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Wayne Nance

Also known as: Missoula Mauler

Active

1974–1986

Region

Missoula, Montana, USA

State

MT

Kind

Serial

Status

Identified, never tried

Victims

5

Wayne Nance, a furniture mover from the Missoula area, was never charged with a crime. On the night of September 3, 1986, he attacked his former employer Doug Wells and Wells's wife, Kris, in their Missoula home; Doug Wells freed himself and shot Nance, who died the next day. Searching his belongings, investigators found items taken from the Ravalli County home of Mike and Teresa Shook, killed in December 1985, and evidence tying him to 16-year-old Marci Bachmann. Law enforcement now attributes at least six killings in Missoula and Ravalli counties between 1974 and 1985 to him, though because he died untried none of those attributions was tested in court.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Donna Lorraine Pounds, 39 · April 11, 1974

  Mother of some of Nance's school friends. Police later found evidence linking him, but prosecutors could not get an indictment while he was alive.

• Devonna Louise Nelson, 15 · 1978

  A teenager missing from Seattle since 1978; her remains were found near Missoula in 1980 and identified in 1985. Investigators suspect Nance but have not definitively linked him.

• Marcella "Marci" Bachmann, 16 · 1984

  Her remains were found in December 1984 and identified by DNA in 2006. Physical evidence links Nance.

• Michael Robert Shook, 34 · December 12, 1985
• Teresa Lynn Shook, 32 · December 12, 1985

Timeline of locations

1. April 11, 1974
   West Riverside (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Donna Pounds was killed in her home in West Riverside, just east of Missoula.

2. February 1980
   Remains found east of Missoula (Recovery site, approximate area)

   The remains of Devonna Nelson (found in 1980 near Interstate 90) and Marci Bachmann (found in 1984) were discovered east of Missoula and went unidentified for years. The marker is for the area only.

3. December 12, 1985
   Shook home, Ravalli County (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Mike and Teresa Shook were killed in their Ravalli County home, which was then set on fire; their children were rescued. Items taken from the house were later found among Nance's belongings. The marker is at Hamilton, the county seat.

4. 1986
   Furniture store, Missoula (Workplace, approximate area)

   Nance worked in Missoula as a furniture mover and delivery driver, including for Doug Wells; he had delivered a couch to the Shook home days before the murders.

5. September 3, 1986
   Wells home, Missoula (Other, approximate area)

   Nance attacked Doug and Kris Wells in their home. Doug Wells, though stabbed, freed himself and shot Nance with a rifle. The couple recovered; Nance died the next day.

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Sources

• Wayne Nance (Wikipedia)
• 1980s Montana shooting victim identified through DNA (AP via East Idaho News)
• Montana Murder Mysteries: The gruesome world of Missoula Mauler Wayne Nance (Montana Right Now)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.