Potential serial killer causes community to rally together

By Mike Hixenbaugh
Rocky Mount Telegram

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Turning tricks and the crack pipe have been her way of life for the better part of two decades, Denise Shae said last week, leaning forward on a leather couch in her disheveled Rocky Mount living room.

Prostitution isn’t the most virtuous way to pay bills, Shae admits, but that doesn’t mean she or others like her deserve to die.

“It doesn’t matter what you do or what you’re into,” Shae said. “Nobody has a right to kill. Nobody needs to die like that, naked out in the woods.”

Since police publicly connected dots this month between a series of missing women and murders in her community, Shae said she has locked herself inside, terrified she’ll become the next in a line of small-framed, black women whose unclothed bodies have been dumped along rural Edgecombe County roads the past few years.

“It makes me scared,” said Shae, 45, whose name has been changed for confidentiality. “We’re all terrified.”

Whispers of a possible serial killer and rumors of more missing women have been on the lips of many throughout East Rocky Mount the past month, ever since a worker found the body of 31-year-old Jarniece Latonya Hargrove abandoned in the woods off Seven Bridges Road.

Authorities will not definitively say if the murders of Hargrove and five other women found dead over the past four years are related, but a series of similarities seems to link the cases.

All of the confirmed victims were black women found in remote locations near the eastern boundary of Rocky Mount, and each had a history of drug or alcohol abuse, according to criminal records. Each also was a known prostitute, according to Shae, who claimed to have “worked the same streets” and smoked crack with the victims.

Hargrove’s family said deputies told them each of the women was found without clothes, although authorities will not confirm the statement.

“The killings must be connected,” Shae said. “It’s too much similar between all them girls to just be coincidence.”

Profile of a Killer

While investigators seem reluctant to use the term “serial killer,” at least one national expert on such crimes says the murders almost certainly are related. John Kelly, profiler

and president of the New Jersey-based System to Apprehend Lethal Killers, or STALK, said he’s convinced a serial killer is preying on vulnerable women in East Rocky Mount.

Kelly, who played a role along with his partner Frank Adamson in helping profile and catch the Green River Killer in Seattle earlier this decade, said officials are wise to have formed a task force. The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office is leading a joint effort of area law enforcement and state investigators to determine if the murders are related, Sheriff James Knight said, declining further comment.

Kelly said the next step should be an active canvass of wooded areas where the bodies have been found, extending the search radius to a quarter of a mile or more.

At least three other women who match the profile of the victims — Yolanda Lancaster, Joyce Durham and Christine Boone — have been reported missing to Rocky Mount police the past several months. Each has yet to be found.

“When you have a potential serial killer, you really have to push a full-court press investigating missing persons reports,” Kelly said, “especially when they match the profile.”

As more information becomes available, Kelly said he and his organization are willing to assist authorities in developing a potential profile of the killer.

“In most cases, the girls know this guy,” Kelly said. “They may not know they know him, but he’s addicted. Like someone who’s addicted to heroin, he’s addicted to being around the area, fantasizing about the girls. His drug is sexual power and control over these women, and he’s never satisfied.”The killer doesn’t feel remorse, Kelly said, and his chief motives are power, control and sex. He’s a slave to those desires, Kelly said.

“This guy is local,” he said. “And he will kill again. No doubt. Unless he’s in jail or dead, he will kill again.”

Authorities would not say if they’ve made contact with outside psychological profilers like Kelly, or even if they believe they’re dealing with a habitual killer.

Regardless, Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley is advising residents not to accept rides from people they don’t know and to be aware of who’s moving through their neighborhoods.

“Just common sense type precautions,” Manley said.

Risky Business

Common sense isn’t as cut-and-dry for people who move in and out of shadows, voluntarily risking danger, disease and the threat of violence as a means to pay bills or feed addictions.

Shae and others in her distressed neighborhood have made careers out of stepping into a stranger’s car in exchange for a hit on a crack pipe or cash. Not accepting a ride means not eating for some people, she said.

Shae’s own run-in with a violent customer hasn’t been enough to entirely deter her from the streets. A deep red-and-purple gash across Shae’s right shoulder is fresh reminder of the horrifying ride last month, she said.

Shae stepped into the car of a white man with a pushy voice who wanted sex, but he wasn’t easily satisfied. He grew violent, she said.

After more than an hour, the man steered toward a rural stretch of tobacco-flanked road just outside city limits, not far from where the bodies have been found.

“He just kept wanting more, and I started to get scared,” Shae said. “So I got out of there.”

