True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: Military Wife Murdered - Diary Held Clues To Her Death | Kathleen Lipscomb - True Crime

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

What truths were hidden in her diary—and who didn’t want them revealed? In True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha unravels the haunting murder of military wife Kathleen Lipscomb. Through detailed research and a compassionate, analytical lens, this episode explores the relationships, warning signs, and chilling clues Kathleen left behind. As pages from her diary surface, a disturbing picture emerges—raising devastating questions about trust, control, and motive. Join True Crime with Kimbyr for a gripping deep dive into a case where written words may have sealed a tragic fate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military life, it's definitely not for everyone. Imagine you met the man of your dreams. You're a successful nurse, and your husband is a decorated sergeant in the Air Force. You have two beautiful children together, but before your 30th birthday, someone with their own selfish desires and plans not only ruins your life, but takes it from you. and casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th.

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All new season, now streaming only on Disney Plus. They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them. I can work with that. This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil, Born Again, now streaming only on Disney Plus. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlea.

If you've never been here before, nice. to finally meet you. We are not talking about a case from a small town this time. This story takes place in San Antonio, Texas. It's in the deep south of Texas, only about 150 miles from the Mexican border. It's a historical town. This is where the battle of the Alamo took place back in 1836 when the Mexican troops invaded Texas, and San Antonio is one of the biggest tourist spots for anyone who wants to visit Texas. It's a beautiful city. There's a lot to do, there's a lot to see. One popular destination is this river walk area where you can enjoy shopping and margaritas little tex mex cuisine or you can ride a river taxi which looks super fun there's live music in the streets lots of restaurants to enjoy i i won't actually

visit i haven't had a chance yet but it's definitely on my list and aside from being a top tourist destination san antonio is also a place that a lot of military families call home it's actually known as military city USA it's been home to a consistent military presence for close to 300 years. It has one of the nation's largest active and retired military populations. The largest military base in San Antonio is the Lackland Air Force Base. Now I knew going into this case that I didn't know much about the military. I thought I knew enough, but I learned a lot and I'm glad I did and I hope that I can impart some of my new knowledge on you if you're like me and you don't have a military background. My grandfirm,

father was in military intelligence for the United States, but he died when I was young. So I did not have the experience of the military life. And it is a whole different world for those who live in it. Many of you can most likely relate. It's a very close-knit community, especially if you're on the bases. And one of the families living in San Antonio in the 80s was the Lipscombs. Kathleen and William Lipscomb and their two young children. William, who went by Bill, was a high ranking being a master sergeant in the Air Force at the time. And his beautiful wife, Kathleen, was a nurse. I want to introduce you to both of them.

And I'll start with Kathleen. Ella Kathleen Adams was born on September 1, 1956, in Louisiana to her mother, Nadine Adams, and her father, Charles Leonard Adams. Ella went by her middle name Kathleen, and it was finally shortened affectionately to Kathy. So I'm going to call her Kathy in this video. Kathy had one sister, Darlene, and she and Darlene were very close, and the sisters were also very close to their mother.

Kathy grew into a stunning woman. She was a petite little platinum blonde with crystal blue eyes, and she wasn't just gifted in the looks department. Kathy was very intelligent. She valued academics, and she studied to become a nurse that was her dream, and she hadn't even gotten far on her journey into her medical career when she met William Lipscomb. Now, because this isn't one of my deep dives, I'm not going to go into detail about their childhoods, but what I do want to do is I want to focus as much as I can on what I gathered about what life was like for Kathy and William before tragedy struck. William, who I said went by Bill, was around four years older than Kathy.

He was handsome. He was hardworking. He was a military man. And some women are even more attracted to men when they're in a uniform. And they were the perfect couple. They fell in love and they married when they were young. Kathy was about 20 and Bill was around 24. It's pretty common for individuals in the military to get married young.

Sometimes it's for the benefits and other times it's for the companionship for someone that they can come home to. Being in the military is not an easy job. It can be lonely, being away for so long. And marriage allows for these men to feel like they're coming home to someone. It also has its financial benefits like housing, increased compensation. and we won't know the full extent of the reasons why they got married when they did. But there's also the fact that being in love means you will do anything to be close to your partner. It made sense to both of them.

