UPDATE: Kimberly Doss - Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie Episode Summary: UPDATE: Kimberly Doss

Release Date: June 2, 2025
Host: Ashley Flowers
Co-Host: Brit Prawat

Introduction

In this special update episode of Crime Junkie, hosts Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat revisit the long-cold case of Kimberly Doss, originally featured in their "Runaway Train" episode from February 2024. This episode delves into newly uncovered information provided by a family advocate, aiming to correct previous inaccuracies and shed fresh light on the mysterious disappearance of Kimberly Doss.

Background of Kimberly Doss

Kimberly Doss, a 14-year-old girl, vanished on March 24, 1980. The initial investigation was fraught with bureaucratic hurdles and misinformation, leading to significant delays and misclassification of her case.

Key Details:

Date of Disappearance: March 24, 1980
Age: 14 (incorrectly reported as 16)
Last Known Location: Davenport, Iowa

The Day Kimberly Disappeared

On the day of her disappearance, Kimberly contacted her mother, Linda, requesting to return to Houston, Texas. Instead of staying with her father in Davenport, she moved in with her boyfriend Dallas and his family.

Initial Move: Kimberly relocated to Davenport to be closer to Dallas.
Linda’s Response: Trusting that Kimberly was safe and happy, Linda did not question the move.

Notable Quote:

"Kimberly didn't want to stay in Houston anymore. She wanted to be close to Dallas." — Brit Prawat [05:30]

The Disappearance and Initial Investigation

Kimberly requested a bus ticket back to Houston, planning to stay with a girl named Kathy in Chicago. However, she never arrived, prompting Linda to report her missing.

Challenges Faced:

Jurisdiction Confusion: Houston PD refused to take the missing report, directing Linda to Davenport PD, which in turn claimed the case belonged to Houston.
Delayed Reporting: Kimberly was officially reported missing two years after her disappearance, filled with errors such as her age and the cause of running away.

Notable Quote:

"Davenport PD tells Linda they'll take the report if she moves back to Iowa. So she does." — Ashley Flowers [10:45]

Issues with the Investigation

The initial investigation was marred by:

Inaccurate Records: Misreporting Kimberly’s age and labeling her as a runaway.
Lack of Coordination: Davenport and Houston PD bounced the case back and forth without taking decisive action.
Limited Follow-Up: Few interviews with those close to Kimberly and minimal effort to track her movements post-disappearance.

Notable Quote:

"Police latched on to a false narrative and got tunnel vision on it." — Brit Prawat [22:15]

Renewed Efforts and False Leads

In 1984, a private investigator identified a potential sighting of Kimberly in Los Angeles as "Kimberly Gardner." Despite some physical discrepancies, including height and hair color, authorities pursued this lead.

Developments:

Potential Identification: LAPD suggested two individuals named Kimberly Gardner could be Kimberly Doss.
False Positive: DNA testing in 2021 confirmed that Kimberly Gardner was not Kimberly Doss.

Notable Quote:

"The photo she got wasn't a mugshot. It was a blurry snapshot taken at night." — Ashley Flowers [30:50]

Breakthrough and Correction of Records

In 2023, renewed efforts through social media and advocacy led to obtaining accurate case files. This revealed the extent of the investigative errors and the persistence of the false runaway narrative.

Key Actions:

FOIA Requests: Gained access to original case files highlighting procedural flaws.
New Detective Involvement: A new detective has been assigned to the case, working diligently to separate fact from fiction and reignite the investigation.

Notable Quote:

"The family's working on correcting that false narrative everywhere it still appears." — Brit Prawat [45:00]

Current Status and Hope for Resolution

Despite the 45-year lapse, the Doss family remains hopeful. The new detective's thorough and empathetic approach offers a renewed chance to solve Kimberly’s disappearance.

Call to Action:

Information Requests: The hosts encourage anyone with information to contact Davenport PD or Crimestoppers of the Quad Cities.
Community Support: Emphasis on community assistance in bringing closure to Kimberly’s family.

