Miranda Fenner | |
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Born | Miranda Colleen Fenner December 26, 1979
Sacramento, California, U.S. |
Died | November 15, 1998
Billings, Montana, U.S. | (aged 18)
Cause of death | Homicide by stabbing |
Miranda Colleen Fenner (December 26, 1979 – November 15, 1998) was an American youth who was murdered while working at a video store in Laurel, Montana. The murder case received wide media attention and is one of the highest-profile murder cases in Yellowstone County history. [1]
Fenner's murder was featured on the Discovery Channel's Sensing Murder and the Montel Williams Show. Zachary David O'Neill confessed to killing her in March of 2017, a fact first publicized in July 2019 when he pled guilty to her murder.
On November 15, 1998, 18-year-old Miranda Fenner was working at The Movie Store, a locally owned video rental store in Laurel, Montana. At around 8:15 p.m., a passing motorist noticed a woman attempting to crawl out the doorstep of the video store. [2] The motorist stopped and called 911. The woman, discovered to be Fenner, had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck, and her throat had also been slashed. [1]
Fenner was transported via Life Flight to St. Vincent Healthcare hospital in nearby Billings, where she died of her injuries within two hours. [1]
Over 700 people were interviewed in relation to Fenner's murder, but no suspects had been named. [1] Police could not find a motive nor suspect in the case, though it was noted that a small amount of cash had been taken from the video store's register; [3] because of this, robbery could not be entirely ruled out as a motive. [4]
In 2000, a man who was killed in a police shootout in Glendive, Montana, had allegedly made statements prior to his death that he had been involved in Fenner's murder; however, Glendive police reported that the statements were rumors and were not confirmed. [5]
In 2012, Fenner's murder was given to the Billings Police Department's cold case unit. [4] Fenner's mother, Sherry Fenner, would later advocate for an instatement of Marsy's Law in the state of Montana in 2015. [6]
In March 2017, the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Zachary David O’Neill in connection with a case involving the rape, slashing, and attempted murder of a newspaper carrier in Billings which occurred in September 1998. [7] During this questioning with law enforcement, O'Neill admitted to being responsible for the newspaper carrier's attack, and subsequently confessed to the murder of Fenner. [7] O'Neill pled guilty to her murder on July 22, 2019. [7]
According to O'Neill, he murdered Fenner during an attempt to rob the video store. [7] He later disposed of the murder weapon—a hunting knife—in Jordan, Montana, during a trip with his father. [7]
Fenner's murder garnered national attention. [8] It was the subject of a Sensing Murder episode on the Discovery Channel in 2007. [9] In 2006, the case had been featured on the Montel Williams Show, [10] in which psychic Sylvia Browne claimed two men were responsible for the murder, aged 19 and 24. [3]