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Mega Edition: The Great Basin Serial Killer (9/16/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: And welcome back to the program. On this episode, we're
0:04
Speaker 1: going to talk about missing woman Amy Roe Bechtel. Now,
0:09
Speaker 1: Amy disappeared on July 24th, 1997 from Shoshone National Forest.
0:18
Speaker 1: A lot of speculation that it was her husband who
0:20
Speaker 1: killed her, but they weren't able to turn up any evidence.
0:24
Speaker 1: There is also some darker speculation about what might have
0:29
Speaker 1: happened to her. And that piece of this story is
0:32
Speaker 1: going to dovetail into something much larger that we're going
0:37
Speaker 1: to be talking about over the next few weeks. And
0:40
Speaker 1: that is the Great Basin Serial Killer. This is in
0:45
Speaker 1: my neck of the woods. And it was killings that
0:48
Speaker 1: took place between the 70s and the late 90s. A
0:52
Speaker 1: lot of them are still unsolved. And the gentleman that
0:57
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about a little bit in this
0:59
Speaker 1: article as well He has been alleged to perhaps be
1:03
Speaker 1: responsible for them, but there has been no evidence that,
1:08
Speaker 1: you know, locks it in and would have us say
1:11
Speaker 1: with certainty that this is the man. But before we
1:15
Speaker 1: get there, let's talk about what happened to Amy Roe Bechtel.
1:21
Speaker 1: This article is from strangeoutdoors.com and this article was originally
1:27
Speaker 1: published on January 10th Of 2018. Unfortunately. There's no author's
1:35
Speaker 1: name here. So we'll just have to give the credit.
1:38
Speaker 1: For this story. To strangeoutdoors.com Headline. The disturbing disappearance of runner.
1:46
Speaker 1: Amy Rowe Bechtel. In Wyoming. On July 24th. 1997. Amy
1:52
Speaker 1: Rowe Bechtel 24. From Lander in Wyoming. Went for a run.
1:57
Speaker 1: And she never came back. Her disappearance remains unsolved over
2:01
Speaker 1: 23 years later. On the morning of July 24th, Amy
2:07
Speaker 1: told her husband Steve she was planning on doing several
2:10
Speaker 1: errands in town after teaching a children's weightlifting class at
2:14
Speaker 1: the Wind River Fitness Center. She called in at the
2:18
Speaker 1: Camera Connection photo store at 2.30 p.m. after teaching her
2:22
Speaker 1: class and then stopped by a store called Gallery 331.
2:27
Speaker 1: Her conversation with the owner, Greg Wagner, was the last
2:30
Speaker 1: confirmed sighting of Amy. After leaving the photo shop, she
2:35
Speaker 1: drove to the area near Shoshone National Forest to map
2:39
Speaker 1: out the course of a 10K run she was organizing
2:43
Speaker 1: with the local gym. And obviously, Amy was really into
2:47
Speaker 1: the outdoors. She was into, you know, running. She was
2:51
Speaker 1: into climbing, just all of the stuff that Wyoming offers.
2:55
Speaker 1: There's a reason people move to Wyoming or Montana or
2:58
Speaker 1: even certain parts of Nevada. You want to get out there.
3:01
Speaker 1: You want to be out amongst the rocks. You want
3:04
Speaker 1: to be out amongst the stars. And you want to
3:06
Speaker 1: live that outdoors life. And certainly that was what Amy
3:10
Speaker 1: was looking for. Amy was an avid distance runner with
3:15
Speaker 1: a marathon personal record of three minutes and one second
3:19
Speaker 1: and had aspirations of qualifying for the 2000 Olympic marathon trials. Hell,
3:24
Speaker 1: with a time of three minutes and one second? Certainly
3:27
Speaker 1: not something that's out of the realm of possibility. She
3:32
Speaker 1: was wearing a yellow or gold tank top, blue or
3:35
Speaker 1: black shorts, Adidas Trail Respawn sneakers, a Timex Ironman triathlon watch,
3:41
Speaker 1: and a small double wedding band on her left ring finger.
3:45
Speaker 1: She may have been seen running along the loop road.
3:48
Speaker 1: A footprint similar to her sneaker was found there, but
3:51
Speaker 1: it was destroyed before police could attempt to match it.
3:55
Speaker 1: I mean, how many times do we see when someone
3:59
Speaker 1: goes missing, all of these things that just align against
4:03
Speaker 1: them to help them not be found? It's amazing how
4:07
Speaker 1: often we see it. The footprints destroyed before they can
4:11
Speaker 1: match it. The disappearance of Amy Bechtel. At 4.30 p.m.,
4:17
Speaker 1: Steve Bechtel returned home and was surprised not to see
4:20
Speaker 1: Amy back at the house. He reported her missing to
4:23
Speaker 1: the police at 10.30 p.m. that night with a strange message. Uh, yeah, hey, uh,
4:30
Speaker 1: I've got a person missing here, I think, and I
4:33
Speaker 1: wondered if you had a spare around any place. Now
4:37
Speaker 1: what in the hell does that mean? Sounds like a
4:41
Speaker 1: message from somebody who's high on drugs. The next day,
4:45
Speaker 1: her unlocked white Toyota Tercel wagon was found around a
4:49
Speaker 1: half mile away from Fry Lake, which was to be
4:52
Speaker 1: the end of the 10K hill run she was planning
4:55
Speaker 1: where the loop road joins The Burnt Gulch Turnoff There
4:59
Speaker 1: was no sign of Amy, but her sunglasses, a to-do list,
5:03
Speaker 1: and car keys were left on the passenger seat. Her
5:06
Speaker 1: wallet was not found. There were no signs of foul play,
5:10
Speaker 1: with no indication of a struggle either inside or near
5:14
Speaker 1: the vehicle. So all of that sounds crazy. How are
5:19
Speaker 1: you going to, if it was the case, snatch somebody
5:23
Speaker 1: and there's no signs of a struggle, everything's just laid
5:26
Speaker 1: out there neatly on the front seat, but Amy is
5:31
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. No signs of foul play, no
5:34
Speaker 1: indications of struggle in or even near the vehicle, and
5:38
Speaker 1: nothing to go on besides one footprint that was destroyed.
5:45
Speaker 1: The search for Amy Bechtel. The search began with just
5:49
Speaker 1: Steve and two dozen of his friends, but later that day,
5:52
Speaker 1: there were ATVs, dogs, dirt bikes, and over 100 volunteers
5:58
Speaker 1: looking for any sign of Amy. The next day, horses
6:01
Speaker 1: and helicopters joined in, and by the third day, the
6:05
Speaker 1: search area had been expanded to a 30-mile radius. So
6:10
Speaker 1: they pulled out all the stops. There was a lot
6:13
Speaker 1: of people in the community that obviously were willing to
6:16
Speaker 1: come out and help. And you'll see that a lot
6:18
Speaker 1: in mountain towns. Somebody goes missing or, you know, there's
6:22
Speaker 1: somebody who's hurt on top of a mountain. The town
6:24
Speaker 1: will rally around that. Local climbing guides, local, you know,
6:28
Speaker 1: adrenaline athletes. Everybody will get involved and pitch in. Investigators
6:34
Speaker 1: at first thought Amy had fallen and been injured in
6:36
Speaker 1: the forest, been run over on the road, or... been
6:40
Speaker 1: attacked by a bear or mountain lion. But then the
6:43
Speaker 1: focus of police investigations turned to Steve Bechtel, especially as
6:49
Speaker 1: many murders are committed by spouses, of course. And we've
6:54
Speaker 1: talked about this with the Queens lady who was murdered recently. Husband,
6:59
Speaker 1: first person who is the subject of law enforcement to
7:04
Speaker 1: look at, right? They're not going to go look for strangers,
7:08
Speaker 1: the first person they look at is the spouse. And
7:12
Speaker 1: they certainly looked at him here in this case. Amy
7:17
Speaker 1: and Steve had been married for just over a year,
7:20
Speaker 1: and both worked part-time at Wild Iris, the local climbing shop.
7:24
Speaker 1: So you see they were part of the local outdoor community.
7:27
Speaker 1: And when I said that the community rallied around them,
7:31
Speaker 1: There's no doubt. This is what happens. It's a big,
7:34
Speaker 1: gigantic community of people. Even if you don't know them,
7:38
Speaker 1: anyone who's in the outdoors is part of that community.
7:43
Speaker 1: Amy also waited tables at the Sweetwater Grill and taught
7:47
Speaker 1: a youth weightlifting class at Wind River Fitness Center. They
7:50
Speaker 1: had recently brought a house in Lander and planned to
7:53
Speaker 1: move in during the coming weeks. What happened to Amy?
7:58
Speaker 1: The theories. Mother Nature. It's possible that Amy fell during
8:02
Speaker 1: her run or was attacked by wild animals whilst in
8:06
Speaker 1: the wilderness. But no evidence of torn clothing, blood, body parts,
8:10
Speaker 1: or bones has ever been found. And if it was
8:13
Speaker 1: an animal attack, we'd have that. The animals, even if it's, say,
8:17
Speaker 1: a mountain lion that's going to drag you off, there's
8:20
Speaker 1: always signs. There's blood, there's a bone, whatever it might be.