And before they knew it, it was in 1986 and they were living in San Antonio with two beautiful children. They had a home just a few miles from the Air Force Base. Everyone that knew the couple knew that they were a perfect match. One of the reasons is because they were both hardworking and they were attractive. They looked like Barbie and Ken. They just had that gorgeous look to them, like they just matched. He was like the tall, dark, handsome, and she was the bubbly blonde. Kathy worked as a nurse at the University of Texas Health Science Center,

and she was very skilled in her field, and she was rising up in her career. Kathy was ambitious. Her plan wasn't to be stagnant and content. She wanted to continue her education and excel at many different specialties, very similar to the way Bill approached his work. This tends to bring couples together, similar outlooks on life and career and Bill's career was taking off at a very high speed. This is what I had to learn about when it came to the military because everything I read about Bill was extraordinary. The ranks and the titles meant nothing to me.

Since I didn't understand the way it all worked, but once I did, I was like, okay, wow, this man, he's like legit. He's a superstar. And you've probably heard the phrase enlisted in the military. It's the most common way that someone enters. They talk to a recruiter, they go through their basic training, and they work hard and move up different ranks. As they do, not only are they decorated with different medals and badges on their uniforms,

the uniforms also change as you move up this ladder. And not only that, the higher someone moves up in the ranks, the more responsibility, power, and authority they have. In order for us to truly know Bill, it's important we understand how this works, how he ranked up, how someone gets there what it entails because I found it pretty fascinating. So let me show you the ranks in the Air Force for reference. And I will also explain for those that are just listening, here are the enlisted

ranks on the top. They start with E1, which is a basic airman. And they go to E9, which is the chief master sergeant. That sounds so important. And it really is. Just to understand how hard it is to get there, one statistical example shows it takes approximately 17 years to get where Bill was. And he was only 33. This man was being promoted left and right. To help me understand the complexity, I found a YouTube channel called 21 Shades of Jay. It's right here. I'm going to put up on the screen. He creates videos explaining how to rank up in the Air Force. He got to E6 in six years, and it's literally referred to as E6 and six because it's quite an accomplishment. It takes a lot of studying, and I had no idea. But there's something called the weighted airman promotion

system and it's abbreviated as WAPS. Not to be confused with WAP, but it consists of tests that Airman has to take so they can rise up the ranks. And they're intense. I found a study guide and it was 200 pages long. Wow. I read somewhere that Bill wasn't even 30 years old and he was already a master sergeant, which is an E7 rank. He wouldn't just pass these exams. He would ace these exams. Something else about Bill stood out. His actual position in the Air Force, he was a military training instructor. And man, did I watch some interesting videos on this? This is a very important position.

And I just want to point out, now we have a lot of resources. This was back in the 80s. They didn't have the resources like a YouTube video by someone who's already gone through everything and can give you advice on how to study. Everything had to be done the old school way. Instructors like this are actually looked at as one of the most. important jobs in the Air Force. They are the drill instructors. They are the very first impression that an entry-level airman gets about what it means to be an American soldier.

There's a lot of pride in a position like this. There's no place for mediocracy for Bill. Those below him both feared him and admired him. It was Bill's job to take these kids that were coming into the Air Force and mold them into who they will be known for for the rest of their lives. These individuals will never forget their training instructor. So Bill took his job very seriously, maybe even more seriously than anything else in his life. It's what he lives for and where he finds his identity. And I'm telling you all of this because as the head of the household and a military one at that, his status and his reputation matters and therefore the Lipscomb's lifestyle revolved around the importance of Bill exhibiting a stellar reputation.

professionalism, integrity, honor, excellence. The military life isn't for everyone, but luckily Kathy knew how to support Bill, the way that he needed, and through an entirely different profession, being a nurse, she also had to exhibit her own sense of responsibility and respect and professionalism. They made a perfect pair.

The couple was looked at as a model for not only those around them who knew them intimately and admired them, but all of the airmen that came through Bill's trainings. The Lipscombs had it all. They both love their careers and their kids, and Kathy was a doting and supportive wife,

raising their two children while working hard during the day and caring for the children after school and on the weekends. She would attend all of the military events, all the balls, the gatherings. She even loved to cheer him on at the games he played. He was in the military softball league. But things at home were a little different. Kathy was used to being in Bill's shadow.