Shae jumped from the car as he made a turn, she said, bashing her shoulder on asphalt before running away and calling for help. She never called police about the incident, fearful they might seek to add a few more charges to her already lengthy criminal record.

Shae said she knows other women with similar stories who are reluctant to come forward.

“I don’t think that was the guy who’s doing this, though,” Shae said. “All of those girls (who have been killed) were fighters like me. They would have gotten away.”

Kelly supported her suspicions. More than 80 percent of serial killers stalk women of their own race, he said.

Shae theorized that whoever killed the women has rigged the passenger door of his vehicle, removing the interior paneling so it can’t be opened from the inside.

“I don’t get into cars like that anymore,” Shae said.

A Terrifying Ride

Women who dabble in drugs and trade their bodies for cash aren’t the only people shaken by the string of murders.

Most households in Rocky Mount’s largely impoverished east side have been talking about missing girls and prospects of a serial killer for the better part of the past year, Sheniece Thompson said.

“It makes you scared, you know,” Thompson said, standing on her porch on Arlington Street. “You don’t know who’s doing this or if you could be next.”

Thompson, 26, said she and her sisters “live stand-up lives.” Still, she can remember hitchhiking across town to a friend’s house last summer.

“That will be the last time,” she said.

Lanessa Williams has been putting out the call to all the women in her neighborhood the past several months — regardless of whether they work the streets or just walk them: “Don’t get in anybody’s car,” she says.

Williams, 38, said she took a ride from a black man last summer who offered to take her to a friend’s house in the projects. The drive started smooth, Williams said, and the two shared a few hits on a crack pipe. Sex wasn’t part of the deal.

“I don’t do that stuff,” Williams said.

But the man drove past her friend’s neighborhood and toward the country, she said, his voice seeming to grow harsher with each passing mile.

“I asked him to stop, but he wouldn’t stop,” Williams said. “He told me ‘If you don’t do what I want you to do, I’m going to kill you and throw you in the river.’”

When the man parked on a dark road and made sexual advances, Williams said, instincts pushed her to her feet. She ran and hid in a ditch for several minutes before escaping to a nearby residence.

Rocky Mount police said they plan to meet with Williams to explore any possible connections between her case and the murders.

Williams said the man drove a black pickup with “Chevrolet” hand-painted on the back. The alleged abductor was a skinny, black man with a light mustache, Williams said.

Soon after her encounter, Williams said she found a place to stay and has stopped doing drugs.

“We gottta look out for each other,” Williams said. “That’s why I’m speaking out, to tell these young girls to be safe. Women are being killed, but just because you smoke don’t mean you deserve to die.”

Respect for the Dead

Pepita Hargrove wept last week when funeral officials pulled a cover from the decomposing remains of her sister, Jarniece Hargrove.

It’s hard, she said, to shake the image of her sister struggling against a strange man, before ultimately being strangled to death and dumped in the woods.

“My sister was so loving,” Pepita said after authorities told her family Jarniece was dead. “She was into some stuff — she always struggled with drugs — but she had a very loving heart.”

In some parts of Rocky Mount, Latonia Taylor said, the string of murders is all anyone talks about. In other parts, nobody seems to care, she said.

“Everyone in my neighborhood is scared, and we want justice,” said Taylor, who knew three of the victims. “But most of my friends who live across town didn’t even know anything about it until I told them. I mean, women are dying.”

Rocky Mount Councilman and local NAACP President Andre Knight said he wonders if the murders would garner more local and national attention if the victims came from different backgrounds. Either way, he’s challenging federal investigators to launch a probe into the case.

A group of East Rocky Mount residents, many of whom knew the victims, has launched a campaign to raise awareness about the murders and create a team to canvass the areas where women have been found.

Willette Battle stood under the hot afternoon sun Friday on Fairview Road holding a sign that read: “Their lifestyles shouldn’t mean they get a death sentence.” Battle, who knew three of the victims and at least one of the missing women, worked to flag down motorists, hoping to sell plates of food to raise money and awareness.

“Nobody is paying attention, it seems like,” Battle said. “These women were fun to be around and they loved to laugh. They lived tough lives, but they were all beautiful. Nobody cares about that, seems like.”

If the women had different names or were of a different race from a different part of town, Battle said, the outcry would be national, and it would be relentless.

“That’s not the case, but we’re working to change that,” Battle said.

Regardless of media or community attention, Pepita Hargrove said she prays authorities catch whoever might be responsible for the killings and, more than anything, hopes her sister and the other victims will be remembered as more than drug-addicted prostitutes.