8:26
Speaker 1: But when they don't find signs like that, Very rarely
8:29
Speaker 1: will experts say, oh yeah, this was an animal attack.
8:32
Speaker 1: The next theory, murdered by husband Steve Bechtel. After a
8:37
Speaker 1: search of the couple's property, detectives discovered Steve Bechtel's journals,
8:41
Speaker 1: which contained poetry or song lyrics, sometimes with violent overtones,
8:47
Speaker 1: describing violence towards women and specifically Amy. A week and
8:52
Speaker 1: a half after Amy vanished, Steve employed lawyers and refused
8:56
Speaker 1: to take a polygraph test, which further raised suspicions for
9:00
Speaker 1: many residents of Lander, as well as the media. And
9:04
Speaker 1: these are not the actions of somebody who seems like
9:07
Speaker 1: an innocent man, right? Let me lawyer up. Let me
9:09
Speaker 1: not take a polygraph. Let me not have anything to say.
9:12
Speaker 1: You add that to the other original message that he
9:16
Speaker 1: sent to the police officers. When she was first found missing.
9:20
Speaker 1: And it certainly looks like. You're looking at somebody who
9:23
Speaker 1: could possibly. Be the culprit. A week and a half
9:30
Speaker 1: after Amy. Nope we passed that excuse me. Detectives interrogated Steve.
9:33
Speaker 1: On August 1st 1997. Falsely claiming to have evidence. Proving
9:39
Speaker 1: he had murdered his wife. A woman driving through the
9:42
Speaker 1: area from where Amy disappeared claimed to have seen a
9:46
Speaker 1: truck matching Steve Bechtel's in the area with a blonde
9:49
Speaker 1: haired woman in the passenger seat, but she was unable
9:53
Speaker 1: to positively identify it was him. So again, a little
9:58
Speaker 1: more evidence there. Not. as solid as you would like
10:02
Speaker 1: obviously but you have somebody coming forward and describing a
10:05
Speaker 1: truck that matches his on August 5th an FBI agent
10:10
Speaker 1: Rick McCullough accused Steve of murdering Amy but Steve had
10:14
Speaker 1: an alibi He was with Sam Leitner scouting a climbing
10:18
Speaker 1: spot the day Amy had vanished in the mountains above Dubois,
10:22
Speaker 1: and since it was grizzly country, he took their dog
10:25
Speaker 1: Johns as well as a firearm. Questions remained whether Steve
10:29
Speaker 1: had an opportunity during the day to get to Shoshone
10:33
Speaker 1: and carry out the crime despite the distance from Dubois.
10:38
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a bit of a leap. If
10:40
Speaker 1: he has an alibi, right? Unless the other guy's in
10:43
Speaker 1: on it. If the other guy is in on it,
10:45
Speaker 1: well then, you know, hey. But usually when you're out
10:49
Speaker 1: scouting a new route, it's an all-day affair and it's
10:53
Speaker 1: pretty time intensive. I would think that Mr. Leitner would
10:57
Speaker 1: know if his partner snuck away to go commit a murder.
11:03
Speaker 1: Amy's brother Nels was especially angry at Steve's reluctance to
11:07
Speaker 1: take the polygraph test and cooperate fully with investigators. When
11:11
Speaker 1: her sisters, Casey Lee and Jenny Newton, appeared on the
11:14
Speaker 1: Geraldo Rivera show on February 3rd, 1998, the host made
11:19
Speaker 1: a plea for Steve to be more cooperative with authorities.
11:23
Speaker 1: Remember that in the old days before the media? People
11:25
Speaker 1: would go on like, Geraldo Rivera or, uh, uh, what's
11:29
Speaker 1: the other guy's name? Maury Povich. and they'd go on
11:32
Speaker 1: there and they'd tell their stories about missing relatives and stuff.
11:35
Speaker 1: I remember when I was playing hooky from school when
11:37
Speaker 1: I was a young man, and these shows were on.
11:39
Speaker 1: There were all kinds of crazy stories like this. Nell
11:43
Speaker 1: told the sheriff about one night when Amy and Steve
11:46
Speaker 1: were over for dinner. Nell noticed that Amy had some bruising,
11:50
Speaker 1: but she made a joke saying that Steve can get
11:52
Speaker 1: a little rough sometimes. Nell found Amy's reaction odd, saying
11:56
Speaker 1: Amy just laughed it off, would not look me in
11:58
Speaker 1: the eye. And I said, this is not a normal reaction,
12:02
Speaker 1: particularly for Amy. So her brother feels that she had
12:07
Speaker 1: some dings on her, some bruising. And I guess he's
12:11
Speaker 1: inferring here that her husband was abusing her previously to
12:16
Speaker 1: all of this. Eventually, Steve had Amy declared legally dead,
12:22
Speaker 1: and in 2004, he married Ellen Sisman, with whom he
12:25
Speaker 1: now has two children. Steve Bechtel remained the prime person
12:30
Speaker 1: of interest in Amy's disappearance for many years. In July 2007,
12:34
Speaker 1: the 10-year anniversary of her disappearance, Roger Reiser, the detective
12:40
Speaker 1: who succeeded Dave King on the case, commented on the
12:43
Speaker 1: cold case to the Billings Gazette. In my mind, there
12:47
Speaker 1: is only one person that I want to talk to.
12:49
Speaker 1: Only one person who has refused to talk to law enforcement,
12:52
Speaker 1: he said. And that's her husband. So a pretty strong
12:56
Speaker 1: case being put forward that it is Steve Bechtel. Now,
13:00
Speaker 1: he has not been arrested or anything like that. But
13:05
Speaker 1: when you look at all of the surrounding information, pretty
13:08
Speaker 1: strong case, right? Well, let's enter Dale Wayne Eaton. And
13:14
Speaker 1: here's the next theory. Murdered by Dale Wayne Eaton, the
13:19
Speaker 1: Great Basin Serial Killer. A tip came in from a
13:22
Speaker 1: man named Richard Eaton who told the sheriff that his brother,
13:26
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne Eaton, may have been involved. But the investigators
13:30
Speaker 1: ignored the information as they were focused on Steve Bechtel
13:34
Speaker 1: at the time. By not pursuing the lead, they may
13:38
Speaker 1: have allowed the notorious Great Basin serial killer to get
13:41
Speaker 1: away on July 30th, 1998, nearly a year after Amy's disappearance.
13:47
Speaker 1: Dale Eaton was finally arrested for another murder. Now, this
13:53
Speaker 1: is the man that they think is the Great Basin killer?
13:57
Speaker 1: He refuses to speak to the police about this or
14:00
Speaker 1: talk to anybody about it, honestly. And he was facing
14:03
Speaker 1: the death penalty for the other murder, but found a
14:07
Speaker 1: way to wiggle off of that hook as well. So
14:10
Speaker 1: when I talked about in the opening how this is
14:12
Speaker 1: going to dovetail, this is what I mean. We're going
14:14
Speaker 1: to talk about the Great Basin serial killings and some
14:18
Speaker 1: of the still unidentified women who were found. In an
14:26
Speaker 1: area less than a three-hour drive from Lander... Shannon Breeden,
14:30
Speaker 1: her husband Scott, and their five-month-old baby Cody were traveling
14:34
Speaker 1: when their van broke down at a pullout along Interstate 80.
14:39
Speaker 1: And not only is this person, maybe Dale Wayne Eaton,
14:45
Speaker 1: but the serial killer or serial killers, they also call
14:49
Speaker 1: this person or persons the I-80 killer, as well as
14:53
Speaker 1: the Great Basin killer. So we might be dealing with multiple...
14:58
Speaker 1: Serial killers in this area. During this time frame. Eaton
15:04
Speaker 1: stopped his off green. 85 Dodge van. And offered them assistance.
15:09
Speaker 1: And asked Shannon to drive. Eaton then pulled a rifle.
15:12
Speaker 1: From the back of the van. Kidnapped the family at gunpoint.
15:16
Speaker 1: And directed them south of the highway. Into the desert.
15:19
Speaker 1: Shannon accelerated. And turned in a tight circle instead. Which
15:24
Speaker 1: enabled Scott. To jump out of the van with the baby.
15:27
Speaker 1: and Shannon to get out the other side. Scott grabbed
15:30
Speaker 1: Eaton and hit him over the head with a rifle butt.
15:33
Speaker 1: After a struggle, Eaton was stabbed with his own knife
15:36
Speaker 1: and left whilst the family drove away at speed. So,
15:42
Speaker 1: if they would have listened to what this guy's brother said,
15:46
Speaker 1: they might have been able to avoid all of this.
15:49
Speaker 1: So that's why it's crucial that these task force and
15:52
Speaker 1: groups of police officers who are looking to go after
15:55
Speaker 1: serial killers and whoever, they have to be very, very
16:02
Speaker 1: thorough when they're going through all of this evidence and
16:05
Speaker 1: what witnesses are saying. Because you never know which one
16:08
Speaker 1: of these tips is going to lead to pay dirt.
