A stripper, a teen, a drifter: All last seen with con man — and missing

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Photo by Rocky Mountain News

Scott Kimball, above left. Four photos from top right and going clockwise: Leann C. Emry; Jennifer Marcum; Terry Kimball; Kaysi McLeod. Bottom four photos: four unidentified women.

Scott Kimball

Photo by Barry Gutierrez

The father of Jennifer Lynn Marcum, Robert Marcum, 48, left, and her mother Mary Willis, 49, stand in the shade after a press conference to announce a large billboard that towers above Shotgun Willies, which offers a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and filing of charges in the disappearance and possible murder of Jennifer.

Scott Kimball was the consummate con man, a fast-talker who spent much of his adult life moving from state to state, forging checks and ripping off everyone from small-town banks to his own mother.

But his most masterful deception may have started in 2002, when Kimball persuaded the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to let him out of a federal detention center early, so he could work as an informant in a murder-for-hire case.

Soon, three people close to Kimball had disappeared, according to an affidavit filed in federal court: a pretty young mother the FBI had asked him to keep an eye on; a teenage girl whose mother Kimball later married and his own uncle, who was living in Kimball's Westminster home.

All three were last seen alive with Kimball, whom the FBI now is investigating on possible charges of kidnapping, murder-for-hire and tampering with a federal witness, according to the affidavit.

On Thursday, the FBI released a photo of a fourth person believed to be missing and associated with the investigation. The Aurora woman was last seen in Moab, Utah, in January 2003, when she was 24, authorities said.

They also released photos of four women who may be witnesses in the case and asked for the public's help in identifying them.

FBI Special Agent in Charge James H. Davis declined to comment on where the photos were found but said they are related to the investigation.

"We really want help to find them," U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid said.

'I am not evil'

Kimball, who is in jail on a weapon possession charge, admitted during an interview earlier this year that he's made a life of taking things that don't belong to him.

But the gray-haired 41-year-old, speaking for nearly an hour, insisted he isn't a violent person.

"I am not evil," he said from behind glass at the Jefferson County Jail. "I am not dangerous."

He is charged with no crime in connection with the disappearances.

Kimball was born in Boulder, according to police reports. He didn't graduate from high school, he said, but has a GED.

In his 20s, Kimball began moving around — living between Colorado, Washington, California, Montana and Alaska, and working jobs from fishing guide to timber management to construction.

He was arrested in each state, usually for some kind of financial scam.

He was so skilled that once, after someone used a fake ID to write checks from Kimball's mother's account, she told authorities she was certain her son had manufactured the ID because she "recognized it as a good fake," according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

Kimball was at the Federal Detention Center in Littleton on charges of issuing counterfeit checks when he reached out to the FBI in August 2002, looking to get some time knocked off his sentence.

He told an agent that his cellmate, Steven Ennis, had solicited him to kill a witness. Ennis, who was busted as part of a large Ecstasy ring, said his girlfriend would help with the job, Kimball told the FBI.

The agent found Kimball to be credible, and in December 2002, Kimball was released from jail early "to actively cooperate with the FBI on the Steven Ennis matter," according to an affidavit.

Jennifer Lynn Marcum

One of the first things Kimball did when he got out was contact Ennis' girlfriend, a 25-year-old blonde named Jennifer Marcum.

Kimball and Marcum talked on the phone every day, FBI Special Agent Carle Schlaff stated in an affidavit filed in 2003. Between December 2002 and Feb. 16, 2003, they also met in person about a dozen times, Schlaff said.

Marcum, who had a 4-year-old son and worked at Shotgun Willie's strip club, had been dating Ennis for a while before he was indicted for selling drugs. She told a friend they planned to get married.

After Ennis went to jail, Marcum visited him regularly — 67 times between May 2002 and Feb. 17, 2003.

Around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2003, Ennis and Marcum talked by phone. They exchanged loving words, according to the affidavit written by Schlaff, who listened to the recorded call. Before they hung up, Marcum told Ennis she'd see him in three days.

