In short
The disappearance and deaths of four Colorado women—Casey McLeod (Aug 23, 2003), Jennifer Markham (Feb 18, 2003), Leanne Emery (Jan 16, 2003), and Terry Kimball (uncle of Scott Kimball, vanished 2004)—and how investigators concluded Scott “Hannibal” Kimball orchestrated them using FBI informant access and manipulation.
Guests (backgrounds)
Howard Emery and Rob McLeod are fathers of Leanne Emery and Casey McLeod. Jennifer Markham’s father Bob Markham and mother Mary Willis are also interviewed. Lori McLeod is Casey’s mother and Scott Kimball’s wife. Terry Kimball’s family includes Rob McLeod. Law enforcement includes FBI Special Agent Jonathan Grusing, FBI Agent Carl Schlough (referenced), and Detective Gary Thatcher.
Key claims
Kimball was an FBI informant and con artist who manipulated families and investigators; he killed/arranged killings and concealed bodies. The FBI initially dismissed leads.
Notable examples
Leanne’s car found abandoned in Moab, Utah; Casey’s skull identified by DNA in a national forest area; Kimball’s laptop allegedly containing Leanne’s photo; Jennifer’s car found at Denver International Airport; a skull/bones near a boulder matched Casey.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODefining a Serial Killer
0:05 to 2:18
An overview of what constitutes a serial killer, supported by real cases.
“A serial killer, as we define it in the FBI, is three or more victims over a period of time.”
The Disappearance of Leanne Emery
2:18 to 3:50
The story of Leanne Emery's disappearance and the search by her family.
“The person that was causing this trouble, his name was Hannibal.”
Casey McCloud's Vanishing
3:50 to 5:46
Details surrounding Casey McCloud's disappearance and her family's response.
“She was a very happy, easy to get along with, wanting to please type of kid.”
The Connection Between Victims
5:46 to 9:02
Discussion about the connections among the cases of Leanne and Casey.
“I think it actually made it stronger because she knew I was really looking out for her.”
Howard Emery's Search for Answers
9:02 to 11:44
Howard Emery's investigation into his daughter's life and secrets before her disappearance.
“The most unbearable thing for me to think of of my daughter is that someone took her, something precious, something important to me, and destroyed it and threw it away.”
Uncovering Leanne's Secret Life
11:44 to 14:01
Howard discovers unsettling truths about Leanne's life leading to her disappearance.
“All her clothes, stuff like that, was left in the car.”
The Cryptic Warnings
14:01 to 15:21
Learn about the cryptic letters and the warnings about Leanne's danger.
“but was being protected by someone with a curious nickname.”
Hannibal's Identity Revealed
15:21 to 16:18
Discover the true identity of Hannibal and his connection to the case.
“Even Brent Pace, who kept up the search.”
Lori's Growing Suspicions
16:18 to 17:28
Explore Lori McLeod's suspicions about Scott Kimball after their marriage.
“Laurie McLeod began having suspicions about Scott Kimball after they were married in August 2003.”
Detective Gary Thatcher's Investigation
17:28 to 18:33
Follow Detective Thatcher as he uncovers Scott Kimball's criminal past.
“It was when I had an officer come to me with this check fraud case.”
Show all 20 chapters
The Disappearance of Jennifer Markham
18:33 to 20:08
Learn about Jennifer Markham's disappearance and the investigation that followed.
“Now with Kimball safely in custody, Detective Thatcher made a vow to Rob McCloud.”
Scott Kimball's Chilling Claims
20:08 to 22:20
Understand the chilling claims made by Scott Kimball regarding Jennifer's fate.
“Markham kept pressing Schloth for answers, so the agent set up a meeting with his informant, who had once shared a prison cell with Jennifer's boyfriend.”
Fathers United in Suspicions
22:20 to 24:36
Discover how two fathers united to confront the FBI about their missing daughters.
“I think they really thought that by doing this, we would become one of the families that would just turn around and get on the airplane and go back home, and Jennifer would just disappear.”
The Complex Investigation Unfolds
24:36 to 28:01
Witness how the investigation into Scott Kimball intensifies and connects the cases.
“I think they took it as, wow, maybe there is something here.”