“These girls are all someone’s sister or someone’s daughter or someone’s mother,” Pepita said. “It doesn’t seem like anybody cares about that. My sister was a good person.

“I want justice to be brought to whoever’s doing this.”

Stealthy stalkers: The sharks studied had a distinct mode of operation and were focussed.

Great white sharks have some things in common with human serial killers, a new study says: They don’t attack at random, but stalk specific victims, lurking out of sight.

The sharks hang back and observe from a not-too-close, not-too-far base, hunt strategically, and learn from previous attempts, according to a study in the Journal of Zoology. Researchers used a serial killer profiling method to figure out just how the fearsome ocean predator hunts, something that’s been hard to observe beneath the surface.

“There’s some strategy going on,” said study co-author Neil Hammerschlag, a shark researcher at the University of Miami who observed 340 great white shark attacks on seals off an island in South Africa. “It’s more than sharks lurking at the water waiting to go after them.”

The sharks feeding at Seal Island could have just hovered right where the seals congregated if they were random killers-of-opportunity, Hammerschlag said. But they weren’t.

Modus operandi

The sharks had a distinct mode of operation.

They were focussed. They stalked from a usual base of operations, 100 yards from their victims. It was close enough to see their prey, but not close enough to be seen and scare off their victims. They attacked when the lights were low. They liked their victims young and alone. They tried to attack when no other sharks were around to compete. They learned from previous kills.

And they attacked from below, unseen.

There’s a big difference between great white sharks and serial killers and it comes down to motive. The great whites attack to eat and survive, not for thrills. And great whites are majestic creatures that should be saved, Hammerschlag said.

“They both have the same objective, which is to find a target or prey or victim,” said study co-author D. Kim Rossmo, a professor of criminal justice at Texas State University-San Marcos. “They have to lurk. They want to be efficient in their search.”

The human criminal has to worry about being caught by police and thus is even more careful, said Rossmo, who was a police officer for more than 21 years in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The entire shark-serial killer connection is something right out of a crime novel.

R. Aidan Martin, a Canadian shark researcher who has since died, was reading a mystery that detailed the relatively new field of geographic profiling, which tries to find criminals by looking for patterns in where they strike. He connected with Rossmo, a pioneer in that criminal field, and they applied the work of tracking down criminals to sleuthing shark strategy.

“Fancy math”

Martin and Hammerschlag watched sharks from sunrise to sunset, applied the “fancy math” of geographic profiling and came out with plots that showed there was some real stalking going on, Hammerschlag said. Older sharks did better and were more stealthy than younger, smaller sharks, demonstrating that learning was occurring, he said.

The study focused on just one location, but the same principles are likely to be applied to other shark hunting grounds.

— AP

California waiting to try serial killer with ties to 29 Palms

Andrew Urdiales confessed to killing eight women, five in California. (WordPress.com, Special to The Desert Trail)

By Stacy Moore
Hi-Desert Star

MORONGO BASIN — The serial killer who confessed to murdering two women while he was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms and later kidnapping a 19-year-old from Joshua Tree will face trial in California, but not until he has exhausted his appeals in Illinois, where he sits on death row.

Howard Gundy, the senior deputy district attorney who is coordinating the case in California, said he does not want to give Andrew Urdiales a reprieve from the court system in Illinois, where he was convicted of killing three women. An extradition to California now would play right into the confessed killer’s hands, Gundy said. After all, the only thing Urdiales has to look forward to in Illinois is death.

“If I were Mr. Urdiales’ defense attorney in Illinois, I would want him to come to California, because every day he’s in California is a day his appeal is stalled in Illinois,” said the prosecutor.

Gundy, who works for Orange County, recently discussed the Urdiales prosecution with district attorneys from San Diego and Riverside counties; the former Marine is wanted for killing a total of five women in all three jurisdictions.

“We agree at this point that Mr. Urdiales has a right to be in the state of Illinois,” Gundy said in a telephone interview Friday, June 26.

“What we are looking for is a window where we can bring Mr. Urdiales to California to stand trial that will not interupt Illinois procedings. That window will come,” Gundy said. “When, I don’t know, but that window will come.”

A trail of death across two states

Arrested in Illinois in 1997 after he called the police to complain a prostitute had stolen his money, Urdiales quickly confessed to eight murders, describing how he began killing women while he was a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton and then Twentynine Palms.

Once discharged from the Marine Corps, he moved to Illinois and took a job as a security guard, enabling him to secure another gun for his murders.

