A man sentenced to life in prison in 1977 after murdering a pair of Marion girls is now hoping to be released.

Karl “Randy” Bachman will appear before the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole on Oct. 30 in Deer Lodge in an attempt to obtain parole.

Bachman, now 63, was last denied parole in 2005, when Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan and several family members of the murdered girls implored the state board to keep the murderer locked up. This time around, Corrigan and family members will make the same plea.

It’s been 40 years since the horror played out in a rural area near Marion.

On July 31, 1973, 9-year-old Jessica Westphal and her 11-year-old neighbor, classmate and friend Karen Tyler disappeared after riding their bicycles to a local store. Those bicycles, found later that day, would be the only evidence for four years.

Volunteers, police and search-and-rescue personnel used bloodhounds during an initial monthlong search. The family continued searching for three years, to no avail.

Then, on Nov. 1, 1976, a hunter walking through the woods just two miles from where the girls had last been seen, came across the bones of two small girls as well as the pink-and-brown-striped pants Westphal had been wearing and the green and purple clothing Tyler had been wearing.

Each had been shot in the head six times. One had to be identified by her dental records. And yet even with the bodies, police were no closer to catching the killer.

The break came in July 1977 when an attempt at a similar crime brought the killer’s identity to light.

A 19-year-old Glacier National Park employee was hitchhiking to work when she was picked up by a man in a truck who, instead of taking her to the park, drove down a road at Lake 5. He then molested her, showed her he had a gun and ordered her to lay down on the floorboard.

The woman grabbed the gun, but he wrestled it back. Her chance for escape came when he said he “must be crazy” and “didn’t want to do anything like this.” She convinced him he needed to talk to her, and when he agreed she jumped out of the truck and ran.

She eventually identified the man as Bachman.

Bachman already had been the prime suspect in the Marion girls’ murders, but he passed three out of five polygraph tests and his attorney eventually obtained a restraining order to keep detectives away from his client.

During the interrogation of Bachman about the new crime, which he admitted, detectives dropped the girls’ clothing in his lap and he reportedly broke down crying.

Bachman later reported he had suffered from excruciating headaches and blackouts his whole life, for which he was medicated. On the day he murdered the two girls, Bachman had gone to his parents’ cabin on Bitterroot Lake to lay flagstone for a walkway. When he felt an episode coming on, he went for his medication, but found that he was out.

He decided to just keep working until he couldn’t take the pain, then got in his truck and left.

“I remember standing alongside of the road, talking to two little girls,” Bachman told law enforcement officers. “The next thing I remember is standing in the woods over their bodies with the gun in my hand. I killed them. I know that.”

Although there was never any information made public that he sexually assaulted the girls, Westphal’s brother Creed referred to Bachman’s confession during a 2005 parole hearing, saying Bachman raped them both and shot them repeatedly “like it was target practice.”

Creed told parole board members at that hearing that he was begging them to keep Bachman in jail and offered to get on his knees if it helped.

Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan was present at the 2005 hearing, and argued then that Bachman deserved to spend the rest of his life in jail.

“I don’t care how old he gets. I don’t care how much time he spends in prison. I don’t care if he is a model prisoner,” Corrigan told the parole board.

Corrigan also will be at the upcoming hearing, and said that some of the family members still in the area will be going down as well.

The Westphals still live in the area, while the Tylers severed ties with the Westphals and the community, moving away and leaving behind no record of their destination.

Those interested in submitting a letter commenting on Bachman’s possible release can send them to Corrigan, who said he will accept the letters and take them with him when he attends the hearing. Corrigan’s office is located at 920 S. Main St., Suite 201, Kalispell, MT, 59901, and may be contacted by phone at (406)758-5630.

Those wanting to contact the parole board directly to comment on Bachman or to get more information on the hearing can contact the board by phone at (406) 846-1404, by email at jpribnow@mt.gov or by regular mail at State of Montana Board of Pardons and Parole, 1002 Hollenbeck Road, Deer Lodge, MT, 59722.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.