It was the end of September 1996, a Saturday night in a fishing area just outside of Bozeman, Montana — a place of tranquility until this night.

A few miles up a rural highway, near the small town of Belgrade, searchers discovered the body of 15-year-old Danielle “Danni” Houchins.

Peter Van Sant: What brought your sister Danni down to this area back on September 21st, 1996?

Stephanie Mollet: Well, that morning, uh, we had, kind of a family spat.

Stephanie Mollet is Danni’s little sister.

Stephanie Mollet: And so, she got 15-year-old mad about it and needed some space and some time, and she had her driver’s license.

Peter Van Sant: Now, people wonder how does a 15-year-old get a driver’s license?

Stephanie Mollet: In the state of Montana in 1996, you actually got your driver’s license at 15. … she was a very proud driver, so —

Peter Van Sant: She hops into her Chevy pickup truck and —

Stephanie Mollet: Yeah. Gets and –

Peter Van Sant: Why would she come to this place if she wanted to just kind of take a break?

Stephanie Mollet: It’s peaceful.

After Danni’s pickup truck was located, a sheriff’s posse had searched this wilderness for Danni until it got too dark. But that same night, two brothers, friends of the Houchins family, refused to call it quits.

Peter Van Sant: So they came down this very path —

Stephanie Mollet: Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: — at night, with their flashlights?

Stephanie Mollet: That’s right.

Peter Van Sant: They would’ve crossed this bridge, right —

Stephanie Mollet: Mm-hmm.

Somehow, in the dense, muddy woods, they found her body.

WHAT HAPPENED TO DANNI HOUCHINS?

Keith Farquhar, then a deputy with the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, was the first officer on the scene. In the first hours after Danni was found, no one was really sure what had happened to her.

Peter Van Sant: Did this look like an accident scene or something else?

Keith Farquhar: Something entirely different … there’s nothing here then or now that would suggest a 15-year-old girl should, all of a sudden, be face down in a small amount of water and mud and be dead. She’s a mountain kid.

Peter Van Sant: And is it possible to put into words the shock and horror of that moment?

Stephanie Mollet: It’s like everything you knew doesn’t exist anymore … to not understand how that could have happened and to just feel a gaping hole in your whole being.”

Rachelle Schrute went to school with Stephanie and Danni.

Rachelle Schrute: And I always thought Stephanie and Danni were super cool. … Danni was like my friend’s cool older sister.

Rachelle Schrute: They were the most down-to-earth, friendly people.

The sisters loved the Montana wilderness.

Stephanie Mollet (gesturing outside): This is like a nature playground out here and our family, we just played.

Peter Van Sant: A classic … Montana girl, right? She could fish. She hiked. She could ski.

And Danni was smart.

Stephanie Mollet: She loved science. She was so interested in the way that the world worked.

Peter Van Sant: And she had a sense of humor, right?

Stephanie Mollet: Uh, yeah.

Stephanie Mollet: She was witty and she was funny, and everyone loved her. … she’d make humor at her own expense.

Peter Van Sant: How quickly did words spread that Danni had been found and that she was dead?

Keith Farquhar: Oh, like wildfire.

Rachelle Schrute: It was a lot of shock … You know, learning about Danni dying, it came in stages. You know, there were the rumors, all of a sudden, of somebody died. Initially I just heard somebody drowned.

While Danni’s family was awaiting an official cause of death, everyone it seemed — from first responder Farquhar to folks all over town — were speculating about what had happened.

Keith Farquhar: Small-town Montana. If you haven’t heard a rumor by 10 o’clock in the morning, you’re gonna start one.

Rachelle Schrute: The rumor started flying of … maybe it was a murder and then we’re all like, “what?”    

And, if it was a murder, who would want to end this young girl’s life? And was there a killer on the loose?

Rachelle Schrute: It just was like this strange roller coaster of did someone … should we be worried as a community?

Stephanie Mollet: I think the rumor mill around Belgrade High School was ruthless.

Rachelle Schrute: There was so much other speculation. … I remember thinking, “Man, what if? What if?” … It just caused fear.

Stephanie Mollet: I tried to be strong. Danni died on a Saturday, and I tried to go back to school on Monday. I thought if — I thought that if I was strong, then it’d be easier for my parents. (emotional)

But within days, the family’s grief would turn to heartbreaking shock when they heard the sheriff office’s jaw-dropping announcement about how Danni died.

Stephanie Mollet: We just couldn’t believe what they told us. … It didn’t make any sense.

