The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Allie McLaughlin-Solkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Allie. And just like before, in the past few episodes, it's just going to be me this week coming to you. On the date of recording, it's actually my husband's birthday, so we spent all day celebrating Eli and what a wonderful guy he is. So it's actually quite late in the evening and he's already in bed. So it's just me coming to you.
But this week, I found a case that, and I know I've said this before, but I was just truly shocked that I hadn't necessarily heard of it before and was really surprised that it's not like a more well-known case, you know, in the true crime community. So I think we should just get right into it. There's a lot of information. This was covered locally quite a bit, so there were lots of resources to go through.
So I have quite a bit of a timeline to bring to you, but this week we are covering a cold case and this week we are going to be covering the Florence Beauty Shop murders. And this is actually a triple murder. So we will be discussing the murders of Dorothy Harris, Brenda Patch, and Cynthia Paulus. And this takes place in November of 2001 in Florence, Montana. But first, a little bit about the victims.
Dorothy is 62 years old in 2001 and she is the owner of the Hair Gallery and All About Nails located on a busy highway in Florence, Montana. It should be noted that Florence is a small town. Around this time in 2001, they had a population of about 900 people, but it had been growing recently. There was a boom in population because of its proximity to Missoula, Montana. Dorothy was happily married and it was not uncommon for her to show up at her neighbor's house with a plate of cookies.
She was an artist, an incredible one according to her neighbors and loved ones. She always was working on a new craft or art projects. She had painted a carousel horse on a wall in her basement just to see if she could. Her husband, Ed Harris says, quote, she would help anybody at any time. It didn't matter who they were. End quote. Brenda was 44 years old in 2001. She was the manicurist at the salon. She was a loving grandmother and also known to enjoy crafting as well.
Her and her best friend were taking a ceramic class and they both thoroughly enjoyed it. Her and her husband had recently moved to nearby Stevensville, Montana to a remote area at the end of a dirt road because they thought it would be more safe. His best friend, Jonette says, quote, she's a wonderful, caring, loving person. She was the most awesome lady I've ever met. End quote. Cindy is 71 years old in 2001.
She was a customer at the salon and had a weekly Friday nail appointment, a luxury that she indulged in in her retirement. Cindy loved the outdoors and according to her family was the world's biggest Grizz fan. Her son, Jim says, quote, she loved to fish, loved her horses. Everyone she knew she liked, everyone she met she liked, and everybody liked her. End quote. And now a timeline of events. On Tuesday, November 6th, 2001, Dorothy arrives at the salon earlier than she usually did.
She usually arrived around 9 a.m., which is when the salon opened, but a neighbor who lived across the street, Jon, said that he saw Dorothy at around 8 a.m. moving empty garbage cans around. Cindy calls the salon when they open at 9 to see if she can move her usual Friday appointment to today. Brenda, the manicurist, had an opening, so it was no problem. Dorothy leaves the salon a little after 10 to run to a nearby bank.
She was seen at the bank in Stevensville at 10.30 a.m., just when Cindy was arriving for her nail appointment. Jon, the neighbor, left his house just a little bit before 11 and he said he didn't see anything unusual. Right around 11 a.m., a woman arrives for her hair appointment. Before she enters for her hair appointment, she notices an oddly dressed man in the front yard of the salon.
He's described as being in his 20s or 30s, around 6 feet tall, about 180 pounds, but what was most noticeable about him was what he was wearing. He was wearing a dark suit, a duster jacket, and a hat that's been described as either a top hat or a fedora. As the customer enters the salon, she finds Dorothy near the back door, in the fetal position, and surrounded by a pool of blood. The woman steps over Dorothy to get to the salon's phone to call 911.
Within minutes, firefighters arrive and know that there's nothing that can be done to save Dorothy. As the police arrive and begin to take in the scene, they find the bodies of Brenda and Cindy in a utility closet. It appears that Brenda and Cindy were forced into the closet sometime during Cindy's nail appointment. Cindy's old nail polish had been removed, but her new color was not all the way on.
