Scott Lee Kimball

Case details

Scott Lee Kimball was a convicted serial killer. He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder on October 8, 2009, and was sentenced to 70 years in prison.

Status and sentence

Kimball pleaded guilty in Boulder County District Court on Thursday to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Kaysi McLeod, Jennifer Marcum, LeAnn Emry, and his uncle Terry Kimball, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

He received an additional sentence of 70 years in prison on October 8, 2009.

The Colorado Department of Corrections listed his estimated parole eligibility date as July 28, 2056, at which time Kimball would be 89.

Victims

Kimball was linked to four deaths:

• Kaysi McLeod, 19, of Westminster
• Jennifer Marcum, 25, of Aurora
• LeAnn Emry, 24
• Terry Kimball, 60, Kimball’s uncle

Law enforcement authorities said these four victims died between January 2003 and August 2004.

Kaysi McLeod

Kaysi McLeod disappeared and later had a skull and other bones found in a remote area of northwest Colorado.

On a Tuesday, September 30, 2008, a hunter discovered a skull and other bones in a remote area of northwest Colorado. The FBI subsequently confirmed that the skull and bones were those of Kaysi McLeod.

Kimball’s father, Rob McLeod, described there being a lot of time during which police and investigators had no trace of Kimball’s whereabouts.

Rob McLeod said:

"Scott has a lot of unaccounted for time in the last 10 to 15 years when they don't know where he was," McLeod said Friday. "I don't think you go from zero to 60 just like that."

Jennifer Marcum

Jennifer Marcum disappeared and her body was never found.

Lori McLeod told FBI agents that Kimball told her that Marcum’s remains were near Rifle, Colo. Lori McLeod explained that she and Kimball had been passing through Rifle on their way to Denver from Las Vegas when Kimball told her that he worked for the FBI and was involved in a case that involved Marcum’s murder.

Marcum’s remains have not been found, even though Lori McLeod told FBI agents that Kimball told her that Marcum’s remains were near Rifle, Colo.

LeAnn Emry

LeAnn Emry disappeared without a trace in January 2003 after checking out of a hotel in Colorado.

Her mother and father, Howard and Darlene Emry, last saw LeAnn on January 16, 2003, when she packed her suitcases into her car for what was supposed to have been a spelunking expedition to Mexico. Exploring caves had been one of her favorite pastimes.

The Emrys described difficulties with a bipolar disorder throughout much of LeAnn’s young life. They set off with the trip from which she would not return.

LeAnn’s parents filed a missing persons report in Arapahoe County, Colo. They were told LeAnn was likely a runaway and that there was nothing to indicate foul play, meaning there would not be an investigation unless a body was found.

Her purse and some other belongings had been found inside her car, but her credit cards were missing.

Howard and Darlene Emry reconstructed a 10-day trail of gasoline charges through Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada.

The main purchases made with the credit cards had been gasoline.

LeAnn called her parents for the final time 11 days after leaving home, saying she would be staying in Mexico a little longer.

Her father learned the call was placed in Colorado and that she had mailed a gift certificate to her sister from the same location. Howard also learned that one of LeAnn’s credit cards had been used in California a few days after her car had been found abandoned, but the signatures on the receipts were not LeAnn’s.

It was also found that the credit card charges in California had been made by a prostitute who told investigators she had received the credit card in question from a man as payment for sexual services.

LeAnn had been corresponding with a relative in Idaho via e-mail a few weeks before she disappeared, including e-mails containing the following lines:

• "I have to hide...my orders come from Hanable...and he's a dangerous person...."
• "I'm in an underground world."
• "If Hanable knew I was talking to you, he'd...have me killed in a second. Plus, he'd have you killed too."

In a complicated plea bargain, Kimball agreed to assist authorities in locating his victims’ remains.

As a result, the remains LeAnn Emry were found on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, in the Book Cliffs region of southeastern Utah.

Terry Kimball

Terry Kimball disappeared.