He also took vacations to Southern California, and kept a storage unit in Twentynine Palms with weapons and mementos from his victims. During those visits, Urdiales killed two more women and kidnapped a 19-year-old from Joshua Tree.

“This guy was unbelievable the manner in which he planned these kidnappings and murders,” Chicago prosecutor Jim McKay said in a telephone interview Monday, June 29.

Illinois documents prepared by McKay and others, based upon Uridales’ confessions, detail the actions of a man who told a court-appointed doctor he was excited by watching women suffer.

• January 1986: Robbin Brandley of Laguna Beach is stabbed 41 times in a parking lot at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. Urdiales told police he saw her in the dark lot and spontaneously decided to kill her. Afterward, he returned to Camp Pendleton, where he was stationed.

• July 1988: Julie McGhee is shot to death and her body left in a remote area of Cathedral City. Urdiales later admitted he took her to have sex with her and then shot her with a .45-caliber pistol. He was stationed in Twentynine Palms at the time.

• September 1988: Ur-diales picks up Mary Ann Wells and takes her to a deserted industrial complex in San Diego, where he shoots her, takes back $40 he paid her and returns to Twentynine Palms. He leaves DNA at the scene, but it will not be identified as his until almost 10 years later, after he confesses to her murder.

• April 1989: Urdiales picks up Tammy Erwin in Palm Springs, drives her into the remote desert and shoots her three times, using the same gun that killed McGhee and Wells. He then returns to the base.

• September 1992: After being discharged from the Marines and settling in Chicago, Urdiales flies to Southern California. In Palm Springs, he gives 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson of Joshua Tree a ride from work. He restrains her, assaults her and puts her into the trunk of his rental car. She manages to free herself, unlatches the trunk and runs away. He returns the car and flies home to Chicago the same day. Asbenson eventually will be the only one of Urdiales’ victims to survive to testify against him.

“She presented some compelling testimony at the trial here in Chicago,” McKay said. “The jury was clinging to every word.”

• March 1995: On another vacation to California, Ur-diales sees Denise Maney on a Palm Springs street. He drives her to deserted area, ties her up, assaults her and then shoots her to death.

• April 1996: Urdiales drives Laura Uylaki to Wolf Lake on the Indiana-Chicago border, where he shoots her and throws her body into the water.

• July 1996:    Urdiales picks up Cassandra Corum in Livingston County, Ill., res-trains her and kills her at the Vermillion River.

• August 1996: Urdiales takes Lynn Huber to Wolf Lake, where he shoots her three times and stabs her 28 times. Her body is found floating yards away from where Uylaki’s body was discovered.

• November 1996: Ur-diales is briefly arrested in Hammond, Ind., for carrying an unliscened handgun. Police release Urdiales, not knowing he used the gun to kill the three Illinois women.

• April 1, 1997: Urdiales calls police claiming a prostitute stole a check from him. The woman describes for detectives Urdiales had handcuffed her and duct-taped her wrists and wanted to drive her to Wolf Lake. Recognizing the characteristics of the unsolved murders of Uylaki, Huber and Corum, detectives arrest Urdiales and match the gun confiscated from him a year earlier to the casings found in the women’s bodies.

Once he was connected to the three Illinois murders, Urdiales confessed to all eight murders and Asbenson’s assault.

“He’s proud of these murders,” said Gundy. “That’s why he confessed to them, because he’s proud of these things and he wants people to know.”

In trials in Chicago, Urdiales was found guilty and sentenced to death for Yulaki’s and Huber’s murders. A Livingston County jury then sentenced him to death for Corum’s murder.

While Urdiales was on death row for the first two convictions, the governor of Illinois commuted all death penalties in the state to sentences of life without parole. Both McKay in Chicago and Gundy in Orange County point out the governor, George Ryan, later became a convicted felon himself on federal corruption charges.

“It was very frustrating, especially in light of the fact that a convicted felon was responsible for giving Ur-diales this break,” said McKay. “Fortunately, the people of Livingston County put Andrew back where he belongs — death row.”

Today, Urdiales is appealing his death sentence, arguing he was improperly tried and is not guilty by reason of insanity. In earlier court actions, his defense team has said he was dropped on the head and sexually abused as a child and was schizophrenic at the time of the murders.

Prosecutors argue Urdiales could not have been insane and kept the jobs he had in the Marine Corps and civilian life at the times of the murders. Gundy is content to let Illinois have Urdiales for now and confident when he is brought to California, he can be prosecuted successfully.

