SOLVED MT - Miranda Fenner, 18, Laurel, 15 Nov 1998

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imamaze

imamaze

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Originally posted by: Boilly, moved here for discussion...
Miranda Fenner, 18- unsolved murder
Laurel murder still unsolved 10 years later
Miranda Fenner, 18, was attacked at The Movie Store in Laurel where she worked as a clerk on the night of Nov. 15, 1998.
Fenner was stabbed several times and her throat was slashed in the attack. She died that night from wounds she received during an attack.
Police have no suspects in the case... More...


Miranda Fenner
Miranda Fenner, 18 Date of death: Nov. 15, 1998 Fenner was found on the doorstep of The Movie Store in Laurel around 8:20 p.m.
More...

25000.00 unsolved murder reward
Miranda Fenner moved with her family to Laurel, Montana in 1990. She graduated from Laurel High School in May 1998. She enjoyed spending time with her family and friends, animals, drawing and shopping.

She died the night of November 15, 1998 from wounds she received during an attack at The Movie Store located on the 400 block of West Main.
More...
 
http://www.ktvq.com/news/somebody-has-got-to-talk-16th-anniversary-of-miranda-fenner-murder/

In 2012 the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office opened a cold case file on Miranda.

"With modern technology and modern science, we're able to send old evidence in for new testing and the case has progressed, especially within the last two years," Bancroft said...

"I can tell you that we have had worthy, useable information come in, even within the last two or three weeks in this case," Bancroft said.
Click to expand...
 
Just looking at the Wikipedia page for Miranda, I wonder why the man who had talked about being involved in Miranda's death wasn't believed? And now it is too late to find out as he died in a police shootout? Murder of Miranda Fenner - Wikipedia
 
I believe that the Miranda Fenner and Jeanette Atwater murders were by the same guy. The guy I think did it lived in Laurel when Miranda was killed, and then moved to Billings 6 months after the murder. After living in Billings for 8 months, Jeanette was murdered. He looks just like the sketch in the Atwater case, and has many similarities and coincidences that are hard to discount. Hope that there is DNA in the Atwater case- that would help (but I read somewhere that there isn't).
 
jail4clinton said:
I believe that the Miranda Fenner and Jeanette Atwater murders were by the same guy. The guy I think did it lived in Laurel when Miranda was killed, and then moved to Billings 6 months after the murder. After living in Billings for 8 months, Jeanette was murdered. He looks just like the sketch in the Atwater case, and has many similarities and coincidences that are hard to discount. Hope that there is DNA in the Atwater case- that would help (but I read somewhere that there isn't).
Click to expand...

Keep going with this angle you may be onto something. The suspect in the Atwater case was lightly pocked marked and had too much aftershave on. These are just small clues and DNA evidence would be better but this is not always the case of course.
 
jail4clinton said:
I believe that the Miranda Fenner and Jeanette Atwater murders were by the same guy. The guy I think did it lived in Laurel when Miranda was killed, and then moved to Billings 6 months after the murder. After living in Billings for 8 months, Jeanette was murdered. He looks just like the sketch in the Atwater case, and has many similarities and coincidences that are hard to discount. Hope that there is DNA in the Atwater case- that would help (but I read somewhere that there isn't).
Click to expand...


Can anyone direct me to a sketch of a possible suspect in Miranda Fenner's murder?
 
Here is a You Tube video that features the Miranda Fenner murder and the Jeanette Atwater murders. The video gives a good close up shot of the suspect caught on CCTV in the Jeannette Atwater murder. Worth mentioning again that this killer thought her life was worth a dollars worth of petrol paid for in loose change before he set the mother on fire while she was still alive. He owes for that packet of matches he snatched as well:

 
Last edited:
"Zachary David O'Neill pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing 18-year-old Miranda Fenner, who was stabbed to death at a Laurel video store in 1998. Fenner had managed to drag herself to the store's main entrance, where passers-by found her...

Tuesday’s court hearing was scheduled as a status hearing in an attempted homicide case against the 39-year-old O’Neill, who was also accused of attacking, raping and cutting the throat of a newspaper carrier before leaving her for dead on Billings' West End on the morning of Sept. 5, 1998. He admitted Tuesday to that attempted homicide and rape charge, and was then arraigned in the Fenner case and pleaded guilty."
Man admits killing Miranda Fenner in 1998
 
More informative New York Times article:
""O'Neill told investigators that he'd gone to the store to rob it and decided to kill Fenner after he thought she recognized him, according to an affidavit from law enforcement. "That's when I pulled out this knife I had," O'Neill said. "I tried to slit her throat, but it was too jagged. I could hear her gurgling on her own blood."...

He told investigators that he had been committing thefts and burglaries to support a drug habit that included methamphetamine, which he smoked earlier in the day before killing Fenner.

O'Neill also pleaded guilty Tuesday to the rape and attempted murder of a newspaper carrier in September 1998. In that case, too, the victim's throat was slit. O'Neill said he had tried to kill the woman to avoid being caught for the rape...

...a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 23 before state District Judge Jessica Fehr in Billings...

Asked by investigators why he stepped forward after so many years, O'Neill said he didn't care much about the crimes when they occurred but later felt "ashamed" and regretted his actions...

O'Neill has also confessed to a third crime, the rape of a woman at a park along the Yellowstone River, also in September 1998, according to court documents."
Man Pleads Guilty in Brutal 1998 Killing of Montana Teen
 
— More than 17 years after he slashed the throat of a teenage clerk while robbing a Montana video store, Zachary O'Neill says guilt overcame him and he tried to tell authorities.

But it was another three years after he first confessed in a psychiatric hospital, and later to sheriff's investigators, before the admitted drug addict and petty criminal was prosecuted for the 1998 murder of 18-year-old Miranda Fenner.

"I was wondering why they didn't even follow up and investigate," O'Neill said about his April 2016 confession at a psychiatric hospital in Spokane, Washington.

"They just told me I could go," O'Neill told The Associated Press in a jailhouse interview. "I was like, 'Alright, I tried and I'm done.'"

On Friday, O'Neill, 39, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty last month to Fenner's murder and the attempted killing and rape of another victim during the same time period.

His thwarted confessions underscore a series of apparent missed opportunities for investigators.
Man's confessions in 1998 murder met doubt, now faces life
 
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