16:12
Speaker 1: Richard Eaton knew that Dale had been camping in the
16:15
Speaker 1: Burt Gulch area at the time of Amy Bechtel's disappearance
16:20
Speaker 1: at an average elevation of 7,860 feet, where she was
16:25
Speaker 1: marking her 10K running route. And coincidentally, this was a
16:29
Speaker 1: favorite elk hunting and trout fishing spot of the Eaton brothers.
16:34
Speaker 1: But after Richard Eaton called police with his suspicions, the
16:37
Speaker 1: detective dismissed the tip, choosing to believe, instead, the word
16:41
Speaker 1: of Dale Eaton's niece, who said he was visiting her
16:45
Speaker 1: in Greeley, Colorado, on July 24th. $ 100, 000 reward out for
16:50
Speaker 1: information leading to the resolution of Amy's case meant that
16:54
Speaker 1: investigators were suspicious of Richard's motives. So that could ring
17:00
Speaker 1: true as well, right? I'm not saying that he definitely
17:03
Speaker 1: killed her, and I'm not even saying that he is
17:06
Speaker 1: the Great Basin Killer, but it's certainly a good place
17:09
Speaker 1: to start, a good starting point. And as we explore
17:13
Speaker 1: some of these murders that were committed, we'll definitely be
17:16
Speaker 1: keeping him on the radar. A plea bargain deal for
17:22
Speaker 1: the attempted kidnapping of the Breeden family meant Eaton would
17:26
Speaker 1: serve just 99 days in jail. 99 days in jail
17:30
Speaker 1: for kidnapping somebody? Are you kidding me right now? But
17:33
Speaker 1: a sample of his DNA was taken whilst he was incarcerated.
17:37
Speaker 1: He was allowed to continue to work on welding and
17:40
Speaker 1: construction jobs whilst in a halfway house due to prison overcrowding.
17:45
Speaker 1: On June 16, 1998, he failed to report to work
17:49
Speaker 1: despite strict parole conditions and a warrant was put out
17:52
Speaker 1: for his arrest. Police finally spotted his van more than
17:56
Speaker 1: a month later near Dubois in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
18:02
Speaker 1: He was arrested, and a shotgun was found in his van,
18:05
Speaker 1: leading to his imprisonment on federal weapons charges. So, how
18:10
Speaker 1: many times do we see this? Sickos like this get
18:12
Speaker 1: nailed for something else, and not the actual murders. On
18:17
Speaker 1: March 25th, 1988, 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmel was driving alone
18:22
Speaker 1: from Denver to visit a friend in Billings, Montana, in
18:26
Speaker 1: her black 1998 Honda CRX Si, which had a Montana
18:30
Speaker 1: plate with Little Miss on it. She was planning to
18:33
Speaker 1: visit her boyfriend in Cody, but never got there. Eight
18:36
Speaker 1: days later, two fishermen found her body in the North
18:39
Speaker 1: Platte River near Casper. Autopsy results showed that she had
18:44
Speaker 1: been raped, bludgeoned, and stabbed. After her family buried her,
18:48
Speaker 1: a strange note signed, Stringfellow Hawk was found on Lisa's grave. Now,
18:54
Speaker 1: how the hell is that not weird? Stringfellow Hawk, huh?
18:58
Speaker 1: In July 2002, investigators researching cold cases examined the seminal
19:04
Speaker 1: DNA from Lisa's rape and found a match for Dale
19:10
Speaker 1: Wayne Eaton. Eaton was due to stand trial that fall
19:13
Speaker 1: on a manslaughter charge after killing his cellmate with a
19:17
Speaker 1: lethal punch to the man's vertebral artery. So we're talking
19:22
Speaker 1: about a hell of a guy here, this Eaton fella, huh?
19:24
Speaker 1: Not only is he killing people out in the streets,
19:27
Speaker 1: keeping it up while he's in jail too. handwriting analysis
19:32
Speaker 1: from the note left on Kimmel's grave also matched Eaton. Then,
19:36
Speaker 1: following a tip from neighbors who remembered seeing Eaton digging
19:40
Speaker 1: in his yard, Lisa's car was found buried on his
19:42
Speaker 1: property in Moneta, just an hour and 45 minute drive
19:47
Speaker 1: east from Lander. He'd been using the car as a
19:50
Speaker 1: septic tank. A portion of the Montana plate Little Miss
19:53
Speaker 1: was found nearby. Inside his trailer, authorities also found women's
19:58
Speaker 1: clothing and purses and newspaper reports about other murdered women. So,
20:05
Speaker 1: obviously somebody who has all of the telltale signs. He
20:10
Speaker 1: took trophies following the cases. And it certainly looks like
20:14
Speaker 1: to me that this sick fuck was at least one
20:18
Speaker 1: of the killers who was responsible for some of the
20:21
Speaker 1: murders that we're going to be talking about in the
20:23
Speaker 1: next few days. Investigators determined that Eaton had kidnapped Lisa
20:30
Speaker 1: at a remote rest area in Waltman, then held her
20:33
Speaker 1: captive in a converted school bus and repeatedly raped her
20:36
Speaker 1: before murdering her. An FBI profiler who examined the case
20:41
Speaker 1: said Eaton's behavior all fitted that of a serial killer.
20:46
Speaker 1: In the subsequent trial, Eaton was found guilty of the
20:48
Speaker 1: first-degree murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection in
20:52
Speaker 1: March of 2004. He had a stay of execution in
20:56
Speaker 1: December 2009, with his lawyers arguing that he was mentally
21:00
Speaker 1: unfit to stand trial. In November 2014, a U.S. District
21:05
Speaker 1: Judge overturned his death sentence, which was commuted to life
21:09
Speaker 1: in prison. In 2010, Detective Sergeant Zerga traveled with an
21:14
Speaker 1: FBI agent to Colorado to try to interview Eaton, but
21:18
Speaker 1: he refused to speak with them. And with the threat
21:21
Speaker 1: of the death penalty no longer hanging over him, the
21:24
Speaker 1: investigators had little leverage. So this guy's clammed up, has
21:28
Speaker 1: nothing to say, is not going to help out at
21:32
Speaker 1: all and obviously he's guilty of the little miss murder
21:38
Speaker 1: and if the reports are to be believed and all
21:42
Speaker 1: these trophies and stuff were found that is in his
21:44
Speaker 1: pad chances are there are more people that he killed
21:51
Speaker 1: Authorities visited the Bechtel's old house at Lucky Lane in
21:55
Speaker 1: Lander with a search warrant to conduct luminol searches with
21:58
Speaker 1: the FBI and brought in cadaver dogs. They found nothing.
22:02
Speaker 1: A tip that Steve had buried Amy below the driveway
22:05
Speaker 1: of their would-be new home on 965 McDougal Drive before
22:10
Speaker 1: the concrete had set also came to nothing. In late
22:14
Speaker 1: August 1997, the Federal Bureau of Investigation requested satellite photos
22:20
Speaker 1: from NASA of the area on the day of Bechtel's disappearance,
22:24
Speaker 1: but the satellite images provided no information. In January 1998,
22:30
Speaker 1: satellite images taken by the Russian space station Mir were
22:34
Speaker 1: also obtained by the FBI, but they also revealed nothing
22:38
Speaker 1: of value as cloud cover had obscured the area of interest.
22:44
Speaker 1: So folks, what do you think? Do you think that
22:47
Speaker 1: Amy Bechtel was a victim of... the Great Basin serial killer?
22:53
Speaker 1: Another serial killer, perhaps? Or do you think it was
22:56
Speaker 1: her husband who killed her? Me? I'm leaning towards her
23:00
Speaker 1: being kidnapped by somebody and killed. Now, again, that's just
23:04
Speaker 1: my opinion and based on what I've looked at here
23:07
Speaker 1: and what was going on at the time as far
23:09
Speaker 1: as people coming up missing in the Great Basin area. So,
23:14
Speaker 1: I thought this would be a great lead in for
23:17
Speaker 1: some of the stuff we're going to be discussing later
23:19
Speaker 1: on this week and in the coming weeks about the
23:22
Speaker 1: Great Basin Serial Killer and how some of these women
23:26
Speaker 1: are still not even identified. So that's going to do
23:30
Speaker 1: it for now, folks. But I'll be back later on
23:32
Speaker 1: with a little bit more and we'll certainly pick up
23:36
Speaker 1: where we left off. If you'd like to contact me,
23:39
Speaker 1: you can do that at BobbyCapucci at ProtonMail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I
23:48
Speaker 1: at ProtonMail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at
23:53
Speaker 1: B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that we discussed can be
23:59
Speaker 1: found in the description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome
24:03
Speaker 1: back to the program. In the episode about Amy Bechtel...