Brenda's nail drill was still running when the police arrived and her iced coffee still had ice in it. Each woman did have defensive wounds, but there was very little signs of struggle in the salon. Nothing was really out of place or knocked over. But all three women had had their throats deeply slashed according to police, so there was a lot of blood. There were no signs of sexual assault or robbery. The only items missing from the salon were two beautician capes.
Police quickly begin canvassing the area. They find a footprint a few blocks from the crime scene, but they're unsure if it's related to the murders. And they bring in tracker dogs to try to trace the scent of the killer. Based off of the circumstances of the scene, how far Cindy's nail appointment had got, and knowing Dorothy was at the bank at 1030 before being discovered by her customer at 11, police believe the murders took place between 1030 and 11 a.m.
The next day, Wednesday, November 7, police start to zero in on the oddly dressed man who was seen in front of the salon and later behind the salon, moments before Dorothy was discovered. The oddly dressed man had been seen by at least seven people both before and after the murders.
After the murder, police are able to track him via witnesses through the streets and alleys of Florence, eventually making his way to a bus garage parking lot where he jumped the fence and he was later seen walking into the woods. According to the sheriff at the time, Perry Johnson, quote, He appears to be real focused. Obviously, it appeared he had a destination. He wasn't running, but he was walking with a purpose.
The man was last seen walking into a wooded area south of Florence in the area adjacent to one Horse Creek Road, end quote. Police also begin to talk to the women's families to see if any of them could have been the target since it was not obvious at the crime scene. I took this as meaning that the women all had similar injuries, but no one woman had worse injuries. Police do not want to believe that this was just a random killing that someone just woke up one day and decided to do serious evil.
The families of the victims are brought to the crime scene to see if there's anything missing that police didn't notice outside of the capes. But everything was in place. The women's autopsies are conducted. And while police do not give additional details, they do confirm that all the women's had their throats cut and had trauma to their upper chest and neck area. Police will later say that there are some additional details revealed by the autopsy that to date has never been made public.
Thursday, November 8th, this is just two days after the murder. Sheriff Perry Johnson is asking for help from a lot of different police agencies in the state and as well as FBI profilers. He says, quote, We don't care who solves it. We want to solve it. We don't care how it's solved. We want to solve it. We want to bring some closure to the families. We want to do a job that we're responsible to the community and we're invested in it. These are our neighbors too. End quote.
Police are also looking into a strange classified ad that was placed by a floor resident on October 14th. So just a few weeks before the murder that said, quote, It is time dot dot dot to pray for the needs of your neighbors. End quote. This isn't brought up again in the investigation, but still, it's just a really strange fact of this case. The public is very responsive and tips are being called in every day.
On Monday, November 12th, just six days after the murder, Cindy and Dorothy's funerals are held. Over 800 people attend the services. Police had worked through the weekend following tips and other leads. They want to stress to the public that they are not looking for short brimmed cowboy hat, but the hat is described as a fedora or top hat. So very specific.
Later that day, police conduct a grid search about a third of a mile away from the crime scene where the strangely dressed man was seen by witnesses walking into the woods. They're hoping that they can recover the murder weapon, which has not been found at this time, but nothing is found during the grid search. The next day, November 13th, Brenda's funeral is held and around 400 people attend the service.
The Ravalli County police had gotten in touch with the Nez Perce Tribal Police since they had a forensic artist that had been trained by the FBI. The artist was to interview witnesses and to make a sketch of the oddly dressed man that was seen on the day of the murders. On Wednesday, November 14th, so this is just over a week from the murders now, police released the sketch created by the artist.
Police emphasize that at this time, they do not consider him a suspect, but want to talk to him since he was seen so close to the murder site and are curious as to what he saw. However, they do concede that the fact that this man has not come forward himself already is suspicious. Police still do not have any motive in the case. However, they do release a picture of a pair of wraparound style sunglasses that was found in the middle of the crime scene.
