Authorities said Friday that a Montana prison inmate serving a 100-year sentence for the 1983 murder of his wife has confessed to strangling, sexually assaulting, and dismembering a 19-year-old Helena woman 15 years earlier.
Courtney Brooke Atlas, 79, confessed to the 1968 disappearance of Pamela Ann Dorrington. Four months later, part of her torso was discovered near the boat dock at Gates of the Mountains Marina on Holter Lake.
Dorrington’s landlord was Atlas, who was 26 at the time. Officials claimed he had always been a suspect, but there was no forensic proof linking him to the crime.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said Atlas confessed in detail on Wednesday after being granted immunity from prosecution for the crimes. Before the offer of immunity, Dorrington’s family was consulted.
On the morning of Feb. 17, 1968, Atlas said he called Dorrington and informed her that her apartment had a water leak. Detective Jess Metcalf stated he broke into her apartment, choked her to death, and sexually assaulted her.
Atlas claimed that he placed her body in a barrel, loaded it into his car, and drove it to a hangar where he gave flying lessons. He claimed that after giving his lectures, he drove the barrel out to Hauser Lake’s Lakeside area, where he dismembered her body with a knife and hatchet before placing her remains back in the barrel.
He left the barrel in the vicinity while he went to a conference and returned later that night, dropping her body off the York Bridge into the Missouri River northeast of Helena.
Atlas believes the barrel exploded when it collided with a bridge.
“This was cold, calculating, and we’re not going to tell you all the facts of this heinous homicide,” Dutton added. “It’s painful to hear what’s been done. He dreamt about her and then did something about it.”
Atlas told detectives he “discovered God” in prison and “wanted to wipe that off his conscience,” according to Dutton.
Atlas is serving a life sentence in jail after being found guilty of willful homicide and arson in the death of his wife, Donna, in a house fire north of Helena in July 1983.
According to Montana Supreme Court documents, he filed for bankruptcy in early 1983 and was the recipient of $250,000 in homeowners’ insurance and his wife’s life insurance.
Experts testified during his trial that Donna Atlas died before the fire started, most likely from strangulation and that an accelerant may have been thrown on her body, according to court records.
Atlas had denied killing his wife and had even appealed his sentence, but confessed to it during his confession at Shelby’s Crossroads Correctional Center, according to Detective James Ward.
Ward added, “He never went into depth about it, but he took responsibility for it.”
