Wayne Nance

by Community Request

Wayne Nathan Nance was born on October 18, 1955. Nicknamed “The Missoula Mauler,” Nance was shot and killed while committing a home invasion attack on his employer. As a result, Nance was never charged, tried, or convicted of any crimes.

Nance raped and murdered a woman named Donna Pounds in 1974. Pounds had been held captive in her own basement, tied to a chair with duct tape over her mouth, and shot. Her husband found her body lying face down in their basement in a pool of her own blood.

Nance was apparently known to the victim's teenage son, was seen in the Pounds back yard about the time of Pounds' death, and was questioned by police who could not find evidence proving he commited the crime. Local Sheriff John Moe believed that the husband, Harvey Pounds, was the perpetrator. Harvey Pounds later died of a heart attack in 1985.

According to the County Attorney who worked the case, Robert Deschamps, Nance was his prime suspect because he was a strange individual who had branded himself with satanic symbols using a clothes hanger. There wasn’t enough evidence to charge him until after his death, when police finally discovered evidence linking Nance to the Pounds murder after a search of Nance's home following his attack on the Wells family.