It was the last time they spoke. It also was the last phone call made or received on Marcum's cell phone.

On Feb. 21, 2003, Kimball told Schlaff that Marcum had bought a gun for $600 and flown to New York to kill the witness. It's unclear from court documents what, if anything, Schlaff did with that information.

But in June, after no one had seen or heard from Marcum in four months, Kimball's story changed.

He told Schlaff that another defendant in the drug case had admitted to him that he killed Marcum.

Kimball said the killer had strangled her and buried her body near Rifle, so she couldn't testify against the group, the affidavit states.

Now worried that Marcum could be identified by serial numbers embedded in her breast implants and an IUD, the man had offered Kimball money to dig up her body and get rid of them, Kimball told Schlaff.

Armed with the new information, Schlaff got a warrant to search Marcum's 1996 Saturn.

The car had been found at Denver International Airport, where it was parked on Feb. 18. But there was no record of Marcum getting on a flight that day, according to the affidavit.

The document makes clear Schlaff thought Marcum could be the victim of a homicide and that the Denver man who Kimball had tipped him off to was a possible killer.

It would be four years before a different FBI agent assigned to the case would put together information — some new, some not — to potentially link Kimball to the disappearance.

Meanwhile, Kimball was moving on.

Kaysi Dawn McLeod

In mid-2003, Kimball befriended Lori McLeod, of Westminster, her daughter Kaysi, and Kaysi's boyfriend, Celestino Bovill.

Around Aug. 23, 2003, Bovill saw Kimball pick Kaysi up at the Motel 6 in Thornton where she was staying, according to a 2007 affidavit filed in federal court.

He was supposed to drive Kaysi to work at a Lafayette Subway. Kaysi, then 19, never arrived.

That night, Bovill and Kaysi's mother called Kimball. He denied picking Kaysi up and said he had instead gone hunting for a few days.

After Kaysi's disappearance, Kimball would tell Lori that Kaysi had stopped by their house while Lori was gone, that she had just missed seeing her. Their landlord also told Lori he saw Kaysi driving around the property.

But Kaysi never turned up.

On a trip to Las Vegas a few weeks after the disappearance, Kimball told Lori he wanted to marry her. She agreed.

Uncle Terry

In mid-2004 Kimball's uncle, Terry Kimball, came to stay with Scott and Lori in Westminster.

Terry — who was described by one of his nephews as a drifter who couldn't hold a job — was getting divorced from his wife, Scott told Lori. He arrived at their Huron Street home in a white Nissan SUV with a tractor, tools and two dogs.

Then one day Scott told Lori that Terry was gone.

Terry had won the Ohio lottery and gone to Mexico with a stripper named Ginger, Scott Kimball said.

Though the Nissan and the dogs were gone, Lori found Terry's clothes still hanging in Kaysi's bedroom, where Terry had been staying. His tractor was still outside, his other belongings still in the shed.

Sometime later that year, Scott Kimball's father received an e-mail signed by his brother, Terry. The author of the e-mail said he was having a good time in Mexico with Ginger, who loved it there, Virgil Kimball later told police.

In fact, Ginger liked Mexico so much it was unlikely they would ever return, the e-mail stated.

New agent

In March 2006, Kimball was arrested in California for not complying with conditions of his supervised release.

In November 2006, FBI Special Agent Jonathan Grusing was assigned to look into the Jennifer Marcum case. At the same time, Lafayette police were investigating Kimball for insurance fraud.

Grusing went back through Schlaff's case file and found Kimball's and Marcum's cell phone records from February 2003.

According to the records, both Marcum and Kimball used their cell phones consistently leading up to Feb. 17, when Marcum had her last conversation with her boyfriend, Scott Ennis.

After that, Marcum's phone recorded no more calls.

Kimball's phone also went dead, but only until Feb. 20, when a call he made bounced off a cell phone tower in Vernal, Utah — about 30 miles from the Colorado/Utah border.

