Lil Miss Murder
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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com/forensictales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. It was a calm Saturday afternoon in Casper, Wyoming. A lazy Saturday ideal for fishing. After a long, hard week, a mechanic prepped his fishing rod.

He wanted to catch fish. He wanted to relax. He wanted something different. His heart sank to the floor as his eyes caught a partially nude, lifeless, young female floating on the river. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 111, The Lil Miss Murder Story. ♪♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.

Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings. Sharing true crime stories isn't just about the story themselves. It's about getting justice for the victims and their families.

True crime helps hold criminals accountable so they can't continue to cause us harm. As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new exciting cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, produce and edit this weekly show. For supporting the show, you'll get early ad-free access to weekly episodes, exclusive merchandise not available anywhere else, bonus content, shout-outs in episodes, and priority on case suggestions.

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On March 25th, 1988, 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmel left her home in Denver, Colorado, and set out on a road trip to her parents' house in Billings, Montana. Originally from Billings herself, Lisa lived and worked in Denver, Colorado. She worked as the manager of an Arby's restaurant. Lisa's mom, Sheila, also worked for the fast food chain as a regional manager.

Both Lisa and her mom would regularly make the 550-mile drive between Billings, Montana and Denver, Colorado. Lisa's dad and siblings still lived in Billings. So when Lisa set out on March 25th to head home, it was no big deal. Lisa drove her black 1988 Honda CRX with a specialized license plate that read, Lil Miss.

Lisa's grandmother often called her my little miss Lisa Marie. To her family and friends, Lisa was little miss. So when she got her first car, it was only fitting that her license plate read little miss. On the way to her parents' house, Lisa planned to stop in Cody, Wyoming to pick up her boyfriend, Ed Jarek.

Lisa and Ed had recently started dating, and Lisa was really excited about introducing him to her family for the very first time. There was just something special about Ed, and she couldn't wait for her parents to meet him. The drive from Denver to Wyoming would take around eight to nine hours, depending on traffic and depending on weather. She would be at Ed's house by midnight on Friday night.

But Lisa didn't make it. Not that night and not that morning. Fearing that something terrible might have happened, Ed called his friend Carla. Carla was friends with both Lisa and Ed, and once she found out that Lisa never made it to Ed's house, she immediately picked up the phone and called Lisa's parents.

At first, Lisa's parents, Sheila and Ron Kimmel, thought their daughter got into a car accident. So Ron drove down to Cody, where he met up with Ed. Then the two of them backtracked Lisa's route to see if maybe she was stuck on the side of the road somewhere. But there was no sign of Lisa or her car with that little miss license plate.

Ed started calling authorities in three different states, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. But none of the law enforcement agencies seemed to take Ed's calls too seriously. Lisa was only a few hours late, and she was legally an adult. So many of the agencies took down their report as, quote, an overdue arrival. Simply put, this is just a call about someone a little late to their destination.

Later that day, Lisa's mom, Sheila, called the Wyoming Highway Patrol back and asked that they change their report from an overdue arrival to a missing person report. She told the officers that this was entirely out of character for Lisa, and since she still hadn't shown up, something terrible might have happened.

But the Wyoming Highway Patrol disagreed. They told Sheila that they would have to wait at least 72 hours before filing a missing person report.

This is something we see in these types of cases all the time, right? The family or loved ones of a missing person call the police to report them missing, but oftentimes the police's hands are tied. They have policies and procedures within their department that say when an adult goes missing, you have to wait at least 72 hours before filing an official missing person report.

Now, I completely understand the policy. Without them, police departments would be filing missing person reports all day long. If a husband didn't come home on time, the wife would be calling the police, reporting him missing, only to have him show up a half an hour later. The 72-hour rule allows for many kidnappings and disappearances to go cold.

Because if someone is really kidnapped, 72 hours is an eternity. So I can see both sides of this argument. In Lisa's case, there was nothing suspicious about her disappearance, other than the fact that she was a few hours late to her destination. In most situations, that's not something to ring the alarm bells over.

So once again, the Wyoming Highway Patrol wouldn't allow Lisa's parents to file a missing person report. A couple of hours later, the Highway Patrol called Sheila back. They told her that at 9.06 p.m. the night before, a Highway Patrol officer stopped Lisa for speeding in Douglas, Wyoming. Douglas was about the halfway point in her trip.

