S1, E10: One Destination From Murder

LIL Miss case – submitted by my 2nd cousin, Judy Lang. Her cousin on her mom’s side was a detective on the case. A little bit of it also trickled into my life as a traveling college student because of what happened as well. You’ll see why as I tell the story. I got most of the info from a book called “The Murder of Lil Miss” by Sheila Kimmell who is the mother of the girl the story is about. LiL miss is the nickname Lisa Marie Kimmell was given as a child by her grandma and it stuck. So much so, that she got vanity plates on her Honda CRXsi that had her nickname on them. In 1988, she was 18 years old and working for Arby’s in Billings, Montana where her mom was a higher up in the company, working for the corporate portion of the chains. Lisa was really good at managing others and helping out struggling restaurants so she was reassigned to an Arby’s in Denver that needed help. She ended up loving it so much, she decided to move to Denver permanently. Her family was still in Billings, so she often made the drive through Wyoming to go visit them. She had plans on March 24, 1988 to drive to Cody Wy to pick up her new boyfriend, Ed, on the way to Billings to introduce him to her family for the first time. Ed was several years older than her but it seemed he matcher her level of intellect and he treated her well. The day after Lisa had left to drive to Cody, Sheila, Lisa’s mom, received several calls telling her that Lisa never made it to Ed’s house the evening before. Ed was already on the road searching for her in case she had an accident or something. The family made plans to search along the route she would have taken, all still assuming she’d had a wreck. Ed even knew pilots he could hire to search from air. They wanted to file a missing person’s report that next day, but it was ’88 and 72 hours was required then before it could be filed. The highway patrol did agree to put out a BOLO, though. The family got a call back from the police saying that the night before, at 9:06pm, Lisa had been cited for speeding near Douglas Wy. At that time, you had to pay your ticket on the spot in cash. She didn’t have enough cash on her, so the officer led her to an ATM in Douglas. Her card wouldn’t work because back then, ATM cards would only work with compatible banks. The officer gave her 2 options – she could either spend a night in jail until she came up with the money or she could sign the ticket with the promise to send in the money ASAP. Of course she chose the only sane option. Because her ticket was given in Douglas, the search mostly concentrated on the area between Douglass and Cody. They finally got the police to file the missing person’s report 2 days later, a little earlier than the 72 hour waiting period. 3 days after her disappearance, a Monday, the family had posters made and involved the media to aid them in the search. Friends and family spent hours on the roads searching and distributing flyers but no one came up with anything. 6 days after her disappearance, Sheila (mom) said she awoke during the night upon hearing Lisa yelling for her. She says she sat up and saw Lisa at the foot of her bed. But she quickly disappeared and she says that’s when she knew she’d never see Lisa alive again. The parents, desperate for any help, got in contact with a psychic. One who asked for no payment but instead for them to bring something of Lisa’s. They brought her teddy bear and one of her shoes. The psychic took her items, held them close then studied the map of Wyoming. He pointed to an area on the North Platte river near Casper and with tears in his eyes he said, “I think you already know, but she’s not alive.” They were confused with the area he pointed out as it wasn’t along the route Lisa had planned to take. The psychic even agreed to take them to the spot the next day even though it was Easter Sunday. That evening, Saturday, a sheriff’s patrol came to their door. They had found a female matching Lisa’s description, but they needed dental records for a clear match. It was Lisa. She had been stabbed and dumped in the North Platte river about 20 miles SW of Casper. She had been dropped from the Old Government Bridge, an abandoned service overpass only used by county workers and fishermen. They cancelled their plans with the physic, explaining Lisa had been found where he said she was. Her case would take another 16 years to solve. Part of the problem was jurisdictional boundaries. Since not all agencies could or wanted to share information with each other, it created internal conflicts. Frustrated with the lack of leads on the case and determined to get more people involved, the family contacted Unsolved Mysteries for help. They ended up filming an episode about the case which brought in hundreds of tips and investigators couldn’t possibly run them all down. The family was frustrated when later they found out that some really good leads weren’t followed up on. In 1989, another clue came in that they later found out could have helped crack the case. A family friend went to visit Lisa’s grave in Billings where she noticed a note taped to it. Ron, Lisa’s dad, hurried to the spot and found the note sealed in a plastic bag dated November 13, 1988. They knew it hadn’t been there since then since they had recently visited and it had not been on there. They called the police to tell them but the dispatcher just said, “sir, if it’s a problem, just take it off.” They tried to explain that it could be a murder clue but because the murder happened in Wyoming, not Montana where the grave is, they once again ran into problems. They finally sent it off to detectives but didn’t hear back anything about it. Let