When Schlaff had asked Kimball in 2003 about the cell phones, Kimball had told him that after three years in prison, he needed to get away. Kimball said he went to Craig, driving there and returning on the same day, according to the affidavit.

The rest of the time, he said, he must have had his phone turned off.

Grusing also interviewed three people who said Kimball had told them he knew where Marcum was buried — Marcum's parents and Kimball's mother.

According to the affidavit, Kimball told his mom that Marcum would be his "ace in the hole."

In March 2007, Grusing received a photograph dated Feb. 2, 2003.

Lori McLeod, Kimball's estranged wife, found the picture in Kimball's belongings, the affidavit states.

The photo is shot from behind and shows the back of a blond woman who is partially nude.

One of the men who saw the photo and e-mailed it to Grusing knew Jennifer Marcum for eight years.

He believed she was the woman in the picture.

Kaysi and Terry

Soon the FBI also began digging into the disappearances of Kaysi McLeod and Terry Kimball.

In an April 2007 interview, Lori McLeod said that after Kaysi disappeared, she would watch her house from a distance. When she'd come home and Scott Kimball would tell her Kaysi had stopped by, she knew he was lying.

McLeod also said she suspected Kimball married her because spousal privilege would keep her from testifying against him in Kaysi's disappearance.

In a separate interview that month, the landlord admitted he'd made up the story about seeing Kaysi driving around the property, Grusing wrote in his affidavit.

He'd done so at Kimball's request, the landlord said.

The case file also included a warning received from a bank regarding one of Terry Kimball's accounts.

The document stated that between July and November 2004 — the months after Scott Kimball said his uncle had fled to Mexico — someone kited more than $23,000 worth of checks from Terry's account.

Authorities also searched public records databases and found that since 2004, Terry Kimball had not received Social Security payments, though he was eligible.

Authorities in Mexico had no record of a Terry Kimball entering or leaving the country, or being contacted by law enforcement there.

Nor did any state have a record of Terry Kimball winning the lottery, the affidavit states.

Kimball denial

In June 2007 a federal magistrate judge approved a search warrant for two of Kimball's computers.

According to documents filed after the search, investigators found nearly 300 graphic images of women, clothed and unclothed. Some were bound and gagged, others were being forced into violent sexual activity or held at gunpoint.

Most of the photos were downloaded from the Internet, though authorities could not determine that all of them were, the document states.

During an interview earlier this year, Kimball said he wouldn't have the stomach to do the things the FBI suspects him of doing.

He claimed that as a child hunting with his dad, he was so squeamish that if anyone shot a deer, he couldn't gut it. As an adult, he gagged while changing dirty diapers, he said.

Kimball also said that after Kaysi went missing, he would drive around with Lori in the middle of the night, looking for her. He wouldn't have done that if he'd known where Kaysi was, he said.

Kimball believes all the accusations against him are an attempt by the FBI to cover up its mistakes.

He says he gave agents plenty of information to convict the real killer of Jennifer Marcum — the defendant in the Ecstasy case Kimball told Schlaff about five years ago.

But the FBI screwed up, Kimball said. So now they have to find someone else to blame.

Kimball also said he has been repeatedly interrogated by various law enforcement. According to the affidavit, he has passed at least one polygraph, or lie detector, test. Kimball said he's passed even more than that.

If he had anything to hide, it would have come out by now, he said.

"I'm not smarter than the FBI."

• May 15, 2008

  11:45 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  nonayerbsns writes:

  Soon, three people close to Kimball had disappeared, ... a pretty young mother the FBI HAD ASKED HIM to keep an eye on;

  WHAT THE HELL???? Yes, I read the entire article, but I kept going back to that part. WHy in HELL would you ask a wolf to mind the sheep???? Damned FBI.

• May 15, 2008

  11:45 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  nonayerbsns writes:

  Soon, three people close to Kimball had disappeared, ... a pretty young mother the FBI HAD ASKED HIM to keep an eye on;

  WHAT THE HELL???? Yes, I read the entire article, but I kept going back to that part. WHy in HELL would you ask a wolf to mind the sheep???? Damned FBI.