DANNI’S FAMILY PUSHES FOR THE TRUTH

Just two days after the discovery of Danni’s body, with the people of Belgrade fearful and demanding answers, authorities released the partial findings of Danni’s autopsy. They did not say Danni was murdered. Her manner of death was undetermined.

Her family was dumbfounded.

Stephanie Mollet: They told us that she drowned, and they told us that it really could have been an accident.

The sheriff told the media that there were no cuts or bruises on Danni’s body and no indications of foul play.

Stephanie Mollet: She could have just tripped and fell. We don’t really know.

Peter Van Sant: Tripped and fell?

Stephanie Mollet: Uh-huh. 

Peter Van Sant: And as avid experienced outdoors people, even at 12, you thought that was absurd?

Stephanie Mollet: Absurd.

What the family didn’t know at the time, was the coroner said Danni had inhaled both water and mud into her airways. The family also didn’t know that there were bruises and cuts on Danni’s body.

And signs of possible sexual assault. The sheriff back then, Bill Slaughter, told “48 Hours” it is often common for investigators to withhold key details to protect their investigations as they looked into potential suspects — including people who were close to Danni.

Keith Farquhar: Common sense says this girl was not an accidental death.

Caught in the middle of this controversy was Deputy Keith Farquhar, then a young patrolman. He was assigned to work with detectives on the case. Farquhar spoke with Danni’s doctor.

Keith Farquhar: He … said there’s nothing about her physical condition that would’ve prevented that girl from being able to roll over in a few inches of water and mud to breathe, if she had just fallen, if this was an accident.

But when Farquhar tried to report the doctor’s opinion to other investigators —

Keith Farquhar: I was pretty much ridiculed … by the sheriff.

Peter Van Sant: What’d he say?

Keith Farquhar: He said, “what the f*** does a doctor know?” And that — that statement sticks in my mind to this day.

Bill Slaughter, the former sheriff, denies Farquhar’s allegations. He says Farquhar was a disgruntled employee and that his department never ignored any evidence.

Fed up and disillusioned, just three months after Danni’s death, Farquhar resigned from the sheriff’s office.

As years passed, Danni’s family tried to accept that her death might have been an accident.

Peter Van Sant: As all that time, weeks to months to years go by and you have no answers, what was that like?

Stephanie Mollet: Traumatizing. It was, uh, having a big wound in your life and this big gap that was unexplainable. And you somehow had to find a way to heal without answers, to live without resolution, um, to hope with no reason to hope.

Until 24 years after Danni’s death.

Matt Boxmeyer was a detective sergeant with Gallatin County. He took an interest in Danni Houchins and her family.

Matt Boxmeyer: I found out that they really hadn’t been given much information back in 1996 regarding the investigation, which is not uncommon. … with investigations, you know, you don’t openly talk about ’em with the family usually.

Matt Boxmeyer: They’d been told that she had … fallen down and — and drowned. It was marked as accidental.

Boxmeyer also found out that there had been several efforts over the years to get evidence analyzed by the Montana State Crime Lab.

But after each attempt, nothing. No usable DNA profile ever came back. So he was starting from scratch. Meantime, Mollet decided to turn up the pressure.

Stephanie Mollet: I had been calling the sheriff’s department … trying to get someone to talk to me about Danni’s case.

Finally, Boxmeyer and his bosses made a decision.

Matt Boxmeyer: They deserved some answers.

They told the family that Danni’s death was no accident.

Matt Boxmeyer: I shared with them that I believe that it was a homicide.

Mollet then demanded to read the autopsy and look at the crime scene photos.

Stephanie Mollet: I was so angry at the people who lied to my family, and let my sister’s murder go unsolved, but uninvestigated for all of these years.

Stephanie Mollet: I learned that rather than drowning on just water, Danni’s head had been held down in the mud … she had mud all the way down into her lungs and into her stomach. … there was subcutaneous bruising on the back of her neck … someone had held her head down forcefully. … there was, vaginal injuries. … there was semen in her underwear. … she had fought and scratched.

Peter Van Sant: This is like a — a nuclear bomb going off emotionally, I would think for this family and for you.

Stephanie Mollet: I remember asking them, “so you mean to tell me that in fact, my sister was raped?” And they said, “yes, we believe she was raped.” … I remember (sigh) not being able to breathe. I remember feeling like I needed to puke.

In 2021, with Danni’s family now knowing the explosive truth, solving Danni’s murder would become a top priority for newly appointed Sheriff Dan Springer.

