List of priests accused of sex abuse includes 1 believed to be murder victim

MONTANA
Rivalli Republic

VINCE DEVLIN vdevlin@missoulian.com

POLSON – When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena in April posted the names of 80 former employees, most of them priests and nuns, who had allegedly sexually abused children in western Montana, it also shook the dust on a 31-year-old murder mystery in Lake County.

Among the priests placed on the list of alleged child sexual predators was Father John Kerrigan.

In the summer of 1984, Kerrigan vanished just a couple of days after being transferred from Plains to Ronan’s Sacred Heart Parish. He was last seen at a bakery in Ronan.

Neither he, nor his body, has ever been found.

But his clothes were, shortly after Kerrigan disappeared. A passer-by noticed them in a heap at a turnout along Montana Highway 35 on the east shore of Flathead Lake and called authorities.

The clothes were stained with Kerrigan’s blood. A $100 bill was tucked in one shirt pocket.

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