She was okay about it, especially when they were in public, but when it came time for Bill to display interest in her work, it seemed like he almost resented her. Kathy's hospital had gotten a research grant at one point, and she was excited. She was excited about the possibility of applying for a research position, but Bill wasn't thrilled. He didn't think she needed to add any more to her plate. It was like he was okay where her career was, as though he was. the one responsible for making that decision for her. It does take a certain type of person to be a drill sergeant. They can be rigid and controlling and that may be okay on base, but it's not great for a relationship. I don't know if you can relate to this, if you've ever been with someone like this, but Kathy just felt that Bill did not take her job seriously. She felt belittled. He was used to talk to his airmen in a rough tone and he would forget that Kathy was his wife. He would say

things like, well, you just sit around and change bedpans all day or white people's butts. So what's important about that? And this was tough because Kathy had a lot of ambition. And she was sick of living in Bill's shadow. She loved and respected him. Of course she did. But she began to become distant. If you take that again and again, you're going to retreat. There's only so much someone can take. But this caused them both to be distant and throw themselves into their work even more than their relationship at home. And this was actually a positive thing for Kathy. She wanted to do research in the OBGYN department, so she applied for the position, which required testing and a report writing and putting in samples of her work. And to her delight and surprise, Kathy gets the position.

And it's a big deal for her. This is building her confidence. It gives her a sense of purpose and pride. When she gets home and she lets Bill know that her and a few colleagues are going to go out celebrate instead of being happy and congratulating her, he seems to resent the entire situation. But that doesn't stop Kathy. She begins her new role and she excels quickly. It's like, why can he do it and not her? I think that's my thinking. I think that's how I would feel. I've definitely been there. But we have to remember that we don't know what couples agreed to getting into the relationship. We don't know those unspoken things that are not public. We don't know if he asked her, will you be my supporting wife, stay home with the kids,

I will give all the military benefits and support you. We don't know. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop Kathy. She is excited and she begins her new role and she rises up quickly. Her diligence doesn't go unnoticed. Kathy is asked to join a new research team led by one of the most prestigious doctors in the OBGYN department, Dr. David Pearl. And this is a huge accomplishment for Kathy. Dr. Pearl chooses the best of the best for his team, and he's delighted to have Kathy on board. Now she can use all of the skills that she has learned to master and showcase her expertise. And unlike Bill, Dr. Pearl, he understands the complexities involved in her specialty. He is there to provide encouragement and praise, and Kathy feels the best when she's at the hospital.

It's where she feels that she belongs. starts to be a place that she would rather not be and Kathy's identity was moving away from a wife and a mother to an OBGYN nurse and beyond she intended on continuing her education and dr. Pearl approves now Kathy was choosing to spend even longer hours at work away from Bill but closer to Dr. Pearl who was thankful for her hard work and her dedication and Kathy felt appreciated and seen When she was in his presence, it boosted her self-esteem. Now she would come home smiling and happy and on top of the world.

And Bill could see that. And considering he knew he wasn't the one putting a smile on her face, he started to wonder what or who was. And at this point, as they say, they were two ships just passing in the night. Because with their daily routines being so different, they weren't spending any quality time together. Instead, Kathy starts to talk to Dr. Pearl. It started with little things as it always does, like when he would compliment her.

She would be so grateful. And she let the words escape her lips. Those words. My husband doesn't say those things. So that's how this started. The way he treated her was the opposite of the way that Dr. Pearl did. Kathy was stunning on the outside, but she was also very sweet and likable and caring and generous. And the list goes on.

And soon enough, she and Dr. Pearl are more than just connecting on, you know, the professional level, they're starting to connect on a more personal one. She's now calling him by his first name, David, so I will too. Kathy and David are harmlessly flirting. I mean, it can seem harmless. But they're just building each other up here and there. And it may have felt okay since both of them were married. Yes, David is married too.

yet he begins to confide in Kathy about the troubles that he and his wife are going through and the two begin to bond sooner or later david and kathy are having lunches together outside of the hospital it always starts innocent doesn't it it's like boundaries i guess they did exist but they were becoming more and more blurred. In the spring of 1986, David finally crosses the line and invites Kathy to his place. But wait, it's not the home he shares with his wife. No. Instead, to Kathy's surprise, David tells her that he and his wife are actually separated and he lives in his own apartment near the hospital. Was Kathy thinking about leaving bill? Well, it turns out when confiding in David, she says yes. That she would.

was thinking about it. She had actually attempted to leave once before, but Bill wouldn't let her go. By the way, I may be the last person to know this, but I always thought when couples said that they were separated, they were just trying to work things out to stay together, work on their marriage, and they just needed some space. I was always confused when people would say, you know, that they were like separated, but then they were open to the possibility of being with someone else. But I was on a trip last week where I met other YouTubers. By the way, I'll put their names here on the screen. I met Kennedy. She has a true crime and makeup channel. I met Emily Jean and I met Leia Miller.

I'll put their names below in the description box. The last week I was on a trip and I ended up meeting a few other YouTubers. One was Leia Miller and she is a attorney, a family attorney. And I learned something. I learned that separation is actually a legal part of divorce proceedings. No idea that that was real. If a couple wants a divorce, they have to go through a legal separation first for a designated amount of time. which is usually defined by the particular state that they were married in.

