SERIAL KILLER: David Meirhofer

The gist

In June 1973, seven-year-old Susie Yeager was abducted from her tent at a Montana campground, sparking a massive investigation that initially yielded no solid leads despite ransom calls and FBI involvement. Over a year later, the discovery of human remains at an abandoned ranch connected Susie's case to the murder of 19-year-old Sandy Dykeman, leading investigators to David Meirhofer—a local carpenter and Vietnam veteran. Though Meirhofer passed two polygraph tests, newly developed FBI criminal profiling techniques identified him as the likely perpetrator, ultimately leading to his confession and suicide in custody.

Key takeaways

• Susie Yeager, 12-year-old Heidi's sister, was cut from her tent and abducted from Headwaters State Park on June 25, 1973; a kidnapper later called demanding $50,000 ransom but never collected it
• The case remained unsolved for eight months until bones and remains were discovered at an abandoned ranch in February 1974, belonging to both Susie and 19-year-old Sandy Dykeman, a local waitress
• David Meirhofer, a 20-year-old local carpenter and former Marine with telecommunications experience, passed two polygraph tests and a polygraph under "truth serum," yet remained the primary suspect
• FBI profilers predicted the kidnapper would call on significant dates (the one-year anniversary) with specific psychological traits: white male in his twenties, local, military background, loner, likely previous killer, and prone to inserting himself into investigations
• Evidence against Meirhofer included receipts matching phone call locations, cut newspaper articles about girl scout camps with handwritten notes about "easiest ways to access camps," a photo of a targeted five-year-old girl (Karen Smith), bloody sheets, and children's clothing
• Meirhofer confessed to murdering Susie (strangulation during sexual assault), Sandy Dykeman (suffocation), boy scout Michael Rainey (1968 stabbing), and teenage Bernie Pullman (1967 shooting), though details on the latter two were vague
• Items found at his home—a blouse, necklace, and lipstick—didn't belong to either victim, suggesting additional unknown victims
• Meirhofer died by suicide in his jail cell hours after confessing, preventing closure on other possible cases and the identity of a child's voice on a recorded call to Marietta Yeager

Notable quotes

"This is either someone who knows Susie, knows the family, and would play the cruelest hoax on them... or this is really the man who kidnapped her." — Ashley Flowers, on the kidnapper knowing Susie's deformed fingernails

"I just sat across from you. I know it's you." — Marietta Yeager, confronting Meirhofer over the phone after meeting him face-to-face

"It is a waste of time to try and apply logic and reasoning to the actions of a psychopath." — Ron Fransell, author of Shadow Man

Worth a full listen?

Listen to the full episode if you want the complete narrative of how a mother's persistence, emerging FBI profiling techniques, and a series of investigative breakthroughs worked together to solve a high-profile child abduction case, or if you're interested in the unsettling details of Meirhofer's crimes and the possibility of unknown victims.