Episode 37: The Murder of Pamela Dorrington
Nineteen-year-old Pamela Dorrington.
It was an ordinary morning in Helena, Montana for nineteen-year-old Pamela Dorrington on February 17th, 1968. Pamela slept in her second story apartment, her black lab nearby, as her cousin and roommate left for her shift at the hospital. Pam’s roommate would return that afternoon to find Pam gone.
The vanishing of Pamela Dorrington would spur a massive search for the nineteen-year-old, but four months would pass without any clue as to what had happened to the young woman. The worst possible answer would arrive when a man found Pamela’s mutilated torso floating in the Missouri River north of Helena.
Fifty-three years would pass without an arrest in Pamela’s case. Resolution finally appeared in December of 2021 when Courtney Atlas, Pam’s former landlord, confessed to murdering and dismembering her in 1968.
Show Sources:
Newspaper Archives
The Independent Record (6/10/1968). Search Fails to Turn Up Any Clues on Missing Girl
The Billings Gazette (4/18/1968). Search Continues for Helena Resident
The Independent Record (3/25/1968). Sexual Psychopath will Strike Again
The Independent Record (12/4/2021). Inmate Confesses to Slaying
Show Sponsor: The Northern Michigan Asylum Series
Do You Want to Support the Podcast?