So for example, here in California, it's a six-month period. And it varies in different states. So David and Kathy, they bond over their marriage difficulties. And David explains he's separated from his wife. The more they see one another alone, there is more and more tension building up, especially in Kathy. She hasn't been close to Bill in a while. He was so controlling and demeaning.

Whereas David, he was carefree and care. caring and gentle, and ultimately they cross the line. They end up having sex. Of course they do. If they didn't want this to happen, they should not have allowed it to get to this. Alone at David's apartment, where they're not under the watchful eyes of the colleagues and their superiors. Over the next few months, Kathy begins to fall in love with David, and it seems that David

feels the same. All the while, Kathy's hiding this from Bill. but he has his suspicions, especially because there are nights that Kathy doesn't make it home until very late, like after midnight, and she keeps telling him that she's working on a project, but Bill has a feeling that she is not telling the truth. Their relationship is strained.

They're no longer intimate, and Kathy is just going through the motions. Bill is feeling neglected, possibly betrayed, and begins taking more and more interest in the extracurricular activities outside of his work, like his softball league. Kathy goes to his games, and she notices something different. Bill seems to be getting a little more attention than usual,

and he's paying more attention than usual to all of the young cadets that he trains in the Air Force, all of the young women. They're cheering him on. You know, this is their drill sergeant, and they're laughing and smiling and hugging him, and it's getting a little too close, in Kathy's opinion, but who is she to pass judgment, right?

There is a saying that two wrongs don't make a right. What they could have benefited from was some actual communication, but instead both became cold and distant. Kathy was no longer interested in having sex with Bill. All she could think about was David. People in these love triangles sometimes say they feel like they're cheating on their new lover with their husbands. So they stop having sex with their husband. We can't ever know exactly what Kathy was feeling, but her actions say a lot. she considered the marriage over.

Bill, on the other hand, is not catching on and not ready to let their marriage completely die. He starts questioning her about where she's going, where she's been, and this doesn't end well. It only leads to arguments. Kathy insists that she's just working and that he should stop interrogating her, but it's becoming harder and harder to keep her affair a secret.

Mostly because she wants more from David. She wants to be with David. And I don't mean just in his bed. She wants him to commit to her. That same spring, 1986, Kathy thinks of a plan to spend more time with her lover away from Bill, where he cannot be monitoring what's going on. She decides to register for a medical conference that David's going to,

and it's a thousand miles away. Kathy thought this would be perfect. Now she has a legitimate excuse. She didn't feel like she had to hide anything. She didn't even have to hide David. because when they were away together, they were together. No one knew them a thousand miles away. There was no social media in 1986 like there is now.

No one was taking pictures or videos with their iPhone and sending them to someone's partner as evidence of infidelity. It's just so easy to get caught these days. It's a wonder why anyone even tries to cheat. But back then, it was as though these lovers were in their own world. They could walk down the street holding hands, acting like Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Pearl. Kathy was in heaven. She loved David.

When he walked in a room, time would stand still. There was just something special about him. Everyone saw it, but she got to experience it, and that gave her this rush, and it didn't compare it to anything else. Even though she was literally cheating with a married man, She's imagining what it would be like to be with David, be his wife. She asks him if they can be together. He tells her he loves spending time with her. It's so much fun.

It feels right, but he has to wait until his divorce is final. Then, of course, they can be together. There's no question about that. Kathy felt loved. She felt cherished and listened to. She had someone to confide in and talk to her about all of her problems, and she looked up to him. He taught her so much about work and just about life.

She was infatuated with David. He was the complete package. She was handsome. He was smart. He was hardworking and fun. And he just gets her. When they were together, it was just like David and Kathy. They just had their thing.

Everything was perfect just as long as Bill didn't find out. But Bill wasn't oblivious. While Kathy might have been in her own little world with David, Bill's living in reality. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the facts together. The long hours, the smiles, the happiness not coming from him, the trips Bill had had enough. He begins looking through Kathy's things when she's gone at that conference and he's devastated by what he finds. And you know what? My heart really breaks for him.

