BOZEMAN - Flashback to June 13, 2021 - Officers conducted a welfare check in the 100 block of North 9th Street and found 79-year-old Steven Jay Kilwein deceased on the floor.
Five months later, the investigation into Kilwein's death continues.
“There has been some forensic evidence that we’ve recovered in this investigation, and that’s still being processed,” said Captain Dana McNeil, a detective with the Bozeman Police Department.
Evidence that might tell police what happened to Kilwein.
“We responded to this residence basically as a welfare check initially and found the deceased in there and it became evident shortly thereafter that this was a homicide,” McNeil said.
And evidence suggests the victim may have known his killer.
“I don’t have any reason to think that this is a random act,” McNeil said.
Several long-term neighbors say they believe Kilwein lived by himself and he normally kept to himself, A short-term neighbor said she didn’t even know a homicide happened on the street.
"I thought uh-oh. Yeah, I didn’t know anything about it, and it gave me the creeps,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified in this story.
The renter moved into a neighboring home after the incident.
“A lot goes on here," she said. "A lot of truck sounds or cars without mufflers sounds like cars or trucks are drag racing or something maybe on Main Street sometimes right past here.”
Plus various activities at night.
“I hear a lot of talking in the night," she said. "The bedrooms are close you know to the street. At 2 o'clock in the morning, you’ll hear conversations on the street, which to me is unnerving but I don’t hear anything concerning it’s just a lot goes on kind of all the time.”
Bozeman police are working on multiple open investigations right now, and they assure people that they are working on these cases.
“Part of what we’re doing in terms of looking at forensic evidence at the scene and really going - doing everything that we can to try and uncover anything, any type of evidence in this case," said McNeil. "So, we are taking it very seriously, and hopefully, we have more information for the public soon.”
Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to contact the Bozeman Police Department.
Investigators are not releasing the cause of death, but confirm foul-play was involved.
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