Montana inmate confesses to 1968 slaying, dismemberment

By AMY BETH HANSON
Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana State Prison inmate serving a 100-year sentence for killing his wife in 1983 has confessed to killing a 19-year-old Helena woman in 1968. The Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office announced that 79-year-old Courtney Brooke Atlas confessed Wednesday to killing Pamela Dorrington. She went missing in February 1968 and part of her body was found near the boat dock at Gates of the Mountains Marina four months later. Atlas was her landlord at the time and had been a suspect in the case. He confessed on Wednesday to strangling and sexually assaulting Dorrington, dismembering her and throwing her remains — in a barrel — off of York Bridge.