Every Town - LIL MISS MURDER - Cold Case Solved After 14 Years - Casper, WY

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

How did Lisa Kimmell get the moniker “Lil’ Miss and what happened to her case when she disappeared in 1988? The Lil Miss Murder case baffled authorities in Casper, WY for so long the case went cold. But 14 years later the case was finally solved when the initially-thought abduction of teenager Lisa Kimmell in March 1988 had turned out to be a brutal murder that only a creature devoid of a soul could’ve committed. It may have taken years to painstakingly resolve the crime, but it’s such a relief to know that a death sentence awaits Lisa’s killer, Dale Eaton. “Lil’ Miss” could finally rest in peace.🥇 Watch This Episode with like.....visuals! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqtvdTjKLG8🎉 Patreon (videos too hot for youtube) -  https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 🎧 More Podcasts, we got you - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579 Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Today we're heading to Casper, which is in Natrona County in Wyoming, where we check out the cold case of the Lil Miss murder, which was solved after 14 years. How can one go wrong while doing a random act of kindness, especially to a total stranger?

Isn't that what our world needs amidst the chaos and animosity? on the spring of 1988, 18-year-old Montana girl, Lisa Kimmel, gladly offered 57-year-old Dale Eaton the ride. But her good intentions turned into something tragic. Lisa was abducted, sexually abused, and inhumanely tortured to death by the recipient of her kindness. The case has become known as the Lil' Miss murder. It turned cold for 14 years before Dale Eaton. was held responsible for one of Wyoming's most horrendous crimes that gripped America. Hi, I'm Andrew Fitzgerald, and in this week's episode of Everytown,

let us delve into a dark secret that marked the town of Casper in Natrona County, Wyoming, with terror and notoriety. The abduction of teenager Lisa Kimmel in March of 1988, it turned out to be a brutal murder that only a creature devoid of a soul could have committed. It may have taken years to painstakingly resolve the crime, but it's a relief to know that a death sentence awaits Lisa's killer, Dale Eaton. Lil Miss, but finally now, rest in peace. So how did Lisa Kimmel get the moniker Lil Miss? Lisa was the eldest of the three children of Ronald and Sheila Kimmel.

Sheila gave birth to Lisa on July 18, 1969 in Covington, the largest city and county city. seat of Tipton County in Tennessee. At that time, Ronald was stationed there in the U.S. Marine Corps. Lisa's parents granted the wish of her paternal grandmother by naming her Lisa Marie, a name she'd always wanted for a granddaughter. The excited grandmother nicknamed her Lil Miss, which was shortened from My Little Miss Lisa Marie. Lisa was a very special, sweet, fun, and outgoing girl who loved to collect teddy bears. Her nickname became. more prominent and easily associated with her when Lisa, much later in her teenage years, started driving her own car, a 1988 Honda, CRX bearing a distinctive, personalized Montana license plate

that read Little Miss. A few years later, the Kimmel family relocated to Billings, the largest city in Montana, where Lisa and her siblings were raised. Lisa was followed by two younger sisters, and a younger brother named Ricky, who tragically died in an accident at the age of three. After graduating from Billings High School in 1987, the hardworking and dedicated 18-year-old Lisa decided to explore her potential by taking a job managing a branch of Arby's restaurants in Aurora, Colorado, near Denver. Perhaps the opportunity came quite easy for the young lady, as her mom's Sheila also worked for the restaurant chain as a regional manager.

since Billings was approximately 555 miles away from Denver. The mother and daughter each rented a respective unit in an apartment complex in Denver during the weekdays. On weekends, Sheila and Lisa would come home to Billings, where Ronald and the rest of the Kimmel Brood resided. Everything, it seemed, was going great for Lisa. Her family was intact, she had a stable job, and she shared a happy, romantic relationship with her boyfriend, Ed Gerarch.

But, who says life is always predictable and consistent? In the blink of an eye in March of 1988, Lisa in her family's world turned upside down, and it was a drastic change that certainly brought much despair to the Kimmel family. Sheila and Lisa were looking forward to their work break from Denver to come home to their family in Billings for the Easter weekend in March of 88. On March 24th, Sheila had departed Denver by plane ahead of her daughter, as Sheila was scheduled to go on a skiing trip. Meanwhile, Lisa drove north to their Billings home on Friday, March 25th, and had decided to pick up her boyfriend Ed and Cody, Wyoming, along the way to Billings.