Lori McLeod related that Terry had moved in with her and Scott, and that Terry left on September 1, 2004, never to be seen again.

Lori asked Scott where Terry had gone, and Kimball told her that Terry had won the lottery and had taken his girlfriend to Mexico.

Kimball’s remains were found in a remote area of Vail Pass.

On Monday, June 29, 2009, remains believed to be those of Terry Kimball were found in a remote area of Vail Pass.

A hunter had discovered a skull and other bones in a remote area of northwest Colorado earlier, on Tuesday, September 30, 2008, and the FBI confirmed that those remains were those of Kaysi McLeod.

Background

Kimball was born in Boulder and grew up in Lafayette. He left Colorado in his high school years to follow his father up to Montana after his parents’ divorce.

He lived in various Western states through much of his early adulthood but moved back to Colorado to live with his mother after getting released from prison by the FBI in 2002.

His mother ran an insurance office on South Public Road in Lafayette.

By late 2005, police said, Kimball was pulling a check-fraud scam involving an optometrist who shared office space with his mother. Police said he managed to siphon off more than $50,000 from the eye specialist’s money market account before getting caught.

During that period, police said he lived on Huron Street in Broomfield, in a house where police now believed he likely killed his uncle.

Kimball was described as having a criminal history in Lafayette and as having been building a file on him in Boulder County District Attorney’s Office partly because of his criminal history in Lafayette and because none of the homicides was believed to have been committed in Boulder County.

Before being sentenced for murder, Kimball was sentenced in 2008 to 53 years in prison on theft and a number of other charges.

Other alleged claims and investigations

Kimball bragged to others that he had committed “dozens” of murders, but investigators were only able to make a case in the disappearances of Kaysi McLeod, Jennifer Marcum, LeAnn Emry, and Terry Kimball.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said:

"I'd say the chances are 50-50," Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said Friday. "Kimball is certainly capable of it -- he's said things to make you think he has, but we have no solid leads."

Katharina Booth said there was “a good chance” Kimball left more victims in his wake and that it was hard to imagine they “caught him on everything he did.”

Booth said:

"It's hard to imagine we caught him on everything he did," she said.

Booth said it was possible there were victims who never came to the attention of law enforcement because Kimball didn’t target the powerful and well-connected, but rather those who lived closer to the margins of society.

Booth said:

"Everyone he surrounded himself with had some issue," she said. "He picked on vulnerable people -- people with drug problems, runaways, people with active warrants."

Booth cautioned that Kimball was described as a con man and a huckster who led a life filled with deceit and shady business deals.

Booth said:

"He loves to show bravado, he loves to be on the news," Booth said.

Kimball’s claims of additional killings were described as possibly fanciful as the promises made to those who placed their trust in him.

FBI Special Agent Kathy Wright wouldn’t comment on whether there was an ongoing investigation involving Kimball and said:

"We're not opposed to talking to anyone who believes they might have information on Scott Kimball," she said.

In September 2010, it was reported that the FBI was investigating Kimball as a possible suspect in the murder and mutilation of a woman found in Westminster, Colorado, in October 2004. At the time, Kimball lived in the area and was acting as an FBI informant.

In December 2010, it was reported that Kimball stated that he was being investigated as a potential suspect in the West Mesa murders in New Mexico.

