10: Scott Kimball: A Serial Killer Under FBI Protection

Summary

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UNMARKED: Scott Kimball — A Serial Killer Under FBI Protection

Podcast: UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast
Host: James Buddy Day (Pyramid Productions)
Date: February 18, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates the chilling story of Scott Kimball, a con man turned FBI informant who committed multiple murders while being protected and paid by federal law enforcement. Host and filmmaker James Buddy Day pieces together Kimball’s complex double life through rare interviews, prison recordings, and archival audio — most notably, extensive conversations with Kimball himself. The episode lays bare not only Kimball’s psyche and crimes but also the systemic failures that provided him cover, at the expense of multiple victims.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Introduction to Scott Kimball's Case

• Scott Kimball, responsible for at least four homicides and suspected of many more (possibly 21+), operated under the protection of the FBI as a paid informant from 2003–2006 ([00:41], [01:07]).
• The episode is framed by a live prison call from Kimball and Buddy Day's on-the-ground reporting in Colorado, near sites where the victims’ bodies were abandoned ([00:01–00:27]).

2. Kimball’s Early Life and Psychological Profile

• Kimball grew up in rural Colorado, then Montana; his parents’ bitter divorce left him emotionally unanchored ([04:12–04:46]).
• He was sexually abused by a neighbor, Theodore Payton, for years — trauma that Buddy Day suggests catalyzed Kimball’s psychopathy ([04:59], [05:54]).

  “I've had some effed up things happen to me...” — Kimball via letter ([05:54])

• Early signs of antisocial behavior: check fraud, theft, manipulation, and a suicide attempt as a teenager ([06:50], [07:23]).

3. Lifelong Pattern of Fraud and Escalation to Violence

• Kimball exploits systemic loopholes in the financial and legal system from the late 1980s on ([07:56]).

  “It was so easy to just take advantage of the system – they didn't have the right security in place.” — Kimball ([07:56])

• Repeatedly violates parole and receives short sentences, quickly reoffending ([08:26]).
• First documented physical violence emerges in the mid-90s with his then-wife, Larisa — including breaking in and threatening her at gunpoint during their divorce ([10:37]).

4. Manipulation of the Legal System and Becoming an Informant

• After an arrest in Alaska, Kimball reads about an unsolved federal case (the murder of Thomas Wales) and falsely claims to have information, successfully getting federal attention ([13:33–14:10]).

  “I read an article... His name was Thomas Wales. So then I told them I had information. I didn't have any squat except for what I read in the newspaper.” — Kimball ([14:10])

• FBI moves Kimball to Colorado at his request, overlooking his pending violent charges ([15:20]).

5. Exploiting the Informant Role: The Perfect Cover for Murder

• Kimball ingratiates himself with the FBI and fellow inmates, pretending to help solve their cases while feeding the Bureau a mix of truth and lies ([16:55], [17:32]).
• The FBI releases Kimball to serve as an informant, providing him substantial cash, hotel stays, and even a $500 VIP strip club membership ([18:14–19:19]).

6. Targeting Victims Under FBI Protection

• Kimball uses his informant status to get close to others’ vulnerable girlfriends, specifically those of two inmates, Steve Hawley (“Ponytail Bandit”) and Steve Ennis ([20:08]).
• He fixates on bondage and violent sexual imagery as his fantasies escalate ([20:20]).

Main Murders (Chronology & Details)

• Leann Emry: Hawley's girlfriend, a 24-year-old dancer, lured by Kimball under the guise of a financial scam. He murders her and abandons her car in Utah ([21:32–21:54]).
• Jennifer Marcum: Ennis’s girlfriend, 25, lured into a false “coffee shop business” scheme. Disappears after meeting Kimball; body never found. Kimball blames others but evidence suggests he is solely responsible ([22:50–23:53], [25:52]).
• Casey McLeod: Daughter of Kimball’s girlfriend; murdered during a hunting trip, body discovered by hunters years later ([28:32]).
• Terry Kimball: Kimball’s uncle; murdered for financial gain, body disposed of in a mountain pass, followed by months of fraudulent money scams ([32:38]).

7. Attempts to Control the Narrative

• Kimball is obsessed with how he’s portrayed in media, routinely trying to shift blame or rationalize his crimes ([02:20], [11:31], [27:08]).

  “I'm just trying to build trust with you. I'm trying to build a rapport with you.” — Kimball ([04:08])

8. Systemic Law Enforcement Failures

• FBI repeatedly ignores or dismisses warning signs and credible accusations, allowing Kimball to continue offending ([26:08], [28:18]).