She planned to introduce Ed to her family for the very first time and was keen for her parents to meet him. Her route was an eight-hour drive, almost directly north. passing through the entire state of Wyoming. She traveled to Casper on Interstate 25. From there, she would take a two-lane road to Cody. Whether conditions were good, so Lisa should have made the trip to Cody in eight or nine hours. She was expected at her boyfriend's house late Friday night. Ed said,

The plan was that she was supposed to leave Denver and get to Cody to see me sometime late that evening. I talked to her about 4.30 p.m. and she thought she'd be in about midnight or something like that. At exactly 9.06 p.m. that night, Lisa figured in a minor traffic violation in Douglas, Wyoming, when she was stopped by patrolman, Alan Lesko, of the Wyoming Highway Patrol for speeding. I was patrolling southbound on March 25th, and I noted a small car northbound at 88 miles per hour, according to my radar. I turned around and pursued the car. I stopped her near Orrin Junction. She was well kept, the kind of person you'd like to have for her daughter. The highway patrolman said.

He followed Lisa to an ATM to withdraw cash to pay her ticket, but the machine was incompatible with a debit card. So the patrol officer agreed that Lisa would mail a check its payment for her fine when she got to billing. That incident was the last confirmed sighting of Lisa, although a supposed sighting of her inside a Casper grocery store around 10 p.m. that night wasn't verified. Lisa's signature on the ticket and a voice recording verified her identity, but no one knew with certainty what transpired after that. When Lisa failed to show up at his home and Cody, Ed immediately notified her family in Billings that Lisa had never arrived to pick him up.

The Kimmo family then reported Lisa missing. As days went on without any word from their daughter, Lisa's mother began to worry. She said, the outlook was looking a little grim, but even if that, even if the outcome wasn't as we hoped, we still needed to find her. Frantic, Lisa's family and friends mounted a tireless search for the missing 18-year-old across three states. Her black Honda, CRX, couldn't be found. For eight days, Lisa was considered a missing person, that is, until April 2nd, 1988 came, when the truth was revealed in the icy waters of the North Platte River near Casper, Wyoming. A mechanic named Greg Bradford spent his morning on April 2nd fishing on the North Platte River,

which travels about 550 miles along its course through the U.S. states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. He was then surprised to see a lady's partially nude body, floating face down in a clamp of weeds on the river under the old government bridge west of Casper. Greg recalled, in referring to the news circulating then about Lisa Kimmel's disappearance. When I stepped up off the side of the bank, I looked over my shoulder and I saw the lady in the water. And then, I remember when we were driving up from Cheyenne, they said this young girl was missing. from Montana. So I looked again and said, oh my God, it must be her.

Because the weather was so cold or body didn't show any signs of decomposition. The most disgusting and disturbing part of the crime, however, was the manner that Lisa met her heartless and violent death. County coroner, Dr. James Thorpein, testified that Lisa had bruises and abrasions on her wrists, ankles, arms, and legs, indicating that she'd been bound by a hemp or braided nylon rope.

The ligature marks showed up after the body was embalmed. According to Dr. Thorpen, Lisa's killer hit her in the back of the head with a severe blow before meticulously stabbing her six times, five times in the chest and once in the abdomen. Small cut surrounding the stab wounds indicated that the killer felt around with the knife before stabbing Lisa, so as not to hit her ribs. All the stab wounds were five and a half to six and a half inches deep that penetrated vital areas of her heart and her left lung,

and three of the stabs went all the way through to her spine. The coroner believed Lisa's hands were still bound together when she was stabbed, and that the bindings were then removed before she was thrown from the bridge down to the river. The blow to Lisa's head was so hard that it caused a forer. inch fracture in her skull. She also had a fractured hip, likely received in her fall from the bridge. Each wound could have been fatal on its own, and Lisa was unconscious after being hit in the head and likely never knew she was being stabbed. From the head wound alone, Dr. Thorpein believed that Lisa would have died about two to six hours later. But the subsequent stab wounds caused her to

died quickly because of the massive bleeding into and out of the body, which led to her death within seconds to minutes. Dr. Thorpein estimated that Lisa had died 36 to 46 hours before she was found in that river. His autopsy findings also concluded that she died sometime in the evening and appeared she had eaten something resembling beef stew roughly two to four hours before she was killed. Moreover, no trace of drugs or alcohol. were found in her blood. Worse, she was sexually abused during captivity. Police searched the area where Lisa's body was discovered.