Timeline

• January 16, 2003 — Howard and Darlene Emry last saw LeAnn Emry when she packed her suitcases into her car for what was supposed to have been a spelunking expedition to Mexico.
• February 17, 2003 (9:30 p.m.) — Jennifer Marcum’s cellular phone was last used.
• February 18, 2003 (early morning hours) — A 1996 Saturn sedan associated with Marcum was noticed by officers of the Denver Police Department in a parking lot at Denver International Airport.
• September 1, 2004 — Terry Kimball left on this date and was never seen again.
• August 2005 — Bob Marcum and Jennifer’s mother, Mary Willis, met with Scott Kimball.
• November 9, 2006 — FBI Special Agent Jonathan D. Grusing came on board, after Kimball had become a suspect.
• November 18, 2006 — Bob Marcum related to Grusing that he and Jennifer’s mother had met with Scott Kimball in August 2005 and Kimball said he knew where Jennifer’s body was buried.
• January 25, 2007 — Grusing and Detective Gary Thatcher traveled to the Missoula County Detention Facility in Missoula, Mont., to interview one of Kimball’s former cellmates.
• September 30, 2008 — A hunter discovered a skull and other bones in a remote area of northwest Colorado; the FBI later confirmed they were those of Kaysi McLeod.
• October 8, 2009 — Kimball pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to an additional 70 years in prison.
• March 11, 2009 — The remains of LeAnn Emry were found in the Book Cliffs region of southeastern Utah.
• June 29, 2009 — Remains believed to be those of Terry Kimball were found in a remote area of Vail Pass.

Investigation and steps leading to charges

An investigation involved FBI Special Agent Jonathan D. Grusing and Lafayette Police Department Detective Gary Thatcher, with assistance from several federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in Colorado and other states.

Grusing came on board on November 9, 2006, after Kimball had become a suspect in the four murders, when Grusing was assigned by the FBI’s Denver office to investigate the murder-for-hire allegations surrounding the disappearance of Jennifer Marcum.

Grusing learned that Kimball told Carle Schlaff of the FBI’s Denver office on June 29, 2003, that Marcum had been murdered by one of Ennis’s associates because of fear she would testify against Ennis in a methamphetamine case.

Grusing also learned that Kimball reportedly said an Ennis associate asked him to dig up Marcum’s body near Rifle, Colo., to recover her breast implants and an intrauterine device, each believed to contain serial numbers.

Kimball later claimed Marcum had traveled to New York City to purchase a handgun that was supposed to be used to shoot the federal witness planning to testify against Ennis.

It was considered noteworthy that cell phones belonging to Marcum and Scott Kimball had not been used from February 17, 2003 to February 20, 2003, even though both phones had been used significantly to call each other prior to February 17, 2003.

When Kimball was later asked about his whereabouts on those dates, he claimed he had taken a trip to the mountains near Craig, Colo. Investigators described him as evasive about what he was doing in that area.

Informatant and murder-for-hire allegations

Kimball was described as having been released from prison by the FBI in 2002 to become an informant.

During the early years of the new millennium in a Montana prison, Kimball bragged to fellow inmates that he was a hit man and liked to call himself “Hannibal,” after the serial killer character from Thomas Harris novels.

Kimball had told authorities about a murder-for-hire plot involving his former cellmate, Steve Ennis, and Ennis’s mate’s girlfriend, Jennifer Marcum, 25, of Denver. Marcum was described as a stripper and the mother of a 4-year-old child. Police said Marcum had befriended Kimball.

The FBI was described as investigating a sizeable ecstasy operation in the Denver area, and Kimball assured investigators he could join drug ringleaders and provide information.

By December 2002, Kimball had convinced the FBI he would make a good paid informant. The FBI agreed, in part, because of the possible murder-for-hire scenario.

Marcum was described as a potential witness in a Drug Enforcement Administration methamphetamine case against Ennis, and Ennis allegedly wanted another potential witness against him killed, using Marcum to get the job done.

Before the year ended, Kimball was described as having worked his plan and being back on the streets minimally supervised.

A few months after his release, Jennifer Marcum disappeared.

Marriages and movements described during the case

Authorities later learned that Kimball married Lori McLeod, the mother of Kaysi McLeod, in Las Vegas, Nev., shortly after getting out of prison.

The newlyweds then spent their honeymoon camping in the area where Kaysi’s remains would eventually be found.

Family-led inquiries and cooperation with investigators

Bob Marcum and Rob McLeod began their own inquiries due to perceived lack of interest by law enforcement in the missing persons cases.

Jennifer was described as working as a stripper with ties to a known drug dealer, and Kaysi was described as having a history of drug problems and having left home a number of times after she turned 18.