None of the victims' families recognize them, so they assume that either the killer lost them during the attack or perhaps a customer had left them there. They ask the public that if they recognize the sunglasses to please come forward. Police will send the sunglasses for DNA testing, but when the results come in a few weeks later, only the victim's DNA is found on the glasses. There are no other contributors.
On Thursday, November 29th, this is 23 days now since the murder, a $10,000 reward is being offered for information in the case. The friends and families of the murder victims hope that this money motivates somebody to come forward with a tip that's needed to close the case. The police still haven't rolled out the idea that there are multiple suspects. Detectives have also come up empty trying to find a connection between all three women.
It appears that they really only dealt with each other professionally. Some investigators still believe it was just a random attack. However, others believe that since a knife was used that this was personal. Either way, police continue to search for a motive or a link to help them close this case. On December 7th, so it's just been over a month now since the triple homicide, police say that they have entered fingerprints, DNA and hair fibers into the national databases.
National databases are still pretty new in 2001. So they're not as robust as they are today. And there are no hits that come from this. And to date, I couldn't find that any hits ever come from them being entered into databases. Police do work with producers from America's Most Wanted. And when that airs in December of 2001, they do get a flood of tips from across the country. But none of them turn out.
On December 13th, nearly five weeks after the murders, police do confirm that they have fingerprints and palm prints from the scene. And they say that the palm prints is their strongest evidence at this point. In February of 2002, so it's been over three months, and police release another sketch of the oddly dressed man. Typically, it's not the best practice to release multiple sketches by different artists since it can change the perspective of the locals and who they're looking for.
However, this new sketch has more details in the face than the first sketch. And with the release come a flood of new tips. Police say that since the murder, they have gotten 1,300 tips in this case. But for the rest of 2002, I really couldn't find much in the local media, which had been covering this pretty heavily for the first three months following the murder. The next big update comes in November of 2002, so this is one year since the murders.
And police say they are no closer to catching the killer a year after than they were the day it happened. They however stress that this is not a cold case and they're working on it every day. Police do confirm that they have some physical evidence from the scene, but it's very little. Police still urge the public to come forward. Detective Scott Burlingham says, quote, there's a lead out there and somebody has it.
If this was anything but random, there has to be some sort of reason why they were targeted. We're asking people to think who could benefit from this? Who has the most to gain? End quote. In March of 2005, so it's been over three years since the murder of Dorothy, Brenda, and Cindy. There's another salon murder in Belleville, Illinois. Three people are also killed with a knife. Ultimately, Illinois police and Montana police agree that the two are not connected.
The suspect in the Belleville case died from COVID in 2021 while awaiting trial for the murders. In December of 2005, so this is now over four years since the murder and police say they have a suspect in the case. They named Brian Walter Weber as the murderer. Weber in 2005 was serving time for an unrelated meth distribution charge. From jail, he gives an interview to the local paper where he says, quote, the bottom line is that I've done a lot of bad things, but I never did those murders.
End quote. Police say they use jailhouse informants to really build their case against Weber. It takes a while, but finally in April of 2008, police bring charges against Brian Weber and another man, Lincoln Benevitis. Police allege that Benevitis was a large meth distributor and that Weber was his enforcer and that one of the women's relatives owed money. They both are indicted for drug related charges and three charges of murder while engaged in drug trafficking.
It's a federal charge that also carries the death penalty in Montana. They both plead not guilty. The trial date is set for 2010, so two years from the time they're indicted due to all the discovery that the defense has to go through. However, by October 2009, Lincoln reaches a plea deal with the government. Because these were federal charges, the state is not prosecuting them. The government is. Lincoln reaches a plea deal to plead guilty to the drug charges and the murder charges are dropped.
He immediately takes the deal, but the government is still pursuing Weber. A few months later though, the defense in Weber's case are able to get the drug charges dropped. They also start to argue that the murder charges should also be dropped. Weber's lawyer said, quote, what did these three innocent women have to do with Mr. Weber? The government doesn't explain the connection. How do you develop a defense against that? End quote.
