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. Meirhofer killed himself shortly after confessing, and was never tried in court.
In the early 1970s when Meirhofer's crimes were ongoing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been refining a method of psychologically profiling criminal offenders, and Meirhofer would be the first serial killer to be actively investigated using this technique. Offender profiling is now a contemporary method used to discover clues pertaining to the characteristics of an unknown offender from evidence at the scene of the crime, and to psychologically profile the perpetrator concerned.
Early life
David Meirhofer was born on June 8, 1949, in Bozeman, Montana, one of Clifford and Eleanor Meirhofer's five children. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the small town of Manhattan, where David would spend his childhood and adolescence. 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.
After graduating in 1967, Meirhofer worked several odd jobs before being drafted into the Army in the fall of 1968. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 1, spending the next few months at a military base in San Diego, California, as part of the Signal Corps. After completing his basic training, he was sent to MCAS Cherry Point, before being dispatched to fight in the Vietnam War in 1969, serving in the 5th Communications Battalion. For his achievements in deploying communication systems and controlling military formations during armed assaults, he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. In August 1971, he returned to the United States, where he continued his military service at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
In 1973, Meirhofer was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and returned to Manhattan. There he supported himself as a self-employed handyman and carpenter, running a shop in the city.
Kidnapping of Susan Jaeger, investigation and arrest
Meirhofer first came under the police's radar following the kidnapping of 7-year-old Susan Jaeger. The girl had been abducted from a tent in the middle of the night on June 25, 1973, while camping with her family in Missouri Headwaters State Park. 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. On July 2, the Gallatin County Sheriff's deputy Ron Brown received a similar call. 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. Initially, police agreed to transfer the ransom, in a veiled attempt to catch the perpetrator, but this was unsuccessful, as nobody came to the drop-off point. On September 24, the kidnapper called the Jaeger family home and talked to Susan's older brother, 16-year-old Daniel, referring to his previous calls to the sheriff and the FBI to prove that it was him. By that time, in order to record the conversation, the family's house had been wiretapped, resulting in a successful recording of the full conversation. After examining it, the FBI managed to trace the caller to a filling station in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Despite this revelation, they were unable to apprehend a suspect, and the case remained dormant for several months.