After all, two juries already have accepted his guilt for the California murders during the penalty phases of his trials in Illinois.

Suspected Serial Killer Facing Another Murder Charge

Prosecutor Announces Indictment In 2006 Homicide

POSTED: 11:09 am EDT June 22, 2009
UPDATED: 5:32 pm EDT June 22, 2009

CINCINNATI — A man accused of killing three women in the Cincinnati area since 2006 has been indicted in another homicide. Anthony Kirkland As News 5 reported last month, the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday afternoon that Anthony Kirkland has been accused of killing Kimya Rolison.Rolison’s skeletal remains were found in North Fairmount in June 2008. Prosecutor Joe Deters said Kirkland and Rolison were acquainted prior to her death. June 14, 2008: Skeletal Remains Found In North Fairmount Kirkland is accused of killing 14-year-old Casonya “Sharee” Crawford and 45-year-old Mary Jo Newton in 2006 and 13-year-old Esme Kenney in March 2009. He is due to stand trial on those charges in October.Kirkland has already served a prison sentence for killing Leola Douglas in 1987.”I hope this, in some small way, gives the Rolison family some peace. Their loved one became a victim to a vicious predator. Kirkland needs to be brought to justice for these hideous acts committed against innocent victims,” Deters said in a news release.News 5 and WLWT.com will have the latest on this story later today. Previous Stories: May 4, 2009: Kirkland Found Competent To Stand Trial For Slayings April 28, 2009: Prosecutors To Seek 5th Murder Charge Against Kirkland April 27, 2009: Esme Kenney’s Parents Share Memories Of Daughter April 9, 2009: Prosecutor To Seek Death Penalty In Burned Body Slaying April 9, 2009: Protesters Rally Against Pogue Center, Call For Change April 8, 2009: Protesters Call For Closure Of Pogue Center March 31, 2009: Report: Pogue Center Mostly Compliant, Has AWOL Problem March 31, 2009: Report On Accused Murderer’s Release Expected Tuesday March 19, 2009: Serial Killer Suspect Collapses During Court Hearing March 19, 2009: Family Wants Reform For Search Procedures March 17, 2009: Prosecutor To Seek Death Penalty Against Kirkland March 17, 2009: Pogue Inmate Talks About Kirkland March 14, 2009: Embattled Rehabilitation Center Responds To Criticism March 13, 2009: Esme Kenney’s Family Speaks Publicly For First Time March 13, 2009: Girl’s Accused Killer Likely To Face Death Penalty March 12, 2009: Overflow Crowd Turns Out For Esme Kenney Memorial March 12, 2009: Police Hope To Link Murder Suspect To Unsolved Slayings March 11, 2009: Officials: Shut Down Facility That Released Girl’s Killer March 10, 2009: Coroner: Esme Kenney Strangled, Burned March 10, 2009: Police: Suspect In Teen’s Death Possible Serial Killer

Sketch Released of Suspected Serial Killer in Four South Carolina Murders in Six Days

Police released a sketch Friday of the serial killer on the loose who they believe murdered four people in six days in rural South Carolina.

The latest victim linked to the same killer is a man who was shot in his family’s small furniture and appliance store in Gaffney, S.C.

Stephen Tyler, 45, was found dead and his 15-year-old daughter seriously injured about 7 p.m. Thursday at Tyler Home Center.

Tyler’s wife, his older daughter and an employee found them, County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton said the latest shooting death and those of three others since last Saturday — a peach farmer, an elderly woman and her daughter — are connected.

“We’re concerned,” Blanton told reporters Friday. “We’re dealing with a man that’s killed four people.”

The suspect is described as 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighing 200 pounds, with blue eyes. Blanton classified him as a serial killer.

Investigators don’t know exactly who he is or whether he is familiar with the area.

Earlier reports that the killer was driving a dark blue van haven’t panned out, according to Blanton.

He said it isn’t clear whether the victims and the suspect knew each other.

“There’s no evidence there is a hit list,” Blanton said. “There’s no evidence he knows the victims. There’s no evidence the victims are connected (to each other).”

The murders all happened within 10 miles of each other in Cherokee, a county of 54,000 people about 50 miles south on Interstate 85 from Charlotte, N.C.

“This person is gonna be somebody that not a lot of people pay attention to or give a second look to,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright, whose department has joined the investigation, told FOX News on Friday. “Obviously, he’s either really good or really lucky.”

The latest killing happened one day and about 7 miles from where family members found the bodies of 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, bound and shot in Linder’s home.

Blanton would not say if Tyler and his daughter were also bound.