Notable Quote:

"Kimberly went missing 45 years ago this year. She has a family who loves her and has never stopped looking for her." — Ashley Flowers [50:10]

Conclusion

This episode of Crime Junkie not only revisits a heartbreaking cold case but also highlights the importance of accurate information and relentless advocacy in solving missing persons cases. With renewed investigative efforts and community support, there remains hope that Kimberly Doss’s disappearance will finally be resolved.

Resources:

More Information: Visit crimejunkiepodcast.com
Follow Us on Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast

Final Thoughts

Ashley and Brit emphasize the enduring love and determination of Kimberly’s family, underscoring that every bit of information can bring them closer to the truth. This update serves as a poignant reminder of the challenges faced by families of missing persons and the critical role of persistent investigative efforts.

Notable Quote:

"The new detective on the case has been thorough and empathetic and communicative, and they believe that she's all in on solving this case for real this time." — Brit Prawat [55:40]

Stay tuned for more updates and stories every Monday on Crime Junkie.

Transcript

Ashley (0:00)

Next level pet people will do anything for their dogs. That means treating them with next level.

Britt (0:05)

Protection from parasites with Nexguard + a.

Ashley (0:08)

Foxalaner, moxidectin and pyrantal chewable tablets. Nexguard + Chews provide one and done monthly protection against fleas, ticks, heartworm disease.

Britt (0:16)

Roundworms and hookworms all in a tasty beef flavored chew used with caution in.

Ashley (0:20)

Dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. Dogs should be tested for existing heartworm infection prior to starting a preventive. Ask your vet about nexxgard plus Choose.

Britt (0:31)

Making decisions shouldn't feel mysterious with the State Farm Personal Price Plan. You can personalize your plan to help create an affordable price for you so you can continue cracking all of life's big cases. Talk to a State Farm agent to uncover how you can choose to bundle and save like a good neighbor. State Farm is there Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

Chuck (1:02)