  “...and I’d call out to tell a cop, you can’t bust me. I’m an informant for the FBI... [They] would say, let him go. He’s working for me.” — Kimball ([28:18])

9. Kimball’s Downfall, Arrest, and Aftermath

• Eventually exposed after a major financial fraud is detected by local police ([34:30]).
• FBI realizes Kimball was not just a problematic informant but a serial killer operating with their support ([35:30]).
• In 2009, Kimball pleads guilty to two counts of second-degree murder (covering multiple deaths) and is sentenced to 70 additional years in prison, on top of a prior 53-year sentence ([36:43–37:13]).
• He continues to manipulate, even in statements of remorse ([37:13], [37:35]), insisting he “did not act alone.”
• Final parole eligibility date: 2056 at age 89 ([39:47]).

10. Kimball’s Ongoing Manipulation and Pathology

• Even while incarcerated, Kimball reaches out insincerely to Buddy Day, attempting to cultivate a sense of forced intimacy and control the narrative for future media attention ([40:45]).

  “I need you to counsel me on how to deal with these other producers contacting me...”— Kimball via letter ([40:45])

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On motives:

  “I didn't kill anybody for the thrill of. I didn't kill anybody for the sport of. I didn't kill anybody for like a sexual sadist type thing. I kill people for every reason.” — Kimball ([00:56], echoed [32:00])

• On his psychopathy:

  "I was a bad kid who grew to be a worse adult." — Kimball via letter ([05:54])
  "They let me out... I just basically thumbed my nose at probation." — Kimball ([08:26])
  "He wrote that book after he told me he wasn't gonna write it..." — Kimball ([02:36])

• On manipulating the FBI:

  "And I just told them, if you want my help, you’re gonna have to do what I want..." — Kimball ([15:20])
  "They just believed me. It was just that I could tell by their body language..." — Kimball ([14:43])

• On the FBI’s failures:

  "The murders don’t happen despite the system. They happen because of it." — James Buddy Day ([18:27]) “I mean, they flew me around, put me up in the nice hotels, got me rental cars, gave me money, bought me memberships to strip clubs...” — Kimball ([18:14])

• On erasing victims:

  “Scott Kimball isn’t just killing. He’s erasing people. Then stepping into the space they left behind.” — James Buddy Day ([33:57])

• On the system’s complicity:

  “Their voices don’t carry enough weight. The two young women are gone. The last person to see them alive remains free. Free. Protected by his lies and the FBI.” — James Buddy Day ([27:24]) “We read them, and they shape where this show goes next. If you're new here, welcome. And if you've been here since the early episodes, thank you...” — James Buddy Day ([41:32])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:01–01:37 — Opening, introduction to Kimball’s crimes; phone call from prison
• 04:08–09:47 — Kimball’s background: early pathology, fraud, escalation
• 13:33–15:20 — Kimball’s recruitment as a federal informant; manipulation of the FBI
• 16:55–19:32 — The informant scam: using FBI resources for personal gain
• 21:32–26:08 — The major murders (Leann Emry and Jennifer Marcum); how Kimball targets, manipulates, and disposes of victims
• 28:32–34:30 — Later murder of Casey McLeod; attempted murder of Kimball’s own son; murder of uncle Terry Kimball
• 36:43–37:49 — Plea deal and statements; Kimball’s refusal to accept full responsibility
• 39:47–41:24 — Sentencing, psychological summation, Kimball’s continued bids for relevance

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Summary Tone & Analysis

James Buddy Day adopts a tone that is at once methodical, forensic, and skeptical. His direct narration contrasts sharply with Kimball’s evasiveness and grandiosity. The episode avoids sensationalism, focusing instead on systemic failures, the banality of evil, and the suffering endured by the victims and their families. Day continually exposes Kimball’s manipulations, calling out attempts to reframe his actions in self-serving ways.

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Conclusion

This powerful episode lays bare the vulnerabilities of both individuals and institutions — showing how a manipulative, intelligent psychopath slipped the safeguards of the FBI and law enforcement, killing with impunity while agency officials failed to look deeper. Scott Kimball’s story is a devastating indictment of systems too eager for easy answers and too slow to heed the warnings of those most at risk.

Transcript

[James Buddy Day]

I'm driving through the wilderness of northern Colorado when my phone rings. There's no cell service out here most days, just long silence and distance. But today I've got reception.

[Scott Kimball]

I have a prepaid call from Scott Kimball, an inmate at a Colorado correctional facility. Are you there?

[James Buddy Day]

This is the same landscape in which the man calling me left the remains of his victims rolled in, carpet bound, abandoned.

[Scott Kimball]

I tried to call you yesterday. Did that show up on your machine?

[James Buddy Day]

Scott Kimball is responsible for the deaths of at least four people in a series that began in 2003 and ended three years later. one point, he told authorities he killed more than 21.

[Scott Kimball]

I didn't kill anybody for the thrill of. I didn't kill anybody for the sport of. I didn't kill anybody for, like, a sexual sadist type thing. I kill people for every.

[James Buddy Day]

The most disturbing part isn't just what Kimball did, but how he did it. The murders that we know about were committed while Kimball was a paid FBI informant. In this episode, I. I speak with Scott Kimball himself and follow the chain of decisions that allowed a serial killer to operate under federal protection.

