David Gail Meirhofer (June 8, 1949 – September 29, 1974) was an American serial killer who confessed to four murders in rural Montana between 1967 and 1974 — three of them children.

[4] He attended the local Manhattan High School where, due to his melancholic temperament and introverted nature, he was considered an outcast and periodically bullied by other students.

[6] Three days later, a man called one of the FBI's regional offices in Denver, Colorado, claiming that he had kidnapped the girl and demanding $25,000 in ransom.

This time, the kidnapper demanded $50,000 and, to back up his claims, he described Jaeger's appearance, pointing out that she had a unique fingernail on one index finger, which was later confirmed by her relatives.

For approximately an hour, he talked with the girl's mother, Marietta, during which he reaffirmed that it was him by describing Susan's appearance and the phone calls, ending the conversation by saying that he was unable to return her.

[7] While investigating his telephone cables, policemen found a voice gateway and other devices that were built into a line break, which they suspected that Susan Jaeger's kidnapper had used to make the call.

By their estimations, the suspect was a white man, aged 25–30, likely local to the area, with a background in the telecommunications industry or the military, and a known social outcast who had problems interacting with others.

[2] Police noted that a man matching his description had made frequent trips to Three Forks between 1973 and 1974, where he carried out construction and installation work at various ranches, including the Lockhart Place, where the remains of the two victims were found.

In an attempt to prove his innocence, he agreed to be interrogated under the influence of sodium pentathol (then believed to be a "truth serum" that might make suspects less likely to lie).

After one such meeting, on September 24, the kidnapper, presenting himself as "Travis", called the family again, angrily declaring that they would never see their daughter alive again due to their cooperation with the police.

Searchers found bloodied women's clothing, washed-out blood stains, and a human hand and several fingers, the latter of which Meirhofer had kept in the refrigerator.

He admitted to abducting and killing Susan Jaeger, as well as 19-year-old Sandra Dykman Smallegan, who had gone missing on February 10 of that year from a basketball game in Manhattan.

[3] During the interrogation, Meirhofer admitted that he had attempted to establish an intimate relationship with Smallegan, but after she refused, he abducted her, tying and gagging his victim, from which she would later suffocate to death.

After killing his victims, Meirhofer dismembered the bodies with a hunting knife and a woodsaw and then burned them in a fire pit, before finally scattering their ashes and remaining bones at the Lockhart Place.

[2] Sheriff Lesley "Andy" Anderson was formally censured by county officials for the suicide, and was voted out of office in the next election after two decades in the job.