DNA testing led to a suspect in 1996 murder of a 15-year-old Montana girl. He died by suicide one day after questioning.

For nearly three decades, the person behind the brutal murder of a 15-year-old girl found in a Montana river in 1996 remained a mystery. After a breakthrough using modern DNA testing, a suspect was identified and questioned — only to die by suicide the following day. 

Danielle ‘Danni’ Houchins, of Belgrade, Montana, was murdered on Sept. 21, 1996, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said.

She was last seen leaving her home around 11 a.m. but when she didn’t return, her family reported her missing. Houchins’ truck was discovered by her mother at the Cameron Bridge Fishing Access in Bozeman on the Gallatin River. Later that night, Houchins’ body was found face down in shallow water in the river, according to the sheriff’s office.

During the investigation, numerous suspects were interviewed and DNA evidence was collected from Houchins. But as the years went on, the case went cold.

That is, until a significant breakthrough in the case last month: DNA evidence collected at the time of her death was matched to 55-year-old Paul Hutchinson of Dillon, Montana — a married man with two adult children, and no criminal or traffic history, officials said in a news release Thursday.

On July 23, law enforcement interviewed Hutchinson for two hours, where he “displayed extreme nervousness.”

He sweated profusely, scratched his face, and chewed on his hand. When he was shown a photo of Houchins, he “slumped in his chair and exhibited signs of being uncomfortable,” the release said.

Around 4:15 a.m. the following morning, Hutchinson called the Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office said he needed assistance then hung up. 

Deputies found him shortly after on the side of the road, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators said that Hutchinson and Houchins had no prior connection, and the 1996 murder is believed to be “a crime of opportunity.”

Authorities “believe Hutchinson and Houchins randomly encountered each other at the river, where Hutchinson raped then suffocated her in shallow water,” the sheriff’s office said.

At the time of Houchins’ death, Hutchinson was a Montana State University student. He later graduated in fisheries wildlife biology, started a family, and worked for the Montana Bureau of Land Management in Dillon for 22 years.

Hutchinson was never connected to the case prior until the DNA results. The sheriff’s office said the investigation emphasizes the “importance of preserving evidence in order for future technologies to identify suspects.” 

A fresh look at the case

In the initial investigation in 1996, four hairs were collected from Houchins’ body. 

In 2019 the sheriff’s office renewed efforts to solve the case.

Then in 2021, the office hired private investigator, Tom Elfmont, a retired Los Angeles Police Department officer with decades of experience. He was aided in the case by Sgt. Court Depweg from the Newport Beach Police Department, which specialized in solving homicides using DNA technology. 

The DNA collected from the crime was sent to the Astria Forensics in California for analysis and a partial DNA profile from one of the hairs was developed. It was run through CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, but yielded no matches, the sheriff’s office said.

The profile was then sent to Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia, where “genealogists used additional DNA databases to identify Hutchinson as the suspect,” the release said.

After Hutchinson’s interview and subsequent suicide, “we received confirmation that DNA evidence was a complete match to Paul Hutchinson,” Sheriff Dan Springer said in a press conference Thursday.

Springer said he knew that this day would come. 

“The investigation remained open because we knew Danni was murdered and someday, we were going to have the tools available to solve this case,” he said. “This case exemplifies our relentless pursuit of justice. We never gave up on finding the truth for Danni and her family, exhausting all means necessary to bring closure to this heartbreaking chapter.”

Springer said Houchins’ case is now closed, but an investigation into Hutchinson remains ongoing to assure he has no other victims.

Houchins’ younger sister, Stephanie Mollet, spoke at the press conference where she said: “After nearly 28 years without answers, without justice. We celebrate today.”

“Even though this man will not face a jury of his peers, I have no doubt he was the one who forcefully and violently sexually assaulted my sister, then held her head down in a marsh until she choked to death on mud,” she said. “When the time came to face up and account for his violence, he instead chose to end his life. He knew of his guilt and couldn’t face my family or his family and the pain he had caused.”