The officer who pulled Lisa over was Officer Alan Lesko of the Wyoming State Highway Patrol. Officer Lesko said he was out on the highway patrolling when he spotted a small car headed northbound on the freeway at 88 miles per hour. He decided to turn his vehicle around and pull the car over.

When Officer Lesko approached the car, he said he saw a young white female behind the wheel who identified herself as Lisa Marie Kimmel. He said he asked Lisa why she was driving so fast down the highway, and she responded and said that she needed to get to Wyoming because a friend of hers was having surgery. Officer Lesko said he wrote her a speeding ticket and that was it.

After that, she was free to go and she drove away. Over the next couple of days, Lisa's family and the police desperately looked for her. But there was no sign of her or her car anywhere. About one week later, on April 2nd, 1988, a mechanic planned to spend his Saturday afternoon fishing in the North Plate River in Casper, Wyoming.

While getting together his fishing equipment, he had a bad feeling. The feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know something is wrong. So he headed down to the water's edge. Floating on top of the water was the partially nude body of a young, dead female.

Although Casper is about 60 miles away from where the highway patrol officer gave Lisa that speeding ticket, many people believed the body belonged to Lisa. Not only was Casper on the way to Lisa's next destination, the city of Cody, but the female's physical appearance matched Lisa. And later that day, the police identified the woman found floating in the river as Lisa Kimmel.

Lisa's autopsy painted a terrifying picture of her last few moments of life. Besides being bound, gagged, and stabbed, her killer also sexually assaulted her. In total, the forensic pathologist counted six stab wounds to Lisa's chest and stomach in what he described as, quote, a unique fashion. There was also evidence that her killer struck her in the head with some sort of blunt object.

The forensic pathologist determined that this blow would have killed her within minutes, even if her killer hadn't stabbed her. Before searching for a possible suspect, the police needed to find out how Lisa's body ended up in the river. So about a quarter mile away from where the fishermen found her body, the police searched the old government bridge.

Investigators found a large pool of Lisa's blood on the bridge edge and railing of the bridge. Now, this particular bridge was rarely used and not easy to access. So investigators theorized that Lisa's killer likely knew the area and was familiar with this particular bridge.

investigators found Lisa's blood on the edge. They believe that's where someone killed her and then dumped her body in the river. Her body then floated down the river for a quarter mile until it ended up in the spot where the fishermen found her.

Several people who lived near the old government bridge told police investigators that they saw a car parked on the bridge in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 26th. Investigators theorized that Lisa was sexually assaulted and killed earlier that day, about four to five hours after the highway patrol officer pulled her over.

Lisa's murder quickly made national news when investigators asked for the public's help finding her car with its personalized Montana license plate, Lil Miss. But while the police searched for possible suspects, they started receiving strange and unexpected tips that complicated their entire investigation. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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After discovering Lisa's body, over 1,000 people came forward to the police claiming to have seen Lisa as well as her car. Now I know what you're thinking. That's great. We have over 1,000 potential eyewitnesses who saw Lisa and or her car. But there's a problem here. Over 1,000 people claimed to have seen Lisa after she was already dead.

The police received tips from all across the northwestern part of the states and even Canada. Hundreds upon hundreds of people told investigators that they saw Lisa and her car during the eight-day window between when she was last seen and when her body was discovered.

What is so bizarre is that Lisa was killed either late March 25th or early March 26th. So how could over a thousand people see a dead girl in a dead girl's car? And how can everyone be so sure it was Lisa's car? Several witnesses claim to have seen Lisa with an unidentified man.

17 of these witnesses even provided the police with the man's physical description and investigators created 17 different composite sketches. But none of the composite sketches seemed to resemble one another closely enough to issue a wanted poster. In other words, all 17 composites looked like an entirely different person.

Although the police received hundreds of tips, the two most credible came from witnesses who said they saw Lisa in her car on March 26th and on March 27th. On March 26th, Donna Kirkpatrick, a wife to a local county sheriff, said she saw Lisa that Saturday afternoon.

During an interview for the television show Unsolved Mysteries, Donna said, quote, It was a Saturday at noon, and I noticed a little black sports car had pulled out right in front of me. Then I noticed the license plate. It was a Montana plate with Lil Miss on it. And at that point, I decided that I needed to see if the car went with whoever was driving it.