24:09
Speaker 1: I introduced you folks to the Great Basin serial killings
24:13
Speaker 1: and told you that we were going to be talking
24:15
Speaker 1: a little bit more about those. Well, in this episode,
24:19
Speaker 1: that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to
24:24
Speaker 1: talk about one of the victims of the Great Basin
24:27
Speaker 1: serial killer, a girl named Tanya Teske, just from a
24:32
Speaker 1: small little town in Shoshone, Wyoming, and somebody who, you know,
24:38
Speaker 1: grew up rough. had a rough time of it. Bounced around,
24:42
Speaker 1: went from place to place, was known to hitchhike around
24:46
Speaker 1: with truckers, and basically leading a lifestyle that was tailor-made
24:52
Speaker 1: for one of these sick bastards to get their hands
24:55
Speaker 1: on her. And that fateful day, whenever she put her
25:00
Speaker 1: thumb up in the air or negotiated a date with
25:05
Speaker 1: one of these truckers, well, she picked the wrong one.
25:08
Speaker 1: And her, like the other six women before her, well,
25:14
Speaker 1: she ended up dead. So let's take a look at
25:18
Speaker 1: the story of Tanya Teske. Now, we're going to have
25:23
Speaker 1: to go all the way back in time for this one, folks.
25:26
Speaker 1: And to do that, we have an article from August
25:28
Speaker 1: 26th of 1997. And this article is from the Bozeman
25:35
Speaker 1: Daily Chronicle. Author? Gail Schanzler. She didn't seem like a
25:43
Speaker 1: girl who had much of a future when she was
25:45
Speaker 1: quizzed by deputies at a Belgrade truck stop suspected of
25:50
Speaker 1: soliciting truckers. And unfortunately, this is a very, very dangerous practice.
25:56
Speaker 1: You have women who... They go to these truck stops
26:01
Speaker 1: because they know that a lot of these truckers are
26:03
Speaker 1: looking for dates while they're on the road. And they
26:07
Speaker 1: get into these trucks with strangers. They engage in, let
26:11
Speaker 1: us call it a business transaction with these truckers. And
26:15
Speaker 1: you have no idea who these people are. And if
26:18
Speaker 1: you get into one of their vehicles, forget it. There
26:23
Speaker 1: is a whole entire initiative out there right now by
26:26
Speaker 1: the FBI dealing with potential truckers who are serial killers.
26:31
Speaker 1: They're set up perfectly for it, aren't they? They're doing
26:34
Speaker 1: long haul trucking. They have a reason to be in
26:37
Speaker 1: a bunch of different states. And I was doing some
26:40
Speaker 1: research in this case. And you're able to, as a
26:46
Speaker 1: truck driver, from what I found out anyway, you can
26:49
Speaker 1: manipulate the GPS on your rig. So anybody out there
26:54
Speaker 1: who is thinking it's a good idea to be trolling
26:59
Speaker 1: truck stops, it is not. It is a very dangerous,
27:03
Speaker 1: transient life. And now don't get it twisted either. I'm
27:06
Speaker 1: not saying all truckers are serial killers, but it only
27:08
Speaker 1: takes one, right? It only takes the one wrong person.
27:14
Speaker 1: Two days later, she had no future at all. Her
27:17
Speaker 1: naked body was found dumped on a highway 20 on-ramp
27:21
Speaker 1: at Yukon, Idaho. She was only 18. And now this
27:25
Speaker 1: was one of the big moves that the Great Basin
27:31
Speaker 1: Serial Killer would do. You would have these women that
27:34
Speaker 1: were just left on the side of the road. And
27:38
Speaker 1: a lot of them were left at these sorts of areas, right?
27:42
Speaker 1: On ramps. A couple of them were posed in different positions.
27:47
Speaker 1: Just a whole entire scary-ass situation. On Monday, 10 days
27:56
Speaker 1: after her body was found, the Bonneville County Sheriff's detectives
28:00
Speaker 1: in Idaho Falls made a positive identification and notified her family.
28:06
Speaker 1: The girl they hadn't heard from since January had been found,
28:10
Speaker 1: probably murdered. And can you imagine getting that phone call?
28:15
Speaker 1: You have a falling out with your daughter or your son.
28:18
Speaker 1: They think that the grass is greener on the other side.
28:20
Speaker 1: We're leaving, Mom. We want nothing more to do with you.
28:24
Speaker 1: You never hear from them ever again. And then you
28:26
Speaker 1: get a phone call. It's the police or some investigative
28:31
Speaker 1: agency that's telling you that your daughter or your son
28:34
Speaker 1: is dead. All because some sick fuck gets off on
28:39
Speaker 1: murdering young women. She was Tanya Teske from the tiny
28:44
Speaker 1: town of Shoshone, Wyoming. She was a girl who'd been
28:48
Speaker 1: in some kind of trouble as a teenager, quit school
28:51
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, left her hometown thumbing rides
28:54
Speaker 1: with truckers, got in more trouble in Utah, dyed her
28:57
Speaker 1: hair brown so badly the blonde was turning orange, wore
29:03
Speaker 1: cheap silver, and mother of pearl ring from a tourist
29:07
Speaker 1: shop someplace, and finally thumbed a ride with the wrong guy.
29:12
Speaker 1: And it is, I mean, just so dangerous. to be
29:17
Speaker 1: a woman of the night, somebody who sells their body.
29:21
Speaker 1: And especially in a situation like that, at a truck stop,
29:25
Speaker 1: you're working the blade or whatever the local track is
29:29
Speaker 1: in your city. These are very dangerous jobs because obviously
29:33
Speaker 1: you're coming into contact with very, very, very sick and
29:37
Speaker 1: twisted people. And that doesn't mean every John is going
29:41
Speaker 1: to be sick and twisted, but there is a very
29:44
Speaker 1: high likelihood that you are going to come into contact
29:48
Speaker 1: with somebody who is violent and looking to cause you
29:51
Speaker 1: harm if you're a prostitute. Look at all of the
29:56
Speaker 1: prolific serial killers that we have seen throughout the country
30:01
Speaker 1: and look at who their targets were. Always drug addicts,
30:04
Speaker 1: always prostitutes, always transients, people who might not have a family,
30:09
Speaker 1: people who might not be, quote unquote, missed if they
30:11
Speaker 1: go missing. So they certainly have a template that they follow.
30:18
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, Gallatin County Sheriff Bill Slaughter called a press
30:21
Speaker 1: conference to ask the public for help in finding any
30:25
Speaker 1: information about her last days or any information about her killer.
30:31
Speaker 1: Tanya Teske was last seen alive in Gallatin County, leaving
30:34
Speaker 1: the Cinnamon Lodge near Big Sky on August 13th. About
30:39
Speaker 1: 10 p.m., she was carrying a large green suitcase and
30:42
Speaker 1: large brown shoulder bag. So she was obviously on the move.
30:48
Speaker 1: She was looking to get to whatever her next destination was,
30:51
Speaker 1: whether it was in, you know, a Gallatin County or elsewhere.
30:59
Speaker 1: And obviously it was elsewhere. She was about five foot nine,
31:04
Speaker 1: 150 pounds, stocky build with short cropped hair and a
31:08
Speaker 1: broad face. She gave the Utah County, Utah deputies a
31:12
Speaker 1: sullen look when she was busted in April for passing
31:15
Speaker 1: a forged $ 50 check to Pizza Hut. But even in
31:19
Speaker 1: the police mugshot, she seemed to have a pretty mouth
31:22
Speaker 1: and intense eyes. And when you look at her mugshot,
31:24
Speaker 1: she looks like any other woman, young girl who has
31:28
Speaker 1: been through it. Living a life of from hand to mouth,
31:33
Speaker 1: never knowing what tomorrow is going to bring, never knowing
31:37
Speaker 1: what sort of sick fuck you're going to get in
31:39
Speaker 1: the car with. It cannot be easy and it takes
31:42
Speaker 1: a toll. You see how people, you know, get wrinkled
31:47
Speaker 1: and stressed and how they're physically affected when they're under stress.
31:53
Speaker 1: And imagine living a life like this, like like Tanya
31:56
Speaker 1: was living. On August 13th, she attracted the attention of
32:02
Speaker 1: employees at the Broadway Flying J truck stop in Belgrade,
32:05
Speaker 1: formerly Bears Truck Stop. The manager said a husband-wife team
32:09
Speaker 1: of truckers came in and complained that a woman was
32:13
Speaker 1: soliciting for prostitution on the CB radio. The truck stopped,
32:17
Speaker 1: called the sheriff's department, about 6.30 p.m. So that's a
32:23
Speaker 1: big clue right there, too. If you're on the open
32:26
Speaker 1: CB radio and you're asking if anyone wants to have
32:31
Speaker 1: a date, you have no idea who you're broadcasting that to.
32:36
Speaker 1: That could end up, you know, the sickest man in
32:39
Speaker 1: the sickest part of the world could end up hearing
32:41
Speaker 1: that and know that you're vulnerable. So is that what happened?
32:47
Speaker 1: Did somebody hear the call on the CB radio and
32:50
Speaker 1: say to themselves, all right, well, I'm going to head
32:52
Speaker 1: down to the truck stop here and I'm going to,
32:55
Speaker 1: you know, do what I'm going to do. Deputies Jason
32:59
Speaker 1: Jarrett and Dan Springer and their supervisor, Bob Johnson, all
33:03
Speaker 1: talked to her, Slaughter said. They couldn't find anyone who
33:07
Speaker 1: had been solicited and there wasn't enough evidence to arrest her.
