Episode Details

On today’s episode of True Crime Time For, Cyndi takes over the microphone and begins with a message for the families who continue sending Real Life Real Crime information about unsolved cases.

There are more families asking for help than there are hours in the day. Cyndi explains that Woody is the investigator while she serves as the keeper and organizer of much of the information coming in. Every family deserves to have its case examined carefully, but meaningful investigative work cannot be rushed. She asks for patience, grace and understanding while Woody works through cases one at a time.

Then Cyndi gets into On This Day in Crime—and immediately discovers that something isn't right.

The September 4 entry says Wayne Nathan Nance, better known as the “Missoula Mauler,” died after attacking his boss and his boss’s wife, listed as Doug and Teresa Wells. But a few sentences later, it says Nance was attempting to sexually assault a woman named Chris.

Cyndi stops.

Who is Kris?

That question uncovers a much larger story.

The original account had accidentally combined two different couples. The couple who survived Wayne Nance’s final attack were Doug and Kris Wells. Teresa Shook was an entirely different woman who, along with her husband Michael “Mike” Shook, had been murdered months earlier.

And once Cyndi starts separating those two cases, the similarities become chilling.

Doug and Kris Wells Fight Back

The story begins on the night of September 3, 1986, in Missoula, Montana.

Doug and Kris Wells returned home and encountered 30-year-old Wayne Nance outside their property.

Nance wasn't a stranger. Kris knew him through work. She was a manager at a furniture store where Nance worked as a delivery driver.

Nance claimed he had noticed someone suspicious around the Wells home. He presented himself not as the threat—but as the person trying to warn them about one.

Then he attacked.

Nance struck Doug in the head. When Kris came to investigate, Nance produced a gun and forced her to tie up her husband. He restrained Kris as well and took her upstairs, where he tied her to the bed.

Nance then brought Doug into the basement, tied him to a support post, beat him and stabbed him in the chest with a large kitchen knife.

He apparently believed Doug was dying.

He was wrong.

Despite being beaten, bound and stabbed, Doug managed to free himself.

In the basement was a rifle Doug had been working on—and he had one round.

Instead of quietly escaping, Doug deliberately made enough noise to bring Nance back downstairs.

Nance came.

Doug fired.

Even after being shot, Nance continued fighting. During the struggle, Nance shot Doug in the leg. Kris fought back as well, and eventually Nance was overwhelmed.

Doug and Kris Wells survived.

Wayne Nance did not.

He was transported to the hospital and died from his injuries on September 4, 1986.

That could have been the end of the story.

Instead, it became the beginning of an investigation into whether the man Doug Wells had just killed was a serial murderer.

Donna Pounds — 1974

Investigators began looking backward.

One of the earliest cases associated with Nance was the April 1974 murder of Donna Pounds.

Pounds was attacked inside her Missoula home. She was restrained, sexually assaulted and shot, and an attempt was made to set the home on fire.

Nance knew the family and was investigated at the time. Authorities reportedly presented the case to a grand jury, but there was insufficient evidence to indict him.

Nance was only 18.

Cyndi points out several det