The Independent-Record from Helena, Montana • 1

$1.50 From Montana's Capital City cloudy The Senators host Miles City in Legion action 1B Juno 28,1908 Lottery numbers If Tv ll r7 I I A decade and a half after 4-year-old Nyleen Marshall disappeared answers may finally be coming to the question IR fil photo by Gorg Lon Kim and Nancy Marshall with one of their searchjdogs in 1 983. Fifteen years ago this week, four-year-old, brown-haired, blue-eyed Nyleen Marshall was catching frogs with her siblings and friends at a small pond in the Elkhom Mountains near Boulder. After a childhood squabble, she ran away from the group. Wearing orange shorts, a pastel yellow shirt and no shoes, the child followed a trail, leaving dusty footprints until she got to the edge of a grassy area. There the footprints ended.

Nyleen Marshall had vanished and no one not her family, friends, law enforcement or the thousands that came to search for her would ever be the same. Time has passed since the Gancy girls disappearance. Her family has undergone tremendous changes. Her brother and sister have grown up and her mother has died under suspicious circumstances in a Mexico City hotel. Still the case remains open and the questions unanswered, but A lead has surfaced in Oklahoma as to her whereabouts By CAROLYNN FARLEY IR Staff Writer In Oklahoma City, there is a 19-year-old woman who calls herself Helena, doesnt remember much about her childhood and thinks her mothers name is Nyleen.

In Boulder, Jefferson County Undersheriff Tim Campbell is looking halfway across the country and wondering if the woman is the answer to the often-asked, but still unanswered question: What happened to Nyleen Marshall? Officials at the FBI academys lab in Quantico, soon may provide an answer to that 1 5-year-old question. But Campbell isnt getting his hopes up. He is the first to. admit this isnt the first time since the little girl wandered into the woods near Clancy that he has thought he might be able to put away his case files for good. Campbell said the young woman who might be able to bring his investigation to a close came to the attention of the authonties after she and an unidentified man 'almost two years ago.

4 -year-old Nyleen Even if Nyleens found her mom will never know i Nancy Marshall died suspiciously In Mexico three years ago By LESLIE McCARTNEY IR Staff Writer If Nyleen Marshall is ever found, her mother, Nancy Marshall, will never know it. The years she spent searching shopping malls for Nyleens face, phoning law enforcement and talking with friends at the Nation- al Center for Missing and Exploited Children have ended. Nancy Marshall is dead. The petite woman died under mysterious circumstances almost three years ago in a Mexico City hotel room. First called a suicide by Mexican authorities, the cases status has been changed to undetermined or under investiga- tion, according to Nancys husband, Kim Marshall, who firmly believes his wife was murdered.

In this globe-hopping mystery, answers are few but one thing is certain: Neither friends nor family feel Nancy could have committed suicide. She would have never left those two kids (son Nathan and daughter Noreen)," explained Charles Pickett of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Nancys sister, Micki Kinsley, who lives in Colorado, concurs. Nancy had met friends in Mexico City and seemed very happy. She went to her hotel room that night and was not awake in the morning, she said, her voice trailing off, I suspect murder, she added.

Kim Marshall points out that people who commit suicide leave notes and dont make plans for (More MOM, page 2A) tried to get her admitted to a New Orleans hospital to have a baby Hospital staff became suspicious when a lot of her answers to their questions didnt add up. For example, the girl said she grew up in a foreign country, but didnt have an accent. Also, the pair left the hospital after the questions became too probing. Campbell said the nurse who attempted to admit the young woman didnt think much of the encounter until a few weeks later hen she watched an episode of Unsolved Mysteries featuring Nyleen it was then that her suspicions were piqued. The nurse relayed her experience to Unsolved Mysteries staff members, who in turn, forwarded the information to Campbell.

Authorities found a woman they believed to be the one from the hospital in Oklahoma City a short time later. 77m Campbell, Jefferson County has worked on Nyleens case for the past 15 years. IR photo by Gaorg Lan (More LEAD, page 2A) A look back cringed at the thought of losing ones own. Hundreds of searchers waited in the chill for dogs to complete their patterns through the dense brush and deadfall. Soon, shoulder to shoulder, exhausted (More LOOK BACK, page 8A) the terrible story: the murder of Nyleens mother.

Fifteen years is a long time, but I still remember dm ing the narrow road leading to a small meadow already trampled by searchers hunting the lost little girl. I recall thinking of my own children, a son then 15 and a girl then 10. Like everyone else on that misty June morning, I By BILL SKIDMORE IR Editorial Page Editor Four-year-old Nyleen Marshalls grinning image has haunted Helena for 15 years. Now we learn, even as theres yet another slim chance that Ny leen might, have been found, that we must add another thankfully imageless factor to Canadian charged with attempted murder in Helena stabbing ISTSIEE: Iur Section Missoula man charged raping Heicnan By CAROLYNN FARLEY IR Staff Writer A Missoula man was arrested on Saturday tor allegedly raping a Helena woman. Jeremy Isaiah Muir, 21, was taken into custody after a police officer on patrol recognized Muir as fitting the description provided to police by an 18-y ear-old rape victim, Helena Police Chief Troy McGee said.

(More RAPING, page 8) the building where he was pqiked when he was stabbed to the entrance of the business seeking help. He left a trail of blood that stretched the length of the sidewalk into the store. Emplovees attempted to render aid and called 9 li. Rehmann said he couldn't comment on what precipitated the fight. However, the victims brother said he believes it was related to the breakup of his brothers marriage.

Dan Fisher said his brother was recently awarded custody of his children and that Tucker is an acquaintance of his brother's to find the victim bleeding from multiple stab wounds. Rehmann would not identify the injured man, but the victims brother, Dan, who was at the scene, said the ictim's name was Joe Fisher. Apparently Fisher was in the paiking lot at the store hen Tusker drove up and an altercation broke out, Rehmann said. In the process, Fisher was stabbed and Tucker left the scene in his car. Tucker was taken into custody by officers at the intersection of Boulder and Montana Avenue minutes after the incident.

Fisher made his way from the east side of By CAROLYNN FARLEY IR Staff Writer A 22-year-old Helena man was in stable condition at St. Peters Hospital late Saturday after being stabbed outside of a Prospect Avenue business yesterday afternoon. Another man 23-year-old Alexandria N. Tucker of Victoria, British Columbia was arrested soon after the incident on charges of attempted deliberate homicide and aggravated kidnapping, according to Cpl. Peter Rehmann of the Helena Police Department.

Rehmann said officers responded to Owner-entRent to Own, 1530 Prospect, at 1.04 m..