I am absolutely positive there was a young gal driving it. There's no doubt in my mind. End quote. Donna told investigators that the young woman behind the wheel was wearing a pink sweater. When the police showed her a picture of Lisa Kimmel, she said she was sure that that's who she saw driving that car.

Now, if there were any other 1988 black Honda CRX car, if this was any other black Honda, we probably wouldn't believe this eyewitness. Maybe she saw a similar vehicle. Maybe someone who looked like Lisa was driving it.

But the reason why Donna's story is so credible is because of that license plate. According to Donna, this car was the same make, same model, as well as the same color as Lisa's. And it also had that same personalized license plate, Little Miss. But that's not the only sighting of Lisa on the 25th.

Two hours after Donna said she saw Lisa, another witness said she saw her in Buffalo. This time, the witness said Lisa wasn't alone. Instead, she was with an unidentified man. This witness, a cashier at a gas station, said that he saw Lisa's car pull into the gas station. The car caught his attention because of the little mislicensed plate.

He said he saw two people inside the car, a female who looked like Lisa, as well as an unknown male. He said he took his eyes off the car for just a split second, and when he looked again, the car was gone. When the police interviewed this man, he said he didn't know if Lisa was in the car. All he knew was that he was 100% sure it was her car because he said he saw that personalized license plate.

The second credible eyewitness claimed to have seen Lisa on March 27th in Casper, Wyoming. At around 1.45 p.m. on March 27th, Diana Houston said she was driving downtown when a small black sports car caught her attention. She said that particular car, beyond any other car on the road that day, caught her attention because of the little miss license plate.

Diana had a friend whose dog name was Little Miss. So she thought it was funny that she sees this car with a license plate named after one of her friend's dogs. According to Diana Houston, the girl driving the car was wearing a yellow sweater. Now, just for reference here, the first eyewitness over there in Buffalo said the girl was wearing a pink sweater. So this woman is saying she saw a yellow sweater.

But the police officer who pulled Lisa over for that speeding ticket said that Lisa was wearing a black and white sweater. And according to Lisa's own parents, they didn't think that their daughter owned either a yellow or a pink sweater. Either one of these eyewitnesses is correct. Could Lisa have really been killed on the morning of March 26th, as the police said?

Lisa was last seen alive at 9 o'clock p.m. on Friday night, and her family reported her missing by 9 a.m. Saturday morning. Could these two witnesses be right that they saw her at least twice later that day and once on Sunday? If Lisa was alive when these witnesses saw her and her car, why didn't she tell her boyfriend or her parents where she was?

And if she was killed on the 26th, like the police said, then who was driving her car? When Donna Kirkpatrick said that she saw her in her car on the 26th, she was in Buffalo, a town two and a half hours off of Lisa's course, which begs the more questions. Why would Lisa be over two and a half hours away from where she was supposed to be that day?

And then when the other witnesses said she saw the car on the 27th, that was in Jasper. All of the eyewitnesses said the driver seemed fine. They weren't signaling for help or anything like that. So if Lisa was in danger, why didn't she flag anyone down for help?

Despite over 1,000 people who claimed they saw Lisa and her car after she was reportedly dead on the 26th, Lisa's murder turned cold. The police only received a handful of tips that led to possible suspects.

One suspect was the mystery man they saw Lisa driving with in Buffalo. But the police couldn't investigate this mystery man because the physical descriptions were so different and they couldn't create an official composite.

Investigators also looked into the possibility that the highway patrol officer who pulled Lisa over and gave her that speeding ticket might know something about her murder. But he was immediately cleared and was found to have nothing to do with it.

Other than that, the police didn't receive any tips about who might be responsible. So without any solid tips, the investigation turned cold for the next several years. And the mystery surrounding the Little Miss murder continued. Seven months after Lisa's murder, investigators got a creepy tip.

On October 13th, 1988, a family friend visited Lisa's gravesite in Billings. And when they got there, they saw a mysterious note taped to Lisa's headstone. The note was stuffed inside an envelope and read, quote, Lisa, there aren't words to say how much you've missed the pain never leaves. It's so hard without you. You'll always be alive in me.