The Discovery of Victims
28:01 to 29:55
Learn how investigators linked Scott Kimball to multiple victim disappearances.
“And when you heard those words, what thoughts went through your mind?”
The Turning Point in the Case
29:56 to 31:38
Discover how the investigation turned towards homicide after discovering remains.
“After four long years, Rob McCloud finally had an answer to his prayers.”
Scott Kimball's Manipulations Unveiled
31:39 to 33:30
Explore Kimball's strategies and manipulations during the investigation.
“and in the winter of 2009, he led authorities to the remote canyons of eastern Utah, where he claimed they would find the remains of Leanne Emery and Jennifer Markham.”
Trial and Sentencing of Scott Kimball
33:31 to 36:54
Learn about the trial process and the eventual sentencing of Scott Kimball.
“I think Scott enjoys manipulating people.”
The Aftermath and Investigator Reflections
36:55 to 39:18
Understand the aftermath of the case and the reflections from investigators.
“People call me cold-blooded, cold-hearted, but you'll find dozens of people that will say just the opposite.”
Continuing Search for Jennifer Markham
39:19 to 41:17
The ongoing search for Jennifer Markham and the impact on her family.
“And I know we used the phrase dealing with the devil.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00. . . .
0:04.
0:10A serial killer, as we define it in the FBI, is three or more victims over a period of time. So, you kill one person, you wait a while. Cooling off period, you kill another one. You wait a while and you kill another one. Leanne Emery is the daughter of Howard and Darlene Emery. She left home on January 16th, 2003, and told her parents she was going to Mexico with friends to go caving. A few days after she left my place, her car was found abandoned in Moab, Utah, and I haven't seen her since.
0:51Jennifer Markham is the daughter of Bob Markham and Mary Willis. Her car was found parked at the Denver International Airport on February 18, 2003. If she didn't call me in a few months, then I would call her back. And I'd always say, Jennifer, give me a call. I want to make sure you're okay. Nothing's happened to you. Casey McCloud is the daughter of Rob and Lori McCloud. She was 19 years old at the time that she disappeared. She was offered a ride to work. She never returned. And that was the night of August 23rd, 2003. At first we thought she was a runaway. It's a story that made sense, but slowly over time we became convinced that that wasn't the truth.
1:40I know Casey was set up. I feel I let her down.
1:48Terry Kimball was a recent divorcee who came to the Denver area seeking work on a ranch. Around the 1st of August 2004, he disappeared.
1:59Harold Dow:Was there any point, Agent Gusing, that you realized that these cases, all four of them, were somehow connected? Yes. We know about four victims. We don't know if there are other victims, but serial killers don't just kill four people and be done with it. The person that was causing this trouble, his name was Hannibal. It's chilling. It's Silence of the Lambs. Was he in your town in 2003? Was he in your town in 2004? Or was he in your town in 1999? He's very, very manipulative. He draws people into him. He makes you believe great things will happen for you, and you end up dead.
2:52Hannibal Olmanek, unmasked.
3:16That's for some reason one of my all time favorite pictures of her because it looks like she's just sitting there visiting with you. Not posed, not formal, just hanging out.
3:28Harold Dow:This is Rob McCloud's daily ritual. You say you visit this website every day. Why do you do it? just to see her, just for a sec. And then there's been real emotional days that I can't, I can't possibly look at her pictures. Rob's daughter, 19-year-old Casey McLeod, vanished in August 2003. Tell us about her personality. Bright and bubbly and fun. She was a very happy, easy to get along with, wanting to please type of kid. She danced and sang all the time, all around the house, all the time. Casey was Rob and Lori McCloud's only child. Hey, Rob and Lori. When she was a toddler, they doted on her.
4:25Casey was brought up in bubble wrap. We protected her from everything.
4:32Harold Dow:But Casey's sheltered life didn't last long. Rob and Lori divorced when she was four, and as she got older, Casey grew rebellious. She was butting heads with her mom and started smoking and started engaging in behavior in high school that her mom didn't approve of and packed her up and moved her down to her aunt's in Arizona. Phoenix was Casey's new home, and that's where she met best friend Tabitha Morton. We were both turning 16, I believe, when I met her. We were so close, literally, that we were practically attached at the hip. Because we worked together, and we were going to school together, and we spent so much of our personal time together.