Peter Van Sant: You were a rookie deputy when this crime came down, right?

Sheriff Dan Springer: Yeah. … Five days after I started is when we found Danni’s body.

Sheriff Dan Springer: When you become the boss, you get to decide to do things the way you want to do things. … I felt like, well, this is our time. Let’s go get some answers.

Sheriff Springer reached out to Stephanie.

Sheriff Dan Springer: And I told her … I am making a promise that we will find an answer to this case.

Now determined to set things right, Springer reached outside the department to a most unusual investigator: Tom Elfmont.

Tom Elfmont: I’m … very persistent … I have … a bulldog personality …

Tom Elfmont: I just don’t give up on something. I just don’t do it.

He’d spent a lifetime in tough jobs, from a soldier in Vietnam to a cop working the streets of LA.

Tom Elfmont: I wanted to put bad people in jail.

And after a conversation with Springer, he was also drawn to Danni’s case.

Tom Elfmont: She was a great kid. And the way she died — I get choked up about this a little bit, really, to this day, bothers me. And so, when they said, would you like to work the case? I said, “yes, I wanna work the case.”

Stephanie Mollet: I, of course, internet stalked him immediately and came to find out that he’s like the man that never retires.

Tom Elfmont: I told Stephanie, “I will solve this case, Stephanie.” And she said, “OK, I’m gonna trust you.”

And with Elfmont leading the way, he soon found a suspect.

Rachelle Schrute: Why do I know that name? Like, that sounds so familiar. … it took a little bit of time for it to go, “oh no, oh no.” … Oh, my gosh, no way!

AT LAST – A BREAK IN THE CASE

By mid-2023, retired-LAPD Captain Tom Elfmont was back to working full-time, committed to finding Danni Houchins’ killer.

Tom Elfmont: The only reason I stayed in it was Danni.

For Danni’s sister, Stephanie Mollet, Elfmont’s refreshing dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm was what the case had always needed.

Peter Van Sant: What does Tom do?

Stephanie Mollet: Tom got to work. Tom worked on Danni’s case every day. He went through and reexamined all of the evidence.

Elfmont had access to everything, including a list of potential suspects from the old case file and that previously tested clothing that Danni had been wearing when she was found.

Stephanie Mollet: He most importantly made sure that DNA got tested.

Elfmont asked the Montana State Crime Lab to use their newest technology to retest the semen on Danni’s underwear. At last, a breakthrough: a partial DNA profile. But there were no matches to names in the case file, and when Elfmont compared it to CODIS — the vast federal digital repository of DNA samples from convicted felons —

Tom Elfmont: We didn’t get any hits.

But Elfmont was undeterred and decided to go a less conventional route. He turned to genetic genealogy, and investigative genealogist CeCe Moore.

CeCe Moore: Since I started working with law enforcement in 2018, I’ve been able to help … solve over 325 cases.

Moore is an expert at building out family trees from DNA samples using information from popular genealogy websites – bringing cold cases back to life. But to solve this case, Moore needed a special type of DNA profile. Problem was, they didn’t have enough DNA from that semen.

CeCe Moore: We have to start from scratch, which means there has to be remaining biological evidence for us to go back and retest using more advanced technology.

Elfmont did have more evidence for retesting: four male hairs that had been found on Danni, which had been perfectly preserved for 27 years. They had never yielded any usable DNA because were “rootless” hairs – without any skin cells, but Elfmont asked around and connected with Astrea Forensics, a state-of-the-art private lab that’s at the forefront of extracting DNA from previously unattainable genetic matter.

As if there wasn’t enough drama in this case, the first two hairs Astrea tested produced nothing useable.

Peter Van Sant: So the last two hairs are examined, are they able to get a profile?

Tom Elfmont: Yes. In the last hair. … Oh, I was so excited!

It was a critical breakthrough. Elfmont got permission from a judge to compare this enhanced DNA profile to samples in popular genealogy databases, where people voluntarily submit their DNA profiles. By spring, 2024, Moore had what she needed to get to work.

CeCe Moore: I’m looking for patterns, commonalities, overlaps, eventually common ancestors.

Moore was able to identify the great grandparents on both sides of the suspect’s family tree. She then found one marriage that proved decisive.

CeCe Moore: The couple that I finally zeroed in on … they had a lot of children.

Including three sons. Moore felt like she had to be close, but there was a problem.

CeCe Moore: What was really confounding was that everybody lived in New Hampshire. … yet the mystery was what was the link to Montana?

