Serial Killer Scott Lee Kimball

Although a number of people were involved in the investigation of Scott Lee Kimball, FBI Special Agent Jonathan D. Grusing and Lafayette Police Department Detective Gary Thatcher were among the primary investigators involved in clearing the difficult, convoluted case. They were assisted by several federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in Colorado and other states. Grusing came on board on November 9, 2006, after Kimball had become a suspect in the four murders, when he was assigned by the FBI's Denver office to investigate the murder-for-hire allegations surrounding the disappearance of Jennifer Marcum.

During his review of the FBI's case file on Ennis, Grusing learned that Kimball had told Carle Schlaff of the FBI's Denver office on June 29, 2003, that Marcum had been murdered by one of Ennis's associates because of the fear that she would testify against Ennis in the methamphetamine case. Kimball also reportedly had stated that he had been asked by an Ennis associate to dig up Marcum's body, which he claimed was located somewhere near Rifle, Colo., to recover her breast implants and an intrauterine deviceeach of which, he believed, contained serial numbers that could be used to help police identify her body. Whether or not the story was true remained to be seen, but investigators soon came to think that Kimball was concerned that the items might link Marcum's body to him rather than to Ennis's associate.

As Grusing continued his review of the case file, he learned that Jennifer Marcum's cellular phone had last been used on February 17, 2003 at 9:30 p.m., and that her 1996 Saturn sedan, supposedly given to her by Steven Ennis, had been noticed by officers of the Denver Police Department in a parking lot at Denver International Airport during the early morning hours of the following day. Follow-up inquiries made by the local police revealed that Marcum had not been scheduled on any outbound flights although Kimball later claimed that she had traveled to New York City to purchase a handgun that supposedly was to have been used to shoot the federal witness who was planning to testify against Ennis.

It seemed noteworthy to Grusing and others that cell phones belonging to Jennifer Marcum and Scott Kimball had not been used from February 17, 2003 to February 20, 2003, even though both of their phones had been used significantly to call each other prior to February 17, 2003. When Kimball was later asked about his whereabouts on those dates, he claimed that he had taken a trip to the mountains near Craig, Colo. He remained evasive about what he had been doing in that area.