by Debbie Burke
Photo credit: Spa White SulphurSprings Motel
This story hits close to home.
Kyle Ann Morrow author photo
About seven years ago, a woman named Kyle Ann Morrow attended the Flathead River Writers Conference. She was from White Sulphur Springs, a small Montana town of about 1000 residents. Kyle wore a cowgirl hat, rodeo-style clothing, and matching boots. She was vivacious, outgoing, and wrote rodeo romances.
I only remember brief conversations with her at the conference. Two other attendees recall having longer chats with Kyle who described her books as “rodeo erotica.”
On July 12, 2026, Kyle Ann Morrow, 73, was arrested on suspicion of deliberate homicide in the fatal shooting of Gene Gudmunson at the Spa White Sulphur Springs Motel.
Kyle Ann Morrow booking photo, Meagher County
According to staff, Kyle entered the motel on the afternoon of July 12, spoke briefly with them, then went into an office. The employees heard a gunshot. Kyle then came out of the office and allegedly said, “I killed the [deleted]” and left the premises.
Surveillance video captured a woman who matched Kyle’s description entering the motel with a gun then later leaving the building and driving away in a white Nissan pickup.
Later that day, Morrow was arrested at her home by Meagher County sheriff deputies. With a search warrant, they found a bottle of Jameson in her truck, along with an apparent suicide note and written confession.
The Spa White Sulphur Springs Motel was owned by Gene Gudmunson. Kyle Morrow had previously been employed there.
A Facebook post from 2017 shows Morrow in a cowgirl costume at the motel with a scarecrow that won a funniest scarecrow contest.
Morrow has no previous arrest record in Meagher County.
According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
A volunteer at the Meagher County Community Senior Center said Morrow was an enthusiastic volunteer who visited daily to help serve meals, often bringing in fruits and vegetables from her garden.
She patronized the local library almost daily and her own books were on the shelf there.
KBZK.com/news reported on August 11, 2026 that Morrow pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide. As she was escorted into the courtroom, she smiled and waved at spectators. She did the same on her way out to return to jail where she is being held on $1,000,000 bond.
Morrow’s explicit novels featured what she called “Western justice.” In one book, the main character fantasizes about killing her abusive husband. The first chapter reads: “In the West, hunting season is good camouflage for anyone with murderous intentions.”
Gudmunson was a chiropractor who had bought the rundown motel in the late 1980s and built it into a successful operation. Artist Gary Larson has a studio across the street and painted a large mural on the wall beside the motel’s hot spring pool.
Shortly after the shooting, KTVH.com/news interviewed Larson who was Gudmunson’s friend in addition to being a neighbor:
Larson says the tight-knit community all knew Gudmundson for the person he was and the business he ran, helping bring in tourists from all over.
“I never met a person who didn’t like Gene,” Larson stated. “He’s a very kind gentleman, super kind. He’s generous in ways you can’t even imagine.”
As of this writing, a trial date has not been set.
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A homicide shakes the foundation of small towns because chances are high that residents either know or know of the victim and/or the perpetrator.
TKZers: do you have experience with a serious crime in a small town? Please share in comments.
This story confirms the saying that anyone can commit murder. Wow.
In my husband’s hometown of around 600 residents, a man entered a county magistrate’s home on the edge of town and killed the judge’s wife and daughter. The judge found them when he got home from work.
My husband was a deputy sheriff and knew the family well. The DCI was in charge of the investigation, but the local sheriff’s office remained involved. It was a long, drawn-out journey with several possible suspects but no proof. After months, they got a tip that a guy had bragged to a fellow prisoner in another state that he had blown away a judge’s family to get revenge. Officers flew there to interview the cellmate, who added the information that the guy said he bought the gun, then broke into an abandoned farmhouse to practice with it. When they found the house, and my husband went in, he said it was chilling to see that much hatred and anger displayed in a room destroyed by gunfire. Officers canvassed area gun dealers and found that a man who bought a gun and ammunition that matched what was used in the murders had signed his own name, and was the man who had been in jail and bragged. He was apprehended and went to prison.
Tragic story, Becky. Small towns are perceived as safer than large cities. But anger and revenge are powerful human emotions that sometimes drive humans to extreme violence even in idyllic settings.
There ain’t a heck of a lot to do in small towns. No opry, no pro ball, no theeter. Accordin’ to some science fellers*, alcohol-drinkin’ an’ drunk-drivin’ deths are higher in rural areas and small towns. I guess when they gets drunk, they gets reely, reely drunk. Somebody that ‘toxicated might do juss ’bout anythin’, includin’ murder.
* https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4872615/
J, darn tootin’!
While St. Louis as a metro area is not a small town, St. Louis County is about 90 small towns all stacked together. My 30 years as a pizza dude took me to over a third of those areas.
A man hit his wife with a laptop and killed her. He tried to say she fell down the steps. The blood and hair in the laptop said otherwise. The house sat vacant for about a year until someone rehabbed it. The murder house was next door to a regular customer. Someone bought the murder house. I so wanted to tell them why it was $50,000 cheaper than any of the houses around it. I didn’t.
Man came home upset. His wife had some of her family over and hubs had not approved it. He slammed the door and started looking for his wife to beat her. Found her brothers and a shotgun. Never hit his wife again. Never hit anyone again.
Woman is watching daytime true crime show on TV. Her friend says, ‘Isn’t that your house?’
Woman had rented a house from an older woman. Landlord “forgot” to mention her son killed about a dozen prostitutes in the basement.
Alan, your anecdotes about your delivery experiences sound nerve-wracking. Glad you survived 30 years safe.
I live in a metropolitan area, but this part of North Carolina is rife with serial killers specializing in family. Historically, there’s the infamous Lawson family murders on Christmas Day, 1925, where a man murdered his wife and six of seven kids. Female serial killer Blanche Taylor Moore poisoned family and boyfriends just for funsies. Journalist Jerry Bledsoe had a career writing local true crime. BITTER BLOOD was about a convoluted series of family murders that ended with Fritz Klenner blowing up himself and his kids. DEATH SENTENCE was about Velma Barfield who poisoned a number of people but was only charged with one death.
Whoa, Marilynn, have you considered moving? 😉
The surviving members of my family are sane so I’m okay. I’m also poorer than they are.
A lawyer in a nearby town got a woman off who allegedly killed her husband with poisoned chocolate chip cookies. The day after she was acquitted he supposedly received a plate of cc cookies.
That’s heavy irony, Pat! Thanks for sharing.
Long ago in my semi-small town, maybe in the ’80s, a woman killed her mother, cut her up, and put her in a metal barrel, sealing her in.
For her SS checks. 🥵🥵
Neighbors started wondering where the mom had gone. Eventually, she was found in the barrel & her daughter went to trial, was convicted, and slammed with 2 years in prison.
Yup…2 years. I never heard why it wasn’t life in prison.
Two years is barely a slap on the wrist, Deb. Sheesh! Gruesome and sad.
I actually did a search on the crime after I posted. It was in the 90s, and I guess there was some mitigating circumstances, i.e. sexual abuse & so forth. But…IMHO, should have served life.