An "unknown wanderer" was discovered dead under a pew at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boise on Dec. 4, 1982.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) held a news conference on Wednesday and revealed a breakthrough in one of Idaho's longest-standing cold cases.
An "unknown wanderer" was discovered dead under a pew at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boise on Dec. 4, 1982. The man had committed suicide with the aid of cyanide. A typewritten suicide note and $1,900 were located with the body. He was observed at the pew shortly before his death, before the start of the confession service.
The unidentified man also had a keyring on his body. One of these keys had a marking indicating it came from a hardware store in Jacksonville, Florida. An etching on the key led to a street in Florida called Mills Court.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boise (CBS2)ACSO acquired property deeds for Mills Court, and one name stood out as a decedent whose death was recorded in 1989. ACSO contacted that person's brother. Police collected a DNA sample from the brother, which was analyzed against DNA from the unknown wanderer's wallet, revealing the two likely had the same father. The unknown wanderer was then identified as Dr. Mathew Francis Betkouski.
Dr. Betkouski came from a prominent Los Angeles family. He was a chemist and PHD holder. In 1975, worked for a fragrance company in Jacksonville. Coworkers reported he had been talking about a "perfect crime" utilizing cyanide.
In 1979, Betkouski worked at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Fellow scientists said that, before he was fired, Betkouski commented on how poison could be put in over-the-counter pills if someone wanted to. Police were summoned for a disturbance when Betkouski attempted to obtain pills from a pharmacy in Las Cruces for an "experiment."
In 2021, Betkouski's brother passed away. Many of Betkouski's personal items were kept in his brother's home, including a map of Chicago made in the 70s and homemade sodium cyanide, different from the potassium cyanide used in the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders. While police can make connections between Betkouski and those murders, they cannot officially name him as a suspect and have absolved him of other crimes and cases not made public.
ACSO has more information but will not release it at this time. The sheriff's office hopes to generate new leads involving cyanide poisoning or suspicious pill medication-related deaths from the late 70s to early 80s and Betkouski's movements during 1982.
The Idaho State Police say the Idaho Cold Case and Advanced DNA Methods team has sorted and classified 207 cold cases in Idaho so far. Currently, there are around 70 cold cases that are actively being investigated.