me read the note to you: Lisa, There aren’t words to say how much you’re missed. The pain never leaves. It’s so hard without you. You’ll always be alive in me. Your death is my painful loss but heaven’s sweet gain. Love always, Stringfellow Hawke” After some digging, they discover Stringfellow Hawke was a reclusive character from an 80’s TV series called Airwolf. Hawke was a chauvinistic longer and all his life, people either die or abandon him, especially love interests. In each episode, he would emerge as a hero and at the end of each episode, he would play his cello as an eagle soared above in the sky. In the show, his love interest ultimately dies. The family felt like the local police department wasn’t doing enough or didn’t have enough resources so they decided to create their own task force. They were able to get the FBI involved. Luckily, the police had taken DNA samples from Lisa’s body when she was found. Her boyfriend and many others were compared and all ruled out. In 2000, they still don’t have any answers, so the family contacted a company called Innerspace that used technology to search bodies of water for items. Innerspace searched a large reservoir near the North Platte river called Alcova for Lisa’s still missing car, but they only found and old tire and a picnic table. In late 2001, Wyoming opened its new crime lab and their computers began connecting to national databanks. In summer of 2002, investigators visit with the family to tell them they had found a DNA match to a man named Dale Wayne Eaton who was a 57 year old federal inmate in Colorado. Dale had owned land 75 miles NW of Casper in an area called Moneta. It is on the route to Cody that Lisa was taking. In the thousands of tips that had come in over the years, he wasn’t in a single one. When they first interviewed Dale, he denied knowing anything about Lisa other than what he’d heard on the news. Investigators found friends of Dale that were keeping some of his things in storage at their place for him while he was in prison. Among these, investigators found knives, a wooden club, flex cuffs and handcuffs as well as a dildo and a plastic bag containing rope. They start a search on Dale’s land which resembled a dump with junk strewn all over. There was a trailer, a barn, a garage as well as a bus Dale had lived in. The searchers didn’t find much of interest in the buildings, but they did notice sinkholes around his land indicating areas that had been dug up. They brought out excavators and began digging. It was a slow process since they were sifting all the dirt they were going through for any evidence. But then they came across a hubcap with the Honda logo on it. They knew they were in the right spot when they found a part of of Lisa’s LIL MISS vanity license plates. Continuing to dig, they scraped against something metal, eventually unearthing an entire car. They brushed away the layers of dirt to reveal the VIN number. It was Lisa’s car and they even came across some of Lisa’s items like a jar of Carmex and her Arby’s work hats. They also found a shell casing from Dale’s .30-.30 rifle. Now that they had their guy, they did a little digging into Dale. He had begun stealing at 16 and had been jailed for various things like burglary and assault beginning in the 60’s. In 1997, he was driving to a welding job in Utah where he came across a couple next to a van parked along the Interstate. They were newlyweds and their van had broken down. Dale offered them a ride along with their dog and 4mo baby. After a short while, Dale pulled over claiming he needed to pee. He asked Shannon, the woman to take over driving for a while since he was tired which she did. As she’s driving, the couple hears a click and he pulls a rifle on them and tells the to drive down a dirt road. Shannon jerks the steering wheel while driving, knocking Dale off balance and stopping the van. Her husband, Scott, takes the baby and jumps out and lays his baby in a bush. Dale had jumped on Shannon, but Scott and Shannon both fight him and get the gun. Still, Dale came after them with a butcher knife. They fight him off and speed away in the van to get help. Authorities find Dale where the couple left him and charge him with aggravated assault. He only spent 2 months in jail then went to a halfway house that he ended up running away from. Bill Long – a game and fish officer that my dad knew was patrolling Teton National Forest in 1998 and came across a campsite. He spoke to the guy who was in a van at the site. The guy game him the creeps so he decided to keep an eye on him from afar. He called in the license plate and it came back to Dale who was then a convicted felon. Hey found a rifle in his van and since felons can’t own firearms, he landed in federal prison. Going forward… Dale’s trial for Lisa’s murder began in 2004. This is when it was revealed to the family and the public what Lisa had gone through. She had restraint marks on her wrists and ankles and had been raped repeatedly. She had been kept as Dale’s sex slave for 6 days before she had been hit from behind which caused a 4” skull fracture. He then stabbed her repeatedly in the chest and she died from massive internal bleeding. She had died the night her mother had had the vision of her. Dale was found guilty of 1st degree premeditated murder, kidnapping, robbery and sexual assault. He’s the only person on Wyoming’s death row and is currently trying to fight it. The belief of many is that Dale Eaton is a possible serial killer. There are about a dozen unsolved murders of women in the areas he traveled as a trucker. Most had gone missing hitch hiking and newspaper clippings about some of those murders were found in his trailer.