27:36]
• On the Randomness and Fear of Camping:
  “Maybe we should add never go camping to our list of life rules.” – Brit [30:04]
• Final Reflection:
  “Marietta wrote... she developed a healthy fear of snakes and bears invading their campsite. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that a man on the hunt for a child would be far worse than any animal she could ever dream of encountering...” – Ashley [51:50]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:33] – Susie Jaeger’s abduction
• [04:48] – Marietta Yeager’s own account of discovery
• [08:44] – Ransom call to FBI, escalation of demands
• [16:00] – Harrowing call transcript with the kidnapper
• [22:54] – Discovery of Sandy Dykman’s remains and bone fragments of young girl
• [25:32] – Introduction of criminal profiling techniques
• [34:03] – Search of Meirhofer’s property: key discoveries
• [43:28] – Finding Sandy’s hand in the freezer
• [44:33] – Meirhofer’s confession
• [45:47] – Link to Michael Rainey’s 1968 murder
• [49:20] – Reflection on profiling, victim count uncertainty, aftermath

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Structure & Narrative Flow

• The episode maintains a suspenseful yet respectful tone throughout, balancing fact-driven narration with empathy for victim families.
• Ashley and Brit’s conversational style builds tension and insight, particularly highlighting the emotional landscape for the Jaeger family and procedural blind spots in the investigation.
• They emphasize how a mother’s conviction, luck, and early criminal profiling melded together to finally catch a meticulous, cold-blooded serial killer.

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Final Notes & Takeaways

• This case was pivotal in popularizing offender profiling within the FBI.
• The investigation relied on a combination of dogged family advocacy, forensic perseverance, and psychological insight—often in spite of failed polygraphs and frustrating procedural failures.
• The discovery of evidence pointed to potential, never-solved additional victims, a mystery left open by Meirhofer’s suicide.
• Marietta Yeager, through her tragedy, chose forgiveness, later becoming an advocate against the death penalty.

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For more on this case, referenced books include “The Lost Child” by Marietta Yeager and “Shadow Man” by Ron Franscell.
For detailed episode source material, visit crimejunkie.com.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hi grime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

[A]

And I'm Britt.

[B]

And today I'll be taking you on a trek through the mountains of Montana, where a little known serial killer went undetected for years despite his brazen crimes, murders that he likely would have gotten away with had it not been for the surprising investigative combo of a mother's unrelenting determination for answers and this brand new thing that the FBI was developing. A little something that you might be very familiar with now. But at the time, no one had heard of criminal profiling. It was still in its infancy at the time. But this would be one of the very first cases where the FBI put their learning to work to catch serial killer David Meyerhofer. It's summer 1973, and 12 year old Heidi Yeager wakes up to a breeze on the back of her head. She might have had this brief hazy moment where she embraces the Montana mountain air. But then she realizes that's all wrong. Yes, she's outside. She's camping with her family, but she's inside a tent. There shouldn't be a breeze. When she opens her eyes, it is pitch black. So she starts to like, feel around and her hand actually touches grass. And when her eyes finally adjust to the darkness, she notices that there is this gaping hole sliced through the back of her tent. And her little sister Susie, who had been sleeping right next to her, is gone. Now, Heidi doesn't hesitate. She runs to Wake up her parents in their nearby camper, Bill and Marietta Yeager hurry out with flashlights hoping to see 7 year old Susie wandering their campsite somewhere, maybe using the rest restroom. But what they find causes even more panic. Susie's stuffed animals that she'd been sleeping with are in the grass outside the back of the tent near where the hole was. Now they figure that she couldn't have been gone very long. It's just after 5am now, and Heidi tells them that she last laid eyes on her sister at 1:30am they'd both like woken up, chatted for a little bit before then falling back asleep.

[A]

Did something wake them?

[B]

Not that she remembers, but it's something that I've wondered about because their parents had put them to bed earlier before going to their camper to sleep. So I know that they were asleep earlier. But it seems unlikely because it wasn't just Susie and Heidi in the tent. Two of their brothers were actually in there too. You see, the Jaeger family had an order about their campsite. So for this month long excursion that they were on from their home in Michigan to Montana, the four youngest kids slept in the tent. Their oldest son Dan had a sleeping set up in the family van. Parents Bill and Marietta have their own camper and even the grandparents, Marietta's parents who are on this trip. They also have their own sleeping quarters and no one else reported hearing anything strange in the night. They all stayed asleep until the family started waking them up one by one to help search for Susie. In the book the Lost Child, which was written by Susie's mom, Marietta, she describes the moment that she saw Susie's stuffed animals on the ground and the hole in the tent. And Bert, I'm actually just going to have you read from this sentence so people can hear directly from her.

[A]

As I stumbled around the campground searching, I was gripped by a terrible sense of separation, panic and hopelessness in my inability to see. I remember looking up at the black night sky and begging God to send the sun. The darkness was unbearably frustrating.