[Scott Kimball]

By definition, any sequence of three or more is serial. And I'm responsible for four homicides, so that fits the bill. But I'm not your typical serial killer.

[James Buddy Day]

I'm James Buddy Day. This is unmarked. Over the course of his life, Scott Kimball has committed so many crimes, even he has lost track. I spent months corresponding with Kimball. Letters, phone calls. And what emerged isn't just a criminal or a calculating liar, but a psychopath blinded by his own grandiosity.

[Scott Kimball]

There's an article that was written by a newspaper guy. After I grew to make a deal with him, he told several people that I was the most intelligent criminal he'd ever met.

[James Buddy Day]

Despite decades of incarceration, he's still trying to control the narrative. Kimball likes to talk about the articles and the books that have been written about him. If they're complimentary, he recalls them verbatim. If not, he rambles.

[Scott Kimball]

He wrote that book after he told me he wasn't gonna write it. First he said, we're gonna write a book. Then he said, we're not gonna write a book. Then all of a sudden, he said, hey, listen, I wrote the book. And I said, well, you told me you were gonna write the book.

[James Buddy Day]

Despite his obvious hunger for infamy, Kimball is not a household name like Bundy or Dahmer. So here's what you need to know. Kimball describes himself as a country boy from rural Colorado. In reality, he's a Prolific liar, forger, scam artist, and murderer. A man who survived by convincing people he's something he's not. Starting in the early 1980s, Kimball spent decades stealing hundreds of thousands, maybe more, through fraud and deception. By 2002, he turned those same skills on the FBI, persuading them to pay him as an informant. And from inside the system, he selected his victims. When Kimball was finally cornered in 2006, he didn't surrender. He ran, leading U.S. marshals and sheriff's deputies on a high speed chase that ended only when his car ran out of gas. A dramatic scene near Riverside yesterday. Fugitive Scott Lee Kimball was arrested after a standoff with authorities. Over the years, he's confessed, recanted, changed his story, and even led police to bodies. But even now, he's still trying to control the narrative.

[Scott Kimball]

I'm just trying to build trust with you. I'm trying to build a rapport with you.

[James Buddy Day]

The best place to begin is 1981. Scott Lee Kimball is 14 years old, raised in Boulder, Colorado. But at this point, he's living in the small mountain town of Nederland. It's about an hour away. In the early 80s, his parents go through a bitter divorce, leaving Kimball and his younger brother with their grandmother. It's a rupture that defines him. He's lonely, emotionally unmoored, and already showing early signs of an antisocial personality.

[Scott Kimball]

My mom and dad, they divorced and so my mom said, I'm not paying. She made more money than him. She said, I'm not paying child support. There's not a woman in the history of the world that's paid child support to a man. And so there was always a big fight. Without that.

[James Buddy Day]

When I press him, Kimball recalls only the financial impact of the divorce. It's a window into his mind. What he never acknowledges is that his parents separation left him profoundly vulnerable. At the age of 14 or 15, Kimball falls prey to a neighbor named Theodore Payton, who grooms and assaults Kimball, his brother and other boys. For Scott, the abuse lasts nearly a decade. It's systematic and unchecked, and it breaks something fundamental in Kimball. In a letter he sent me, Kimball wrote, I've had some effed up things happen to me. As a youth in the 80s, he's overwhelmed and desperate to escape. So Kimball attempts to end his life during a hunting trip. He survives, critically injured, but the abuse continues. It doesn't end until the early 1990s, when multiple victims finally come forward. Peyton is convicted, but serves only five years in prison. In a victim impact statement, Kimball writes, ted Peyton denied me my right to a normal, healthy, innocent childhood. His selfishness and his need for sexual gratification has damaged my life forever. Kimball's psychopathy is already brewing, and the abuse hardens his antisocial traits into something colder. In a letter Kimball wrote me, he said I was a bad kid who grew to be a worse adult. In the late 90s, Kimball and his brother are sent to live with their father in Montana, and he steps outside the lines for the first time.

[Scott Kimball]

And then when we moved to Montana, instead of getting the child support, my mom set up a checking account for my brother and I. And then I would just write checks and overdraft it, and then so she just kept bailing me out and bailing me out, you know? And then one day she said, I'm done bailing me out, and I ended up starting to get felonies.

[James Buddy Day]

What Kimball is telling me is a bit hard to hear, so I'm gonna repeat it. According to Kimball, in Montana, he realizes that he can write bad checks over and over again, and each time, his mother bails him out, until one day, she reaches her lane.

[Scott Kimball]

And then one day she said, I'm done bailing you out.

[James Buddy Day]

Kimball says, quote, and then one day she said, I'm done bailing you out. And I ended up starting getting felonies. He says it like it's a punchline, but that's the moment that sets him on a lifetime path of forgery, check fraud, identity theft, and theft by deception. Once his mother cuts him off, Kimball learns that the financial system of the late 80s and early 90s is porous, slow, and easy to exploit.