Your death is my painful loss by heaven's sweet gain. Love always, Stringfellow Hawk, end quote. Okay, there's so much to unravel with this note, but let's start with the signature, the name. So the name Stringfellow Hawk is

comes from an 80s TV series, Airwolf. In the show, Stringfellow Hawk, played by actor Jean-Michael Vincent, is one of the show's main characters. He's this guy who lives in a remote cabin and uses a secret military helicopter to try and search for his missing brother.

So when this note popped up on Lisa's tombstone, investigators were confused. They had no idea what the note meant. Was it written by whoever killed her? Was it someone who had information? And the burning question, why was it signed Stringfellow Hawke?

The weird note only intensified investigators as well as Lisa's family desire to find answers. Who is Stringfellow Hawk? One person who became deeply involved in Lisa's case was a retired federal agent, Don Flickinger.

At the time of Lisa's murder in 1988, Don Flinkinger worked as a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, a.k.a. the ATF in Billings, Montana. After spending nearly 15 years working in Minneapolis, he had recently moved back to Billings investigating mob cases.

So he was happy when the ATF reassigned him back to Billings because this transfer meant that he could be closer to his parents and finish out his career there. How exactly does a federal agent with the ATF get involved in a cold case homicide investigation?

When the ATF assigned Don to Billings, he investigated illegal firearms and arson cases. He was not in charge of investigating homicides. Like many Montana residents, when Don saw the news and heard about the Little Miss murder, he was disturbed to learn that there was a killer in the community. But unlike many, he knew Lisa.

Don's youngest daughter knew Lil Miss. The two girls were just two years apart. They grew up in the same neighborhood. They even went to the same high school together. So when Don heard about Lisa's death, he started his own investigation. At the time, Don Flickinger was the only ATF agent working in this part of remote Montana.

And as a federal agent, he was familiar with the area's known criminals. A few weeks into his investigation, he spoke with a man who said that he had some information about the case. Don even wrote a report on the interview and sent it over to the county sheriff's department in Jasper, the lead agency in charge of Lisa's murder investigation. Even though his report didn't amount to anything,

And it turned out that the person that Don spoke to really didn't have any credible information about Lisa's murder. What it did was open the door for Don to become deeper involved in this investigation. So he officially joined the investigation in June of 1989, which didn't exactly make everyone so happy.

Some investigators from the sheriff's department didn't really like the fact that a federal agent was getting involved in their murder investigation. They thought it was their case and they were going to solve it. They didn't need some help from an ATF agent who basically has no jurisdiction here.

But because of his connection in the area, as well as his willingness to help, he was allowed to join the team. Don and local detectives in Montana spent the next six years investigating Lisa's murder.

Their investigation led them down many dead ends, including interviews with cult members suspected in the murder. They collected dozens of blood samples for DNA analysis. They used the blood samples to compare them to DNA evidence collected from Lisa's rape kit, but none of the samples came back as a match.

They also traveled across the country following up on leads from Texas to Alaska to Las Vegas even. But they always returned back to Montana empty handed. At one point during the investigation, Dawn suspected other police officers might be involved in Lisa's murder. But eventually that theory fizzled out as well.

For years, people feared that whoever raped and murdered Lil Miss would get away with it for good. Lisa's family spent the next 14 years searching for answers. What happened to their Lil Miss? Finally, in 2002, progress happened. In the summer of 2002, detectives working on cold cases came across Lisa's case.

They knew DNA had been collected from her rape kit, and they thought that maybe advancements in DNA testing over the years could help shed some light on the investigation. Unfortunately, DNA testing back in 1988 was much more limited than it was now in 2002.

So even though they couldn't test the DNA very well back in 1988, maybe by 2002 that would prove to be better. So they took the DNA collected from Lisa's rape kit and developed a DNA profile. Her killer left behind semen on Lisa's body. They took the profile and then uploaded it into Wyoming's DNA database.

Hopefully, someone had their DNA uploaded to the state system and would come back as a match in Lisa's case. After waiting weeks to hear back from the state's DNA database, cold case investigators finally got the news they hoped for. The DNA profile developed from seminal evidence matched the DNA of 57-year-old Dale Wayne Eaton.

14 years after Lisa's murder, the police finally had a credible suspect. Tracking down Dale Eaton was easy. Dale Eaton was already serving a prison sentence on unrelated weapons charges in Littleton, Colorado. So Eaton was required to provide the state with a sample of his DNA after a 1997 criminal conviction for kidnapping a family at gunpoint.