On an old highway bridge, one quarter of a mile away, there they found blood that was the same type as Lisa's. Because the bridge is so inaccessible and rarely passed by, police concluded that the murderer probably lived in the area. Unfortunately, the binding materials, the knife and the weapon used to hit Lisa, in the head were never recovered. Locating Lisa's car with a personalized license plate, Little Miss, was also crucial, as it would serve as a direct link to the killer.

But soon, authorities began receiving information that complicated and deepen the mystery of their investigation. Numerous eyewitnesses, a lot of them from law enforcement, reported that they had seen Lisa's car even as far north as Canada. According to Sheriff Ron Ketchum of the Natrona County Sheriff, department. Some even claim that they had seen Lisa herself. Several of the witnesses reported seeing her with an unidentified man. Composite drawings were made of at least 17 men. However, none of them resembled one another closely enough to justify issuing a wanted poster.

One of the most reliable sightings, though, happened 10 hours after Lisa was supposedly killed. Dona Kurt Patrick, who was the wife of a local county sheriff, reported that she had seen Lisa wearing a pink sweater while driving her car in Buffalo, Wyoming. In her statement, she said, It was Saturday at noon, and I noticed a little black sports car and pulled out right in front of me. Then I noticed the license plate. It was a Montana plate with Lil Miss on it.

At that point, I decided that I needed to see if the car went, with whoever was driving it. I'm absolutely positive there was a young girl driving it. There's not a doubt in my mind. Then there's another alleged sighting of Lisa by Diana Houston in Casper, Wyoming. Well then 24 hours after police believed

that teenage girl was murdered. The second I witnessed said, It was Sunday afternoon, and I saw a Montana license plate on a vehicle. And, being from Montana, it caught my eye. So I looked, and the license plate said Lil Miss. I went by, I saw somebody with blonde hair driving and had on a yellow sweater. However, her parents said Lisa didn't own either a pink or a yellow sweater.

Patrolman, Alan Lesko, also recalled that Lisa was wearing a black and white sweater when he stopped her for speeding. Another eyewitness, a cashier at a service station, also saw her in Buffalo. but this time Lisa was with a mysterious man. This witness saw her car pull up and noticed the Montana Little Miss license plate on the front. Inside the car were Lisa and the unidentified man, but

when he looked again a few minutes later, they were gone. One witness described the man as weighing between 135 and 140 pounds, with dark hair, large, dark eyes, fine features and a pock-marked complexion. strangely, Lisa didn't appear to be signaling for help during any of these sightings. She was last seen at 9 p.m. on Friday, March 25th, 1988,

and was reported missing by 9 a.m. Saturday morning. Yet, she was reportedly seen twice, later that day, and once on Sunday, March 27. If Lisa was alive, why hadn't she showed up to her boyfriends or her parents' house? and if she had been killed early Saturday morning as police suspected, who then was driving the car with Lisa's distinctive license plate? Most importantly, was Lisa just a random victim of abduction turned to murder? And if so, why? Sadly, these questions kept buzzing in the heads of authorities

and Lisa's family and friends for more than a decade. Strangely, a note was left on Lisa's grade. of approximately one year and four days after she disappeared. The police felt there was a link between the letter and the killer, but had nothing to go on, so the letter was just kept on file. Authorities struggled to gather leads and information. Don Flickinger, a now retired federal agent from Billings, told about the various methods the authorities used back in the 1980s and 90s.

He personally traveled to Texas, Nevada, and even Alaska, in his quest to find Lisa's killer. He became deeply involved in the case, spending six years taking blood samples from dozens of people for DNA, interviewing cult members and consulting psychics. But as forensic technology developed by leaps and bounds through the years, crime solving has become more efficient, accurate, and reliable. In 2002, DNA evidence recovered from Lisa's remains ushered a breakthrough in her cold case that linked to 57-year-old chronic lawbreaker, were abduction and murder. Perhaps it was an accident in disguise or divine intervention that led to the reopening of Lisa Kimmel's case

in the summer of 2002. Investigators were researching cold cases when they came across Lisa's rape kit, which included seminal evidence. A DNA profile was developed and entered into Wyoming's FBI-maintained combined DNA index system or CODIS database. The DNA evidence from Lisa matched the DNA of 57-year-old Dale Eaton of Manetta, Wyoming.

