Up next,
a young woman doesn't make it
to her planned destination.
They tracked her path.
Did she go off the road?
Was the weather bad?
The search is on,
but hundreds of miles
need to be covered.
We alerted all
the road deputies,
everybody in the area
to be on the lookout.
After the victim is located,
the search for clues continues.
There's a lot of gullies,
ravines, canyons.
It would be an area that's
very difficult to search.
It would be an area that's
very difficult to search.
The first case had just
hit a brick wall.
And I just, was so
frustrated over that.
But a cryptic
note on a gravestone,
a tip from a concerned neighbor,
and a new piece of technology
finally solved the mystery
of what happened to
this young woman.
As Easter 1988 approached,
18-year-old Lisa Kimmell
was getting ready
for a long-planned ski trip
with her family,
most of whom lived
in Billings, Montana.
Lisa, who lived in
Denver, Colorado,
had made this trip many
times to visit her family.
But this time,
she was taking a detour.
She was picking up her
boyfriend in Wyoming.
She was picking up her
boyfriend in Wyoming.
Lisa was coming home,
and she was going to stop
in Cody to pick up Ed,
to bring him home,
to introduce him
to the family.
So that would have
been our first meeting.
The drive of some 600 miles
promised to be a bit of a slog,
but Lisa had many reasons
to look forward to this trip.
One was her new
Honda CRX sports car.
Lisa was very proud of the CRX,
that she bought it
with her own money,
and Lisa really put her mind
to saving the money,
and Lisa really put her mind
to saving the money,
making sure that she'd do it
without my parents.
It's a sporty little black car.
And she had Montana
personalized plates,
"Lil Miss".
L-I-L, M-I-S-S.
I believe it was my mom's mom,
so my maternal
grandmother called her
Lil' Miss Lisa Marie.
It was shaping up
as a great Easter holiday
for the Kimmell family.
For the Kimmell family.
That is, until Lisa
failed to arrive
at her boyfriend's
apartment in Wyoming.
Lisa never made it
to Cody, Wyoming.
From there, I know that
there was a whirlwind
of everything.
Lisa's family
feared she'd had
a car accident.
And since she was
driving through some
of the most remote,
unpopulated terrain
in the country,
she could be injured,
but still not seen by anyone.
They immediately
contacted law enforcement.
They did everything
they could to look for her,
up to and including
getting a plane,
up to and including
getting a plane,
and flying the route, uh,
to see if they could see,
perhaps, a car was, you know,
off in a ditch
or something like that.
Lisa's family
immediately drove the route
she told them she'd be driving,
and found no sign of
an accident, or of Lisa.
It was a very remote area.
There's nothing out there.
I mean, it's just,
it's just, like, uh,
surface of the moon,
for lack of
a better description.
I don't know how
to really explain,
I don't know how
to really explain,
with the fear and the panic
you have in your heart,
knowing something's wrong.
State law
enforcements in
Colorado, Wyoming,
and Montana were notified
of Lisa's disappearance,
and quickly got a break.
On the same night Lisa left,
she got a speeding ticket.
Wyoming Highway
Patrol pulled her over
around 9:00 p.m.,
for, I believe it was doing
And that was the last time
that Lisa was seen alive.
And that was the last time
that Lisa was seen alive.
Eight days
after Lisa went missing,
a fisherman on
the North Platte River
in Natrona County,
Wyoming, found her body.
She was discovered unclothed,
except for her underwear,
and, uh, obviously deceased.
She suffered
blunt force head trauma,
but ultimately d*ed
from a s*ab wound
to the heart.
Mace told us then
that she was not alive.
She was m*rder*d.
I'm sure our screams
could have been
heard a mile away.
I don't remember eating.
I don't remember sleeping.
I don't remember moving.
I don't remember
any of that stuff.
It seemed the news
for the Kimmell family
couldn't possibly get worse,
and then the autopsy revealed
exactly what happened to Lisa.
The location
of Lisa Kimmell's body,
the North Platte River
in Natrona County, Wyoming,
presented immediate
challenges to investigators.
The water was very cold.
There had been melting
snow and things like that,
so we knew that the body
had been in the water
long enough that it
became to equipoise,
that is, it was the same
internal temperature
as the water itself,
so, so that would suggest
some period of time.
