65-year-old cold case of two murdered teens solved using forensic genealogy

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A double homicide of two teens in Montana has been solved after more than 60 years thanks to forensic genealogy.

The Cascade County Sheriff's Office announced on Tuesday that it has closed the file on the 1956 double homicide of Patricia Kalitzke and Lloyd Duane Bogle, resolving the 65-year-old cold case.

Through the use of DNA testing unavailable at the time of the killings and decades of investigation, CCSO has concluded that Great Falls native Kenneth Gould, now deceased, more than likely committed the murders.

Det. Sgt. Jon Kadner, who took the case over in 2012, said it was the oldest case he could find nationwide to be solved using forensic genealogy.

On Jan. 3, 1956, three boys hiking along Sun River near Wadsworth Park discovered Bogle, 18, dead near his car. A day later, a county road worker found Kalitzke's body on Vineyard Road north of Great Falls.

Both had been shot in the head.

Bogle's hands were bound behind his back with his own belt. His valuables and money were not stolen, and his car was on and in gear with the emergency brake deployed when his body was found.

Kalitzke was born in Great Falls and was a junior at Great Falls High School when she was killed. Bogle was a Malmstrom Air Force Base Airman from Waco, Texas.

While stationed at Malmstrom, he became "smitten" with Kalitzke, according to Kadner. The two had even begun talking about marriage.

Leads surfaced and dried up throughout the immediate investigation, and law enforcement had multiple suspects — including notorious gangster James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger, Jr.

'Pushed to the side': Cases of missing or murdered Indigenous people often go unsolved. 57 Indigenous people are missing in Montana alone.

Dropped with prejudice: Montana woman who killed ex-husband after she said he attempted rape has charges cleared

When now-retired CCSO detective Phil Matteson started working in the evidence room in 1988, the Kalitzke-Bogle homicide evidence was there.

In 2001, as a detective, Matteson sent a microscope slide of a vaginal swab gathered from Kalitzke's body to the Montana State Crime Lab for analysis. The swab was standard procedure for autopsies in 1956.

The lab found a sperm cell that did not belong to Bogle.

"That was just the process, and luckily it was retained in evidence all these years," said Kadner.

As more time went by, about 35 suspects came and went. Law enforcement compared the sample to other men, ruling them out one by one.

When Matteson left CCSO, he had resigned himself to the idea that the case would remain unsolved.

"A lot of different people had a turn at this, and we just weren't able to take it to conclusion," he said. "I think it opens a whole new door for working old cold cases, and also just goes to show how important the initial evidence gathering is in all these cases."

The case broke when the 2018 arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., the Golden State Killer, was accomplished through the use of forensic genealogy.

In 2019, detectives coordinated with Bode Technology to perform additional testing on the DNA evidence found on Kalitzke's body.

They were able to upload the sample to voluntary genealogical databases, where they discovered a possible familial connection. Tracing that family's tree led investigators to suspect Gould, a man born and raised in Great Falls.

Gould was born Aug. 23, 1927, and died May 31, 2007 — before investigators connected him to the Kalitzke-Bogle homicide. According to his death certificate, Gould died in Oregon County, Mo. He would have been about 29 when the murders occurred.

Kadner said Gould had been cremated, so he had to reach out to Gould's surviving children and ask for samples to verify the match.

"I wasn't sure how they were going to react when I come to them saying, hey your dad's a suspect in this case, but they were great to work with," Kadner said.

Gould's family home was located a little over a mile from where Kalitzke lived, and he was known to ride horses throughout the area.

According to the Great Falls Tribune, Gould was 24 when he married 16-year-old Lulubelle Brown in 1952.

After the murders, Gould sold his property in Tracy. His family lived in Geraldine and Hamilton before moving to Missouri in 1967. They did not return to Montana.

Gould did not have a known criminal history and was never interviewed during the murder investigation. Investigators could not uncover any connection between him and the victims.

Law enforcement did not connect Gould to any other cases or crimes.

Gould's name did appear in the Great Falls Tribune a few times.

On June 8, 1943, when Gould was 15, he was reported missing after he left his grandmother's home in Buffalo and could not be located. He was found a week later working at a ranch at Arrow Creek about 60 miles away.

In 1960, Gould's 4-year-old daughter, born a month before the murders, died after a short illness.

Kadner said most of Kalitzke's and Bogle's family is no longer living, but those he was able to contact were relieved to have closure. Kadner added that the detectives who worked the case for so many years shared the same feelings.

Matteson said giving the surviving family answers was the most important part for him, and he expressed appreciation for every investigator's hard work going back to 1956.

What keeps a case like this alive so long?

"I think if you just look at the circumstances," Kadner said. "You had two young, vibrant individuals that were well-liked among their peer group...investigators poured their heart and soul into this case. They leave a little bit of themselves, from what I've seen."

"Quite frankly, that's our duty," said Sheriff Jesse Slaughter. "Our duty is to make sure that we solve these cases."

Follow Traci Rosenbaum on Twitter: @GFTrib_TRosenba.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: DNA testing solves 65-year-old Montana cold case of two murdered teens