This is an advertisement from BetterHelp. Strength can be measured in a lot of different ways, but one of the bravest ways is to take care of yourself mentally and emotionally by removing the stigma that sometimes comes with participating in therapy, especially for men. Men face pressure to stay strong. Real strength means opening up. Talk to someone BetterHelp offers flexible therapy at the click of a button. Plus switch therapists at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with better help Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com crimejunkie that's betterhelp.com crimejunkdie hi crime junkies, It's Britt and I know Ashley said we'd be off this week, but we never like to leave you guys empty handed on a Monday. So the story I have for you today is actually an update to Kimberly Doss case that was featured in our Runaway Train episode that we did back in February of last year. That episode featured seven cases of missing children who, hence the title, were all featured in the music video for the song Runaway by the band Soul Asylum. And if you remember that episode, forget absolutely everything we said about Kimberly Daws because a family advocate working with Kimberly's mom and sister recently reached out to let us know that a lot of the official information out there about her case is just flat out wrong. So of course since then we've updated our original episode, but we didn't want you to miss the new details we've recently learned about Kimberly's case. Because now that we have the facts, we're hoping that getting them out there might jog the right person's memory and maybe even finally solve this case. So this is the real story of Kimberly dossier SA On March 24, 1980, a woman named Linda gets a call from her 14 year old daughter Kimberly, saying she wants to come home. You see, Linda had moved to Houston, Texas from Davenport, Iowa after a divorce from Kimberly's dad. But Kimberly and her sister were still going back and forth between their parents homes. On one of those trips to Davenport to see her dad, Kimberly met a guy named Dallas. And they ended up in a relationship. And Kimberly didn't want to stay in Houston anymore. She wanted to be close to Dallas. So earlier that year, Kimberly went back to Davenport. But instead of staying with her dad, she moved in with Dallas and his family. Linda knew his family. They lived on the same street as Kimberly's grandparents. So when she found out where Kimberly was, she let it slide. Kimberly seemed safe and happy and they were talking regularly, so Linda didn't want to push. But then out of the blue, Kimberly calls Linda asking for a bus ticket back to Houston, and she wants to leave immediately. Linda's probably so relieved to hear Kimberly wants to come home. So she doesn't ask a ton of questions. She just buys the ticket. The bus has a layover in Chicago and Kimberly tells her mom she met a girl named Kathy either at the bus station or on the bus and plans to stay at her place. Instead of waiting at the station overnight. Linda says, oh, okay. And waits for the call that Kimberly's made it safely to Chicago. But that call never comes. That's when Linda knows something is wrong. Kimberly always checks in with her. And her worst nightmare becomes reality. The next day when Kimberly doesn't get off the bus in Houston. Linda doesn't waste any time. She calls Houston PD to report Kimberly missing. But they won't take the report because apparently Kimberly has never made it to Houston. They say it's not their jurisdiction and Linda needs to report her missing in Davenport. So Linda calls Davenport PD since that's where Kimberly left from. But they won't take the report either. Since Kimberly intended to leave Davenport on her bus, Davenport insists it's Houston's case because she never made it there. The two departments are bouncing her back and forth. So Linda takes matters into her own hands. She writes to every police department along Kimberly's bus route with her description, asking for any information they might have about her daughter. She even travels to Chicago herself, just in case Kimberly made it that far. Chicago police aren't able to take a report either. There's no evidence that Kimberly was ever there. But they do listen to Linda and take her seriously. They try to help by driving her to places that they would check for missing girls. But no sign of Kimberly. For two years, there's no word from Kimberly, and at this point, her family is fearing the worst. That's two years that Davenport and Houston police continue to argue over who's responsible for Kimberly's case. Finally, in 1982, Davenport PD tells Linda they'll take the report if she moves back to Iowa. So she does. No hesitation, she packs up, her life, moves, and Kimberly is officially reported missing on September 1, 1982. Now, you might be wondering why Kimberly's dad couldn't report her missing if he was living in Davenport or Dallas family. And the family advocate we spoke with explained that Kimberly's dad wasn't very involved by that point, and we couldn't get in touch with him ourselves. And we couldn't get in touch with Dallas's living family members either to confirm whether or not they raised any flags. So most sources report Kimberly's missing date two years after she actually went missing. Even worse, the missing person's report is filled with errors. They list Kimberly as being 16, not 14, which is how old she actually was when she vanished. And they mark her as a runaway, even though she was literally on her way back to her mom. That's the information that ended up in official databases. And that's what we had when we told her story the first time. So at the time she's officially reported missing, any investigation is already two years behind. And it's not exactly an aggressive investigation. According to the family advocate, there's no interviews with the people closest to Kimberly, no tracking down the bus drivers who worked her route, no follow up on finding this girl named Kathy. And Davenport PD denied our FOIA request. So the full scope of their investigation, we just don't know. They