[B]

And in that moment, like desperate for a logical explanation, Marietta and Bill are asking Heidi if there was anything inside the tent that Susie could have used to cut the hole herself. But of course there wasn't. Right away, Marietta knows in her heart of hearts that someone has her daughter. She just hopes that they haven't gotten too far. Using flashlights, they all start searching for Susie around the campground, even waking neighboring campers. But there is no sign of Susie. So Susie's dad and grandpa drive to the closest town to alert police. The Gallatin County Sheriff's office and FBI Special agent Pete Dunbar out of the nearby Bozeman, Montana office rush to the campground. And right away they see what Marietta sees. They search every car and building and question all the campers. A volunteer search party forms to help look for Suzie. And as the crowd of helpful people begins to grow, the Jaeger family overhears something that must have made them even more worried for their little girl. One of the volunteers is talking to another one about the other child that was attacked at that very campground while asleep in his tent just a few years prior. So Marietta goes right to law enforcement and asks them about this. Like what? What are they talking about? And they confirm this is true. Five years before, in May of 1968, 12 year old Michael Rainey was stabbed in his tent at that same state park. He'd been on a boy Scout trip and was sleeping right next to another kid. That case was never solved. And now this seems like way more than just a coincidence that Susie went missing from the same place. So finding her might mean actually solving two cases and preventing more. Which makes the stakes all that much higher. When the light of day begins slowly creeping in, the sun reveals one more clue where Susie's stuffed animals had been. They can barely make out a footpath in the dew of the grass leading away from the tent toward the parking area. There's also a rock with reddish brown stains. This is by no means comforting to anyone. And this ramps up the urgency of the search. The FBI sets up a command center at the campground. Authorities start working on a BOLO for Susie. And they rush Susie's sleeping bag, her stuffed animals, the rock that cut part of the tent, all to their lab for testing. And they also widen the search area to include rivers, the local dump, and the nearby towns of Three Forks and Manhattan, Montana, where they start going door to door. And all of those efforts do result in some suspect names being tossed around, mostly local oddballs and and any of them who didn't have a solid alibi for the early morning hours of June 25th were brought in for questioning and polygraphs. They even dispatch police to the Yeagers home in Michigan to check their house and mail to see if anyone made any threats. And they go door to door there to find out if any neighbors had any information about Susie or somebody who could be a threat to her. But no matter how much or where they search over the next several days, nothing is found. And mind You. This case is getting some real headlines around Montana, and Marietta is giving local reporters interviews in case it could help. Thinking that someone out there had to know something, her desperate pleas just had to reach the right person. It takes five full days before the first big development comes in. And strangely, it comes to the Denver field office of the FBI.

[A]

Like Denver, Colorado?

[B]

Yeah. They get a call at 7pm on June 30th from a man who says that he is Susie's kidnapper. And he says, tell someone the ransom is $25,000. But he hung up without giving any more information. Where should they take the money? When?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No one knew if this was a hoax or if they should be expecting another call. But the phone didn't ring again until July 2nd. This time, not in a Denver field office, not actually in any office at all. The phone rang at the home of Gallatin County Deputy Ron Brown. The thing is, Ron Brown isn't home. Even though it's 11:16pm he's still out helping with Susie's search. So his wife, Jane answers, and the man says to her, the Denver FBI must think I'm a crank. I'm raising the ransom to $50,000. And this time, he gives real instructions. He demands that the ransom be put in a suitcase in small bills and placed in the end stall of the men's restroom at the Denver bus stop.

[A]

The Denver, Colorado connection.

[B]

We're back to Denver. Yeah. And this time it feels legit because he says that he can prove he has Susie by telling them something about her that a random stranger wouldn't know. He says that Susie's fingernails, like, on her index fingers of each hand, are humped a little, like, slightly deformed. And this is true of Susie. And it's also true that a stranger wouldn't know that. I mean, it wasn't put on any of the press bulletins about this case. Actually, Marietta writes in her book that in the chaos and fear after Susie first disappeared, they were, like, giving her description to the authorities and stuff, but they had, like, totally forgotten this detail about her. Like, it was barely noticeable. And Susie was born with it. So, like, again, literally, she's born with it, and they never thought about it anymore. So this caller, this is either someone who knows Susie, knows the family and would play some kind of, like, not some kind, the cruelest hoax on them, which seems absolutely out of the realm of possibility, or this is really the man who kidnapped her. So once authorities are made aware of this call, they send an urgent teletype to The Denver field office to get someone to the bus depot to do surveillance. They also launch a plan to get some dummy bills together to fill a suitcase, because the jaegers don't just have $50,000 in cash laying around. And they also put a tap on deputy Brown's phone in case the kidnapper calls back. But whoever was that called never comes to the bus depot, Never picks up the cash, or I don't know if they saw the police or what, but, like, that pickup never happens, Never materializes. No. And in the time that the sheriff's office is waiting, Another crime in the area happens. And actually, it's one that I've already covered on my other show, the Deck. 20 year old nurse Donna Lemon goes missing after last being seen buying a can of beer at a bar in Gallatin Gateway on July 5, 1973. So this is just 10 days after Susie and 30 miles south of headwater state park. Now, her case ends up seeing slightly more resolution than Susie's because within four days, they end up finding Donna's body on the banks of the snake river down in Idaho. And I say all that to say, like, while this may pull on some resources, take away from Susie's case, that investigation happens, like, much smaller. It's much quieter as it plays out. And honestly, the most distracting part for police at the time is, like, they start getting tips from locals suggesting that maybe Susie's case and Donna's case are somehow connected, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to officials, like, the circumstances, the victims themselves. Everything about the two cases felt very different. And none of the tips had anything concrete to point to. They were all just basically saying, like, this is a really weird coincidence. Like, in such a small place having two cases like this back to back,