• May 16, 2008

  1:19 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  Sounds like a serial killer to me,wonder how many other people have died around him already.Makes me wonder how he got away with this.Also why did they let him out of jail? This agent may have been involved in the disappearences and murders.

• May 16, 2008

  6:50 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  breckrider writes:

  this guy is only 40? wow it looks life a life of crime makes one get old quicker. he looks like he is in his mid 50's to me.

• May 16, 2008

  8:58 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  rickg19611 writes:

  "Kimball persuaded the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to let him out of a federal detention center early"

  Is this the same US Attorney that decided to wage a vendetta prosecution about Voorhees? Same one that obeyed Ritter in ignoring felons and other criminals, so he could get some political payback on who people dared to oppose Ritter?

• May 16, 2008

  9:37 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  LingLingfor_prez writes:

  Hey breckrider, it's not the age, it's the mileage. And this guy seems to get around. Maybe he used a jedi mind trick to get out of jail early, at least we would understand why.

• May 16, 2008

  9:56 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  tm3869 writes:

  This reads like a "Movie of the week"!!!!! I cannot believe all the craziness that has gone on with this guy!!!! There has to be some way to see clearly in all the lies and deception...All of these people come up missing, and they are all linked to him!!!!! I do not work for the FBI, but I definitely am speculating that this case needs more time and research so it can be solved.......

• May 16, 2008

  10:04 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  indisbelief writes:

  Hello Clarice.

• May 16, 2008

  12:25 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  CyberHostage writes:

  I'll be avoiding Motel 6 and Subway for awhile.

• May 16, 2008

  1:27 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  SLAP writes:

  Stipper....bottom left picture. Yup.....I'm pretty good at picking these things out.

• May 16, 2008

  1:57 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  This is far from a laughing matter.Many police refer to women like this as N.H.I. No Human Involved.This means that if these women were of a questionable nature.The police would not investigte their disappearance as fast.The scary part of this is where did he hide the bodies and how many are missing because of no family.No one deserves to die at the hands of a predator.May they get the justice they deserve.Because if they were nice housewives the police would leave no stone unturned.To the fammilies of these missing people I hope you get the justice you seek.

• May 16, 2008

  2:14 p.m.

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  MarineGrunt writes:

  jude... I LOL'd!

• May 16, 2008

  3:20 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  newsjunkie writes:

  and to think there are all these stripper defenders out there who claim - hey, this is just a single mom who is trying to put herself through college the best way she can!?!?! a line of bull crap employed in a pathetic attempt to defend a sickening industry. here's the truth: the strip club industry is inextricably tied to the seedy underworld of drugs, vice and murder. women who go into this line of business can end up dead.

• May 16, 2008

  4:09 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  DenverTea writes:

  Thanks HappyMike for recognizing the humanity in strippers, and calling the bullshit that law enforcement often place on them. Hey newsjunkie, wake up.
  I hope they nail this guy and keep him for a long time. With the inmates whose moms and girlfriends and sisters are stripper.

• May 16, 2008

  4:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  newsjunkie writes:

  re-read my post, denvertea, did I say anything about law enforcement and the alleged less than aggressive investigations involving crimes against strippers? hmmmm, no. so what do i need to "wake up" to? maybe you need to "wake up" to the fact that this industry and its dancers are far from the plucky little stripper-with-a-heart-gold fantasy that the male patrons perpetuate. personally I think law enforcement should be particularly aggressive in investigating crimes against strippers because where the "exotic dancing" industry is involved - law enforcement will uncover a plethora of organized crime, drug trafficking, cyber crime, prostitution . . . and on and on.

• May 16, 2008

  4:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  OhBrother writes:

  oh newsjunkie you left out one...poloticans!

• May 16, 2008

  4:44 p.m.

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  newsjunkie writes:

  yes, that too, OhBrother.