In this particular incident, Eaton stopped to offer help to the Breeden family, whose car had broken down on the side of the road. Shannon and Scott Breeden, along with their infant son, accepted a ride from Eaton. After driving for a couple of miles, Eaton stopped the car and pulled out a rifle. Somehow, the couple was able to wrestle the gun away from Eaton. They got away and then ran and called the police.

While in federal prison, he was also charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of his cellmate, Clay Palmer. However, he wouldn't serve any time for that particular charge because he was ultimately acquitted.

Once they identified him, investigators dug into Dale Eaton's life around the time of Lisa's murder. They found out from Eaton's neighbors that shortly after Lisa's death, they saw him digging large holes on his property in Moneta, Wyoming, a spot about 75 miles west of Jasper.

After finding this out, investigators sent a team to Eaton's property to look for any evidence that could further tie him to the murder. They already had his DNA sample from the rape kit, but they sent out a team to see if there was anything else that they could find to nail him.

The team searched Eaton's property in July of 2002, and after just a couple days of digging, they hit gold. They found Lisa's car buried next to an old shed on his property, and the car still had its signature Lil Miss license plate.

Investigators hired Jim Brose, a handwriting expert, to examine the mysterious note left on Lisa's tombstone. They wanted to find out if it was Dale Eaton who wrote the note. After comparing the handwriting on the note to Eaton's writing, Jim Brose concluded that Eaton was the one who wrote it. But why would Eaton use the name Stringfellow Hawke?

Obviously, he's not going to sign his real name on the note, but why use Stringfellow Hawk? Some people speculate that Eaton might have resonated with the character. Maybe he saw something of himself in Stringfellow Hawk, a character known for, quote, being a reclusive warrior with relationship problems, end quote.

In April 2003, authorities charged Dale Eaton with Lisa's rape, kidnapping, and murder. Based on the evidence and witness accounts, the police believe Eaton kidnapped Lisa from a Wyoming rest stop bathroom at gunpoint. He then drove her car to his house 75 miles away. He kept her bound and gagged for six days in an old bus parked on his property.

During this time, he repeatedly raped and assaulted her. Before hitting her in the head with a blunt force object, he then stabbed her six times in the chest, if that wasn't enough. After killing her, he drove her out to the old government bridge and dumped her body in the river.

The police were wrong when they thought that he killed her on the 26th. Instead, new evidence suggests Eaton kidnapped her on the 26th, held her captive for almost a week before dumping her body on either April 1st or on April 2nd.

This story also suggests that possibly some of the 1,000 witnesses who said they saw Lisa and her cars in the days following the 26th could be right.

The case went to trial in early 2004. Dale Eaton was facing a mountain of criminal charges. He was charged with one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, first-degree sexual assault, and second-degree sexual assault.

He was also facing three more counts of first-degree felony murder because authorities believed he committed the crimes of sexual assault, kidnapping, and robbery during the commission of Lisa's murder. So in the end, he was facing the death penalty. This was a very, very serious case. Many people wanted to see the person behind the Little Miss murder brought to justice.

Eaton's defense attorney, Wyatt Skaggs, presented an interesting argument at trial. His argument was that he wasn't going to deny that his client killed Lisa. He said this during his opening statements. He said he didn't deny that he violently sexually assaulted her either.

Instead, he argued to the court that one, the prosecution was overcharging his client and that number two, there were some issues with the DNA evidence. So let's start with number one, argument number one. His defense is that the prosecution is overcharging him. What exactly does that mean?

Well, according to his defense attorney, yes, Eaton is the guy. We don't deny the fact that he's involved. However, there's no proof that Lisa's death happened during the commission of a robbery, her kidnapping, or her sexual assault.

He argues that the state is overly prosecuting him and that they're adding all of these criminal charges on top of the murder charge.

His attorney says Eaton should only be charged with kidnapping, robbery, sexual assault, and murder. Now, I say the word only very loosely because obviously those four criminal charges are extremely serious alone. Now, number two, the defense argued there are some issues over the DNA evidence in the case. According to Eaton's defense,

Only finding Dale Eaton's DNA on Lisa's body doesn't mean he's the only perpetrator. So what does that mean? Eaton's not the sole perpetrator. Well, the defense tried to argue that only finding his DNA on her body doesn't mean there weren't others involved in Lisa's kidnapping and murder.

