Informant Turned Serial Killer

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Nobody could say that Scott Lee Kimball
had an easy upbringing. His parents divorced

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around the time he was ten,
and Scott with his brother moved into their

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grandmother's mobile home. It's here where
their neighbor, Theodore Peyton, entered Scott's

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life and began more than a decade
of sexual abuse. Before Peyton was brought

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to justice. Scott had sought escape
at the end of a barrel in a

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suicide attempt that left him with a
distinct scar on his forehead and, by

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the accounts of those close to him, a change in the way his brain

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worked. Before and after this attempt, Scott had already been running into trouble

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with the law. Check fraud and
scams soured his relationship with Larissa Hints,

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who he had married in nineteen ninety
three and fathered two sons with an allegation

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of sexual assault from hence led to
a divorce, But it was a previous

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probation violation that actually led to his
arrest. When the FBI apprehended him,

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he had already fled to Alaska,
fallen into another engagement, and restarted his

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scams. In prison, Scott quickly
used whatever intel he could gather among inmates

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and staff to his benefit. He
built up his reputation and convinced a member

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of the FBI named Karl Schlaugh to
use him as an informant. Between poor

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background checks that left overlooked rape allegations
against Scott out of the consideration and Scott's

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ability to enter certain cliques in the
prison to gather information, Schlaugh accepted a

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decision that now defines his career in
all the worst ways. So for a

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very brief recap up to this point, Scott Lee Kimball was abused sexually as

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a child by a neighbor. He
attempted as suicide from the trauma related to

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that. The injury to his brain
from the suicide attempt, his friends and

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family say, altered his personality and
decision making. He was never really on

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the right side of the law at
any point in his life. He was

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married and then divorced after a sexual
assault, arrested by the FBI, put

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into prison, and while in prison
infiltrated certain groups to his advantage. He

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used the sneaky ability to partner with
the FBI to become an informant. Scott

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Kimball left prison with a pretty good
deal skirting a tougher penalty. His mother

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and brother financially supported his new businesses. The FBI also put him on their

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payroll with a hefty first payment of
fifty thousand dollars. Leanne Emery's name had

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been given to Scott by another inmate, her boyfriend, Steve Holly. The

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three had embellished long discussions about a
wild escape plan back when Scott was still

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in custody. After his release,
Scott met with Leanne. With her boyfriend

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still behind bars and a long history
of struggles with her bipolar disorder, Scott

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quickly pulled her into his world of
deceit. The last time she saw her

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parents, she claimed she was going
to Mexico, but the real story is

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she was going on a cross state
road trip stealing checks with Scott. When

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her abandoned car was found and her
parents reported her missing, All police seemed

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to see was a troubled young woman
who had decided to run off and might

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return at her own discretion. Scott
knew, of course, that Leanne would

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never be coming home. He had, after all, shot her in the

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head and seemed pretty certain about getting
away with it. His responsibilities as an

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informant also led Scott to a lady
named Jennifer Markham. Under the supervision of

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Schlaf, Scott was instructed to gain
her trust to lead to a criminal partner

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of another kingpin serving time at the
prison. A dinner date that Scott recorded

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helped little in forwarding the case,
only for Jennifer mar to disappear shortly afterwards.

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When Scott made contact again after days
of silence, he insisted that he

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knew nothing about what happened to Jennifer. As often was the case with Scott,

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he was lying, but given Markham's
own troubled circumstances and connections to violent

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criminals, little came of it.
Scott's association with the FBI was one of

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the many things about him that impressed
Laurie McLeod. Of course, when he

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gave her his number, she bought
into another lie, one where he represented

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himself not as an informant but as
a bona fide agent for the FBI.

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Scott Kimball slowly entered her life,
meeting Laurie's nineteen year old daughter, Casey.

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Casey was troubled, much like the
others had been, and when she

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disappeared, the police were again slow
to investigate. Laurie was not as quickly

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dissuaded, and Scott seemed to realize
this could be a problem. He needed

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to throw off suspicion from himself and
ease Laurie's mind, and he did that

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with an engagement ring. The wedding
was quick and the honeymoon romantic, but

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Laurie didn't know at the time was
just a few miles out from where they

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were camping. Her daughter's remains were
in the soil buried there by Scott Lee

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Kimball. The next few years would
see Scott changing as targets from vulnerable women

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to next of ken, one of
his two sons from his previous marriage to

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Larissa. Hence, he had a
clear favorite in Cody Kimball, and he

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seemed to resent Justin Kimball enough to
want to kill him. An incident where

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Scott had severely injured Justin enough to
be hospitalized, raised serious suspicions and Scott's

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mother, who believed he had tried
to kill his own child to claim the

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insurance money. There obviously isn't enough
time to go into this attempted murder of

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his own son, but I'll put
a link to that story In the show

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notes of this episode, Scott Kimball's
uncle, Terry, came to visit his

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nephew one day and then disappeared.
Shortly thereafter, Scott's wife, Laurie,

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walked in to see her husband putting
a couch on to the curb. His

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statements weren't convincing that the stain on
it had been from a dog and that

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Terry had escaped to Mexico with a
stripper and some lottery winnings. It was

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a pretty bad lie, especially from
someone as talented as deception as Scott.