Investigators
found blood on a bridge
about a quarter mile upstream
about a quarter mile upstream
from where Lisa's
body was found.
She had been picked up
and thrown over the top
of the railing.
And that blood evidence
matched up with her blood type.
Lisa's autopsy
revealed more disturbing
information.
The bruising around
Lisa's wrists and ankles
suggested that she was
bound for a period of time.
She had been
r*ped multiple times,
according to
the medical examiner.
They were able
to recover semen, which,
thank goodness,
they preserved
for DNA profiling.
They preserved
for DNA profiling.
The autopsy
also revealed a pattern
of oddly-positioned wounds,
around the ultimately fatal
s*ab wound to her heart.
Lisa sustained s*ab
wounds to the chest,
uh, there were six s*ab wounds.
Uh, five were placed
in a circular pattern
between the ribs.
Those s*ab
wounds on her chest would
form a pentagram.
And so, yeah,
it was intentional,
there's no doubt in
our mind about that.
It was now
clear that Lisa's k*ller
It was now
clear that Lisa's k*ller
spent a lot of time with her,
before inflicting
the fatal heart wound,
and dumping her
body off the bridge.
What the nature
of the wounds told us
about the k*ller,
uh, was that, uh,
he was methodical,
and that he obviously wasn't
rushed or in a hurry.
This almost
always indicates the k*ller
has a private place
where he's comfortable
and knows he won't
be disturbed,
which had detectives
thinking she might be a victim
of the so-called
Great Basin Serial k*ller,
who is still at large.
Who is still at large.
Then you start looking into
other unsolved
murders in the area,
in the northern part of Wyoming.
And,
well, you know, hey,
maybe he was involved
with that one too, you know?
Lisa's boyfriend
and the police officer
who gave her the speeding ticket
both cooperated
with the investigation,
and weren't considered
viable suspects.
It seemed almost certain
Lisa was a random target.
A pressing question detectives
had to answer was this:
why had Lisa's k*ller made
no attempt to hide her body,
why had Lisa's k*ller made
no attempt to hide her body,
while apparently going
to great lengths
to hide her car?
To find the car
was to find that first,
a location of more evidence,
and secondly, a potential
tie to the k*ller.
Uh, so it became
a very big focus
of a very long
and complicated investigation.
We didn't have the car.
You would think
you'd be able to find that.
We didn't.
This car just vanished.
Even though detectives had saved
Even though detectives had saved
genetic material from
her body, DNA technology,
and even other technology
now routinely used
in investigations,
wasn't widely
available at the time.
You know, this was back in 1988.
You know, we didn't
have social media.
We didn't have cell phones.
And now,
frustrated investigators
finally got a break,
because of Lisa's unique
vanity license plate.
Lisa's car was a very
distinctive looking car,
and it had
the personalized plates,
and it had
the personalized plates,
so we were somewhat
optimistic we'd find it.
But soon,
investigators got an
unexpected surprise.
The story of Lisa Kimmell's
m*rder was big news.
A lot of people wanted to help.
And many of them,
some from thousands
of miles away,
were positive they'd
seen her car.
All of a sudden,
we were getting calls
and information from every
place that you can imagine.
Even as far as Alaska,
where people had claimed
that they saw the car.
Lisa Kimmell
could have been m*rder*d
in countless places
across a barren landscape
stretching hundreds of miles.
But the original
responsibility for
the investigation
fell on the sheriff's office
in Natrona County,
the jurisdiction where
Lisa's body was found.
And the local sheriff,
Ron Ketchum,
was adamant no one else
could work the case.
It's hard to understand
why somebody would do
something like that
to another human being.
Sheriff Ketchum was always
very protective of this case.
Sheriff Ketchum was always
very protective of this case.
Uh, it was important to him,
and almost an obsession
with him at times, I believe.
If federal
law enforcement was
brought in,
that would open the door
for a lot more manpower,
money, and expertise,
but for reasons
no one could fathom,
Sheriff Ketchum insisted
that door stay closed.
Sheriff Ketchum was hostile,
very much so.
Uh, when the parents asked
if he would consider
bringing in interstate
or federal help,
if he would consider
bringing in interstate
or federal help,
he told them in
no uncertain terms
that he did not want
any outside interference
from anybody.