Bob Marcum posted billboards with Jennifer’s photo and appeared on television news programs.

Tabetha Morton made a connection between Scott Kimball and Kaysi by calling Rob McLeod in 2005 and telling him that Kimball “went missing when Kaysi did.”

Rob McLeod searched for information about Kimball, and in June 2005 he discovered a news article about Jennifer Marcum’s disappearance.

The McLeods and the Marcums met to compare information about Kimball and his relationship to their daughters. Lori McLeod told Bob Marcum everything she knew about Kimball and what he said about Jennifer. The families drove together to locations they believed were connected to the disappearances but came up empty-handed.

The families realized that Terry Kimball, Scott Kimball’s uncle, had gone missing. Lori McLeod said Terry had moved in with her and Scott and left on September 1, 2004.

When Lori asked Scott where Terry had gone, he told her Terry won the lottery and took his girlfriend to Mexico.

Rob McLeod and Bob Marcum went to the FBI after they assembled their information.

Former cellmate interview and statements about evidence

During an interview with Grusing on November 18, 2006, Bob Marcum said he and Jennifer’s mother, Mary Willis, met with Scott Kimball in August 2005.

Grusing learned Kimball said he knew precisely where Jennifer’s body was buried and could take them to the location in the mountains because he wanted her to have a “good Christian burial.”

Marcums and Willis did not trust Kimball and declined his offer.

Bob Marcum told ABC News:

"I figured he was a killer, and I wasn't going anywhere with him," Marcum told ABC News. "I figured I'd end up dead after the things that he said."

On January 25, 2007, Grusing and Detective Gary Thatcher interviewed a former cellmate at the Missoula County Detention Facility in Missoula, Mont.

According to the former cellmate, Kimball asked him if he thought fake breasts could be traced. The cellmate responded that the name of the manufacturer and the serial number were located inside the implants to allow tracing in the event of liability lawsuits.

Kimball reportedly said:

"I know a guy that will pay you to cut implants out of a dead body."

When the cellmate asked why anyone would be concerned about implants when a body would have fingerprints, footprints, teeth, and a skull, Kimball responded:

"You cut off the feet, head and hands and there's no trace of it."

Kimball also told the cellmate the woman was buried in the mountains.

The interview also described that it was not known whether Kimball dismembered Jennifer Marcum’s body when he disposed of it, and that the implication was that the breast implants and IUD had become a concern to him.

It described that while it was not known how Kimball learned of the breast implants and IUD, it was possible he learned them during dealings with Steve Ennis.

At one point, it described that Kimball related information implicating another man in Jennifer’s death and said the killer was willing to pay Kimball to remove the breast implants and IUD.

Investigation linking Kimball and LeAnn Emry

Grusing and others traced Kimball’s and LeAnn’s movements together in the Denver area from January 1-16, 2003, and in Oregon and Washington from January 17-19, 2003, using motel receipts, phone records, credit card receipts, and check records.

Grusing also discovered LeAnn purchased Kimball’s laptop for him at a Best Buy in Lakewood, Colo., on January 10, 2003, for $1,684.73, using her bank debit card.

It also placed them together in Wyoming from January 24-25, 2003.

Plea bargain and disposition of remains

As part of the plea bargain, Kimball agreed to assist authorities in locating his victims’ remains.

The remains of LeAnn Emry were found on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, in the Book Cliffs region of southeastern Utah.

Remains believed to be Terry Kimball were found on Monday, June 29, 2009, in a remote area of Vail Pass.

On Tuesday, September 30, 2008, a hunter discovered a skull and other bones in a remote area of northwest Colorado, and the FBI confirmed those remains were Kaysi McLeod.

Marcum’s remains were not found.

Additional disputed or described aspects

The account included descriptions of uncertainty about some details, including whether Kimball dismembered Jennifer Marcum’s body.

There was also mention of a plan involving escape and reference to “Hannibal” as a name used in dealings with LeAnn, without additional specific outcome beyond what was already linked in the plea and remains discovery.