[A]

how could they not be connected?

[B]

Right? But the investigators aren't bringing the cases together. They have a kidnapping right now, and all of their effort is going into locating Susie, hopefully alive. And the jaeger family is doing anything they can to support. In order to feel like they're doing something helpful, they start fundraising for actual cash, should the kidnapper call back and want to follow through on the ransom demand. They also make calls and organize a reward fund for information. It's like the 1970s version of GoFundMe. And Marietta writes in her book that thanks to a major donation from an anonymous person, they actually do raise $50,000. So they are quickly ready for a call, A call that just never comes, Because July becomes August. And as summer comes to an end, with very Little in the way of legit leads. The Jaeger family has to think about heading home. They have been living at the campground this whole time, fueled by locals who brought them food and other necessities. Marietta has a whole chapter in her book titled God's Good People about how nice everyone was to them in their time of need. But I can't imagine that feeling like packing up that long drive back to Michigan. I mean, on their way out west, everyone had been buzzing with excitement for their family adventure. Marietta had taken to doing a headcount after each pit stop. So on the way home, not only was the tone in the van just sad, but Marietta's headcount was down by one. Montana had stolen their youngest child, and they were returning home without her. But the other kids needed to return to school. Bill has to go back to work. Authorities assure them that they'll still be working the case, though, and they hatch a plan for the Jaegers to get a tape recorder so that if they get any calls from the kidnapper at home, they. They'll be recording. So the Jaegers eventually settle into a new normal in Michigan without Susie. But I don't even know that normal is like the right word because Marietta barely leaves the house just in case the kidnapper calls, like tape recorder at the ready. And the house phone does ring constantly with well wishers and psychics, even offering visions. And Marietta answers every single one. It is her job now, her post, and she will not abandon it. But on September 24, her youngest son, Joe calls from catechism class. He unexpectedly needs a ride home. I guess Bill's at work. Marietta, I mean, she's at home on phone duty, but Joe is only five minutes away. So that's the moment when she rushes out to get him. And in the 10 minutes she is gone, the phone rings. Now, luckily, the oldest of The Jaeger kids, 16 year old Dan, he is home and presses record before answering the phone. And of course, this is the call. It's the kidnapper. The call from the kidnapper lasts only two minutes in total. And the recording no longer exists, but a transcript does. So I'm going to have voice actors read part of it so you can hear the exact words that the man said.

[C]

Now you're Susie's brother, huh? Yeah. You like to know where she's at? Yeah, I would. Well, you're gonna have to wait a while. Why? You've had too much police and FBI activity. You may think I'm a hoax, but I know something. About Susie that nobody knows. Oh, why don't you tell us? Okay. Fingernails of her first fingers are humped. I know that, Emmett. Why don't you tell us where she is? Because I can't hardly do that. It's a pretty dangerous situation, you know. Well, can't you just drop her somewhere and let us pick her up? Do you want to come west quite a ways? Yeah, no problem there. Well, we'll make arrangements one of these days, but for right now, you're gonna have to wait a while. Why do we have to wait? Cause that's the way things have to be. Why? Well, because a person does things like this, he can't get caught. He's got to figure out ways not to get caught. Just drop her somewhere a day ahead of time and just leave that place. Yeah, sure. I don't want to drop her just for nothing anyway. I just want to tell you to wait a while. You will be contacted. It may be another week, it may be a month or two months or so, but you'll get contacted.

[A]

He's keeping them in like suspended torture. Maybe a week, maybe a month. This feels way less like finding a way out and more like he's screwing with them. Kind of screwing with them.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Were they able to trace calls like this back then? Like in the 70s they actually were,

[B]

but I guess in 73, this, I mean it takes like a few weeks to do, but the FBI finds a receipt of the call through a phone company and traces it to a pay phone at a gas station diner near Cheyenne, Wyoming. But by the time they get there in like October, I mean, not only is the guy not there, but like so many people have used that payphone.

[A]

Yeah, it's public.

[B]

It's impossible to actually get like usable fingerprints. And nobody reports seeing any kidnapper looking guys using that particular phone.

[A]

Great.