33:11
Speaker 1: So all they had to go on was the couple
33:13
Speaker 1: who said she was soliciting over the CB. But without
33:17
Speaker 1: having the evidence for it, you can't just arrest somebody
33:20
Speaker 1: on the word of somebody else, not for something like this.
33:24
Speaker 1: Slaughter said on the CB radio, she'd been telling truckers
33:26
Speaker 1: where to find her at the truck stop, saying they
33:29
Speaker 1: could get together and have some coffee. When confronted by
33:32
Speaker 1: the deputies, she was cooperative and said she'd just been
33:36
Speaker 1: joking around on the CB. Yeah, I don't know about that.
33:40
Speaker 1: somebody that is a known person who tries to sell
33:46
Speaker 1: their body to these truckers just messing around on the CB.
33:50
Speaker 1: I mean, nice excuse and good way to get yourself
33:52
Speaker 1: out of trouble, but we all know that she was
33:54
Speaker 1: living a very risky lifestyle. Now, does that mean she
33:58
Speaker 1: deserved what she got? Of course not. Of course not.
34:03
Speaker 1: And that's a lot, a lot of times, that's the
34:05
Speaker 1: mindset of the police, right? Oh, she was living a
34:08
Speaker 1: risky lifestyle, so forget it. Yeah, I don't play that game.
34:12
Speaker 1: I don't care if it's a risky lifestyle. She's a prostitute.
34:16
Speaker 1: That's someone's daughter. That's someone's mom. That's someone's cousin. And
34:21
Speaker 1: Tanya Teske and the other women who were murdered by
34:25
Speaker 1: allegedly the Great Basin serial killer, they all deserve justice.
34:32
Speaker 1: A national crime computer reported she was wanted for forgery
34:35
Speaker 1: in Utah, but the county wasn't willing to go to
34:37
Speaker 1: the expense of extraditing her for such a minor crime.
34:41
Speaker 1: If she'd been a few months younger, the deputies would
34:44
Speaker 1: have taken her into custody as a juvenile, the sheriff said.
34:48
Speaker 1: But her birthday in March made her an adult. They
34:51
Speaker 1: let her go. So there's really nothing the deputies could
34:53
Speaker 1: have done. I mean, they could have arrested her, I guess.
34:55
Speaker 1: But as far as them stepping in and stopping this situation,
35:00
Speaker 1: unfortunately not. This is just a young girl, a man
35:03
Speaker 1: who just turned 18 when this happened. She didn't deserve
35:08
Speaker 1: this fate. You'll always second-guess yourself, Slaughter said. In this case,
35:14
Speaker 1: they did everything they could. On August 15th, a trucker's
35:18
Speaker 1: wife riding shotgun in Yukon, Idaho, spotted a girl's body
35:22
Speaker 1: in the high grass of a steep on-ramp slope. The
35:26
Speaker 1: Idaho Falls Post Register reported there were no obvious wounds.
35:31
Speaker 1: Authorities are awaiting for toxicology reports to unravel the cause
35:36
Speaker 1: of death. And now, obviously, this far in the future,
35:40
Speaker 1: we know that she was murdered. The Bonneville County, Idaho
35:44
Speaker 1: sheriff put out a sketch of the unknown homicide victim.
35:48
Speaker 1: A trucker who saw the sketch on TV notified the
35:51
Speaker 1: sheriff's office that he had seen the young woman interviewed
35:54
Speaker 1: by deputies at the Belgrade truck stop authorities refused to
35:57
Speaker 1: release his name or say where he is from. So
36:02
Speaker 1: you had a witness as well come forward and say
36:04
Speaker 1: that he had saw her at this truck stop. You know,
36:08
Speaker 1: putting the pieces together for the investigators as they were
36:11
Speaker 1: trying to ID who this young girl was. Now investigators
36:15
Speaker 1: are looking for anyone who may have seen her during
36:18
Speaker 1: the week of August 11th to 15th on Interstate 90,
36:22
Speaker 1: Highway 191, Highway 20, or in the West Yellowstone area.
36:28
Speaker 1: In Idaho, detectives are seeking anyone who may have seen
36:33
Speaker 1: a semi-truck parked on the southbound on ramp to US
36:36
Speaker 1: Highway 20 in Yukon on August 14th or 15th. So
36:42
Speaker 1: they were going under the suspicion that it was a
36:44
Speaker 1: trucker who killed her, a long-haul trucker. And I'll tell
36:48
Speaker 1: you what, I definitely feel like the Great Basin serial
36:53
Speaker 1: killer was a long-haul trucker or somebody who was always
36:58
Speaker 1: on the move. And we're going to get to that
37:00
Speaker 1: a little bit down the road. We'll talk about, you know,
37:04
Speaker 1: the overall suspects and stuff like that. But first, I
37:08
Speaker 1: want to talk about the actual victims before we talk
37:12
Speaker 1: about the scumbags. Anyone with information is asked to call
37:18
Speaker 1: the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office at 582-2100 or call anonymously
37:24
Speaker 1: to Crime Stoppers, which pays rewards up to $ 1, 000 for
37:28
Speaker 1: tips and doesn't record calls. Back in Tanya Teske's hometown,
37:34
Speaker 1: officials at Shoshone High said only that she hadn't been
37:38
Speaker 1: in school for two years. The Riverton, Wyoming ranger reported
37:42
Speaker 1: she'd run away. And how many times do we hear that?
37:46
Speaker 1: Girls run away from their families, run away from their lives,
37:49
Speaker 1: only to find their way into the hands of some sick,
37:52
Speaker 1: demented fuckbag. At Dodie's Diner, owner Dodie Jacobs recalled that
37:58
Speaker 1: Tanya had applied for a job a few months ago.
38:02
Speaker 1: She did a poor job of filling out the application
38:05
Speaker 1: and wasn't hired. Her folks live in a trailer and
38:09
Speaker 1: have no phone, Jacob said, adding that she didn't know
38:12
Speaker 1: that they had jobs where they could be reached. Man.
38:16
Speaker 1: So another vulnerable girl, another girl from the wrong side
38:20
Speaker 1: of the tracks, a girl that didn't have much, ends
38:25
Speaker 1: up getting killed by some sick bastard serial killer. Shoshone
38:34
Speaker 1: is a tiny town of about 500 people where fishermen
38:37
Speaker 1: roll through on the way to Boyson Dam. Jacobs recalled
38:41
Speaker 1: the last time that she saw Tanya. She bought a pop,
38:45
Speaker 1: said she was going to Salt Lake City, and got
38:47
Speaker 1: a ride with a trucker. On Monday, someone at the
38:50
Speaker 1: drive-up window broke the news. The reaction was, God, they
38:54
Speaker 1: found her dead, Jacobs said. Anytime it's somebody that age,
38:58
Speaker 1: it's sad. That child's life? Wasted. Terrible. Look, this whole
39:06
Speaker 1: entire Great Basin serial killer and the effect that it
39:11
Speaker 1: had and the victims, I'll tell you what, this has
39:14
Speaker 1: been quite a dark journey the last few days as
39:19
Speaker 1: I've been looking at what this man is responsible for
39:23
Speaker 1: and the victims themselves. It mirrors just about all the
39:29
Speaker 1: other cases. that we talk about. Young girls, wrong side
39:32
Speaker 1: of the tracks, vulnerable, and then a predator happens upon
39:38
Speaker 1: them and this is the end result. And the crazy
39:42
Speaker 1: part is this. Nobody was ever caught For this murder.
39:46
Speaker 1: Nobody was ever caught. For the Great Basin serial killings.
39:50
Speaker 1: Now there has been some. Conjecture about who the Great
39:54
Speaker 1: Basin serial killer is. But we don't have any concrete information. So.
40:00
Speaker 1: As we continue to explore. What went down here. And
40:03
Speaker 1: look at the victims. And then on to some of
40:06
Speaker 1: the suspects. What you're going to see. Is that this person.
40:13
Speaker 1: not only was able to continue to commit these crimes
40:16
Speaker 1: for years, but chances are they committed these crimes elsewhere
40:23
Speaker 1: as well. If you'd like to contact me, you can
40:26
Speaker 1: do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com.
40:36
Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I.
40:43
Speaker 1: The link that we discussed can be found in the
40:46
Speaker 1: description box. All right, everyone, and welcome back to the program.
40:51
Speaker 1: As we continue talking about the Great Basin serial killer
40:56
Speaker 1: and those who might be victims of that person, we
41:00
Speaker 1: have to talk about the Little Miss murder. Now, the
41:05
Speaker 1: Little Miss murder was something that happened in the 80s,
41:10
Speaker 1: 1988 to be exact. And the girl's name who went
41:15
Speaker 1: missing was Lisa Marie Kimmel. Now, they called her Little Miss.
41:20
Speaker 1: That was what her family called her. But it was
41:22
Speaker 1: also the vanity license plate on her Honda CRX. Kimmy
41:28
Speaker 1: was said to be on a road trip at the
41:29
Speaker 1: time to go and see her boyfriend, and she never arrived.
41:33
Speaker 1: So let's dive right in to the Little Miss murder.
