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Hung jury will mean yet another trial over a 1996 rape and murder in Kalkaska County

An 18-year-old murder case was not resolved this week, as Kalkaska residents had hoped. A jury could not come to a decision in the case against Jason Ryan for the 1996 rape and murder of 68-year-old widow Geraldine Montgomery.

So now, after Kalkaska has endured two long trials, the community is heading for a third.

A jury was not able to agree whether Ryan is guilty of the crime after a nearly two-week trial. The prosecutor has said he will try again. Ryan, 36, is said to have been staying down the street from Montgomery’s home at the time of the murder.

He will remain in Kalkaska County Jail with a $2 million bond. His lawyer had asked for a reduced bond, but the judge denied the request.

Ryan was charged last year after a nationwide crime database matched his DNA with samples found at the murder site. That also led to the freeing of Jamie Peterson, who served 16 years of a life sentence for the crime.

No date has been set for Ryan’s new trial.