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Boyfriend of Missing Woman Charged with Murder Cody Wayne Johnston is accused of killing Nicole Waller in February 2013
That was the last any of Waller’s family or friends heard from her.
She was reported missing on Feb. 16. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Montana Department of Justice took over the missing persons case and a few months later announced that they believed Waller was murdered.
According to court records, evidence suggests that Johnston killed Waller on the morning of Feb. 14 and later disposed of her body in a barrel, although it has never been recovered.
That same day, Johnston allegedly asked a friend to help him move Waller’s Ford Expedition from Fairview to Pop- lar, a distance of about 68 miles, where he abandoned the vehicle on U.S. Highway 2. When the friend asked Johnston why they were moving the vehicle he said that he had found out Waller was cheating on him and he wanted to play a joke on her.
When authorities interviewed John- ston soon after Waller disappeared, he told them that he had stayed at the shop where he worked in Sidney the night before Waller disappeared because they had been fighting. He told officers that he had stayed at the shop until noon Feb. 14, but cell phone records show he had actually gone back to Fairview early that morning. At least one witness told author- ities that they saw Johnston parked out- side of his home at about 7:30 a.m. with the engine running on his truck.
Phone data shows Johnston then returned to the shop he worked at and witnesses said he used a company com- puter to deactivate Waller’s cell phone, which he was paying for. Johnston then allegedly returned home to Fairview around 9 a.m. About a half-hour later, Johnston’s phone was turned off for three
taken to the hospital where a blood test was conducted. Hollo’s blood alcohol level was .143 shortly after the accident, according to court records.
If convicted, Hollo could be sentenced to 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Hollo is expected to go to trial in February 2016.
Kalispell Man Caught in Sex Sting Sentenced
A Kalispell man has been given a 10-year suspended sentence to the Mon- tana State Prison more than a year after he was arrested in a sex sting that nabbed six local men.
Benjamin David Emrich, 32, appeared in Flathead County District Court on Aug. 27. Earlier this year, Emrich entered an Alford plea to the charge of sexual assault of children. An Alford is filed when the
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BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
A Fairview man has been arrested
and charged with murdering a Kalispell woman who disappeared on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Cody Wayne Johnston is charged with deliberate homicide and tampering with physical evidence in the death of his girl- friend, Nicole Waller. Johnston was arrested Aug. 24 in Sidney and will make his initial appearance in Richland County District Court on Sept. 9.
Waller was last seen on Feb. 14, 2013 and the following day her Ford Expedi- tion was found abandoned along U.S. Highway 2 near Poplar, northwest of Sid- ney. She was 31 years old at the time of her disappearance.
According to court documents, Waller and Johnston both grew up in the Kalis- pell area and knew each other in high school in the 1990s. Waller reconnected with Johnston via Facebook in 2011 and the two started dating soon after. At the time, Johnston was living in Fairview, on the Montana-North Dakota border.
Waller made numerous trips to visit Johnston but family members said the relationship was “turbulent” and that they had broken up several times. In Jan- uary 2013, Waller reportedly learned that Johnston had been seeing another woman and confronted him about the relation- ship. The two got into a physical fight and Waller later left, going to a hotel in Malta.
In February, Waller made another trip to Fairview but within a few days she told friends that the relationship was again deteriorating and that she had ended it with Johnston. She told multiple people on the night of Feb. 13 and morning of Feb. 14 that she was returning to Kalispell.
BRIEFS
Columbia Falls Man Pleads Not Guilty to Vehicular Homicide
A Columbia Falls man has pleaded not guilty to the charge of vehicular homi- cide, more than two months after he was involved in a fatal crash on the North Fork Road.
Matthew Michael Hollo appeared in Flathead County District Court on Aug. 27, just weeks after he was arrested on charges related to the death of Timothy R. Fangman, a 68-year-old physician from Omaha, Neb.
According to prosecutors, Hollo was drunk when he drove his Dodge Ram truck head-on into Fangman’s Toyota Land Cruiser shortly before 3 p.m., June 6 on the North Fork Road. Fangman was pronounced dead at the scene. Hollo was treated for minor injuries before being
hours. It is during that time that inves- tigators believe Johnston disposed of Waller’s body.
Less than a week later, Waller’s sis- ter, Carmen Keibler, told authorities that she had received a message from Waller’s Facebook account that read, “Had a lovely night, not coming home, don’t laugh at me, sorry for letting everyone down.” The sister sent a message back to Waller but never received a response.
Upon investigating the Facebook post, authorities learned that Johnston had reached out to at least three people ask- ing them to log on to Waller’s Facebook account and send fake messages stating that she was all right. He told at least one person that he wanted it done because police had been “hounding” him about his missing girlfriend.
If Johnston is convicted of deliberate homicide he could be punished by life in prison or even death. Johnston is being held in the Richland County Jail. His bail has been set at $250,000.
Anastasia Burton, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Jus- tice, said investigators have been work- ing on the case against for more than two years and even though Waller’s body was never recovered they believed they had enough evidence to charge Johnston with homicide.
In a statement to the Beacon, Waller’s sister said that while the arrest was a step forward in the right direction, her family is still suffering.
“It still doesn’t bring anyone closure because Nicky has not been found,” Keibler said. “Once that happens then maybe we can all heal and try to move forward with the grieving process.”
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defendant believes they are innocent but acknowledges that prosecution has enough evidence to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to court documents and statements made at his sentencing hear- ing, Emrich had posted a sexually sug- gestive ad online in August 2014. An undercover officer posing as a teenage girl responded to the ad but said she was “too young” for Emrich. The man agreed at first but later reached back out to her via email and started talking about sex.
Emrich and the undercover officer
posing as a young girl agreed to meet and
the 32-year-old drove to an address the
girl had given. Emrich allegedly drove
past the home and then started to drive
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away when he was pulled over by police
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and arrested.
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SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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