In January of 2010, the federal prosecutors dropped the murder charges and all of Weber's charges are dismissed. The murder charges are dismissed without prejudice, so Weber could be charged again if new evidence were to crop up in the case against him. In the motion filed by the prosecutors, they say, quote, in preparation for trial, the government has thoroughly reexamined the evidence upon which it will rely to prove that defendant Weber committed the offenses.
The review has led the government to conclude, based on the evidence as it now stands, that the government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of the essential elements of these offenses. End quote. The defense also claims that they are able to prove that Weber was actually in Moscow, Idaho the day of the murders. With these charges dropped, police announced that they are reopening the case. At this point in time, it's been over nine years since the murders.
And then that's truly the last update that I could find on the case. The murders have been mentioned a lot in local media coverage, especially around the anniversary of the murders. But there's no new developments or information revealed in those updates. Usually it's just a retelling of the story and then focusing again on that oddly dressed man.
So with that, if you know anything about the murders of Dorothy Harris, Brenda Patch, or Cindy Paulus in November of 2001, please call the Ravalli County Sheriff's Department at 406-363-3033. And the sources for the timeline today come from Great Falls Tribune, the Billings Gazette, Ravalli Republic, the Independent Record, the Montana Standard, the News and Observer, the Missouliian, the Town Talk, Rushville Republic, the Item, the Daily Spectrum, the Los Angeles Times, and Great Falls Tribune.
So that is the triple homicide of Dorothy, Brenda, and Cindy. And as I mentioned at the top, my reaction when I first read about this case and heard about it was just shocked that I hadn't heard about it before, especially with this really oddly dressed man associated with it. On our Instagram, we're going to be posting composite pictures of this man that I was able to find during my research just because it is odd. It's really odd.
And the brutalness of it all, these women had their throats, the police say deeply slit, that is a brutal murder and it's angry. That just, I mean, it's evil, right? That's the basis of it, but it's so evil and angry. And it's just so hard to believe that it would happen in the middle of the day in a beauty salon on a pretty busy highway. I think when I was reading that this highway gets up to five lanes at times, so people are constantly passing it.
And I think that speaks to the seven witnesses that also saw this oddly dressed man. At one point when he was crossing the street, a bus driver actually had to stop to let him cross the street. So he was seen by a lot of people. He wasn't necessarily trying to hide his walk away. And again, police never publicly name him as a suspect, but they do really want to talk to him and identify him.
And like they mentioned, it is odd that he didn't come forward himself if he had nothing to do with it, right? So I think some questions that come up for me is obviously around this man. They always refer to him as an oddly dressed man. And I think that's right. He's in a suit. He's wearing a duster jacket, which is like when you think of old timey Western jackets, they're usually pretty long and almost have extra fabric around the shoulders, almost like a small cape.
And then a top hat or fedora. It's almost like a costume. It's 2001, so top hats aren't really in style. I could see maybe more of a fedora being in style, but still the whole outfit is like a costume. I can't think of any time I've seen a top hat casually in real life. It's always in a theater production or carolers going around on Christmas. It's always very purposeful a top hat is worn, not just like your casual going out hat in the 2000s. I've never seen that.
And to have that fact in this case, this man seen right at the time of the murders, it's a very short window of time, 1030 to 11 a.m. That's the time frame, 30 minutes essentially, because we know Dorothy is at the bank and she comes back. And I believe, if I remember correctly, that she had come back with a bank envelope. So there was cash in this envelope and that was left untouched. None of the women's purses were gone through. Nothing was taken except for those beautician capes.
And people who saw this man after the murder say that he was carrying something, but it's never really specific if it's like a fabric folded over his arms or if he's carrying like a bag or something in his hand, just something small. It's never really clear what the witnesses saw him carrying, but he is carrying something. And the only thing taken from the salon are those capes that hairdressers put around you so you don't get hair all over your clothes.