And therefore, Dale Eaton can't be the only one held responsible for it. This argument, I had to pause there for a second because this argument seems completely silly, right? We typically only find one DNA profile on a victim when there's only one perpetrator. If there's more than one person involved, then, well, you guessed it, we'll usually find more than one DNA profile.

So this defense attorney is basically flipping everything around, flipping it upside down, turning it around, twisting it, and basically saying that there's no proof others weren't involved in Lisa's murder. That Dale Eaton isn't the only one responsible here. The defense's strategy might not only sound crazy to you and I,

But the jury also found it crazy because on March 20th, 2004, they found him guilty of all charges and sentenced him to death. The little miss murder was finally solved and her killer was brought to justice.

With Eaton in prison, Don Flickinger and the countless detectives who investigated Lisa's case wondered if Lisa was Eaton's only murder victim. They knew he had a lengthy criminal history that included kidnapping and weapon charges. Could there be more murder victims out there? Dale Eaton displays all of the telltale signs of a serial killer to some criminal profilers.

When the fishermen discovered Lisa's body, they found her almost completely naked in a popular fishing spot.

When Eaton dumped her body, he knew the discovery of her body would be shocking. It would create a public spectacle. A common trait in a serial killer is their desire to make public spectacles involving their victims. That's why many serial killers either choose to pose their victims in public or

or sometimes they just simply leave their victim's nude body in a busy, high-traffic area that they know many people are going to see. Then there's Eaton's decision to keep and hold onto Lisa's vehicle. Instead of getting rid of the car, he chose to keep it and bury it on his property. Another common trait in a serial killer is to keep trophies from their victims.

Maybe the Little Miss car was one of his trophies. Mike Blonigan, the prosecutor in the Little Miss murder case, said that his office considered Eaton a possible person of interest in several missing person and other homicide investigations. One particular case he's considered a suspect in is the case of Amy Betchel. Amy Betchel disappeared while jogging in Wyoming back in 1997.

When her husband arrived home from work around 4.30 p.m., she wasn't home, so he decided to call the police to report her missing. Later on, investigators found her car parked in a remote area of a forest. Since then, she's never been seen again, and her case remains unsolved.

Authorities who investigated Amy's disappearance believe that Eaton could be a suspect since he was in the area at the time. And the circumstances surrounding Amy's disappearance are similar to the Little Miss story. So far, no charges have been brought forward against Eaton and Amy's disappearance. Authorities also suspected that Dale Eaton might be the man behind the Great Basin murders.

Between 1983 and 1997, there was a string of deaths in Wyoming collectively labeled the Great Basin Murders. Most of the Great Basin Murder victims were young females who disappeared, later to be found murdered. Two of the murders have been solved and were not linked to Eaton. However, the others remain unsolved.

In 2005, Lisa Kimmel's parents filed and won a wrongful death lawsuit against Eaton and his property. Under the terms of the civil lawsuit, the court awarded the Kimmel family Eaton's entire property. And on July 18, 2005, which would have been Lisa's 26th birthday, the Kimmel family burned the property down to the ground.

Following his conviction, Eaton appealed his conviction as well as appealed his death sentence. His appeal was denied and he was scheduled to be executed in February of 2010. Just three months before his scheduled execution date, Eaton received a stay of execution in December of 2009.

Five years later, in 2014, his death sentence was overturned when a judge ruled he received inadequate assistance of counsel during his criminal trial. At first, the state prosecution's office came out and said that they were going to seek to reinstate Eaton's death sentence.

But after a forensic psychiatrist evaluated Eaton, he deemed Eaton to be incompetent to stand a capital sentencing hearing. So the prosecution decided to drop their case to seek the death penalty in September of 2021. According to the evaluation, Eaton showed signs of dementia and depression. He also recently suffered a stroke while in prison that permanently damaged part of his brain.

Before he was removed from death row, Dale Eaton was the only prisoner on Wyoming's death row. The last execution in the state was over 30 years ago in 1992. Instead of receiving the death penalty, Eaton will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder, rape, and kidnapping of Lisa Kimmel. Do you think Dale Eaton's death sentence should be upheld? Do you think there are more victims out there?

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