5:10Harold Dow:But after high school, Tabitha says Casey fell in with the wrong crowd. There was a girl that decided to move in with her. This girl was heavy into drugs, and she was bringing lots of people, who were using drugs to the house quite often, Casey kind of fell into that. When I noticed that something was wrong, I called her aunt and I said, I think that Casey's in some trouble. So she was sent back to Colorado in late 2001. It didn't change our friendship. I think it actually made it stronger because she knew I was really looking out for her. She had a few months of drug use, but that's not who she was.
5:58Harold Dow:As Casey settled back into her old surroundings, a new man entered her mother's life, Scott Kimball. He was great, and he was very charming and funny and smart. Now living with Scott and Lori, Casey seemed to be getting herself back on track with new friends and a new job. But then came a shocking disappointment. Scott found drugs in the house. And when I confronted Casey, she swore to me that they weren't hers. She begged me to get a drug test, and I didn't believe her. When Lori threatened to turn her in to the cops, Casey took off down the road on her bicycle. What did you think happened to Casey?
6:52I thought she took off because I didn't believe her. I worried sick about her. I drove around looking for her.
7:03Harold Dow:At first, Rob was angry. Casey had run away before. I was worried about her, but not to the point of that I thought any foul play happened. I figured she was over, found a friend, and it was crashing over at their place. She'd call or eventually just show up like she had before. But two days later, when Casey failed to show up for her shift at a sandwich shop, Lori became frantic. I went to the police, and they told me that it was not my right to find her. Casey was over 18. She was not a runaway. She simply left. You didn't file a missing person's report? The police won't allow that. There had to be blood evidence of foul play in order to file a missing person's report.
7:54Harold Dow:But at least Lori had the support of Scott Kimball, who had important law enforcement contacts. He worked for the FBI. He helped catch bad guys. So when she disappeared, did you talk to Scott? Yes. What did Scott say? With his connections with the FBI, we'll find her. Desperate, Lori even married Scott, seeing him as the only hope to finding her daughter. And sure enough, he turned up a few leads, including evidence that Casey had stopped by the house very recently, when no one was home. He found Casey's necklace on her doorknob. Even more promising, Scott found a neighbor who said he had seen Casey weeks after she disappeared.
8:41The neighbor said that Casey had been at the house with her boyfriend and his sister.
8:51Harold Dow:Back in Phoenix, Tabitha Morton was also looking frantically for her friend. I called everybody that we knew. I set up a MySpace page for her, contacted people from high school, passed out flyers. Weeks, then months went by. The most unbearable thing for me to think of of my daughter is that someone took her, something precious, something important to me, and destroyed it and threw it away. Like it wasn't important to anybody. Together, Rob and Tabitha began to wonder if the key to Casey's disappearance might be much closer to home. It was just this nagging feeling that kept going through my head that there was something more than what we were finding.
9:51Over the course of time, you're wondering, where is she? You know, is she hurt? Is she hungry?
9:57Harold Dow:These thoughts tormented Rob McCloud from the time his daughter, Casey, vanished in August 2003. But what Rob didn't know was that another Colorado father was asking those very same questions. You wonder where is she? Has she been kidnapped? You wonder what in the world has happened to her? Seven months before Casey McLeod disappeared, Howard Emery's 24-year-old daughter Leanne had also mysteriously vanished. So Howard, tell me about this picture of Leanne. She was about 14 years old. As you can see, she also loved the outdoors. We were always exploring the Rocky Mountains. Howard Emory has spent countless hours replaying Leanne's life, a life that began full of promise.
10:50Harold Dow:She was a straight-A student in high school and actually graduated a year early. But Leanne's life soon spiraled downwards. Her mother's severe health problems kept Leanne from finishing college. She lost her job as a veterinarian's assistant and she landed in an abusive marriage. I think it was almost kind of the turning point. I think she had a real feeling that she really wasn't worth much, that she couldn't do much. In 2002, Leanne left her husband, but her father was still concerned because she began a relationship with a prisoner named Stephen Holley. On January 16, 2003, Leanne's car, with its unique license plate, pulled out of the driveway.