[B]

Now around the same time is also when the lab results come back in of like all the stuff they sent off to the FBI. But all of that stuff is a dead end too. No prints on anything. Now they do confirm that the substance that they saw on that rock, that like reddish brown stuff, that was human blood. But the sample wasn't even suitable for any further testing. And the only hair that they collected from the sleeping bag turns out to be consistent with Susie's. And the cut didn't tell them anything either other than it was cut with a sharp instrument which like it was cut. So there is nothing physical that is going to tie back to their guy. And if he was still looking for a way to let Susie go and get something out of it. He hasn't found it because he never called back like he told Dan he was going to. So the family endures the holidays without Susie. And the end of 1973 also marks the end to any solid leads or action in the investigation. And while I'm sure nobody wants to say it out loud, there is less and less hope of finding Susie alive. If they were to do more searches, it would probably be for remains. They just don't even know where to look. But the truth is, remains are what they would end up finding, but in the strangest way possible come February 1974. This is now over seven months since Susie's kidnapping. The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office is faced with another missing persons case. Now, on its surface, this case looks closer to Donna Lemons remember her than it does Susie's case. Because the missing young woman, Sandy Dykman, was 19 years old and living on her own in Manhattan, Montana, which is like this small town, like 10 minutes from the state park. So her dad, John Dyckman, reported her missing on Monday, February 11. He said that Sandy hadn't been seen since Saturday night. She wasn't answering her door or her phone. And her car, this little white Ford Cortina, was missing. All of this totally not normal behavior for his daughter. Now, Manhattan is a small town, so deputies taking this report are even familiar with Sandy, who waitresses at the bowling alley cafe. So after they can't seem to find anyone who knows where she is, the sheriff organizes a search for her and her car, which aren't anywhere in this small town. So their search has to expand to the far reaching corners of the county, which is how Deputy Don Houghton and town marshal Ron Skinner end up at this old abandoned ranch about a week after Sandy was last seen. And as dawn and Ron are like, walking around the property, something white catches their eyes in the sagebrush. It's a pair of women's underwear, and they look like they've been recently worn. So the men bag the underwear and they continue their search to a nearby barn where they have to force their way inside. And peeking out from under a tarp in some hay is Sandy's little white car. Now, when Don and Ron approach, they're like, probably expecting to find Sandy's body. But the only thing they see when they peer through the windshield is some clothing. No sign of Sandy, not even a bloody crime scene. But this is still highly suspicious. So they bring in reinforcements to process this place over the next several days. And The FBI and the rest of the sheriff's office search almost every inch of the property, the house, the barn, the outbuildings. And it is just red flag after red flag, both in what they find and in what others bring to them. Like one day during crime scene processing at the ranch, this local guy shows up saying that he found a woman's red blouse nearby. And then they find more clothes in a suitcase in Sandy's car, all of which seem to belong to her, but they don't appear to have been packed up the way that she would if she had left voluntarily. And then in the abandoned house, they find melted candle wax in like various places. And they discover a closet that looks as if it had been nailed shut with a pile of feces in it. And a bloody whip is found in the barn, or at least they think it's blood on this whip. And then it's on February 19th that they find bones in a burn pile near the old ranch house. And scattered around outside, they collect over a thousand pieces of bone fragments, including some teeth. The picture that's getting painted is that something very bad happened to Sandy here. But there was still a twist yet to come for investigators. When the pathologists and anthropologists review the biological materials and bones from the ranch, they conclude without a doubt that some of the remains belong to Sandy Dyckman. Yes, specifically, it's the teeth that they compare and match to Sandy's dental records. Here's the twist. Experts say that not all of the remains belong to Sandy. There are at least two people who were reduced to a pile of ash because some of the bones belonged to a girl between the ages of 5 and 8 years old.

[A]

Susie.

[B]

It is everyone's first thought, but they have nothing as definitive to ID Susie yet. But if it's her, this is the biggest development Susie's case has seen in months. And it without a doubt connects Susie and Sandy's cases. And if Sandy's killer is Susie's killer, there is one name that actually appears in both investigations. David Meyerhofer. David meyerhofer is a 20 something year old lifelong Manhattan resident, a former boy Scout and Marine who served in Vietnam. And he is back home now working as a self employed carpenter in town. And David is someone who is known to them. This guy's always eager to help. He's curious, constantly asking the deputies questions about the kidnapping investigations that they were working when he sees them at the local cafe. He was one of those local oddballs that actually came up in Susie's case. One of the guys that witnesses told the cops they should just look at early on. And they did. But David had been pretty cooperative. So back then he's like kind of annoying but not really suspicious. But his name came up in Sandy's case too, for two different reasons. One, he is actually the local man who just happened upon that blouse that he turned over to police by the ranch. And two, apparently he had gone on a date with Sandy just a few months ago. And when he asked for a second date, Sandy turned him down.

[A]

Okay, so there's a connection to Sandy, but how does he connect to Susie?