[Scott Kimball]

And I just continued with financial conscience. It was so easy to just take advantage of the system, so they didn't have the right security in place. It just made it too easy.

[James Buddy Day]

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Kimball racks up multiple felony fraud convictions across several western states. Along the way, he serves short prison sentences, violates probation, and reoffends almost immediately when released.

[Scott Kimball]

Yeah, they let me out and reported them and reported the probation office, and I just basically stumbled my nose at probation.

[James Buddy Day]

Kimball's memories perfectly illustrate the mind of a true psychopath. Grandiose, callous, impulsive, with no regard for boundaries or consequence.

[Scott Kimball]

I scammed a logging company in Spokane out of $500,000, and, you know, when you get no charges and you got to ask 500 grand, it was pretty lucrative.

[James Buddy Day]

What remains unclear is the precise moment when Kimball crosses from financial crimes into murder. The Utah State Bureau of Investigations has said publicly that they Suspect Kimball has committed 15 to 21 murders, possibly more. Kimball himself once claimed that his first victim was a hitchhiker that he picked up in the late 1980s, possibly 1988 or 1989, near a bridge in Hite, Utah. But no body has ever been found, and DNA searches have turned up nothing. And we can't forget that Kimball is a prolific liar. So whether there's truth buried inside those claims or whether they're just another manipulation, we may never fully know.

[Scott Kimball]

I was living in Montana, and a couple of my friends, we all, the three of us, we were young, in our 20s, and we all had motorcycles. When I was riding, they're like, hey, we're going up to see our girlfriends going together. I'm like, nah, I don't want to be the third to wheel. Hey, they got a single sister. And I said, well, okay, I'll go. And that's how I met her.

[James Buddy Day]

It's the early 90s, and Kimball meets Larisa Minor, his first wife, whom he marries in 1993.

[Scott Kimball]

Well, I lived in western Montana, and so then from western Montana, I moved with. I moved over to Spokane. She was going to school there, moved over there with her, and I think I lived there from 91 or 90 to 2000. I lived over there with her and the kids.

[James Buddy Day]

Larisa and Scott have two sons together, but the marriage doesn't last. By 1997, it collapses into a bitter custody dispute. It's then that Kimball's violence surfaces in a documented way. During their divorce, Kimball breaks into his ex wife's home and assaults her at gunpoint. She relocates, but Kimball finds her and assaults her for a second time. These are the earliest confirmed incidents that I can find in. In which Kimball reenacts the kind of power, control and terror that he was subjected to as a child. It's a turning point, and it becomes a template for what comes next. But when I ask Kimball about his marriage, it becomes clear he's completely rewritten this chapter in his mind.

[Scott Kimball]

No matter all this, all the shitty things I've done in my life, I really do care about her and I want her to be happy. And me having any kind of contact with her really makes her miserable, her life miserable, because of the relationship he's in now, the guy's real controlling.

[James Buddy Day]

It is truly remarkable reframing. Despite the fact that Kimble is a violent convict who subjected his wife to repeated documented abuse, Kimble frames their estrangement as the fault of another man, as if the only reason they no longer speak is because of her current relationship.

[Scott Kimball]

He's really. He's really kind of a jerk, but yeah, but she's, you know, as long as she's happy, that's all that matters.

[James Buddy Day]

There's a well documented trait in psychopathy research that explains this. Highly psychopathic offenders don't just lie to others. They can reconstruct reality for themselves. Studies show that they lack what psychologists call self referential moral processing. It's the ability to connect their own actions to harm in a way that generates guilt or accountability. In 2001, police attempt to arrest Kimball for assaulting Larisa. Instead, he disappears. Re emerging in Alaska, it's one of several unexplained gaps in his life periods that remain unaccounted for and have raised questions about how many victims may never be identified. In Alaska, Kimball is arrested again for fraud. And while incarcerated, he begins to understand the legal leverage created by crimes that cross state lines. As he tells me, such cases often leave prosecutors choosing between state and federal charges, but not both.

[Scott Kimball]

This is how it worked. If the feds would have picked up my case, I would have done months in prison. If the feds didn't pick up my case and the state did, I would do years in prison. They manipulate it for their advantage. Why can't I manipulate it to my advantage?

[James Buddy Day]

Because Kimball wants federal prosecutors to take his case. He's convinced it will give him leverage to make that happen. He looks for a way in and finds it. In a newspaper article in prison, he reads about a federal case lifting details from the reporting to position himself as an informant.

[Scott Kimball]

I read an article in the Anchorage Daily News. It's a small article about Assistant U.S. attorney who was killed in Seattle. His name was Thomas Wales. So then I told him I had information about that. I didn't have any squat except for what I read in the newspaper.