11:32Harold Dow:The dog she loved the most was Dalmatians. On her car, she had a license plate that said Dal Gal. Leanne said she was heading for a caving trip in Mexico with friends.
11:50Harold Dow:but two weeks later howard got a call that still haunts him it was the sheriff's department in Moab Utah and they says well I hate to tell you but we found her car abandoned in the canyon lands in Moab Utah just yesterday they told me about the license plate and I knew immediately this This is Leanne's car.
12:19Harold Dow:All her clothes, stuff like that, was left in the car. Brent Pace, a seasoned Utah investigator and tracker, could tell someone had picked Leanne up. The car was actually pulled straight into here, just like this. Like, you just drove in off that road and parked it right here. Then the driver got out and walked back and got in another vehicle. One set of shoe prints leaving this car to another set of tire tracks. And because of that, we were kind of concerned, maybe something did happen out here. Like the McLeods, Howard tried to file a missing persons report back in Colorado, but was shut down.
13:04Harold Dow:So he decided to play detective himself. So I wanted to know why she was gone. There's obviously a million questions here.
13:18Harold Dow:Using credit card records, Howard pieced together Leanne's trail in the weeks before she disappeared. She didn't go to Mexico. He discovered Leanne was leading a secret life. She spent the 10 days before she vanished traveling through the western United States, writing bad checks, and charging thousands of dollars to her father's credit card. I was totally bewildered. She was either threatened or blackmailed. She would not have done this on her own. And it seemed Howard was right. He came across several emails Leanne had sent a cousin just days before she left. Emails that hinted she was in trouble, but was being protected by someone with a curious nickname.
14:07Harold Dow:She says, and as for Hannibal, I think I can trust him. He's actually protecting me. My thought was protecting her from what? A few clues arrived in several cryptic letters from Leanne's prison boyfriend, Stephen Holley. Basically, he told me that she was in terrible danger and please call the FBI immediately.
14:32immediately.
14:33Harold Dow:Alarmed, Howard went to visit Holly, who told him that Hannibal was a former inmate he had put in touch with Leanne. I says, tell me about Hannibal. Do you think he would hurt my daughter? He says, well, I really don't think Hannibal would hurt Leanne. But Hannibal does know some people that wouldn't hesitate to kill Leanne if he asked them to do it. but holly refused to reveal hannibal's true identity and when howard brought holly's story to the fbi the agent he spoke to dismissed it as pure fiction there's a possible kidnapping here and yet and yet he showed no interest whatsoever as time passed everyone was left with more questions than when they began.
15:23Harold Dow:Even Brent Pace, who kept up the search. It's hard to be involved in a case and not know the whys, why this happened. It's hard to forget these kind of cases. I mean, it's somebody's child, a human being, you know, and so those are questions you really want answered. But no one realized Hannibal was actually working for the FBI and married to Lori Mcleod. Hannibal's real name? Scott Kimball.
16:18Harold Dow:Laurie McLeod began having suspicions about Scott Kimball after they were married in August 2003. The same month, her daughter Casey went missing. CASEY CASEY CASEY Off and on, he would say things that didn't feel right. And again, when I would question him, he would make me feel I was losing my mind. And to be perfectly honest, I wanted to feel that what I was thinking wasn't right. But it wasn't until two years later that Lori shared some disturbing information with her ex-husband, Rob McLeod. I'm talking to Lori. She goes, well, that whole weekend Casey went missing is not quite what I told you.
17:03There's a little bit more to it than that.
17:05Harold Dow:What did she say? She said Scott took off the same weekend Casey did on a solo mystery, I don't know where he went camping trip. Lori and Rob weren't the only ones asking questions. In early 2006, Kimball became a suspect in a case that Lafayette, Colorado, detective Gary Thatcher was investigating. When did you first hear of the name Scott Kimball? It was when I had an officer come to me with this check fraud case. That was the first time I heard about him. Thatcher learned that Kimball's job with the FBI was as a paid criminal informant. He was also a con artist who had spent most of his life racking up felony convictions and prison time all over the western United States.