Sheriff Ketchum's
behaviors defied
common sense.
It defied basic training,
and skill sets
of all those things.
It didn't make any sense.
Lisa's parents were
so concerned about this,
that they confronted
Sheriff Ketchum.
Regrettably, the sheriff
threatened Ron and I
with obstruction of justice
with obstruction of justice
if we continued to interfere
in this fashion.
Then, in what should have been
a routine public appearance,
Sheriff Ketchum compromised
the investigation
by speaking openly about
the odd wounds around
Lisa's heart,
information that had been
purposely been kept secret.
The press were there,
they took it all down.
So he blew all that
right out in the open.
The sheriff's
behavior was so out
of the ordinary,
that he himself became
a legitimate subject
of the investigation.
That he himself became
a legitimate subject
of the investigation.
We asked him if he would,
uh, submit to a lie
detector test.
He called me every four-letter
name in the book.
Uh, was not gonna
take any polygraph test.
Eventually,
on the advice of his lawyers,
Sheriff Ketchum took
the test, and passed.
Then, about two years after
Lisa's body was found,
there was an
incredible development.
Sheriff Ketchum
attempted to commit su1c1de.
Sheriff Ketchum
attempted to commit su1c1de.
They got him to the hospital,
got his stomach pumped,
and he was back
in business again.
Which in our minds, indicated,
does he know
something about this case
that he's having a hard time
living with, or what?
His attempted su1c1de
caused a lot of concern,
for everyone.
Not just me, but everyone.
Around this exact same time,
there was yet another
strange development.
Her dad found a note
taped to Lisa's grave,
taped to Lisa's grave,
in Billings, Montana.
And, uh, it spoke, uh,
almost like a,
a juvenile love note,
is almost how
I would describe it.
The note was
signed "Stringfellow Hawke",
the name of a popular
TV character
from the mid-1980s.
Lisa's grave was some 300 miles
from where her body
had been dumped.
Was the note writer local?
Had he traveled from Wyoming?
Maybe it's someone that
Maybe it's someone that
read about this in a newspaper,
although, it should have
been someone close to her
to know where her gravesite was,
that it could have
been just a friend.
But, you never know.
The case hit a dead end.
Until a clue left with
the body, and that note,
helped expose a suspect.
Lisa Kimmell
was m*rder*d in 1988,
one year after the first
ever conviction
using DNA technology.
Even back then, sharp
investigators realized
this technology would
revolutionize their jobs,
and it ultimately
changed the course
of this investigation.
The pathologist at that time
made special efforts
to collect extra sample,
uh, more swabs, more samples,
than were, uh,
provided for in the sexual
as*ault evidence kit.
He took almost two days
with the autopsy.
He took almost two days
with the autopsy.
I strongly urged them
to maintain that,
the DNA evidence,
somewhere, some place, sometime,
somebody's gonna get
matched up with that.
Twelve years
after Lisa's m*rder,
samples from her case
were sent to Robin Cotton,
at the time, the lab
director at Cellmark,
a DNA lab.
In 1988, it required
about 100 times
more DNA than we
require in 2000,
more DNA than we
require in 2000,
when we, uh,
analyzed this evidence.
The key
breakthrough was
something called PCR,
or, polymerase chain reaction.
PCR is an amazing chemistry,
uh, it was invented
by Kary Mullis.
He got a Nobel Prize
for that invention,
about eight years after
he originally published it.
PCR allowed analysts to take
miniscule samples
of DNA and copy them,
miniscule samples
of DNA and copy them,
so they had vastly more
material to analyze,
without using up
or compromising
the original sample,
no matter how small.
I'm just gonna make
millions and millions
and millions of copies,
which you can do
in a couple of hours.
And now that you've made
those millions of copies,
now you have enough
mass, that is, physical mass,
of those molecules,
to actually test.
In addition
to Lisa's DNA profile,
In addition
to Lisa's DNA profile,
a profile from an unknown
male was generated,
and entered into CODIS,
the national DNA database.
And in 2002, after
detectives finally got
the call they had been
hoping for.
There was a hit on the DNA
from Lisa's case.
This was smoking g*n DNA.
Something you could rely on,
not just some jailhouse snitch,
but good, hard,
forensic evidence.