[B]

I mean, only by her bones or probably her bones being found with Sandy and Sandy being socially connected to David. Like it's not solid, but it's something and they gotta start somewhere. So agents actually go and pay David a visit at his warehouse in Manhattan, which is only like a half block from where Sandy lived. And he acts as if he has nothing to hide. He agrees to even take a polygraph test and he passes. So the agents move on, but there's nothing to really move on to. The cases both just kind of hit a dead end. And they only heat back up because Agent Dunbar is ends up going to Quantico, Virginia for this routine FBI training that following spring. And he happens to attend this session that's being put on by some agents who have psychology backgrounds. And they're talking about this like brand new idea how studying a crime scene could give insight into the killer themselves. And with nothing to lose, Dunbar asks them if they will take a look at Sandy and Susie's cases. Yeah, and they must see it as a worthwhile challenge because they start to put together a psychological profile of the probable killer. They say that Susie was probably murdered within two days of her abduction by a man who likely is white and in his 20s. He has to be at least modestly intelligent. They say he's a loner, unmarried, and has little experience with women. They think he's a local guy, but has military experience and would be physically fit. He most likely has killed before. And from those murders he's probably kept souvenirs. And he's likely the type that would try to insert himself into an investigation

[A]

which the blouse hits two of those right, like a souvenir and inserting himself into the investigation.

[B]

Also the calls taunting the Jaeger family. Actually, they say he probably isn't even done doing that, even though it's been a while. Like this is their like prediction, if you want to say. They think that he is going to call again and they think it's going to be on a significant date. So with the one year anniversary of Susie's kidnapping coming up, agents work with Marietta to make sure that she is prepared.

[A]

Wait, they know this is David, Right? Like, I'm like checking everything off on

[B]

the whole profile Again, like, profiling isn't proven at this point.

[A]

Exact, right?

[B]

Not even. That's not exact. These local agents, it's almost like hooey, right? It's like there's no way you can know this. It's not a proven thing. And so, like, they're listening to them and they're willing to, like, you know, be prepared, but they are less convinced because in their mind, the thing that they know is polygraphs, right? David passed a polygraph.

[A]

They are known. Science already cleared him, but they're still,

[B]

they're going to move along with the plan. They let the press have access to Marietta for anniversary headlines, knowing that that might trigger the kidnapper to call her. And Marietta is prepared to play her part. Though she has been haunted over this dream that she had. Like, it is so vivid. She says it's like watching a movie. And in this dream, she says she sees Susie being taken from her tent, put in a truck, and waking up afraid because she's with a strange man. And the man takes her somewhere, undresses Susie, and then strangles her before dismissing remembering her. But maybe it's just a dream. Maybe those bones of a little girl they found aren't her little girl. They still haven't proven it. She has to have hope, especially as the phone rings on the morning of June 25, 1974. Now, only the transcript of this has survived from this call, and it is heartbreaking to read. The caller asks if it's Susie's mom that he's speaking to, and when she says yes, he says, well, I'm the guy who took her from you exactly a year ago to the minute. He says that she's alive, but he can't give her back because he's gotten used to her and Britt, I don't know how, but Marietta keeps the kidnapper talking for an hour. And in that time, he says that he and Susie have been traveling west and sightseeing. And Marietta is like, sobbing and begs the man to give Susie back, saying they will pay any amount, but he says it's too late for that because if he gives Susie back, she's going to be able to identify him. But Marietta says, like, no one is going to make a child testify. Like, you don't have to worry about her identifying you because it would never make it to court. Right.

[A]

It would just never happen.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I can't believe she's able to basically negotiate.

[B]

I know.

[A]

With this man.

[B]

I know. And at one point, she actually does call his bluff, saying that she doesn't actually believe that he still has Susie. She's like, prove it to me. Like, prove to me that she's alive. But he can't. He says that he has been using psychotherapy to wipe her memory. And Marietta goes, how are you qualified to do something like that? Now, he doesn't give a real reason. So she switches tactics, and she asks how he knew that Susie was even in the tent. And he said that he'd been lurking around the campsite that night, and he had come by, heard her and her sister talking, but then he waited till they fell back asleep, and then he took her.

[A]

Okay, maybe we should add never go camping to our list of life rules.

[B]

Honestly, putting your kids in a different tent is one of mine. This is not the only time something like this has happened. And something like this even happens, like, in recent memory of mine, like, it made headlines. It is rare, but it is legit nightmare fuel. Keep your kids close camping. Just because you're out in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean you're out in the middle of nowhere alone. Right? So this man tells Marietta that he has been good to Susie and that he took her because he always wanted a little girl, which is not what a mother wants to hear. And when Marietta asks where Susie is at that very moment, he says that she is up in his cabin sleeping. And when she asks again if Susie's okay, the kidnapper says yes and talks about how he could never kill a little girl like that. And like, the man even gets emotional on the phone before hanging up. Now, investigators study every detail of this call. This guy had a Western accent. There was no background noise, but it sounds like he's outside. And the FBI tries to trace the call, but for technical reasons, for some reason like this time, it doesn't work. However, a few days later, they catch a lucky break because this Montana rancher notices a suspicious call on his phone bill. Suspicious because it was over an hour long and placed at 3:25 in the morning. So he goes to the telephone company in Bozeman to dispute the charge because he knows, like, it's not.