Moore scoured through the birth indexes, marriage certificates, and even the social media of those sons.

CeCe Moore: When I finally got to the youngest son’s Facebook page, he had posted that he moved to Bozeman, Montana on July 1st, 1996.

Remember, Danni had been murdered in September 1996.

CeCe Moore: And finally, all the pieces fell into place. … On May 1st, 2024, I called up the detectives to let them know that I believed I had identified Danni’s killer.

Finally, after nearly 28 years, it was now time for Elfmont to call Mollet and give her the momentous news.

Stephanie Mollet: We’ve found Danni’s killer, and he is alive, and we are going to make a case against him.

The suspect was Paul Hutchinson, a married father of two, who, Elfmont soon learned, was widely known and respected in local hunting and fishing circles.

Tom Elfmont: We learned that he’s been working for the Bureau of Land Management in Dillon, Montana, for 22 years as a fisheries biologist. … He was a big outdoorsman, bow hunter, rifle hunter, fisherman, trapper.

And, incredibly, it turned out Mollet’s childhood friend, Rachelle Schrute knew Hutchinson. He was a trusted mentor who she had first met in the early 2000s.

Rachelle Schrute: Paul came across as … just an under-the-radar person that … was always so kind of calm and quiet. … He was just so utterly unremarkable.

“I KNEW WE HAD HIM” 

Stephanie Mollet had spent years dreaming of the day someone would be held responsible for her sister’s murder. That day — that dream — seemed to be finally coming true.

Stephanie Mollet: It was the moment at which I knew that everything I had put into my fight for my sister had been worth it.

In September 1996, suspect Paul Hutchinson was 27 years old. He had served in the Marine Corps, then moved to Bozeman to study at Montana State University, just 13 miles from where Danni’s body was discovered.

Tom Elfmont: When he was at Montana State, he had a work-study … he worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service … which would have put him on the waterways around Belgrade.

Peter Van Sant: Where on September 21st, 1996, Danni ended up on a hike.

Tom Elfmont: That’s correct.

Peter Van Sant: Do you think your sister Danni knew Paul Hutchinson?

Stephanie Mollet: No. Paul Hutchinson was a stranger to Danni. … there’s no way that she would’ve known him.

But many people in the area did know Hutchinson, through his passion for hunting and fishing and high-profile government job.

Rachelle Schrute: He just was like this respected source of information in the hunting and fishing space.

Schrute knew Hutchinson for years. She’s an expert hunter and former Yellowstone park guide – and is now the Hunt & Fish editor for GearJunkie.com.

Rachelle Schrute: I think I would’ve considered him a — a friend. … you know if we were doing some sort of hunt camp, I would’ve not even thought twice about inviting him.

Schrute says she never once questioned Hutchinson’s integrity, even she went on fishing trips with him — just the two of them — out in the middle of nowhere.

Rachelle Schrute: I’ve always trusted my gut instinct when it comes to … especially men. … I never had any feeling that he was unsafe.

Though she hadn’t seen Hutchinson in years, Schrute kept up with him online. He would often post on message boards about hunting trips he had taken across the country.

Rachelle Schrute: Paul was super active in the hunting community. … It seemed like he was constantly hunting. … Always sharing where he was headed, or where he just got back from.

Hutchinson had no criminal record. By all accounts, he had been leading a quiet existence since 1996.

Peter Van Sant: And what did you know about his family life?

Tom Elfmont: Well, we knew that he had a wife, a daughter, and a son.

And he lived just a few hours away.

Peter Van Sant: And Dillon, Montana, how far is that from Bozeman?

Tom Elfmont: A hundred and forty miles.

Elfmont knew he couldn’t make an arrest until he got Hutchinson’s DNA — which he was working out how to get. In the meantime, Montana law did allow Elfmont to talk to Hutchinson with some conditions.

Tom Elfmont:  It just basically has to be in a public area where he can walk away anytime he wants to.

So, on July 23, 2024, Elfmont and another detective drove down to Hutchinson’s office at the Bureau of Land Management in Dillon with a body camera rolling.

Tom Elfmont: We saw Paul come in and get out of his pickup … and then we started walking up … And I got up about 10 feet from Paul and I said –

TOM ELFMONT (bodycam): Hey Paul. How are you doin?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Good.

TOM ELFMONT: Good. My name’s Tom Elfmont. … I’m with the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Uh-huh.

COURT DEPWEG: Hey, guys.

They came ready with a clever excuse for why they wanted to speak with Hutchinson, hoping it wouldn’t raise his suspicions.

