The Unsolved Homicide of Billings Prostitute Ruth Lori Ballew

Montana Murder Mysteries

The focus of our next 'Montana Murder Mystery dates back 45 years. And today, it is Yellowstone County's oldest unsolved cold case. Saturday, February 5, 19-77, emergency dispatchers received a frantic phone call from the owner of a local helicopter company. He told dispatchers that a couple alerted him that while out walking on Jellison Road near the city of Billings' landfill, they found a woman's cold, lifeless, dead body. The victim? 21-year-old Ruth Lori Ballew, who was known to be a local prostitute of Billings. Almost five decades later, despite a man who admitted to taking money from her and a "confession" from another man, this murder continues to unnerve investigators.