17:53Harold Dow:But when Thatcher went to find Kimball, he was gone. Well, it was January 2006. Initially, I was talking to Lori about where is Scott Kimball, and then she dropped that on me as that Casey's missing, and she's suspicious of Scott. That was the eye-opener that, you know, the check fraud is important here, but there's a much bigger picture to this investigation. A warrant was put out for Kimball's arrest. Two months later, US Marshals tracked him down, and after a dramatic high-speed chase through California's Coachella Valley, arrested the con man. Now with Kimball safely in custody, Detective Thatcher made a vow to Rob McCloud.
18:39Harold Dow:He says, Rob, where there's smoke, there's fire. He says, I will not forget Casey. I will not rest until we figure out what happened to her. As Thatcher dug deeper, he learned from the FBI that Kimball was connected years earlier to yet another missing Colorado woman, Jennifer Markham. Now it was just one more thing added onto the pile of suspicion. Jennifer was a struggling single mother who worked as a stripper. On February 17, 2003, she visited her boyfriend, drug dealer Steve Ennis, in prison. Shortly after that visit, she vanished.
19:24Just total anxiety. Beginning to wonder, where is she?
19:29Harold Dow:Her father, Bob Markham, like the other fathers, was stumped. All you can do is hope that maybe she'd been arrested. Somehow put in jail. That that's where she's at. How long did you go through that? For a year. Then one day, Bob's phone rang. It was an FBI agent named Carl Schlough. And they asked if Jennifer's there. And I said no. At that point, he said that something bad may have happened to her. Agent Schlough revealed that Jennifer's car had been found abandoned at the Denver airport. It was after a while that we found out that they had found it a year before. and nobody had contacted us.
20:09Harold Dow:Doesn't that seem odd? I couldn't believe it. Markham kept pressing Schloth for answers, so the agent set up a meeting with his informant, who had once shared a prison cell with Jennifer's boyfriend. That informant was Scott Kimball. He told me he knew where she was, how she died, how it happened, everything. Jennifer's mother, Mary Willis, came with Bob to this park to meet Scott Kimball. He told them that Jennifer had been killed by some of her boyfriend's drug associates. Kimball said he had even seen pictures of her dead. He told me she was strangled. She was tied up and she was strangled from behind.
21:01And she put up a fight.
Read the full transcript
21:04Harold Dow:As he was telling you this, what were you thinking of him? I was thinking, how could he know this? Then Kimball made Jennifer's parents a chilling offer. When we were done with the conversation, getting ready to leave, then he came up and said, if you stay until tomorrow, I'll go up in the mountains with you and take you up in the mountains to show you where she's at. You didn't go with him, neither did your ex-wife. No, when we got done talking at the picnic table and stuff, I'd already decided that Scott Kimball had killed my daughter. I thought that if we went in the mountains with him the next day or then, that they'd never see us again.
21:47Harold Dow:When Jennifer's parents brought their suspicions to Agent Schlough, he dismissed them and defended his informant. He trusted Scott Kimball and never should have trusted Scott Kimball. I always had the impression that the FBI had us meet Scott but to make it so we would feel badly about what Jennifer was doing and how she'd been living in her life. And I didn't care because I loved Jennifer, and no matter what she did, we want her back. Yeah. Yeah. I think they really thought that by doing this, we would become one of the families that would just turn around and get on the airplane and go back home, and Jennifer would just disappear.
22:38Harold Dow:So Bob Markham took matters into his own hands and put up a billboard next to the strip club where Jennifer had once danced. We wanted to try and find out if someone would come forward some information about her. It worked. And in June of 06, this would have been a couple months after Scott was apprehended, I'm reading in the newspaper about Bob Markham putting up a billboard for his missing daughter for Jennifer Markham and as I'm reading the story I come across Scott Kimball's name in the story that he is the last one Jennifer was spending time with my heart about leapt out of my chest when Rob called he said we have something in common he said my daughter disappeared and my ex-wife is married to Scott Kimball.