did, however, fill Kimberly's family advocates FOIA recently. But when they sent her some of the files, they told her that anything from 1980 to 1991 was handwritten and may have been stored somewhere that wasn't easy to access. So it's hard to tell what, if anything, was found from that time. But even after filing the report, Linda keeps pushing on her own. By late 1984, she hires a private investigator. And for, for a Minute, it feels like her hard work might finally be paying off when the PI hears about a potential sighting of Kimberly halfway across the country. After reaching out to the newly formed national center for Missing and Exploited Children, Linda's PI ends up connecting with a guy named Don, who runs a youth nonprofit in LA called Thursday's Child. According to Don, not only is he working closely with Nikvik, he's seen hundreds of kids come through his shelter. And when he hears Kimberly's description from the PI, it reminds him of a girl he'd met in Hollywood about a year earlier. This girl went by Kimberly Gardner. She was being trafficked, had a gap in her front teeth like Kimberly Dawes, and told Don she didn't want to do sex work anymore. But she left before he could get more information. Still, he saw her a few more times and couldn't shake the feeling that she was the daughter Linda's looking for. When Linda sends Don photos of Kimberly, he tells her without hesitation that he believes they look enough alike to be the same person. But there are some things that don't quite add up. This girl is taller, about 5 6, while Kimberly was 52 at the time she went missing. And she has blonde hair, not brown. And she gave a completely different birth date. But at this point, Linda hasn't seen a photo of this Kimberly Gardner yet. So on December 21, 1984, her family reported the sighting to police and asks Davenport PD to follow up on the lead with police in la. But when a detective calls LAPD to try to get a mugshot of Kimberly Gardner, they say they're months behind unlocking those and just say they'll call if they find anything. In the meantime, an FBI agent on Kimberly's case who's also working this lead, makes things even more confusing. He tells the Davenport PD detective that Kimberly's dad said someone on his side of the family had given Kimberly money to leave town and that Kimberly might have been pregnant or had already had a baby when she left. So the family just wants to meet the child, not bring Kimberly home. But here's the thing. When Kimberly's sister followed up on that story years later, her stepmom said she and Kimberly's dad had no idea what the FBI agent was talking about. They never said that, and they didn't believe it was true. Still, that story, the idea that Kimberly ran away maybe because of a pregnancy, seems to stick in investigators mind from that point on. And it probably influences how seriously they take this Hollywood sighting. Months pass. Linda waits and waits. And no mugshot ever comes from LA. So on October 30, 1985, almost a full year after the sighting was reported, Linda checks in with LAPD herself. And LAPD says there were two girls named Kimberly Gardner arrested around the same time, and one of them could be who she's looking for. And actually, they do have photos of that girl, even though the case files mention that they previously told Davenport that they didn't. But LAPD can't send them to her directly. So Linda's frustrations are boiling over into rage. And the next day, Linda calls Davenport PD to tell them exactly what she thinks about their investigation. Somehow, two weeks later, Davenport PD finally shows Kimberly's local family members some photos of the girl in LA that they've managed to get their hands on. They claim both Kimberly's dad and aunt ID the girl as their Kimberly. Then, in January 1986, Davenport PD sends Linda the photos in the mail and claim in their reports that she makes a positive ID too. But according to the family advocate, Linda never believed that girl was her daughter. The photo she got wasn't a mugshot. It was a blurry snapshot taken at night. And she said even then it didn't look like Kimberly. But police are convinced that Kimberly Gardner is Kimberly Dawes. So they never enter Kimberly into the adult missing person system and essentially stop actively investigating, even though they still check out a few leads that come in from the public. But that doesn't stop Linda. In 1991, she walks into the police station with a new composite sketch and asks why Kimberly couldn't be added back into the NCIC as a missing person. Likely because of this, A few months later, a sergeant finds the woman who's been going by Kimberly Gardner. Her real name is Shannon, and she remembers being asked if she was Kimberly Doss years earlier and said, no then and no now. The sergeant noted that in his report. But two years later, in 1993, another officer looks at the files and just decides that Shannon is Kimberly after all. Because just because she says she isn't Kimberly doesn't mean it's true. No new evidence, just a gut feeling without any real confirmation. So he cancels the runaway report and closes the case, since in his mind, Kimberly's found safe. So they stop looking for leads. Catching a criminal is crucial, but preventing the crime is even better. Simplisafe's Active Guard Outdoor Protection is designed with that goal in mind. With AI powered cameras and live monitoring agents standing watch. Intruders don't just get recorded, they get stopped. Traditional security systems only take action after someone has already broken in, that's too late. The second someone suspicious steps onto your property, SimpliSafe's agents can intervene, scaring them off before they make their next move. Because the best outcome isn't solving a crime, it's preventing one. I've been a SimpliSafe customer for like seven years now and the peace of mind knowing my home and family are protected 247 is something I'll never take for granted. Visit simplisafe.com crimejunkie to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month free. That's simplisafe.com crimejunkie there's no safe like SimpliSafe at T Mobile.