In this situation, he's had this off. moment, but it's also a soul-crushing moment. It confirms his worst fear, and I know that feeling all too well. Your heart starts to be fast, you can't breathe, your body feels hot and you get dizzy and you can't think and you just stare, and that is what was going on with Bill. He was staring at a packet of birth control pills. It was at that exact moment that he knew, knew in his heart that Kathy was being unfaithful. Bill had a vasectomy. There was no need for Kathy to use contraceptives of any kind with him. She wasn't even having sex with him anyway. That's really devastating. Cheating is one of the worst betrayals in a relationship. It breaks down

everything, the communication, the trust, the vulnerability, and the love. It just extinguishes love in the blink of an eye. Bill puts all of the evidence together and it's obvious who Kathy is having an affair with Dr. David Pearl, the distinguished medical specialist, a man who made more money than Bill and had a higher education, and that felt humiliating to him. This isn't the picture perfect life that he wants to portray to the incoming airman. He's crushed. This isn't just about losing his beautiful, loving wife, that he adores no matter what. It's about what this will look like on his unblemished career. Everything about him was polished from head to toe, yet now his marriage is a mess. As soon as Kathy comes home, he confronts her. She was already ready to lay it out

on the table for him. She had made up her mind. She was in love with David, so she didn't lie. She didn't fight it. She told Bill the truth. She wanted a divorce. She was in a relationship with the doctor. Can you imagine the pain that Bill must have been going through to hear his wife say those words? One part of you wants that confirmation just to hear them admit they've done something wrong. But it also becomes a reality once it's spoken. Some people can never come back from pain like that.

Kathy doesn't hesitate. As soon as the conversation is over with Bill, she goes down in files for divorce. Now listen, I've talked about cheating in a lot of videos. I don't always ask your opinions on it, and there will be many of them. For one, I hear the immaturity card pulled a lot of times as an excuse. Well, she was a young woman.

She was young when they got married, and fair enough, maybe she didn't have a lot of life experience, but that was a choice, and so is cheating. Sometimes I just wonder why people don't just get a divorce first, At least that's what David was doing, right? He was in the separation stage, but I guess some people may not be able to fight that lust. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments. But once the paperwork was filed, Kathy is over the moon with happiness.

Unlike Bill, who is most likely crying himself to sleep at night. Kathy can't wait to share the news with David. The new arrangement between Bill and Kathy and their separation is that Kathy will move into her own apartment with the kids. Probably got that clue from David. and Bill will have visitation with the children every weekend. The oldest child was about six or seven years old at the time, and I could not find out any more information about their names or anything else. It was the 80s.

I tried to find newspaper articles and stuff, but they kept it kind of under wraps. Things are going as well as can be expected in these circumstances. The visitations are going well. Kathy's enjoying her freedom. She's got her new apartment. And speaking of apartment, It's Sunday afternoon on June 8, 1986.

Bill has the kids and is ready to bring them back to Kathy. When they arrive at Kathy's place, her car isn't there. So they go up to the door anyway and they knock and there's no answer. So Bill decides to go back to the car. He gets a piece of paper and a pencil and he leaves a note for Kathy. Just let her know the kids are safe. She wasn't home. So they went back to his place and she can call or come get them whenever she gets a chance.

So remember there's no cell phones back then. There's no way for Bill to know where Kathy is. And she didn't tell him that she wouldn't be there. He expected her there on Sundays like she always was when he dropped off the kids. It's not like her to leave without notice or not come back on time to take care of her children. Bill is irritated, but he's not alarmed at this point. However, there are some people who are her coworkers. Because you probably guess that Kathy did not show up to work the next.

morning. That was very unusual. It was very out of character for a woman like Kathy who not only took her job seriously, but was literally dating her boss. She would never be a no-show at work. So her friends are calling around to her family members to check in, but no one has heard from Kathy. However, just as the sun is coming up on Monday, June 9th, 1986, it reveals what Kathy's family have been looking for. In northwest Bear County, just outside the city limits of San Antonio, a man thinks he sees something off the side of the road. It's in a rural area. This is not a heavily populated area. Police respond immediately. And when they arrive on the scene, they're confronted with a gruesome sight. There was a naked female with no identification and just her clothes next to her.

It doesn't take long for police to identify the body of 29-year-old Kathy Lipscomb. Her coworkers had been searching for her all day. They were making reports and letting the police know that they could not find her. Once it was announced that a body had been located, her coworkers were there to positively identify her. At first glance, there's not too much of the crime scene in the way of evidence. They're looking toward the body for clues. one thing that stood out to the investigators immediately was the way that Kathy's body looked.

She was in a very peculiar position. It wasn't just that she was curled up in a fetal position. Her limbs were actually curled and twisted in a very unnatural position. It's something that the investigators had never seen before. And they wondered why she looked that way. They also noticed a clothesline that was right next to her body, looking around for more and more evidence, it was pretty obvious that she had been dumped at this location.

This is not where she was murdered.