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That wasn't his best work. But
for Laurie, the relationship was already at

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its breaking point. Scott had already
started seeing a waitress, and his unwillingness

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to discuss Laurie's still missing daughter had
all but concluded. Scott moved out,

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and between his frogs and the murders, it would only take a single pull

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at one of the many, many
threads to unravel everything. That pull came

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and Lafayette in two thousand and six, when an optometrist realized that there was

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something off with his bank account.
The bank called on detected Garry Thatcher to

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investigate, and Scott Kimball was seen
on security cameras as the person making a

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deposit into the account. Thatcher at
first spoke to Laurie McLeod. Among the

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multiple claims of fraud, she revealed, she also brought up that Scott was

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an FBI agent. That lie from
so many years ago stuck out the Thatcher,

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who quickly confirmed it to be false. Along with the mentions of Casey's

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disappearance and the incident that had nearly
claimed Justin's life, it seemed long overdue

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to give Scott a second look.
When the day of his arrest came,

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Kimball didn't go graciously. He put
his foot on the pedal, instigating a

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long chase, threatening to take his
own life in a long phone call with

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schlaugh all for nothing. His gas
tank finally ran out in the town of

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Mecca and his car came to a
halt. It seemed like the truth that

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finally caught up to Scott Lee Kimball. Over the course of the next few

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weeks, Scott insisted that he was
innocent in the face of increasingly incriminating revelations,

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including Casey Mcloud's body being found after
Scott claimed she owed deed International Forest

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a deal was offered. If Scott
Kimball came clean and showed them the bodies

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of the other individuals who he was
highly suspected of killing, he'd be charged

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on only one count of second degree
murder. Scott accepted, leading them to

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the remains of Leanne Emery and Terry
Kimball. He then claimed he didn't remember

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where he had left Jennifer Markham's body, and that meant the deal was off.

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In prison, Scott was not remorseful, just the opposite. He bragged

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about it. He bragged about more
victims, some of which the FBI began

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to take seriously. Among these were
Katrina Powell, a sex worker whose body

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had been found in a dumpster behind
him all in two thousand and four with

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both hands cut off. There was
also Lena Ray's Gettys, whose hands were

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cut off like Powells had been in
West Mesa, Albuquerque. There was also

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the possibility that Kimball could be tied
to a mass burial pit holding the remains

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of nine women. Today, the
case is still visible scar on law enforcement,

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both local and federal. Reforming the
informant system was an obvious first step,

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and eyes fell on those Colorado departments
that had so quickly dismissed the urgency

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of looking for female victims just because
they had somewhat of a sketchy background.

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Schlaugh found himself under heavy scrutiny.
Although he was only suspended three weeks,

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he eventually left the FBI due to
difficulty with being assigned to other cases.

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For Scott Kimball himself, a two
eleven letter he sent to his family was

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significant, not only because it seemed
his most detailed descriptions of the debts yet,

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but also because it contained another admission
of guilt. He said that he

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was in fact responsible for Emory's death, shooting her twice when she tried to

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run from him. For Casey and
Jennifer Markham, he was less remorseful,

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still blaming their deaths on accidental drug
overdoses. Today, Scott Lee Kimball is

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unmasked in a way he might never
have expected. For him self and interviews

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from prison, he continues to jump
from one story to the next. Sometimes

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he reveals something new, Oftentimes he
outright contradicts what he had said before.

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But with every lie, Scott Lee
Kimball bolsters another truth about himself that he

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is a killer and a con artist. Through and through that is ten Minute

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Murder for today brief and bingeible true
crime. I'm Joe, the host,

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and I really appreciate you taking the
time to listen today. And as I

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mentioned in the middle of the story, in the show notes, you're going

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to find the news story. I
think it's from twenty twenty. They interviewed

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Scott Lee Kimball's two sons, one
of them he tried to kill allegedly.

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There's an interview with both sons there, and I'll put the link for that

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in the show notes of this episode, and I'll also post it on the

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Facebook page for ten Minute Murder.
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Murder dot com. Thank you for
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