[A]

He's like, it's not my call.

[B]

I'm not paying for it. Right? And when the employee makes a copy of the bill she notices the recipient of the call was William Yeager of Farmington Hills, Michigan. Remember, Susie's case was huge there in Montana. She recognizes the Jaeger name immediately. She knows this is the father of the missing girl, so she reports it to police.

[A]

I mean, you said lucky break. This is like a one in a million chance of this happening.

[B]

It's not even done. The odds get more wild from here because the farmhouse where this call was placed from that ranch is right next to the old abandoned ranch where the human remains and Sandy Dykman's car had been found. Now, when Agent Dunbar interviews the rancher, he swears that his whole family had been asleep when the call was made. And he has no idea how that call got made because all the doors were locked, so no one could have come in and used their house phone. And there wasn't even a break in or anything like that. But come to think of it, the rancher had recently seen some suspicious tire tracks out on some land where he had another phone line. Now, it wasn't like an actual phone receiver that you could just like pick up and use. It would take someone with know how to be able to tap into the line, but it was a possibility. Now, he's not thinking about that back then, but he had been so bothered by the tracks on their own that he had inspected them closely and noticed that they were made by a specific Goodyear tire, tires that he knew were on the truck of his former ranch hand, David Meyerhoffer. Agent Dunbar doesn't want to jump to conclusions.

[A]

I mean, I don't think anyone's doing any jumping at this point. All roads are leading to David, but

[B]

he doesn't want to go right to him. So first he goes to a manager of the local phone company to figure out how someone could have tapped into the phone line. Basically, he finds out it could be done honestly with an ordinary phone as long as the person was familiar with phone lines and wires. And guess who has telecoms experience from his military service?

[A]

David.

[B]

So this convinces him enough that he now needs to talk to David again. And he wants to get right to the point. We know David already passed one polygraph, but Agent Dunbar convinces him to do another one, this time using truth serum.

[A]

Hello, 1974.

[B]

I know. And by now, by the way, David has a lawyer. But he does doesn't stand in the way. And Britt, he passes again.

[A]

Again.

[B]

Yes. So they let David Meyerhoffer leave. And once again, Agent Dunbar is convinced that David is probably not the man who killed Sandy. And Susie. But those FBI profilers, they are not so convinced. They try to make local authorities understand something about a true psychopath. Like those kind of people can pass polygraphs all day long, even under the spell of truth serum. So it's them who pushes Agent Dunbar just keep at David. So agents pay him another visit the next day, asking if they can search his property. And David and his lawyer say, like, sure, have at it. Which shocks me, though, because what agents find is incriminating and downright creepy. It turns out David is a record keeper. Investigators find a receipt, timestamped for this same day and location. Remember that first call that was made to the Jaeger house? Like the one from the gas station diner in Wyoming? Yeah. There's a receipt. Next, they find sheets with bloodstains, two unused Disneyland tickets, one of which is for a child. They find a tube of lipstick. They find a little girl's blouse and a necklace. David also has cut out a ton of newspaper articles, some about the criminal investigations in which he's now the center of and others that seem almost like a to do list. And there actually was one in particular that stands out. There was this article about upcoming Girl Scout camps, their dates and their locations, including a hand drawn map of Camp Silver Cloud. Now, what's so interesting about that is during the time when they had been looking at David, there had been an attack on two girls who were at that camp. They were, like, on a walk in the trails when this man jumped out at them, tried to strangle one with a rope before being scared off by the other. And they were never able to determine who that guy was. But now they're pretty sure they know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Then there is the actual to do list on stationery labeled things to do today. And he wrote easiest ways to access the camps, and wrote things like densely wooded and good cover. He even had a check mark next to Camp Silver Cloud. Like, dude marked it off his list. Which makes the next clipping that they find scary. David had cut out a newspaper photo of a little girl named Karen Smith who was photographed fishing with her dad.

[A]

What was the date?

[B]

So around the 4th of July, which means they weren't too late. Karen Smith was okay. And actually, even though this is an old case, our reporter Emily got ahold of Karen Smith and interviewed her for this episode. She's a grandma now, living her best life, but she says she was like five years old at the time. And the FBI sent an agent to basically be her bodyguard after this because keep in mind, David is not in jail. Yeah, this dude is free to roam. So she wasn't allowed to go out to recess with her friends. And this agent even crashed on the family's couch. Basically around the clock protection from David Meyerhofer.

[A]

Wait, I knew he wasn't in jail, but how is he not in jail after this search?

[B]

I couldn't tell you because nothing in the case file tells me. But Karen says she basically felt like she survived a serial killer thanks to that agent.

[A]

Yeah, but, like, I'm sorry, in what world are bloody sheets and a little girl's shirt, not to mention a crime to do list? Honestly, not enough to arrest this guy.