TOM ELFMONT (bodycam): We wanted to talk to you. … we’ve been talking to some fisheries people about some things that have been going on here at the rivers in Southwest Montana.

PAUL HUTCHINSON: OK.

Tom Elfmont: I explained to him that we’re investigating some cases up and down the rivers … And so we wanna talk to people that are experts.

Right at the start, they caught a break thanks to an unusually scorching hot day.

Tom Elfmont: It was 98 that day in Dillon. He said, let’s go inside.

PAUL HUTCHINSON (bodycam): You guys wanna come inside and talk?

COURT DEPWEG: That’d be great, man.

Tom Elfmont: If he invites us in, we don’t have to give him Miranda. So, we go inside, he takes us in a small conference room.

While they didn’t ask about Danni Houchins right away, Elfmont says he could tell Hutchinson was nervous.

COURT DEPWEG (bodycam): So, I appreciate you — sitting down with us.

PAUL HUTCHINSON: No, glad to help. Wha — What’s up?

Tom Elfmont: And he breaks into a sweat. It’s just his head starts sweating. … And he asked, can I — can I leave?

PAUL HUTCHINSON (bodycam): Um, can you gimme a second?

COURT DEPWEG:  Absolutely.

Hutchinson said he had to go help a coworker. When he returned, they asked him about the other cases.

Tom Elfmont: So I had pictures of four women that died; one in a river in Idaho, two over on the Yellowstone, and then Danni.

Elfmont’s partner, Court Depweg, took over the conversation.

COURT DEPWEG (bodycam/shows photo of Danni): OK, this is Danielle Houchins.

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Mm-hmm.

COURT DEPWEG: She was — she was killed in September of 96.

PAUL HUTCHINSON: OK. …

COURT DEPWEG: And she was found … off the Gallatin River. Did you ever fish up there?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: I trapped on the Gallatin. …

COURT DEPWEG: Have you ever heard of the Cameron Bridge Access?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Mm-hmm. (Nods to affirm)

COURT DEPWEG: Have you been there before?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Probably, um, Jackrabbit Lane?

COURT DEPWEG: Yeah.

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Yeah.

COURT DEPWEG: Exactly.

Hutchinson had confirmed he had not only been to the remote area where Danni was attacked, he remembered the street that led there. Elfmont says it was a revealing exchange.

Tom Elfmont: He’s shaking. He’s all distressed now. … he was sitting back in the chair … as far as he could get from the table and the pictures. … I knew we had him.

COURT DEPWEG (bodycam): Do you remember seeing her there? Or a — a similar face?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Um – I honestly don’t. I — I mean, I probably — I’ve been to a bunch of fishing access sites for one reason or another.

Hutchinson denied knowing anything about Danni’s death — even when they told him they had the suspect’s DNA.

COURT DEPWEG (bodycam): Is there a possibility that you were there when she was murdered?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: No. …

COURT DEPWEG: You weren’t trapping or anything during that time?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Not in September. I would’ve been, you know — Are you — are you asking me? I mean —

COURT DEPWEG: I’m just asking if you remember anything –

PAUL HUTCHINSON: Oh, oh.

COURT DEPWEG: — during that time?

PAUL HUTCHINSON: No, no.

Peter Van Sant: Did you ever directly say, “did you kill Danni Houchins?”

Tom Elfmont: No.

Peter Van Sant: Why?

Tom Elfmont: Didn’t need to. … Didn’t need to. And —

Peter Van Sant: ‘Cause he knows that you know.

Tom Elfmont: That’s right. Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: And you know that he knows that you know.

Tom Elfmont: Correct.

As they wrapped up the interview, Hutchinson had a question for them.

PAUL HUTCHINSON (bodycam): Anything else you want to ask me while I’m here?

TOM ELFMONT: No, we’re good. We’re good now.

To Elfmont, it seemed like Hutchinson couldn’t believe they didn’t arrest him. But the investigation was far from over.

Tom Elfmont: So we walk out of the building and we had surveillance people to follow him. … He started driving like a maniac. … High speed, doing U-turns. … and he takes off.

A SISTER’S PROMISE FULFILLED

With the possibility of an arrest of her sister’s killer, Stephanie began imagining what justice would look like for Paul Hutchinson.

Stephanie Mollet: I was preparing myself for the next three to five years of a court battle to … staring him down, to being present every day in that courtroom.

But what Mollet could never prepare herself for was the startling phone call she got from Elfmont just 12 hours after he had interviewed Hutchinson.