The killing spree began last Saturday about 10 miles from Tyler’s shop. Peach farmer Kline Cash, 63, was found shot in his living room. Investigators said he appeared to have been robbed, but they haven’t determined if anything was taken in the latest killings.

The sheriff said evidence makes it obvious that Cash’s killing is linked to the deaths of the women, but he refused to give details.

He said the killer appears to have first spoken with Cash’s wife about buying hay in a ruse to commit the crime. She left and then came home a few hours later to find her husband’s body.

“We think she may have been his intended victim,” the sheriff said. He theorized Thursday that the killer could be targeting women.

Cherokee County saw just six homicides in all of 2008, which was double the number reported in 2007.

At least 30 investigators from across the region are working on the case, and Blanton canceled all vacation and regular days off for his officers. He wants anyone living in the area to be vigilant and call in any tips, large or small. He also asked any door-to-door salesmen to stop working until the case is solved.

“We know we are dealing with a dangerous person,” Blanton said. “And we know through the investigation that he is unpredictable.”

Residents are on edge, according to the sheriff.

“There is fear in our community,” Blanton said.

Suspected serial killer leads police to bodies, won’t be charged

• Story Highlights
• Habitual felon likely to avoid charges in presumed murders of four people
• Scott Kimball’s plea deal includes revealing location of bodies, sources say
• Authorities say all four people were last seen with Kimball

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) — Serving time for lesser crimes, Scott Kimball is leading investigators to bodies.

Partly mummified bones thought to be those of his uncle, Terry Kimball, were discovered Monday in a remote Rocky Mountain pass near Vail, Colorado. DNA tests are pending to confirm the victim’s identity, and the cause of death is pending a forensic examination, authorities said.

Terry Kimball is one of several suspected homicide victims associated with Scott Kimball since his jailing in 2008. He is serving a 48-year sentence in state prison in Fairplay, Colorado, on theft and habitual criminal convictions.

Kimball will also serve a 70-month federal sentence on firearms charges after the state sentence. The firearms charges led to Kimball’s 18th conviction.

However, Kimball probably will not be charged in any of the deaths.

Sources with knowledge of the cases said Kimball’s December 2008 plea to theft and habitual criminal charges, and the 48-year sentence, was part of a deal that included revealing the locations of the bodies. Authorities wanted to give victims’ families resolution. Without his cooperation, authorities doubt they have enough evidence to convict him.

Earlier this year, Kimball revealed where the remains thought to be his uncle’s were, according to law enforcement sources close to the case. However, the search was delayed until snow had melted.

The FBI would not confirm that Kimball, 42, identified the site. However, FBI spokeswoman Kathleen Wright said, “we went to (a) specific location for a specific reason. It wasn’t random.”

Terry Kimball, 60 at the time, was last seen with Scott Kimball in September 2004, according to a 2007 federal search warrant affidavit.

Scott Kimball told his wife that his uncle had won the lottery and left for Mexico with a stripper, the affidavit said, but FBI investigators think Kimball killed his uncle and dumped his body in Vail Pass, more than 100 miles from the home they shared in a Denver suburb.

In March, Kimball accompanied FBI investigators to southeastern Utah to search for the body of Leann Emry, who was 24 when she vanished after departing on a camping trip in 2003. FBI agents found Emry’s remains shortly after Kimball returned to jail.

Kaysi McLeod was 19 when she disappeared in 2003. McLeod, the daughter of Kimball’s ex-wife, was last seen getting a ride to work from Kimball, according to the 2007 affidavit. In fall 2007, a hunter found her remains in northwest Colorado.

Kimball is also suspected in the disappearance of exotic dancer Jennifer Marcum, who disappeared in 2003, according to the affidavit.

Sources close to the investigation say they think Kimball killed Marcum and buried her body near Rifle, Colorado. Authorities have not found her remains.

“We are continuing to look for Jennifer, and we will leave no stone unturned,” Wright said.

Kimball drew the FBI’s attention in 2002 while jailed for writing bad checks. Kimball offered authorities information about his cellmate, Steven Ennis, who was suspected in a drug ring, according to the 2007 affidavit. After Kimball served his sentence, the FBI began paying him as an informant.

Kimball was supposed to report back to the FBI on Marcum, Ennis’ former girlfriend, when she disappeared.

The FBI would not reveal how long or how much Kimball was paid. He was arrested again in March 2006 near Palm Springs, California, after a police chase and standoff.

All AboutMurder and Homicide • Colorado • Federal Bureau of Investigation