23:29Harold Dow:Hungry for more information, Bob went to see Lori McLeod. And then I asked Lori, is there anyone else that you could think of that she's been around you, you and Scott, that you haven't ever seen again? And it was just like a light bulb went off in her head. She sat back in a chair and then she goes, oh my god. She says, Uncle Terry came and lived with us for a couple weeks. And then he left, and we'd never seen him again. Scott Kimball's Uncle Terry Kimball had vanished from their home in 2004. I immediately knew that I finally had something to go to the FBI with. So together, Bob Markham and Rob McCloud, two fathers with missing daughters, marched into the FBI's Denver office and revealed their suspicions about Scott Kimball to the new supervisor.
24:28The final thing we told them is, you guys have a choice. You could be the hero or the zero. Either look into it or you can be the zero and you can ignore it. I think they took it as, wow, maybe there is something here. We better look into it.
24:55Harold Dow:In the fall of 2006, just weeks after Bob Markham and Rob McCloud met with the FBI, Special Agent Jonathan Grusing was assigned to investigate Scott Kimball. If you had to pick one thing that drives Scott Kimball, what is it? Greed, most likely. And not only greed for money, but he craves attention and he craves power as well. Joining Agent Grusing on the case was Detective Gary Thatcher, already a year into his own investigation of Kemble. Together, they embarked on the most complex cat and mouse game of their careers as they began to interview Kemble, who was still in jail pending fraud charges.
25:38Harold Dow:You know, he's very good with coming up with stories, and so when you're sitting there listening to him, you're thinking, how do I prove this, how do I disprove it, how do I, you know, substantiate this with facts? One of Kimball's stories was that his uncle Terry, now missing for two years, had won the Ohio lottery and moved to Mexico with a stripper. The Ohio State lottery never paid out to Terry Kimball. He was never a winner. The investigators suspected Terry was murdered when Kimball discovered he had come into some money from a divorce. Terry was carrying around thousands and thousands of dollars in a briefcase he wouldn't let go of.
26:16for me that's enough motive for him to kill Terry.
26:19Harold Dow:Next, Grusing and Thatcher focused on Jennifer Markham. She had first come to Kimball's attention when he shared a cell with her boyfriend, Steve Ennis, back in 2002. And Scott Kimball saw pictures of Jennifer up on the wall. And she was a very attractive woman. And he made such comments to Steve that he could find her a good job when he got out of prison. What was his real motive? His real motive was to have Jennifer for himself. The con man also wanted to get out of prison, and he had a plan. Kimball convinced the FBI that Jennifer Markham was part of a murder for hire plot. No information that I have says that she even knew about this plot that Scott was spinning when he was there in prison.
27:08Harold Dow:But the FBI bought Kimball's story at the time. And when he was released in December 2002, he went to work as an informant in the phony case. Two months later, Jennifer vanished. But while Grusing was trying to figure out what actually happened to Jennifer, he got an unexpected lead. So I interviewed Steve Ennis about Jennifer's disappearance. And at the end of the interview, when we were about to wrap up, he said, oh, and one other thing. there was another guy down here in the prison that had a girlfriend disappear that Scott might have had something to do with. That inmate was Stephen Holley, Leanne Emery's boyfriend.
27:54I spoke with Mr. Emery and said, I'm doing an investigation. I'm trying to speak with Leanne Emery. And he said, we haven't seen Leanne since 2003. And when you heard those words, what thoughts went through your mind? It did send a chill down my spine, because I knew then that this was going to be another victim of Scott Kimball.
28:15Harold Dow:Investigators felt they could prove that when they found Leanne's picture, her hair dyed brown, on Kimball's laptop. Boulder County Prosecutor Amy Acubo. Oh my god, the last person that Casey was known to be with was Scott Kimball. Oh my god, the last person that Jennifer Markham was known to be with was Scott Kimball. Oh my god, Leanne Emery was the last person that Scott Kimball was with. And so bit by bit, piece by piece, it became apparent just how dangerous he was. But there were still no bodies, and the con man was admitting to nothing. Investigators kept pushing, and finally, in April 2008, Kimball dropped a hint.
28:55He said in this meeting that there was a girl who died of a drug overdose that was on National Forest Land.