The DNA pointed to Dale Eaton,
The DNA pointed to Dale Eaton,
a 57-year-old divorced
father of two,
who lived about 100 miles
from where Lisa's
body was found.
Well, I actually started crying.
Excuse me for a little bit.
It was such an emotional...
overwhelming...
piece of information,
that I really...
I was so happy.
And I was so upset that
it took this many years,
to get this guy.
To get this guy.
In 1997, Eaton was
imprisoned for a crime
with eerie similarities
to Lisa's case.
He used
to roam up and down
that area, where he lived.
With his wrecker
service that he had.
And he'd look for cars
that were stalled
along the road, or whatever,
and he'd charge
them exorbitant fees
for hauling them to the next
town, and whatnot.
One day,
he came across a couple
and their baby.
Their car had broken
down on a rural road.
Their car had broken
down on a rural road.
Prosecutors say he
attempted a sexual advance
on the woman.
As her husband fought him off,
a police officer just
happened to drive by.
And that eventually
lead to his conviction
for aggravated as*ault.
He was given
a 99-day prison term,
and up to five years parole.
But he violated parole
when he was later
re-arrested on a weapons charge
that put him in
a federal prison,
which is how his DNA
got into CODIS.
Which is how his DNA
got into CODIS.
Since juries are
notoriously unpredictable,
investigators worried
a DNA match
wouldn't be enough
to ensure a conviction.
You want something else.
You want fingerprints,
you want some type of admission,
you need something else.
As a team
of investigators combed
Eaton's rural property,
analysts turned to the note
found on Lisa's grave.
The handwriting was compared
to Eaton's known handwriting,
and by an odd coincidence,
and by an odd coincidence,
this examination
fell into the hands
of a qualified
document examiner,
already on the case.
I became an expert witness
to testify in the 7th
Judicial District
and I remember looking
at every letter of every word,
of every sentence,
and every page,
Similarities were
immediately apparent.
In both samples,
the lowercase 'r'
was flat on top,
almost like a capital 'T'.
The 'th' combination
was almost always
looped together,
The 'th' combination
was almost always
looped together,
as if it were one letter.
And the lowercase 'e'
almost always
had a tail coming
off the left side.
The conclusion?
Dale Eaton almost certainly
wrote the note found
at Lisa's grave.
But one final question,
one that dogged investigators
from the start
remained to be answered.
Where was Lisa's car?
A neighbor provided
a possible explanation.
This gentleman
came across
the street
and said "You know,
it's a funny thing."
He said, "I remember that
case when it happened."
He said, "I remember that
case when it happened."
And he said, "Just a few
days after that, uh,
I saw Dale over here digging
a big hole with a backhoe."
Investigators
came in with a backhoe
of their own,
and unearthed Lisa's car.
It was almost like
opening a grave.
It really was. Um...
uh, very, very moody,
and, uh, spooky experience.
No one knows
how Lisa and Eaton
crossed paths.
No one knows
how Lisa and Eaton
crossed paths.
She can't tell, and he has
told all sorts of stories.
Prosecutors speculate
that Lisa may have been
at an isolated rest stop.
Eaton saw a vulnerable victim,
and was able to abduct her
without being seen.
This guy has
a history of abduction.
And if he was there,
driving by, saw her,
it was, uh, it was an easy
abduction for him,
and to get her back
to his house.
I don't think they
could have solved it
without the DNA,
because the DNA
is what led them to him
in the first place.
He was never a suspect.
In 2004,
Dale Eaton was found guilty
of first-degree m*rder,
and ultimately
got life in prison.
I'm gonna get the strength
to go ahead and walk
in there one last time.
As part of a civil suit,
Lisa Kimmell's family was
awarded his property,
and decided to close their
daughter's case for good,
and decided to close their
daughter's case for good,
by destroying Eaton's house
and the entire scene
of the crime.
They b*rned it
and bulldozed it flat.
We decided
to cleanse it by fire.
So we worked with
all the community
volunteer firefighters,
to use as a training
exercise, to burn it down.
- Burn, baby, burn.
- Yep.
So we burnt
every inch of it out
on her birthday.
So we burnt
every inch of it out
on her birthday.
I didn't wanna see so much
as a tire rim out there.
And all we could
do then is return it
to the prairie dogs
and be done with it.