With a checkered past and previous criminal records, Dale was the closest possible culprit behind Lisa's fate. His DNA profile was placed in CODIS's database in 1997 after he was arrested on a different charge. He had stopped to offer assistance to the Breeding family whose car broken down. but his evil plan was to actually kidnap the family at gunpoint. After he was arrested for kidnapping, Dale managed to escape, but was later recaptured in Shoshan National Forest. At that time, he possessed a weapon, and this elevated his crime to the federal level. He was then incarcerated in federal prison, which required him to submit a DNA sample.

So in 2002, when his DNA was found as a match to leases, Dale was then serving time in Englewood Federal Prison in Littleton, Colorado for the unrelated weapons charge. While incarcerated, Dale was involved in the death of a fellow inmate named Clay Palmer, leading to an involuntary manslaughter charge from which Dale was acquitted. With a major lead and renewed interest now in solving Lisa's case, investigators questioned Dale's neighbors. They revealed that around the time of Lisa's murder, Dale was seen digging in the case. a large hole on his property in Moneta, about 75 miles west of Casper.

When police searched and excavated Dale's property in July of 2002, there they found Lisa's Honda CRX buried there with the distinctive Lil Miss license plate still intact. It was then determined that she was held there for six days before Dale finally tortured her to death. In April of 2003, Dale was subsequently charged on eight crimes. connected to Lisa's case. They included first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, first-degree sexual assault, and second-degree sexual assault.

Further incriminating Dale was the testimony of his fellow inmate, Joseph Dax. He testified that Dale confessed to him about what transpired on March 25, 1988. During her road trip to Montana, Lisa had a bathroom stop. in Wyoming. She offered to give Dale a ride, which he gladly accepted. While they were cruising the highway, Dale then made sexual advances, which Lisa resisted, so she pulled over to let him out of the car. The situation then went to ride and escalated a kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder. Dale was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death on March 20, 2004. He filed an appeal, which was denied.

He was scheduled to be executed in February of 2010, but he sought and received a stay of execution in December of 2009. In 2012, Dale's legal representatives brought the Little Miss case back into the spotlight, claiming that their client had not received a fair trial. Their first claim centered around the fact that Dr. Kenneth Ash, a psychiatrist, believed Dale had bipolar disorder and was mentally unwelled. The second claim involved his first claim, fellow inmate Joseph Dax, who had been close with Dale but testified against him in court and revealed details that further implicated Dale for his crime. The lawyers claim that the jury had not been told

the inmate was in line to receive a lower prison sentence for confessing. However, despite his lawyer's efforts, Dale remains in prison today. In 2014, the stay of execution granted to Dale in 2009 was overturned, and the state of Wyoming is again seeking the death penalty. As of 2019, Dale is awaiting a new sentence hearing and is currently the only inmate on Wyoming's death row. In a wrongful death lawsuit, Ronald and Sheila Kimmel acquired Dale Eaton's property in Moneta, Wyoming, where Lisa had been held hostage and ultimately murdered. The Kimmel's had Dale's house burned down and everything hauled away on July 19, 2005, the day after what would have been Lisa's 36th birthday. Her mom, Sheila, said it was a big birthday candle in her memory.

17 years after the loss of her daughter, Sheila met a publisher who wanted her to write about Lisa's death. Many people, including the publisher, believe Sheila could find closure by writing a book about her tragic loss. However, Sheila felt there wasn't any true clue. for her and Ronald. A book wouldn't bring Lisa back to life, but the Kimmel's agreed to the book deal as a way to give back to everyone who had supported their family through their nightmare.

It was a tough and painful year-long process of writing the book for Sheila, who said, There were times I could stand back and be objective, and other times I just couldn't. There are still areas that I can go back and as I review the book, I can't help it, I just cry. It's just there.

I guess it would be a real sad commentary on my daughter's life if I didn't feel that way. Even though it's been time, a lot of years, it just doesn't really go away. But by writing and publishing a book about her most beloved daughter, Sheila has immortalized Lisa Marie, ensuring that little miss will forever be. remember it. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another one filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because who knows? Maybe your town's going to be next. If you guys enjoy listening to Everytown, check out our YouTube channel where there's a video component for each and every one of these. It's called Scary Mysteries, and on there,

we have two other videos every single week, all about true crime, ancient sites, and other mysterious stories. Thanks for tuning in, guys. We'll see you soon.