29:04Harold Dow:Grusing had a receipt showing Kimball was in Walden, Colorado, near a national forest that same weekend Casey McCloud went missing. He called the Forest Service. I asked if they had any missing people up there. I ended up speaking with basically the phone receptionist and she said, no, but a skull was found up here last winter. So maybe you can check on that. A hunter had stumbled across the skull. Grusing ordered a DNA test on the remains, and they proved to be Casey McCloud's. Finally, the Scott Kimball case was an official homicide investigation. And he went to great lengths to conceal these bodies, and I believe he thought no one would ever find them.
29:56Harold Dow:After four long years, Rob McCloud finally had an answer to his prayers. One way or another, she's coming home. She's not lost anymore.
30:13Harold Dow:And Laurie McCloud's worst nightmares were realized. What do you think really happened? I believe Scott planted the drugs to set everything up. That was to get her out of the house? Yes. So he can get her? To separate us, yes. You find out that the man that you married, the man who said he was going to be there to help you find Casey, you now find out that he may have been the one who killed her? Yes. It's impossible to describe knowing that you've married your daughter's murderer. But with no evidence of how Casey died and with no other bodies, prosecutors worried they still did not have enough to put Kimball on trial for murder.
30:58Meeting after meeting after meeting and briefing and continual, here's all the evidence that we have. Do you think we have enough yet?
31:07Harold Dow:In December 2008, prosecutors got one step closer to putting Kimball away for good when And he was sentenced to 48 years on his recent nonviolent crimes. But lead prosecutor, Katarina Booth, wanted more. What we wanted him marked for, of course, is the violent, you know, murderer that he is. So prosecutors made a difficult decision. They offered Kimball a deal. No charges of first-degree murder if he would lead them to the three missing bodies. Kimball accepted. and in the winter of 2009, he led authorities to the remote canyons of eastern Utah, where he claimed they would find the remains of Leanne Emery and Jennifer Markham.
31:57Every day he was full of energy and he gave us a to-do list. Did you do this? Did you get satellite imagery? Did you get a plane to fly me over?
32:06Harold Dow:Kimball spent days leading the FBI and the Grand County Sheriff's Department on a fruitless search for Leanne. But then Agent Grusing spotted something. This is it right in here. Right in here? Yeah. What exactly did you see down there? Some bones where the big boulder is. And then there was a rock to the left. Lifted up the rock and it was a hair clip with hair. by that time and it was her.
32:41Harold Dow:Leanne Emery had lain on this lonely canyon ledge for six years. She had a high potential and she just took the wrong four, got involved with the wrong people and she didn't deserve this. Found near her bones was a spent bullet. It matched Scott Kimball's gun. We believe that Scott marched her up here and executed her.
33:10Why do you suppose Scott Kimball murdered Leanne? Leanne had been dragged into laundering money for Scott. So I believe that Leanne had served her purpose and that he was done with her. And that's why he took her up here and killed her.
33:26Harold Dow:Now, only one missing woman remained. But is this suspected serial killer finally ready to reveal what happened to Jennifer Markham? Do you know where her remains are? You know, I believe I do.
33:54I think Scott enjoys manipulating people. He's very good at twisting the truth.
34:01Harold Dow:After taking investigators to the body of Leanne Emery, Scott Kimball told them where to find the remains of his Uncle Terry. But his leads about Jennifer Markham's body in Utah turned up empty. We not only searched it with Scott here, we came back and searched it with Grand County with K9 units, we searched it with a geologist, we've flown over it with airplanes, and nothing's here. Do you know exactly where she is? No, I believe I'm, I know the area. You have to realize I was at the location one time, it was dark, I was there once. Scott Kimball insists he's trying to help find Jennifer, but is it just another con?
34:43I've made every effort to help them with Jennifer. I've told them I'd take a polygraph to make sure that I'm being truthful in the direction that I've given them, what I remember. He's very methodical. He's very careful where he puts his victims. And I give it basically zero probability that he has forgotten where Jennifer Markham is.
35:07Harold Dow:Nevertheless, in October 2009, the families of Scott Kimball's victims gather in court. It was nice to be able to be there to look him in the eye and watch him take some accountability. The con man had been charged with second degree murder. Scott Lee Kimball caused the death of Terry Kimball. Scott Lee Kimball caused the death of Jennifer Markham, Leanne Emery, and Casey McLeod. How do you believe, guilty or not guilty? Guilty. All right. And with that word, guilty, a monumental six-year case finally comes to an end. You never gave up for those families, because you can only imagine the torture they went through.