[B]

Like, this kind of gets me conspiratorial because, like, why did he even let them search so easily, knowing what they would find? It's almost like he felt untouchable.

[A]

That's exactly what I was going to say.

[B]

And for some reason, he was. Apparently, David just, like, talks his way out of all of that stuff, saying, like, oh, those sheets, those clothes. Like, those were there when I bought the place. Now, I don't want to make it sound like they were just not interested in him anymore. They're still very interested. They just, I guess, don't feel like they have an airtight case.

[A]

I mean, a to do list.

[B]

I know. So they. What they do next is they arrange a voice lineup for Marietta and Bill because, remember, they've talked to the kidnapper on the phone. They separately ID David Meyerhoffer as the man who had been calling their house. Still, police want more. The FBI flies the Jaegers to Montana and arranges a face to face meeting between Marietta and David Meyerhofer. Again, his lawyer allows this because, according to author Ron Francel, who wrote the book Shadow man, which was a valuable resource when looking into this case, David's lawyer still genuinely believes in his client's innocence. And David says straight to Marietta's face that he is not the man who abducted Susie. But Marietta knows in her gut, she, like. She knows she was just face to face with the guy who kidnapped her daughter. However, because he denies it, they tell her they can't do anything.

[A]

I mean, what do you do? Like, you come all the way to Montana and they're just gonna, like, let him walk out of there?

[B]

I don't know how. I don't know how. I don't know how they went back the first time and, like, to go back again, like, knowing, you know, knowing you saw him. I. I don't know. I don't know. But they send them back to Michigan and the FBI profiler says that if David is their guy, he will want to regain power over the situation. He's gonna call Marietta again soon. That's what they say. And they say in the meantime, they're gonna be surveilling him, watching his every move. And they do a pretty good job. But one day in late September, agents somehow lose track of him. And of course, that's exactly when the phone rings at the Jaeger house. And Marietta didn't come to play. When she accepts the long distance call, she gets right to it. And she literally says, hello, David. And listen, he tries to play dumb, like, who's David? I don't know what you're talking about. But Marietta is like, david, I just saw sat across from you. I know it's you. And he won't admit anything, but he tries to tell her he still has Susie. And he's saying that Susie is safe. And so she says the same thing she said all along. Prove it. And that's when the voice of a little girl comes on the phone and says, this guy, he's nice, and I'm sitting on his lap. Now Marietta knows her daughter's voice. Even after all this time, she would recognize it. That was not her daughter. This call triggers an intense reaction from authorities. They swarm Manhattan, Montana. But David's in the wind. Even his lawyer doesn't have tabs on him. And now that he seems to be on the run, the county prosecutor agrees to an arrest Warrant. But within 18 hours, David reappears in town, swearing that he's just, like, been there the whole time. But they find a piece of paper in his pocket from the motel in Salt Lake City, where they determine the that last call to Marietta was made from. So now it's over. And it's almost as if he wanted to get caught. And when investigators go back and tear apart his property looking for more, they realize they must have missed something the first time. And the most damning piece of evidence is actually packed away in David's freezer.

[A]

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[B]

My body.

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

Wait, why didn't they find this when they searched before?

[B]

I don't know. I guess this is their first foray into the first freezer. I get the sense that, like, the first search was pretty surface level. I don't know if it's because they found a decent amount of stuff. They were like, I mean, surely it's all out in the open.

[A]

Maybe that's why he was fine with them looking like, you know, they didn't find in the first search. What are you gonna find this time?

[B]

Well, they have it now, and there is no more talking his way out of this situation. And David knows it now, too. He tells his lawyer that he will confess to killing Sandy and little Susie, but if the state agrees not to pursue the death penalty, he'll also tell them about two other murders that he got away with. On September 29, 1974, more than a year since Susie's kidnapping, Agent Dunbar and the county attorney sit down with David Meyerhofer. He admits to abducting Susie from her tent and taking her to his truck and then to the abandoned ranch. He says that he undressed her, but when he Started to sexually assault her. Susie fought, so he strangled her.

[A]

I mean, that's just like Marietta's dream.

[B]

I know. He says that he ended up cutting her up and scattered the remains and then burned them, except for her head, which he put in the outhouse. They end up finding it, just like he said. This monster tossed this little girl's head into an outhouse, which happened to be the one place at the ranch that they'd never searched. As for Sandy, he says that he went to her apartment while she was sleeping and jumped on her, strangled her, tied her up, and put tape over her mouth. He says that she must have suffocated under the tape because while he was packing her car, he came back and just found her dead. So he took her body to the abandoned ranch and proceeded to conceal it in the same way that he had Susie's. Dismemberment and fire. Those two confessions weren't really a surprise to anyone. I mean, even the dismemberment part, they had kind of determined that based on the remains that they had found. The next confession, though, that one was a surprise. David said that he was the person who killed Michael Rainey, the 12 year old boy scout who was found stabbed in his tent at the same state park but five years before Susie was

[A]

taken, that people were talking about when they were searching for Susie.