[James Buddy Day]

Remarkably, the ruse works. He requests to speak with a federal agent about the unsolved murder of Thomas Wales, a federal prosecutor who was assassinated in his home in 2001.

[Scott Kimball]

They just believed me. It was just. It was just that I could tell by their body language which I was going numb. The right direction or the wrong direction. What their theory was. They used to take me over to the courthouse on the weekends with this special prosecutor that came from Washington D.C. and they just prepped me for testimony and asked me all kind of questions and get me McDonald's, you know, Applebee's, whatever I wanted, any kind of food I wanted.

[James Buddy Day]

At that point, Kimball leverages his position, asking the FBI to transfer him to a federal prison in Englewood, Colorado.

[Scott Kimball]

And I just told him, if you want my help, you're gonna have to do what I want. And I said, I want to be moved to Englewood, raising my wife and kids, my family.

[James Buddy Day]

The FBI agreed to move Kim Kimball to be closer to his children and his ex wife, Larisa. It's a massive oversight. For reasons that remain unexplained, the FBI fail to realize that Kimball has pending charges for the assault and kidnapping against the same woman. Once in Colorado, Kimball's scam escalates. He befriends fellow inmates. He learns their crimes. The then positions himself as a snitch, padding real information with lies, exaggerations and inventions. It's then that Kimble meets two inmates who he will use to free himself. The first is a serial bank robber dubbed the Ponytail Bandit. Real name Steve Hawley. He's Kimball's cellmate. The second is a young drug dealer named Steve Ennis, who Kimball recalls meeting shortly after arriving in federal prison.

[Scott Kimball]

Well, he befriended me. When I came in, I didn't know anybody. He was a member of the Wood, and so he introduced himself and he really became a good friend of mine and showed me the ropes there. I was new there. I didn't know any of the white boys there. And so he took me in and talk to me and we got to be close friends.

[James Buddy Day]

Kimball tells Holly and Ennis he has connections on the outside that he can help them. At the same time, he feeds the FBI a carefully blended mix of truth and fabrication about their cases. It works so well that by 2002, the FBI persuade a judge to release Kimball without probation, specifically so he can operate as a federal informant. He's assigned to help build cases against Holly and Ennis, the very men who believe Kimball is working in their best interest.

[Scott Kimball]

I'd already served my amount of time that I was required to serve, and so it was no big deal. And they just said, hey, listen, we're just going to get you out on bond. And their idea was if we get you on bond, then we can kind of hold you under our thumb until you get sentenced.

[James Buddy Day]

Once again, Kimball is exactly where he wants to be trusted by everyone and accountable to no one.

[Scott Kimball]

Yeah. So then, then they got me out and I told them my information on, on this and this and this. And I, I didn't. But they believed me.

[James Buddy Day]

Unbelievably, the FBI pays Kimball upwards of $50,000 during this period and supply him with whatever he needs to get them information.

[Scott Kimball]

I mean, they Flew me around, put me up in the nice hotels, got me rental cars, gave me money, bought me memberships to strip clubs. I mean, they did all kinds of stuff.

[James Buddy Day]

It's a crack in the system. This is the kind of structural vulnerability that serial killers thrive on. Research consistently shows that confidential informants are among the least reliable sources in the criminal justice system, particularly jailhouse informants. When liberty, or money, is the reward, information becomes transactional. And yet the FBI and law enforcement agencies continue to rely on informants to this day. And in Kimball's case, once he's released, the murders don't happen despite the system. They happen because of it. Kimball tells me one story in which he told an FBI agent that he needed to speak with someone who frequents the VIP area of a local strip club.

[Scott Kimball]

I told him that this person I needed contact was always in the VIP, and I wasn't going to spend 500 bucks on my own money to go to the VIP, so he bought me a $500 VIP membership for the year.

[James Buddy Day]

By the end of 2002, Kimball is taking everything he can get from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Money, access, credibility. But what no one realizes is that he's working on a different project altogether. Kimball is using his position as an informant to identify and gain access to victims, specifically the girlfriends of Ennis and Holly. Women he knows are already vulnerable, already overlooked, already discounted.

[Scott Kimball]

And we all knew each other from visiting. We'd all go in there together with all of our girlfriends and hang out and eat cheeseburgers and gray sodas and laughs, have fun in the living room. All of us together.