35:50and their distress and sadness.
35:55Harold Dow:And now Bob Markham and Rob McLeod, the two fathers whose determination forced the FBI to investigate what happened to their daughters, addressed the court. Casey Dawn McLeod was my firstborn daughter. I was present right there the very first moment she took her first breath. Scott Kimball was there to take her last. Scott Kimball has destroyed our lives. Our lives will never be the same. How many other people are missing as a result of his life? Mr. Emery. And Howard Emery finally confronts Hannibal. My daughter was a young woman with feelings and dreams. And to treat her like trash is despicable.
36:40He is a liar, a deceiver, a murderer.
36:45Harold Dow:For the deaths of four people, Scott Kimball is sentenced to 70 years, but he insists he's not a serial killer. I'm just a guy. People call me cold-blooded, cold-hearted, but you'll find dozens of people that will say just the opposite. He'll give you the shirt off his back. He freely admits only to the murder of his own uncle and speaks in riddles about the three young women. I did kill Terry Kimball. I did. and for the other three, I was a mechanism. I was part of the mechanics. Okay. Mechanism could be many things. Mechanism could be the person pulling the trigger. It could be. It could be the person that arranged for the hit or the death or whatever you want to call it.
37:26There's a lot it could be.
37:28Harold Dow:If there were other people involved who committed the murders, you're not going to reveal who it was? Never will I reveal who it was. I'm not the FBI. I'm not the police. Investigators say Kimball won't name accomplices for a very good reason. They don't exist. I think the murders of these women are very private to him. I believe there was some sort of sexual attraction for him as well that he doesn't like to talk about. I believe that's why he's able to take responsibility for Uncle Terry's death, because it was purely for financial gain. But there was something else involved with Scott and these three girls.
38:04Harold Dow:Whatever darkness fuels Scott Kimball's murderous rampage, the victim's families are grateful. the FBI finally helped unmask the killer. Did anyone from the FBI ever apologize to you? Repeatedly. He says, we're sorry this has all happened. He hoodwinked us. He's fooled everybody. Yet they remain angry at the system. And Agent Carl Schloth, whose negligence, they say, gave Kimball the freedom to commit the murders. If someone were watching Scott, Casey would still be here today. Jennifer was the person he was let out of prison to monitor and she went missing almost immediately. Jim Davis of the FBI's Denver office says the FBI cannot constantly monitor criminal informants.
38:54We can't control them 24 hours a day. We just, we don't have the resources to do that. And really we don't have the authority to do it. You know, this case is a tragedy. I mean, it's a tragedy for the victims. It's a tragedy for the victims' families. But to be clear, you know, the individual responsible for that is Scott Kimball. And it's not the FBI.
39:15Harold Dow:It's not anybody else. It is him. He did it. And I know we used the phrase dealing with the devil. I guess you were dealing with the devil in this case. He is as close as I've seen.
39:28Harold Dow:What remains are shattered lives. but at least two lost daughters have finally come home. As long as I'm alive, her memory is always going to be there. And I have to reconcile the fact that I won't ever see her again. Casey's loss is like the background noise of my life. I can find joy and happiness and feel normal a lot of the time. But when it's quiet, she's that background noise that's always there. However, the search for Jennifer Markham continues. As her father waits for news that may never come, he takes solace in the fact that it was his perseverance that helped put his daughter's killer away.
40:24Harold Dow:The possibility today exists that you may never know where she's buried. That's true. I really would like to have my daughter's body pack, but knowing that Scott Kimball is in prison and that he's not going to be getting out of prison for at least 35 years means more to me than you can imagine. And to me, my daughter's soul's in heaven and wherever her body is, it'll be joined back with her soul someday.
41:05In 2017, Scott Kimball was charged with solicitation of murder and attempted escape from prison. In 2020, four years were added to his previous 70 years prison sentence.
From the publisher
In 2003, answers were proving hard to come by in the disappearance of four people in Colorado. It would take years to catch a killer who called himself 'Hannibal' and was a paid criminal informant for the FBI. “48 Hours" Correspondent Harold Dow reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 8/20/2011. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.
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