41:39
Speaker 1: This article was published by Ranker.com and the author is
41:44
Speaker 1: Rachel Sowerby. On March 25th, 1988, Lisa Marie Kimmel vanished
41:52
Speaker 1: seemingly without a trace. The 18-year-old, known by her family
41:56
Speaker 1: as Little Miss, was driving through Wyoming to visit her
42:00
Speaker 1: boyfriend when she went missing. Despite frantic search efforts, investigators
42:05
Speaker 1: found her body eight days later. So she was on
42:10
Speaker 1: her way to go see her boyfriend, and she was
42:14
Speaker 1: traveling through this area where the Great Basin serial killer
42:19
Speaker 1: was active. This case, later known as the Little Miss Murder,
42:27
Speaker 1: became infamous as it sat unsolved for 14 years. However,
42:32
Speaker 1: new DNA identification technology eventually led to the discovery of
42:36
Speaker 1: Kimmel's killer, a man who had provided a DNA sample
42:41
Speaker 1: when entering the prison system. The facts and evidence surrounding
42:45
Speaker 1: Kimmel's murder eventually came together, leading police right to the
42:49
Speaker 1: man responsible and bringing her family justice well over a
42:54
Speaker 1: decade later. Now, think about this. We're talking about 1988.
43:00
Speaker 1: They didn't have the kind of technology that they have
43:03
Speaker 1: now when we're talking about DNA, cold case techniques. So
43:07
Speaker 1: everything was a bit rudimentary. Well, fast forward to today
43:13
Speaker 1: and we all know the DNA technology that they have.
43:16
Speaker 1: And when you go to prison or you're arrested, that
43:19
Speaker 1: DNA is taken and it's put into a database. And
43:23
Speaker 1: that's how they were eventually able to catch the dude
43:26
Speaker 1: who killed her. Kimmel was driving through Wyoming to visit
43:31
Speaker 1: her boyfriend when she went missing. Originally from Billings, Montana,
43:36
Speaker 1: Lisa Marie Kimmel was driving and working in Denver, Colorado
43:41
Speaker 1: in 1988 when she decided to drive back to her
43:44
Speaker 1: hometown on March 25th and make a quick stop in Cody,
43:49
Speaker 1: Wyoming to pick up her boyfriend. She was planning to
43:52
Speaker 1: introduce him to her family for the first time and
43:55
Speaker 1: was eager for her parents to meet him. Her route
43:58
Speaker 1: was an eight-hour drive almost directly north, passing through the
44:03
Speaker 1: entire state of Wyoming. Unfortunately, she never made it to Cody.
44:08
Speaker 1: The last credible witness to see her alive was a
44:11
Speaker 1: highway patrol officer who pulled Kimmel over for speeding in Douglas, Wyoming,
44:16
Speaker 1: barely halfway through her trip. So think about that for
44:20
Speaker 1: a minute. You're her family, you're her parents. She goes
44:24
Speaker 1: on this trip to go see her boyfriend. and then
44:26
Speaker 1: she's never seen again. The only person who has seen
44:30
Speaker 1: her that we know of, that will admit to it anyway,
44:33
Speaker 1: is the highway patrol officer. Two fishermen found Kimmel in
44:42
Speaker 1: the North Platte River. The search for Lisa Marie Kimmel
44:45
Speaker 1: was a frantic one, with family members anxiously joining police
44:49
Speaker 1: efforts in hopes of locating the 18-year-old. Sadly, on April 2nd, 1988,
44:56
Speaker 1: two men who were fishing in the North Platte River
44:58
Speaker 1: found Kimmel's body floating face down in a clump of weeds.
45:03
Speaker 1: And it certainly fits with the Great Basin serial killer
45:07
Speaker 1: and the way he did his business, right? He would
45:09
Speaker 1: leave these girls out, displayed. We know the girls in Elko,
45:13
Speaker 1: a couple of them anyway, were left and they were
45:17
Speaker 1: posed in the position of a cross, right? So we
45:21
Speaker 1: know that this guy, this is how he disposed of
45:24
Speaker 1: the bodies, how he disposed of the girls. And unfortunately
45:29
Speaker 1: for Lisa Marie Kimmel and her family, there wasn't a
45:33
Speaker 1: happy ending here. It wasn't she was just, you know,
45:36
Speaker 1: a little bit late or she decided to make a
45:39
Speaker 1: stop at another friend's house. She ran into a monster.
45:48
Speaker 1: Eight days after her disappearance, Our worst nightmare materialized. Two
45:52
Speaker 1: fishermen found Lisa's body early Saturday morning, April 2nd, 1988.
45:58
Speaker 1: She hadn't had a wreck. Her body had been dropped
46:01
Speaker 1: from the old government bridge near Casper, Wyoming into the
46:05
Speaker 1: North Platte River. Our beautiful daughter was gone. And those
46:10
Speaker 1: were the comments her mother made in her book, The
46:13
Speaker 1: Murder of Little Miss. Now, I haven't read this book,
46:16
Speaker 1: but I do plan on grabbing it since I'm diving
46:19
Speaker 1: so deep into the Great Basin serial killer and the
46:23
Speaker 1: murders that he or she or whoever committed. I'm probably
46:28
Speaker 1: going to add this book to the list. Authorities determined
46:33
Speaker 1: Kimmel died on or near a remote bridge. Coroner James Thorpen,
46:39
Speaker 1: who examined Kimmel's body, determined that the young woman had
46:42
Speaker 1: been hit over the head and repeatedly stabbed. Based on
46:46
Speaker 1: the condition of Kimmel's body when it was found, Thorpen
46:49
Speaker 1: estimated the kidnapper had held her for around six days.
46:53
Speaker 1: She had been repeatedly sexually assaulted. So the sick fuck
46:58
Speaker 1: kidnapped her, held her hostage for six days, raped her,
47:01
Speaker 1: assaulted her, abused her, tortured her, and then discarded her
47:05
Speaker 1: off of a bridge like she meant nothing. Absolutely horrendous.
47:15
Speaker 1: What sort of monster is this person? Blood matching Kimmel's
47:20
Speaker 1: found at the old government bridge led police to believe
47:23
Speaker 1: she had either been killed there or close to the
47:26
Speaker 1: location before being dumped into the river. Now, a lot
47:30
Speaker 1: of the more sophisticated killers, they won't kill at the
47:34
Speaker 1: site where they're going to leave the body. There is
47:36
Speaker 1: too much evidence, DNA and otherwise. So they'll kill elsewhere,
47:40
Speaker 1: then dump the body in hopes that it gets rid
47:43
Speaker 1: of whatever evidence might be present due to the elements.
47:48
Speaker 1: Witnesses claim to have seen Kimmel driving her car after
47:51
Speaker 1: her disappearance. Not long after Kimmel's remains were found, the
47:55
Speaker 1: true crime series Unsolved Mysteries aired a segment on the case.
48:00
Speaker 1: The program featured two prominent individuals that claim that they
48:04
Speaker 1: saw Kimmel's car on the streets in hours and days
48:07
Speaker 1: following her death, muddying the investigation. One was Donna Kirkpatrick,
48:14
Speaker 1: who was married to a local county sheriff. She stated,
48:17
Speaker 1: It was Saturday at noon and I noticed a little
48:20
Speaker 1: black sports car had pulled out right in front of me.
48:23
Speaker 1: Then I noticed the license plate. It was a Montana
48:26
Speaker 1: license plate with Little Miss on it. And at that point,
48:29
Speaker 1: I decided that I needed to see if the car
48:31
Speaker 1: went with whoever was driving it. I am absolutely positive
48:36
Speaker 1: there was a young gal driving it. There's no doubt
48:38
Speaker 1: in my mind. Well, as it turned out, this couldn't
48:42
Speaker 1: be the case because Lisa's car, well, her car was buried.
48:47
Speaker 1: by the man who killed her. The other eyewitnesses reported
48:52
Speaker 1: seeing Kimmel's Honda and her distinct vanity license plate in Casper, Wyoming,
48:57
Speaker 1: more than 100 miles from the spot where her remains
49:00
Speaker 1: were found. The person claimed they saw somebody with blonde
49:05
Speaker 1: hair driving and they had on a yellow sweater. Officers
49:09
Speaker 1: received numerous other tips and alleging they had seen Kimmel
49:14
Speaker 1: or at least someone who looked like her driving her
49:16
Speaker 1: vehicle post-mortem. The sightings even extend into Canada. And a
49:22
Speaker 1: lot of times when you have something as far as
49:24
Speaker 1: a case or a situation on something like Unsolved Mysteries,
49:29
Speaker 1: you're going to have people call in who think that
49:31
Speaker 1: they have seen the person or seen the car. And
49:35
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's just not the case. Ultimately,
49:40
Speaker 1: None of these reports amounted to much, and while they
49:43
Speaker 1: ultimately proved to be impossible, they have never been fully explained. Well,
49:49
Speaker 1: it could be a case of misidentification, another car that's similar,
49:54
Speaker 1: people wanting to see what they want to see, but
49:56
Speaker 1: the fact is, there's no way that it could have
49:59
Speaker 1: been her car. The whereabouts of Kimmel's car remained a mystery.