[James Buddy Day]

What no one knows is that by now, Kimball has become fixated on bondage and violent sexual imagery. Material centered on control, restraint and domination. It's not incidental, it's preparatory. And it feeds directly into what comes next. Using the trust his informant status afford towards him, Kimball begins planning the murders of both women. Crimes he carries out days apart. Kimball's first victim is bank robber Steve Hawley's girlfriend, leanne emery, a 24 year old dancer working at a club in Glendale, Colorado, who struggles with bipolar disorder. With Holly's blessing, Kimball inserts himself into her life. He gains her trust. Then he pulls her into a scheme, convincing Leann to help him steal credit cards. In January 2003, Emery tells her family she's going on a splunking trip to Mexico. It's a hobby she loves. In reality, she goes on a road trip through four western states with Kimball. Now, it's been speculated that Emry believed Kimball was taking her to see Holly, who himself believed Kimball was arranging for him to escape. But Kimble's lies are hard to parse. Kimball and Embry passed stolen checks worth roughly $15,000, among other financial scams. When they return to Colorado on January 29, Leanne is last seen checking out of a hotel. According to an account Kimball later gave to the FBI. After his capture, he drives Emery to Bryson Canyon in Utah's Brook Cliffs and shoots her in the back of the head. He then abandons Emry's car in Moab, Utah, a champagne colored Toyota Tercel. But we can't forget Kimball is a compulsive liar and no part of his story should be taken at face value. And when we speak, he's oddly silent on the details of Emery's murder. Instead, he weaves an elaborate story about his next victim, Jennifer Markham.

[Scott Kimball]

I'm not going to say who wanted me to kill Markham, or am I going to say who paid me to kill Markham? I will never do that.

[James Buddy Day]

While targeting his first victim, Kimball simultaneously plans the murder of a second person days later. The girlfriend of drug dealer Steve Ennis. Jennifer Marcum is a 25 year old single mother who works odd jobs, including dancing at a Denver area club. As Kimball tells it, Steve Ennis had become concerned that Jennifer Marcum would testify against him, which led Kimball to ask the FBI to coordinate a meeting.

[Scott Kimball]

They can, they did. They set up the interviews and everything, showed me where she's going to be and had to give me phones and all kinds of stuff.

[James Buddy Day]

On February 17, 2003, Jennifer Marcum tells Ennis she's going to meet Kimball for dinner.

[Scott Kimball]

Then when I was out with Markham, Markham got a dui. And she said, she said, I told the cops I'll do anything so I don't have to go to jail. I'll tell them whatever they want to know. And at that point there, I knew for 100% sure that she was a liability.

[James Buddy Day]

Yeah, I mean, that makes sense in a way, but what I don't really understand is why would you care what happens to Steve? I mean, you weren't really involved in the case, so why would you decide to take matters into your own hands to stop Marcum from testifying?

[Scott Kimball]

Why did I care about what happened to Steve? Yeah, he was a good friend in there. And it's kind of a deal. Like when you say you're going to do something. People say all the time that they'll do stuff, but they never really do it or mean it. And I was a guy that said, listen, if I'm going to say I'll do something, I'm going to do it.

[James Buddy Day]

Kimble's answer doesn't hold up. This is a man who spent his entire life exploiting anyone and everyone he could, including. Including Steve Ennis. And yet he wants us to believe that this is the moment he draws a moral line, that he commits a murder to keep his word. As if loyalty suddenly matters to him. It doesn't. That explanation isn't insight, it's camouflage. Another story designed to make something monstrous sound, principled. Another attempt to control the narrative after the damage is already done. Back on February 17, 2003, within days of his last murder, Kimball convinces Jennifer Marcum to accompany him to Seattle, claiming he owns a coffee shop there. Marcum's cell phone is last used at 9:30pm when she's with Scott Kimball, who turns off his own phone for three days. The details of Marcum's murder remain foggy. Her body has never been found. We know that Kimball abandoned her brown 1999 Saturn near Denver International Airport, where it's recovered by police.

[Scott Kimball]

Jennifer and I ever say who paid anything to the General? I'm not going to do that. But I will say that Jennifer was a liability to Steve, and Steve was looking at two life sentences and he ended up getting 10 years. So you tell me what's logical.

[James Buddy Day]

For the record, no evidence has ever been presented that anyone ordered or paid Scott. And when Kimball was arrested, he originally told police another man killed Marcum and showed him pictures of her body bound and assaulted. But the truth is Kimball is a violent psychopath and a liar who saw vulnerable women immunity from law enforcement, and he took advantage, plain and simple, in 2003. The disappearance of both women does not go unnoticed in Marcum's case. The FBI questions Kimball, but accepts his lies. On June 29, 2003, Kimball tells an agent at the FBI's Denver office that Markham had been murdered by one of her boyfriend's associates, supposedly out of fear that she might testify. And it works.

[Scott Kimball]

There's a prosecutor named Stan Garnett. He wrote a letter to editor saying that Kimball used the FBI for his own agenda. He didn't give him any use any useful information and he says they got he the FBI got conned by a good old boy or something like that.

[James Buddy Day]

In the case of leann Emery, her parents file a missing persons report in Arapahoe County, Colorado, where they're living at the time they're told Leanne is likely a runaway. There's nothing to suggest Foul play. No investigation, no urgency. Ironically, it's the families and not law enforcement who begin to see the pattern. The parents of Leann Emry and Jennifer Marcum eventually meet. They exchange notes and recognize the striking similarities in their daughter's disappearances. They search together, compare timelines and lobby authorities side by side. But their voices don't carry enough weight. The two young women are gone. The last person to see them alive remains free. Free. Protected by his lies in the FBI.

