Will This Horrendous Montana Cold Case Be Solved? Hard To Say
My obsession with true crime tends to take over my life. It's not creepy, I am just a very curious person and I like to know the history (if it can be categorized as that) of the state I live in.
This cold case has been deemed the "most atrocious crime in Billings history" by the Billings Gazette. Does that still stand? Let's get into it.
In December of 1924, a brutal murder happened. By "brutal" I mean BRUTAL. A couple killed with an ax. Yes, an ax, like one we use to chop wood.
The victims were Nels Anderson and his wife Anna. Nels was a barber in Billings and didn't seem to have any "enemies," and neither did his wife Anna. You hear this a lot in true crime, that the victims were disliked by no one. Which makes it that much more baffling.
The ax that was used in this murder belonged to the Andersons, the prints had been wiped clean, and the person who committed this horrific crime even had the nerve to wash themselves in a sink at the shop in which Anderson worked.
When the Andersons were found, they were still in their winter clothes; everything, even their gloves, were still on. This tells us that they had either just arrived, or were just about to leave. Considering they were found at Nels' shop, my guess is that they were on their way out.
Obviously they didn't have the technology in 1924 that we do now, but if they did, would this case still be unsolved? Police at the time could really only make assumptions like, it must have been a man. What made them think this? No clue, maybe the brutality of the crime wasn't something they thought a woman could harness.
The police also are guessing that the person who committed these murders was someone who just randomly got off the train, considering the tracks were right next to the shop and no one in the town ever confessed or had any details regarding the murder.
Another factor in this horrific murder is that there was no sign of a struggle. Were the Anderson's surprised by the intruder or did they know the person and let them in? Questions we will never have answers to. This is just one of the cold cases that remains open in Montana and one that will most likely never be solved.
cc: Distinctly Montana, Billings Gazette