50:07
Speaker 1: One of the key clues in this case was Kimmel's car,
50:11
Speaker 1: a black Honda CRX, which sported custom license plates that
50:15
Speaker 1: read L-I-L-M-I-S-S, Lil Miss, making it easy to spot. Kimmel
50:23
Speaker 1: had gone by the nickname Little Miss since she was
50:25
Speaker 1: a child, and her grandmother liked to call her Little
50:28
Speaker 1: Miss Lisa Marie. Although investigators found Kimmel's body and despite
50:33
Speaker 1: alleged sightings of the vehicle days after her murder, police
50:37
Speaker 1: couldn't locate the distinctive vehicle. Kimmel's father even chartered a
50:42
Speaker 1: small plane so he could fly over her route and
50:45
Speaker 1: try to spot it from the air. His search efforts,
50:48
Speaker 1: though extensive, were in vain. Now imagine you're this girl's dad.
50:53
Speaker 1: He's up there. He doesn't know what else to do.
50:55
Speaker 1: He's going crazy. He's at a loss. I'm going to
50:57
Speaker 1: charter a plane and I'm going to fly over myself
51:00
Speaker 1: and look for my kid. I feel him. I would
51:03
Speaker 1: never stop. I honestly would never stop. I know how
51:06
Speaker 1: I am. And that doesn't mean I'd ever find anything,
51:09
Speaker 1: but I would never stop. I'd be taking hikes in
51:13
Speaker 1: the area, you know, planes, whatever it is, getting some
51:17
Speaker 1: of that radar that can penetrate the ground, all of
51:21
Speaker 1: that stuff. Whatever I could possibly do, I'd be doing
51:24
Speaker 1: it just like her dad did. Someone left a cryptic
51:29
Speaker 1: note at Kimmel's gravesite. In October of 1988, less than
51:33
Speaker 1: a year after Kimmel's remains were laid to rest, a
51:36
Speaker 1: family friend discovered a mysterious note taped to the slain
51:40
Speaker 1: teen's headstone. It read, Lisa, there ain't words to say
51:44
Speaker 1: how much you're missed. The pain never leaves. It's so
51:47
Speaker 1: hard without you. You'll always be alive in me. Your
51:50
Speaker 1: death is my painful loss, but heaven's sweet gain. Love always,
51:55
Speaker 1: Stringfellow Hawk. The sign name was the same as a
51:59
Speaker 1: character from the short-lived television series, Airwolf, about a withdrawn
52:05
Speaker 1: and soulful pilot, according to NBC.com, who lives in a
52:09
Speaker 1: remote cabin and uses a secret military helicopter to search
52:13
Speaker 1: for his missing brother. Why the author of the note
52:16
Speaker 1: chose this nom de plume would remain a mystery. Certainly
52:21
Speaker 1: a man who is deranged. Anyone going and leaving notes
52:24
Speaker 1: like that and sick people, man, a whole world full
52:27
Speaker 1: of sick people. With few leads, the case eventually went cold.
52:32
Speaker 1: Police struggled to gather leads and information on the Lisa
52:35
Speaker 1: Kimmel case, on the Lisa Marie Kimmel case. Don Flickinger,
52:39
Speaker 1: a now retired federal agent from Billings, Montana, told the
52:42
Speaker 1: Casper Star Tribune in 2003 about the various methods that
52:47
Speaker 1: the authorities used back in the 80s and 90s. According
52:52
Speaker 1: to Flickinger, he personally traveled to Texas, Nevada, and even
52:56
Speaker 1: Alaska in his quest to find Kimmel's killer. He became
53:00
Speaker 1: deeply involved in the case, spending six years taking blood
53:03
Speaker 1: samples from dozens of people for DNA, interviewing cult members,
53:09
Speaker 1: and consulting psychics. Ultimately, none of these leads would pan out,
53:14
Speaker 1: causing the case to lay dormant for many years. And
53:18
Speaker 1: as an investigator, that must be insane too. I know
53:21
Speaker 1: as just a researcher and content creator, when I can't
53:24
Speaker 1: find answers to questions I'm looking for, it makes me insane.
53:28
Speaker 1: So I can only imagine that when you're a full-blown
53:30
Speaker 1: investigator with all of those resources at your fingertips, how
53:34
Speaker 1: difficult it must be to come to terms with the
53:36
Speaker 1: fact you can't finish your job. And me? In 2002,
53:42
Speaker 1: new DNA technology led to a breakthrough in the case.
53:47
Speaker 1: In 2002, Fourteen years after Kimmel's death, investigators finally got
53:52
Speaker 1: a hit on the DNA gathered from the crime scene.
53:56
Speaker 1: It turned out to match with a man named Dale
53:58
Speaker 1: Wayne Eaton, a drifter in his late 50s who happened
54:02
Speaker 1: to be in prison already. And now there's a lot
54:05
Speaker 1: of talk that Delwayne Eaton is responsible for a number,
54:10
Speaker 1: or some say the majority, of the Great Basin serial killings. However,
54:15
Speaker 1: that has not been proved yet. And there might be
54:18
Speaker 1: multiple people doing this. When you look at all of
54:21
Speaker 1: the people who have gone missing or who have been
54:23
Speaker 1: killed in this area, it is terrifying. So I'm not
54:29
Speaker 1: too sure if I'm willing or ready to say that
54:32
Speaker 1: Dale Wayne Eaton killed the rest of these girls, but
54:36
Speaker 1: I will say this, there's no doubt that he killed
54:39
Speaker 1: Lisa Marie Kimmel. Authorities quickly searched Eaton's property and discovered
54:46
Speaker 1: Kimmel's black Honda CRX buried near an old shed there.
54:50
Speaker 1: The little miss license plate was still intact. Handwriting expert
54:55
Speaker 1: Jim Brose also matched Eaton's handwriting to the note left
54:58
Speaker 1: at Kimmel's gravesite that was signed, Stringfellow Hawk. Writer Kay
55:03
Speaker 1: Carpenter later speculated that Eaton saw something of himself in
55:07
Speaker 1: the Airwolf character, whom journalist Greg Tuttle called a reclusive
55:12
Speaker 1: warrior with relationship problems. Ultimately, however, it is unknown why
55:17
Speaker 1: Eaton chose this name. And now this Eaton fella, he
55:21
Speaker 1: was given the death penalty, but they pulled it off
55:24
Speaker 1: of the table. And now he's just doing life. There's
55:27
Speaker 1: really nothing over his head that investigators or authorities can
55:31
Speaker 1: use to get him to talk. So he hasn't said
55:33
Speaker 1: shit about any of this stuff. Based on this evidence,
55:38
Speaker 1: witness testimonies, and Eaton's ultimate confession, it was determined that
55:43
Speaker 1: Eaton likely kidnapped Kimmel at gunpoint from a Wyoming rest
55:46
Speaker 1: stop bathroom. Though, reports conflict. Joseph Dax, a fellow inmate
55:52
Speaker 1: who had served time with Eaton at a Colorado federal prison,
55:56
Speaker 1: testified that Eaton told him Kimmel had agreed to give
56:00
Speaker 1: him a ride, but attempted to kick him out of
56:03
Speaker 1: her vehicle after he made suggestive remarks. Eaton later claimed,
56:08
Speaker 1: He returned home to find Kimmel on his property and
56:10
Speaker 1: believed she intended to rob him. That was his excuse.
56:13
Speaker 1: This little ass girl with a license plate, Little Miss,
56:17
Speaker 1: was on his property and she intended to rob him.
56:20
Speaker 1: So he had to kill her and bury her car.
56:22
Speaker 1: Catherine Cortez Mastiff. Fucking clown. Eaton kept Kimmel bound for
56:27
Speaker 1: several days inside an old bus on his property. Coroner
56:31
Speaker 1: James Thorpen later testified in Eaton's death sentence hearing that
56:35
Speaker 1: the blow to the head Kimmel suffered likely knocked her unconscious,
56:39
Speaker 1: so she did not endure the experience of Eaton stabbing
56:42
Speaker 1: her to death. In 2003, Eaton was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping,
56:49
Speaker 1: and sexual assault in the Kimmel case. Still not enough.
56:53
Speaker 1: He should have been put to death, 100%, without a doubt.
56:58
Speaker 1: Some authorities believe Eaton may be a serial killer. Prior
57:02
Speaker 1: to being convicted in Kimmel's murder, Eaton went to federal
57:05
Speaker 1: prison for aggravated assault and possession of an illegal firearm.
57:10
Speaker 1: In 1998, he offered assistance to a family whose car
57:14
Speaker 1: had broken down on the side of the road. Shannon
57:16
Speaker 1: Breeden and her husband Scott Breeden, along with their infant child,
57:20
Speaker 1: accepted a ride from Eaton, who, after only a few
57:24
Speaker 1: miles of traveling, pulled a rifle on Scott and told
57:27
Speaker 1: them to drive down a remote road. The couple managed
57:31
Speaker 1: to wrestle the rifle away from Eaton, however, and also
57:35
Speaker 1: stab him with his own knife. Details of this attempted
57:38
Speaker 1: kidnapping and murder sound eerily familiar to Kimmel's ordeal. 100,000%.