[Scott Kimball]

Yeah, and you know I'd get in trouble and I'd call out to sell to tell a copy, you can't bust me. I'm an informant for the FBI. And so he called the page of Slough and Sloth would say, let him go. He's working for me.

[James Buddy Day]

At the time Scott Kimball murders both Leanne Emery and Jennifer Markham, he's already dating another woman. Woman Lori McLeod, a 39 year old single mother he meets playing poker at the Lodge Casino in Blackhawk, Colorado. In fact, their first date takes place between the two murders. But by August of that same year, Kimball tells Laurie he's going on a hunting trip. During that trip, he murders her 19 year old daughter, Casey McLeod. Like the others, exactly what happens remains unclear. Here's what we know. Kimball travels to the heavily forested backcountry of Jackson county in northern Colorado. It's there that he murders or disposes of the body of Casey McLeod, because four years later, hunters discover Casey's skull and scattered bones buried deep in the snow. And we also know that a witness sees Kimball with Casey shortly before she disappears. When I ask Kimble about it, he makes a highly dubious claim.

[Scott Kimball]

Casey's boyfriend caught her naked in bed and me sitting naked on a couch outside their bedroom and suspected we were having an affair.

[James Buddy Day]

Now, this isn't the only time Kimball tells me that he was in a consensual relationship with one of his victims. He makes similar claims elsewhere. Now, I won't play those recordings out of respect for the victims, but the pattern matters. Because later, when police search Kimball's computer, they find violent sexual imagery connected to one of those same women. Material centered on control and coercion. Taken together, it undercuts his version of events and points to an underlying motive. Kimball consistently tries to reframe or deny

[Scott Kimball]

entirely by definition, any sequence of three or more serial. And I'm responsible for four homicides, so that that fits the bill. But I'm not your typical serial killer.

[James Buddy Day]

In reality, despite Kimball's grandiose, selfish image, he's painfully familiar. A typical serial Killer, a neurologically vulnerable child whose psychopathy is cemented by trauma. A man driven by fantasy and sadistic need, not impulse or circumstances. He's enabled again and again and again by the systematic dismissal of vulnerable women whose disappearances are easier to explain away than confront. After the murder of Casey McLeod, Kimble works deliberately to make it look like she's run away. He stages her bedroom. He pretends to find her belongings, as if she's come home and left again. He claims a neighbor saw her driving. Every lie is designed to buy time. Then Kimball does something chilling. He convinces Casey's mother to marry him and takes her on a camping trip not far from where he's hidden Casey's remains. This isn't just cruelty. It's confidence. Complete certainty that he will never be caught.

[Scott Kimball]

I didn't kill anybody for the thrill of. I didn't kill anybody for the sport of. I didn't kill anybody for like a sexual sadist type thing. I kill people for every reason.

[James Buddy Day]

Another lie from Kimball, unknowingly taking his victim's mother to the location of her daughter's remains is about maintaining the fantasy and sense of control he is returning for the thrill. The following summer, July 2004, Kimball takes out a $50,000 life insurance policy on his 10 year old son, Justin. Days later, he attempts to kill him, dropping a heavy metal cattle grate onto his son's head in their backyard. Justin survives, and on the way to the hospital, Kimble attempts to throw him from the car. Somehow, Justin survives that attempt as well. And when he wakes up from a medically induced coma, Justin tells authorities exactly what his father did. But police dismiss the account. By now, Kimball is such a practiced liar that he can explain away almost anything, even the obvious. But there's one person who doesn't believe him. Justin's mother, Kimball's ex wife, Larisa. She takes Kimball's name off the insurance policy and with no prospect of getting the money, Kimball finds a new victim. At the time, Kimball's uncle Terry is staying with him while going through a divorce. Terry Kimball is known to be carrying thousands of dollars in cash withdrawn from his savings account during the separation. Scott Kimball kills him in the living room. Witnesses see Kimball dispose of a blood soaked couch. He then transports the body to a remote mountain pass near Vail, Colorado, wrapping it tightly in blankets and tarps. Afterwards, Kimball signs divorce papers on his uncle's behalf, making it appear as if Terry is still alive. For months, Kimball uses Terry's credit cards and bank accounts, stealing tens of thousands of dollars through fraudulent checks and purchases. When asked, he tells people that his uncle won the lottery and that Terry went to Mexico with a woman. At one point, Kimball even forges a note from Terry claiming he's alive and living abroad. But by now, the pattern is unmistakable. Scott Kimball isn't just killing. He's erasing people. Then stepping into the space they left behind. In early 2006, an optometrist in Lafayette, Colorado, discovers that Scott Kimball has been using his business account to cash tens of thousands of dollars in bad checks. Kimball flees the state, but for the first time, local investigators dig in. When the Lafayette police department search Kimball's office and home, they uncover a sprawling paper trail. Forged checks, insurance scams, falsified documents, even fake subpoenas. The volume is staggering. Lafayette PD bring their findings to the FBI. And that's when the realization sets in. The bureau hasn't been managing an informal informant. They've been covering for a serial killer. Authorities are asking the public for help in locating a Montana man. Scott Lee Kimball is wanted for questioning. Kimball is eventually located in Riverside, California, and after a prolonged police pursuit, his car runs out of gas. He's arrested on the roadside, out of lies, out of road, and finally out of the FBI's protection. Today, just a short time ago, a serial killer who was a longtime Boulder county resident is behind bars. We expect for the rest of his Life. In early 2009, prosecutors reach a complex plea agreement with Scott Lee Kimball. Under the deal, Kimball is allowed to plead guilty to two counts of second degree murder covering the deaths of Terry Kimball, Jennifer Marcum, Lee Ann embry, and Casey McLeod. This is the voice of Ed Cohen, who was the spokesperson for the Kimball family after his arrest. Later writing a book.