• May 16, 2008

  5:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  DenverTea writes:

  Newsjunkie, I know all too well what the adult entertainment industry is made up of....and the criminal element and sewage that surrounds it. The male patrons are perpetuators, indeed. I would imagine that most of them are very comfortable with their little "heart of gold" fantasies, as well.

• May 16, 2008

  5:22 p.m.

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  DenverTea writes:

  Hey Newsjunkie, I re-read and understand it better now, thanks, I apologize for my earlier misread.

• May 16, 2008

  5:24 p.m.

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  newsjunkie writes:

  understood, denvertea.

• May 16, 2008

  6:49 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  Hey Denver tea
  I have five sisters and would rather give them a free place to stay.Then worry what kind of sick weirdo might cause them harm.To the woman in the industry I wish you the angels to watch over you day and night to protect you from harm.Many of these woman have no one to help them or just low self esteem or need the money.So it is not a victim less crime.To all the men who patronage these places remember if that was your mom,sister,cousin would you want them to be treated that way.I bet the answer is a big fat NO.So stay home and work on your relationship at home.Not a prude just a realist.

• May 16, 2008

  10:39 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  sisterslove writes:

  Think before you speak. Yes the industry is horrible and demeaning to women but who do you know that has some history that would make them unimportant. You can not know what it is like to be told that your sibling doesn't count because she made mistakes. That her life meant less than someone elses and that it was okay that she was handed to the wolves. Again, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK. Not all of these girls were strippers, and the one that was, was introduced to Kimball not by her career but by the FBI!!!!!!!!!

• May 17, 2008

  12:13 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Monica030 writes:

  Maybe the FBI got the stripper killed accidentally and now they need to pin it on Kimball...

• May 17, 2008

  1:48 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  pavlovsdoggies writes:

  It's funny you say that indisbelief. I am the sister of one of the missing women and when she met this heartless, inhuman, bast%#d, son of a you know what beast, he went by the alias "Hannibal". Just a little tid bit.

• May 17, 2008

  2:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  tejastiger61 writes:

  This is the tip of the ever loving ice-burg. Federal Officials as a matter of policy regularly release from prison robbers, rapist, mob hit men, career gangsters and the criminally insane, as in this case.
  It's hard for the general public to believe but these F.B.I. agents get
  away with this in order to make there jobs easier or to cut corners
  usually at the determent of law abiding citizens. If the average person knew to what extent the Federal Law Enforcement community
  go's to with these "deals with the devils" by turning loose these walking time bombs on a trusting local populace, they would wisely
  pack there families up and move to Norway or Iceland.

  RTA/CDJ Austin,Texas

• May 17, 2008

  7:52 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  elaineb writes:

  The way I see it, the FBI really screwed this up! They let this con man out of jail (to help them)---STUPID; they had him watch these people (who was watching HIM?)---STUPID; and it took a NEW Agent assigned to the case years later to make the connection? WTF? All of these girls (and the uncle) are victims, thanks (in part) to the FBI. I don't care if some of them were strippers, they did not deserve this. Their blood is on the FBI, as far as I'm concerned.

• May 17, 2008

  3:50 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  justafriend writes:

  Try to be more compassionate when you post messages here. One of the girls missing is the sister to my best friend, and the families do scour these sites for info. The last thing they need is a bunch of smart mouthed comments stating that they basically sealed their fates for becoming strippers.

• May 27, 2008

  4:29 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  rimsla writes:

  I count myself and my family lucky that we were not his victims. I knew both Scott and Lori as well as his Uncle Terry. We did believe all the stories Scott told us we even trusted our daughter with him at his sons birthday outings. For some reason he treated us well and seemed to respect our friendship. I can hardly believe it! I am totally shocked this is the same person we befriended just a few years ago. What a niave person.

• June 9, 2008

  10:40 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Hopeful65 writes:

  I agree with justafriend..........

  And newsjunkie...I'm just not sure what is wrong with you. So much anger towards stripping. Are you jealous? The crimes you mention are rampant in MANY industries, not just stripping. Sounds like you have a little personal issue.

  Read a little history folks..........