BILLINGS - The focus of our next 'Montana Murder Mystery dates back 45 years.
And today, it is Yellowstone County's oldest unsolved cold case.
Saturday, February 5, 19-77, emergency dispatchers received a frantic phone call from the owner of a local helicopter company.
He told dispatchers that a couple alerted him that while out walking on Jellison Road near the city of Billings' landfill, they found a woman's cold, lifeless, dead body.
The victim? 21-year-old Ruth Lori Ballew of Billings.
"The investigation revealed that she was a prostitute, so of course, the suspicion always goes toward the pimps that are working in town, or the guys who were managing the working guys through that time," said Dan Paris, a captain with the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office. "And so, that was part of the initial investigation and some of that is still ongoing."
Almost five decades later, despite a man who admitted to taking money from her and a "confession" from another man, this murder continues to unnerve investigators.
Our Angela Marshall will open the case file for you in this 'Montana Murder Mysteries' podcast, because old murders never die.
"The Unsolved Shooting Death of Billings Prostitute Ruth Lori Ballew" is available right here or wherever you get your podcasts.