[B]

The thing is, he gives no explanation for this other than he wanted to take a kid, but.

[A]

But he didn't take him.

[B]

Exactly. It doesn't make much sense. And then the fourth murder that he confesses to is another curveball because it's not like any of the other cases. And it was one that they really hadn't even been considering a homicide. It was the death of a teenage boy named Bernie pullman back in 1967. So Bernie had been on a bridge above the river in Manhattan, Montana, when he was shot. And it had sort of been deemed an accident. Like maybe Bernie caught, like, a wild or stray bullet from someone's hunting rifle or something. And at the time, David was just a senior in high school when that happened. And he doesn't give investigators any reason for that murder either. Not that there would, like, be a good one. And listen, Agent Dunbar asks David about a few other missing and murdered Montana girls and women, including Donna Lemon. But David says he had no involvement in any of the other cases they bring up. He even denies being the hooded guy who tried to take the girls from

[A]

Camp Silver Cloud, even though that was literally on his, like, murder to do

[B]

list marked off, which like, to me, makes everything else he's saying, like, less credible. Yeah, and then he wouldn't even entertain the idea of talking about cases outside of Montana, even though he had lived in California during boot camp and Vietnam during his service. So who knows if David left a trail of cases in his wake?

[A]

Wait, so who was the little girl on the phone?

[B]

This is what I'm, like, spiraling on. He refused to talk about that, too. They don't know if the voice Marietta heard was, like, a kid talking in real time. Maybe it was a recording.

[A]

I mean, either way, doesn't that prove that he was at one point in time with another kid?

[B]

That is still a mystery. They talk to people, at least at the hotel, Right? We know he, like, calls Marietta that time from a hotel in Salt Lake, and they said they talked to people, but nobody remembered seeing anything odd or, like, they don't really point out him. So we don't know if he was, like, even with a kid there. Was he solo there? I lean more toward the idea that this was maybe recorded because he was only out of sight for 18 hours. And I would assume that if another kid went missing in that time and

[A]

between those two locations, it's also 1970, right?

[B]

Like, maybe they don't know. Like, if something, but, like, I don't know. To your point, though, when. How he got that recording, I don't even know where is it now. Like, he would have had to had it at the hotel. Like, maybe a recording makes even less sense. Like, the thing is, I'm fully convinced this man had more victims that we just don't know about, because remember the blouse and the necklace and, like, the lipstick found at his house? Here's the thing. Sandy and Susie's parents were shown those items, and they say that they didn't belong to their daughters. So those are probably souvenirs from other girls and women. Which means there might have been hope to get answers for other families. Maybe they could do some kind of, like, plea to close out other cases that he was, like, most certainly connected to. But that never happened because just a few hours after his confession, David's found dead in his jail cell. He died by suicide. This man's method of murder was essentially random, which is why it is so astonishing to me that FBI profilers were able to peg him so well. I mean, they predicted the phone calls. You know, it might have been partially luck, but it paved the way for all of the criminal profiling that came after this, because it made some of the doubters respect their craft a little bit more. You know, something that really bugs me about these cases is that David only called and taunted the Jaeger family. Like, he didn't, as far as we know, torment any of the other victims families with phone calls, and nobody seems to know why. And actually, in the Donna Lemon case, like, when they were early on, like, oh, these are so separate. They're not connected. I think that was one of the reasons why they never connected them or why he wasn't considered a serious suspect because he never called her family after her murder. But then I go back to, like, well, if he really only did that once, that we know of, then why would it. Why would it factor in, like, why aren't we considering him in Donna's case? We know David traveled a lot. He was delivering machinery for his dad's company. He could have easily taken Donna to Idaho, where she's found, and left her there.

[A]

And did they ever compare the stuff they found at his place to Donna or, like, show any of that to her family?

[B]

And that's the thing, like, not that I know of. No. And, like, I kind of get maybe all these years later, why people don't. You would think that he would have taken Donna to the same abandoned property that he took Sandy and Susie to, and maybe that's why they're like, oh, well, they're found together. The other cases he confesses to are so long ago. Like, Donna was, like, that same timeframe. He would have just taken her there. But, like, I think that's looking at that. Like, yeah, sure, logically that makes sense,

[A]

but that's not what we're dealing with.

[B]

Right. We interviewed Ron Francell for this episode, the author of Shadowman, and he reminds us that it is a waste of time to try and apply logic reasoning to the actions of a psychopath. But as a crime junkie, it's hard not to think about these things, because somehow I think answers to other cases are in there somewhere. Like, why Susie? Why then? And who else? Marietta wrote in her book that in the months leading up to their vacation that summer, as she planned their trip to Montana, she developed a healthy fear of snakes and bears invading their campsites. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that a man on the hunt for a child would be far worse than any animal she could ever dream of encountering. But in the end, Marietta forgave David. She went on to become an advocate for forgiveness and speaks openly against the death penalty. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website.

[A]

Crimejunkie.com and you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkie podcast.

[B]

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Sam Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. I think Chuck would approve.