Lil Miss

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"Lil Miss" was the notorious murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell (July 18, 1969 - March 31, 1988), who had disappeared while on a trip home from Colorado to Billings, Montana. Her case would reside in the files as cold, until a DNA test linked an incarcerated man to the killing some fourteen years later, and eventually to the most vital piece of evidence: Kimmell's car bearing the licence plate that gave the case its name: "LIL MISS".

Kimmell was in Colorado to visit a boyfriend and had left Denver on March 25, 1988 for Cody, Wyoming, and then on to Billings. Records had shown that she was stopped for speeding just before she had disappeared. (The officer in question was investigated at the time and cleared. Another suspect committed suicide but DNA evidence cleared him as a suspect.) Eight days later her body was found floating in the North Platte River near Casper, Wyoming by a local fisherman. An autopsy determined that she had been beaten, bound and raped, for at least six days. Then she was taken to the Old Government Bridge where she was hit with a blunt object on her head and then stabbed six times in the chest and abdomen before being thrown into the river. The autopsy showed that the head wound would have killed her in a matter of minutes if she had not been stabbed.

She was profiled on the television program Unsolved Mysteries within weeks, and A&E's Cold Case Files in the years since, with each case concentrating on locating witnesses who might have seen her black 1988 Honda CR-X automobile with a Montana plate bearing the unforgettable "LIL MISS". Investigators knew recovering the car was extremely important as it would be a direct link to the killer. The only other piece of evidence, assumed at the time to be from the killer, was a short letter left on her grave on October 13, 1988:

Lisa -
There are'nt(sic) 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

The reference to "Stringfellow Hawke" was to actor Jan-Michael Vincent's character in the television program Airwolf.

In the summer of 2002 investigators researching cold cases came across Kimmell's rape kit and had the seminal evidence tested for a full DNA profile. An entry into the database verified it came from Dale Wayne Eaton, 57, of Moneta, Wyoming, who at the time was incarcerated in a federal prison in Littleton, Colorado on a weapons charge. Handwriting samples from Eaton also confirmed the letter left on Kimmell's grave to have been written by him. A witness who lived near Eaton told investigators she had seen him digging a large hole near the house on his property which was located about an hour's drive from where she was last reported alive. When the site was excavated Kimmell's Honda was pulled from the hole, severely damaged from the weight of the earth on the vehicle, yet still bearing the "LIL MISS" plate.

Eaton was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death on March 20, 2004. His former property was awarded to the Kimmell family after a wrongful-death lawsuit, and the buildings burned to the ground on July 18, 2005, on what would have been Lisa Kimmell's 36th birthday.

[edit] Noteworthy

Eaton's DNA entered the database through a roundabout way. In 1997 he kidnapped Shannon Breeden of Stockton (CA), her husband, and their child at gunpoint under the guise of being a Good Samaritan when their car had broken down while on a road trip from Chicago to Stockton. The family managed to turn the tables on him and nearly beat him to death. His incarceration for this crime led to his escape and later recapture in Shoshone National Park which led to his being placed in federal prison, where he had to submit a DNA sample. It was that sample that led to his eventual arrest in the murder.
Lisa's murder may have been part of a pattern of serial killings that were known to have taken place between 1983 and 1996, known as the Great Basin Murders. Most of the victims were young women who disappeared and were later found murdered. The fact that her body was found in an area where people like to fish (a public spectacle) and her car was buried on his property (as a trophy) shows a serial killer's mentality.
Among the victims profiled in the book is that of Amy Wroe Bechtel. At 9:30 a.m. on July 24, 1997, the 24-year-old left her Lander, Wyoming apartment to run errands. At 2:30 that afternoon, Amy was seen at a photo shop. This was the last confirmed sighting of Amy. It's believed she left the photo shop and drove into the Shoshone National Forest to check the course of a 10K race her gym was planning. When her husband returned home at 4:30 p.m., she was not home. By nightfall he alerted neighbors and the sheriff's department. Amy's white Toyota station wagon was found parked off a dirt road in the Shoshone Forest.
No trace of Amy has been found but subsequent investigation placed Eaton on business in the area around the time of the disappearance.
As it turned out in court according to testimony from Eaton's inmates in the federal prison, about an hour after Lisa was last reported alive, Eaton was at a rest stop about 22 miles from his home when she pulled in either for a bathroom break, or to call her boyfriend in Cody, WY, or a map consultation. He pulled a gun on her and forced her back to his place where he tied her up and assaulted her for six days. Once he decided to kill her he drove her to the Old Government Bridge on the North Platte where he bludgeoned and stabbed her before throwing her body into the river.
A neighbor reported in her diary around the time that she and her husband saw Eaton digging on his land. When they asked him what he was up to, he said he was digging a new well. That was considered odd by the neighbors because he dug only about 10 feet where as in that part of the state he would have to dig at least 50 feet. This was the reason that led investigators to find the car.
Both Lisa and Amy's cases were profiled on Unsolved Mysteries. Eaton to this day remains silent about these or any other crimes he may be responsible for.