Montana Cold Case

Trial begins in case of man charged in wife's 1999 death

HARDIN, Mont. (AP) — A trial is under way in Hardin in the July 1999 death of a newlywed whose bruised body was found in a pond in southeastern Montana.

Former Fort Collins, Colorado attorney Brian David Laird was arrested in 2014 and charged with deliberate homicide. The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1UFaj9J ) FBI Agent Randall Jackson testified Thursday that a pathologist determined that 28-year-old Kathryn Laird had drowned, but he was troubled by bruises to the muscles on her neck.

Prosecutors allege Laird killed his wife during an argument at their house near Fort Smith. Neighbors who weren't questioned in the case until 2012 said they heard a bitter argument the night she died.