[Ed Cohen]

This is Scott's statement. I, Scott Lee Kimball, have pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the second degree. This was part of a plea bargain arrangement. I am sorry for my crime.

[James Buddy Day]

The arrangement with Kimball is made in part so the victims families can have some measure of closure and to avoid the risk of re traumatization across multiple trials, Though, Kimball's lies leak through his apology.

[Ed Cohen]

I accept full responsibility for my role in these murders. I deserve to be held accountable and punished for my crimes. However, I did not act alone.

[James Buddy Day]

More manipulation from Kimball. When I ask him, he rants about his own family spokesman, Ed Cohen.

[Scott Kimball]

Ed and I are not in good standings, and a lot of that is Ed's choice. Ed told me, hey, when you get to prison, you need to make the right changes. You need to do this, do that I'll stand by you. And in there, he says a lot of things that he just speculates on, which really kind of pissed me off, like he said.

[James Buddy Day]

As part of the agreement, Kimball also commits to helping authorities locate his victim's remains. He leads FBI agents to Leanne Emry's body. He then directs them to Terry Kimball's remains buried near Vail Pass, Colorado. But when it comes to Jennifer Marcum, the story falls apart again. Each search comes up empty. Eventually, Kimball says he can't remember exactly where he left her. My opinion. Even at the end, faced with the weight of his crimes, Scott Kimball continues to lie. In a letter Kimball sent me, he wrote, I'm honestly surprised that the FBI has let me live this long. I know that sounds crazy. Maybe the FBI is just showing sure that people will think I'm crazy and not believable. They could be banking on that to be the case. After being sentenced in 2008 to 53 years in prison on theft and multiple related charges, Kimball returns to court the following year. On Thursday, October 8, 2009, he receives an additional 70 year sentence for his guilty pleas to second degree murder. Despite the weight of those sentences, he insists he'll one day be released on parole. But the Colorado Department of Corrections tells a different story. His estimated parole eligibility date is July 28, 2056, when Scott Kimball will be 89 years old. Before I leave Colorado, I. I get another letter from Scott Kimball. He wants to keep talking. He tells me journalists and producers are reaching out. Then he asks me something revealing. He says, I need you to counsel me on how to deal with these other producers contacting me. He writes it like I'm his agent. It's a classic manipulation technique called forced intimacy. Kimball tries to reframe our relationship so I'm no longer an interviewer, but a confidant, an ally, someone invested in his success. It's a move designed to blur boundaries and create obligations and keep control firmly in his hands. What men like Scott Kimball are incapable of isn't remorse. It's truth. Not because the facts are hidden, but because there's nothing inside them that requires honesty. No internal breaks, no moral reference point. Truth only exists if it's useful, if it buys time, if it grants leverage, and when it stops working, they discard it, just like everything else. In a final letter that Kimball sent me, he wrote, I have accepted responsibility for my crimes. And as I've said at least a hundred times, I belong in prison. They build prisons for people like me. I deserved every day I was sentenced to and then some. I have no ill feelings towards anyone. Scott Kimball doesn't want redemption. He wants relevance. And the most dangerous lie he tells isn't the ones about his crimes. It's the belief that he's still in control of the story. He isn't.

[Scott Kimball]

All right. All right, James. All right. Bye. Bye.

[James Buddy Day]

Before we wrap, I want to take a second to acknowledge you. This community is growing faster than we honestly expected. And that only happens because people are listening closely, they're thinking critically, and they're sticking around for the conversations that don't end when the story does. The comments, the debates, the pushback, even the disagreements, they matter. We read them, and they shape where this show goes next. If you're new here, welcome. And if you've been here since the early episodes, thank you for helping us build something that values nuance over noise. This episode of Unmarked was produced by John Nadeau and edited by Dave Alderson. Our additional producer is Jesse Demarais. We've much more coming soon, and if you're still here, you're already part of what makes this work.