57:45
Speaker 1: But what I will say is this as well. It
57:48
Speaker 1: doesn't fit with him grabbing the drifters, him being the
57:52
Speaker 1: Great Basin serial killer. He went after people who were alone.
57:56
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure here what to believe yet. Both
58:02
Speaker 1: Don Flickinger, the retired federal agent that spent years investigating
58:06
Speaker 1: Kimmel's murder, and Greg Cooper, a former FBI profiler who
58:10
Speaker 1: reviewed Kimmel's case, agree that Eaton displays many of the
58:14
Speaker 1: telltale signs of a serial killer. Eaton's prosecutor, Mike Blangian,
58:20
Speaker 1: also stated he is a person of interest in several
58:23
Speaker 1: other homicide disappearances, in particular the case of Amy Roe Bechtel,
58:29
Speaker 1: who vanished while jogging in a remote area of Lander,
58:33
Speaker 1: Wyoming in 1997. Eaton was allegedly in the area at
58:37
Speaker 1: the time of Bechtel's disappearance. And you heard the story
58:41
Speaker 1: of Amy Bechtel in the episode that I posted earlier.
58:48
Speaker 1: And you're going to keep hearing about these girls as
58:50
Speaker 1: we continue to explore the Grand Basin serial killer and
58:54
Speaker 1: the women that he killed. Eaton may also be responsible
59:00
Speaker 1: for a string of deaths collectively known as the Great
59:03
Speaker 1: Basin Murders, which spanned from 1983 to 1997. Before his
59:05
Speaker 1: conviction of the crime, in 2002, Kimmel's case had been
59:12
Speaker 1: considered part of these slayings. However, two other cases in
59:17
Speaker 1: the Great Basin Murders have been conclusively solved and thus
59:21
Speaker 1: not linked to Eaton. And according to Cooper, during a
59:24
Speaker 1: 1998 review of the killings, Eaton was not considered a suspect. So,
59:31
Speaker 1: I think there's multiple serial killers at work here. That's
59:34
Speaker 1: the most terrifying thing I could say to you folks,
59:37
Speaker 1: but I truly believe that there are or were multiple
59:41
Speaker 1: serial killers at work. Kimmel's parents co-wrote a book about
59:48
Speaker 1: the experience. 17 years after the loss of her daughter,
59:53
Speaker 1: Sheila Kimmel met a publisher who wanted her to write
59:56
Speaker 1: about the death of Lisa Marie. Many people, including the publisher,
1:00:00
Speaker 1: believe Sheila could find closure by writing a book about
1:00:04
Speaker 1: her tragic loss. The book was titled The Murder of
1:00:07
Speaker 1: Little Miss and was co-written by Kay Carpenter. However, Sheila
1:00:12
Speaker 1: felt there wasn't any true closure for her and her husband.
1:00:16
Speaker 1: A book wouldn't bring their daughter back, but the Kimmels
1:00:18
Speaker 1: decided to write it as a way to give back
1:00:21
Speaker 1: to everyone who had supported her family through the nightmare.
1:00:25
Speaker 1: Ron Kimmel summed up their feelings about the process in
1:00:29
Speaker 1: a 2005 interview with the Billings Gazette. We're not writers.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: We just happen to be a family that lived through
1:00:34
Speaker 1: a tragedy that people want to know about. The people
1:00:38
Speaker 1: who have followed this all these years deserve to know
1:00:41
Speaker 1: everything there is to know about it. Yo, that is
1:00:45
Speaker 1: awesome by our dad, honestly. All of the people that
1:00:48
Speaker 1: dove in to help out. Instead of thinking about how
1:00:51
Speaker 1: we feel or we want to keep it private, the
1:00:54
Speaker 1: parents and the dad are like, look, we want all
1:00:56
Speaker 1: of the people that shared this experience with us to
1:00:59
Speaker 1: feel what we're feeling. The year-long process was tough on Sheila,
1:01:05
Speaker 1: who often had to dredge up painful memories and drove
1:01:08
Speaker 1: home the fact that the pain of her loss had
1:01:11
Speaker 1: never truly gone away. There were times... I could stand
1:01:15
Speaker 1: back and be objective, and other times I just couldn't.
1:01:19
Speaker 1: There are still areas that I can go back and,
1:01:21
Speaker 1: as I review the book, I can't help it. I
1:01:24
Speaker 1: just cry. It's just there. I guess it would be
1:01:27
Speaker 1: a real sad commentary on my daughter's life if I
1:01:29
Speaker 1: didn't feel that way. Even though it's been time a
1:01:32
Speaker 1: lot of years, it just doesn't really go away. I
1:01:36
Speaker 1: can't even imagine writing a book after this tragedy. Now,
1:01:40
Speaker 1: I'm sure it is therapeutic, but me? I know how
1:01:43
Speaker 1: I am. I'd be a blubbering mess with one goal
1:01:47
Speaker 1: in mind, finding the person responsible at all costs. In
1:01:52
Speaker 1: an act of further catharsis, in 2005, the Kimmel sued
1:01:57
Speaker 1: Eaton for the wrongful death of their daughter and won
1:02:00
Speaker 1: the case. As payment, they were awarded Eaton's property, the
1:02:04
Speaker 1: very place where he murdered their daughter years prior. They
1:02:08
Speaker 1: decided to burn Eaton's home to the ground. Good for them. Now,
1:02:13
Speaker 1: you can't have your daughter back. You can't get your
1:02:15
Speaker 1: hands on fuckbag because he's in prison. But what you
1:02:18
Speaker 1: can do is burn down the place where this motherfucker lived.
1:02:23
Speaker 1: Eaton's lawyer claimed he didn't receive a fair trial. That's
1:02:26
Speaker 1: what they always claim, isn't it? In 2012, Dale Wayne
1:02:30
Speaker 1: Eaton's legal representatives brought the Little Miss case back into
1:02:33
Speaker 1: the spotlight, claiming that their client had not received a
1:02:37
Speaker 1: fair trial and did not deserve the death penalty. They
1:02:40
Speaker 1: made several claims. The first centered around the fact that Dr.
1:02:44
Speaker 1: Kenneth Ash, a psychiatrist, believed Eaton had bipolar disorder and
1:02:50
Speaker 1: was mentally unwell. So it doesn't make him crazy though, right?
1:02:55
Speaker 1: Mentally unwell. We're all mentally unwell. The second claim involved
1:03:01
Speaker 1: a fellow inmate who had been close with Eaton. He
1:03:04
Speaker 1: testified against Eaton in court, revealing details of his crime.
1:03:08
Speaker 1: The lawyers claimed the jury had not been told the
1:03:10
Speaker 1: inmate was in line to receive a lower prison sentence
1:03:13
Speaker 1: for doing so. Well, that's how it usually works, isn't it?
1:03:16
Speaker 1: People don't just snitch for no reason. You have to
1:03:18
Speaker 1: dangle a little something in front of them. According to
1:03:23
Speaker 1: Casper Star Tribune writer Shane Sanderson, in 2014, a federal
1:03:29
Speaker 1: appeals court threw out Eaton's death sentence, ruling that he
1:03:32
Speaker 1: had not received appropriate representation during that stage in the proceedings.
1:03:37
Speaker 1: Before Eaton could be sentenced again, defense attorneys brought a
1:03:41
Speaker 1: series of appeals seeking to prohibit him from being resentenced
1:03:45
Speaker 1: to death. Eaton's lawyers ultimately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,
1:03:51
Speaker 1: but in May 2020, the court declined to hear the case.
1:03:55
Speaker 1: As of September 2020, Eaton awaits resentencing in Wyoming's federal
1:03:59
Speaker 1: district court pending mental reevaluation. Well, folks, that is the
1:04:06
Speaker 1: gist of the Little Miss murder case. And it falls
1:04:10
Speaker 1: right in line with everything we've been talking about with
1:04:13
Speaker 1: the Great Basin serial killer. Now, I'm not saying that
1:04:18
Speaker 1: Eaton is the man, and I'm not saying that he's not.
1:04:21
Speaker 1: It is my opinion as of right now, and I
1:04:24
Speaker 1: do reserve the right to change my opinion, however, if
1:04:27
Speaker 1: we get some more evidence here. But I'm thinking that
1:04:30
Speaker 1: there are multiple serial killers to be blamed for this.
1:04:34
Speaker 1: And we're also going to be exploring some other unsolved
1:04:40
Speaker 1: deaths of women that could also possibly be tied to this.
1:04:44
Speaker 1: Some right here in Las Vegas even. So we're going
1:04:49
Speaker 1: to continue to explore the Great Basin serial killer and
1:04:55
Speaker 1: all of the victims that were tied to this man
1:05:00
Speaker 1: or these people who were killing women at a huge
1:05:04
Speaker 1: clip literally for over three decades. If you'd like to
1:05:11
Speaker 1: contact me, you can do that at BobbyCapucci at ProtonMail.com.
1:05:16
Speaker 1: That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at ProtonMail.com. You can also find me on
1:05:23
Speaker 1: Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that we discussed
1:05:31
Speaker 1: can be found in the description box. All right.