Tom Elfmont: So I called Stephanie … And I said, “Stephanie … (long pause) he’s dead, he killed himself. … It’s a big pause. And she said, “you know, I don’t know how I feel about that.” I said, “I get it. I understand.”

Police say Hutchinson drove to a remote area and called the sheriff’s dispatch line, saying an officer needed help.

When cops arrived, they found Hutchinson’s body — dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 55.

Peter Van Sant: Give me a sense of that moment for you.

Stephanie Mollet: Shock. I — I didn’t expect that to happen.

When Hutchinson’s DNA was checked against evidence from Danni’s body, including the semen on her underwear, there was match.

Tom Elfmont: The ratio? 10.7 trillion-to-one. So he was the guy.

Peter Van Sant: This case is solved.

Tom Elfmont: A hundred percent.

Mollet’s friend, Rachelle Schrute — who had considered Hutchinson a mentor — learned what happened as she watched the sheriff’s news conference.

Rachelle Schrute: I am gutted. I’ve known him most of my life. … Like, it makes me mad to know him. … How dare you!

At the news conference Mollet thanked the current sheriff’s team.

STEPHANIE MOLLET (to reporters): I’d like to express my family’s gratitude to Tom Elfmont for overcoming every roadblock … To Dan Springer, thank you for being a man of your word.

And then, she did what no one there expected. She unleashed years of pent-up anger.

STEPHANIE MOLLET (to reporters): The sheriff … lied to my parents … bold-face lied and betrayed the trust of shocked and grieving parents. … those institutions failed my sister, failed my family, and failed this community.”

“48 Hours” asked Springer about Mollet’s allegations that the sheriff’s department, for years, had lied to her family.

Peter Van Sant: If what they say is true, were they lied to?

Sheriff Dan Springer: I don’t — I — I don’t know what they said, to be honest.

Peter Van Sant: What the parents said is that they were told that their daughter did not have any injuries. … If what they are saying is true —

Sheriff Dan Springer: Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: — were they lied to?

Sheriff Dan Springer: Oh, of course. I mean, I think the — the reports speak for themselves, there were marks on her body and if that’s what they were told, then that’s not the truth.

“48 Hours” reached out to the man who was sheriff in 1996, Bill Slaughter, now retired. Slaughter admits withholding some information from Danni’s family, but claims he never lied to them despite the fact he told the local newspaper in 1996 that there was no indication of foul play.

Weeks after the news conference, Mollet went back to the scene of the crime.

Stephanie Mollet: When I finally saw the exact spot where her body was found and I sat there and imagined that, about her last moments and how it went from peaceful rusting of leaves and, you know, the sounds of squirrels running through the forest and the birds chirping to suddenly turning to this awful and violating and terrifying experience … And then that realization that she must have had when he was holding her face down in the mud, that she was gonna die right there. … And I am so sorry for her, that she had to experience that moment.

Peter Van Sant: For you, what is this case about?

Tom Elfmont:  Danni. It’s about Danni. … I would wake up at night, and I would say, middle of the night, 3 o’clock in the morning, and I’d say, “Danni, I got you.” It’s about Danni.

the most troubling, says Elfmont,  “were there other victims?”

Tom Elfmont: Oh, I think there’s a good possibility. Yeah.

Stephanie Mollet: I think that anyone who is able to rape and murder a young girl and then get away with it for almost 28 years had plenty of chances to do it again.

Mollet is now trying to make changes in how Montana funds and supervises law enforcement, so that cases like Danni’s don’t fall by the wayside.

Stephanie Mollet: On the table, I have … what was in Danni’s pocket when she died. … And then her driver’s license, which she was really proud of having.

Years ago, Danni’s family spread some of her ashes on a nearby mountain top.

Stephanie Mollet: We spread half of Danni’s ashes on top of the tallest mountain on the Bridger Range, Sacagawea Peak.

And now, almost 30 years later, Stephanie was back on the banks of the Gallatin River, where Danni died to spread the last of her ashes … and to tell her sister that she’d made a difference.

Stephanie Mollet: I love you Danni.

Stephanie Mollet: I think the biggest thing has been, after so many years of begging and pleading for people to pay attention to my sister, for people to believe that she mattered. I’m feeling so often like I was screaming into an echo chamber. Now, suddenly she matters to everyone all over again.

Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Lauren Clark. Ryan Smith is the development producer. Michael Baluzy, Wini Dini and Gregory Kaplan are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.