A black one and a gold one, if I'm not mistaken. So why? And that's my next biggest question to so much of this is just why these women? Why right now? Why did this happen? Police to this date have never really been able to find a motive for the murders. When they bring these charges against Weber that he was this enforcer murdering on a drug debt, I understand that that happens, but it just seems so far fetched in this case.
These three, in Cindy's case, older, she's in her seventies, but these three women in the middle of the day at a beauty salon, so many people could have walked in at any time just to get a haircut, just to see if they could get their nails done really quick or just driving by. There's so much at stake. Why these three women? Just mind boggling to me. I will say that I was really impressed with Sheriff Perry Johnson. He was the sheriff at the time of the murders.
And the next year he actually steps down as sheriff. He doesn't run again because the job was really stressful to him. But he stays on as the lead investigator in this case because he is kind of the end all be all for the case. He knows everything about it. And I was really like impressed with how he reached out to so many other agencies so quickly just to get as many eyes on it. And that's something that he did throughout the years.
He would travel the country to talk to other police agencies and kind of run this case by them because like he said, he doesn't care who solves it. He wants it solved. And I really commend that because that's not always the case in policing. A lot of times what I've seen in these cases is that they don't want to reach out to the FBI or other agencies, the state, neighboring counties, because they want to be the ones that solve it. You know, there's pride in that.
For these women, it's just like all hands on deck. Whoever, whoever can help, whoever has a thought, whoever has experience, like get in here and let's talk about it, which I think that should always be the attitude for murder, missing people is to get as many professionals looking at it as possible and to try to work every single angle and all hands on deck. I really think that's the way forward for everything. I really hope that in the future there is closure for this case.
And I hope that for all the cases we cover here, but this one, you know, with the three women who were so loved, like each one of them had like around 400 people at their funerals. Like that is truly what a testament to their lives and the people they touched and the people who loved them. Like they all showed up for these women to pay their respects and the whole town was affected by these murders.
People talked about how they never locked their doors before in Florence, Montana, but all of a sudden they were locking doors. People were going to get the mail, you know, with a pistol on their hip, like just scared, scared because it really does seem random.
And you know, without being able to find a motive, without being able to find a connection between these women that would lend itself to a motive, for me, it kind of leaves it at like, this was a random act of evil, like random in the way that like maybe somebody had wanted to do this, had wanted to commit a crime and wanted it to be a murder and had thought about what they were going to do and went to go execute that that morning.
And Dorothy, Brenda and Cindy were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, just crossed this guy's path or more he crossed theirs. This oddly dressed man and you know, the costume of it all, it's like, did he want to be like this figure, you know, he was not necessarily scared to be seen by people. And I just I have to think that he's involved somehow because he just he was there right at the time of the murders and then briskly walked away and disappeared into the woods like what?
It's really hard for me not to focus on him, which I know is not a good investigative tactic, you know, you shouldn't just zero in on somebody, but I want to know who he is so badly and I want to know what he saw. If he didn't do it, if he's not the killer, he probably saw the killer in some form. He saw a car, he saw somebody running away, he heard something, you know, he definitely is a witness somehow to this, if not the perpetrator.
So I hope that we can identify this man, this oddly dressed man and get justice for Dorothy, Brenda and Cindy. Their families are still so devastated by the loss of these lovely women that they they deserve those answers and that closure if that's what they want, you know, I'm going to be posting pictures on our Instagram at cold and missing of Dorothy, Brenda and Cindy, along with the composite sketch of this oddly dressed man. So please go over there and check it out.
Throughout the week, I kind of post them every couple of days. So if you're not following us already at cold and missing, please do. And if there's ever any updates like how we're releasing our episodes on Thursday now, that's all announced on Instagram, as well as our website www.coldandmissing.com. There you can find transcripts for all our episodes and the YouTube videos. We're also on YouTube. If that's how you like to listen to your podcasts, you can subscribe to us over there.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin, Silkowski. Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.