In a tragic twist of fate, Lori McLeod’s honeymoon with Scott Kimball in the serene surroundings of Routt National Forest turned into a nightmare just days after their wedding.

Unbeknownst to Lori, she had married a serial killer. Her new husband had taken her to the very place where he had disposed of her missing daughter’s remains. The chilling revelation left Lori devastated.

Reflecting on the gruesome truth during an episode of Oxygen’s Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, Lori expressed her horror, saying, “It makes me sick. I think he went to check out his handiwork.”

This shocking incident was part of a larger pattern of heinous acts committed by Scott Kimball, a manipulative conman who infamously referred to himself as “Hannibal.” Using his charm and a surprising connection to the FBI, Kimball managed to carry out a series of murders.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jonny Grusing drew parallels between Kimball and the infamous villain from Silence of the Lambs, noting, “The movie character Hannibal is very high functioning. He thinks two steps ahead of most of the investigators, and Scott Kimball does the same thing. He is normally two steps ahead of the rest of us.”

Kasyi McLeod Disappears in 2003

Lori never predicted the evil she was letting into her life when she first crossed paths with Scott at a Colorado casino. Scott, a divorced father who doted on his elderly mom, told Lori that he worked for the FBI. 

In the episode titled “A Deal with the Devil,” Lori recalled, “He brought me flowers and just did and said everything right.” 

Lori also appreciated how Scott watched out for her 19-year-old daughter Kaysi McLeod, who was trying to get her life back on track after struggling with drug addiction.

But on Labor Day 2003, Scott brought Lori some disturbing news. He claimed to have found a vial of drugs in Kaysi’s apartment. Kaysi—who was sober and working at a Subway—denied the drugs were hers. As tempers got heated between mom and daughter, Scott stepped in and got Kaysi and her boyfriend a hotel room to cool down. However, days later, Kaysi mysteriously disappeared.

Scott convinced Lori that Kaysi would return on her own and promised to use his FBI connections to find her. Though concerned, Lori was convinced that Scott was the best man to have by her side and married him during a trip to Las Vegas. To celebrate the union, Scott took her to a spot near the Routt National Forest.

Scott Kimball’s Ties to the FBI

Years passed without any sign of Kaysi. Lori and Scott moved to a ranch outside of Denver and started their own cattle business, often hosting Scott’s two sons. Then, in summer 2004, his young son Justin suffered a horrific accident at the ranch, prompting Scott’s uncle Terry Kimball to come and help care for the boy. 

“He made me uncomfortable,” Lori remembered. “He was a very strange man.”

She was relieved when, weeks later, Scott told her that Terry had won the lottery and moved to Mexico to enjoy his winnings.

Then, in 2006, Scott found his way onto authorities’ radar when a bank called police to report that $80,000 had disappeared from a client’s business account and it seemed as though Scott may have been forging checks through his cattle business.

Detective Gary Thatcher began to look into the case and soon learned there was much more to Scott than anyone could have imagined. The detective discovered that Scott had been convicted of fraud-related charges and was the last person believed to have seen Kaysi before she vanished.

Thatcher also made the surprising revelation that Scott was on the FBI’s payroll as a confidential informant. 

“I certainly was concerned about what Scott had been up to,” Thatcher said. “And I was also worried about, you know, how much does the FBI know about? Do they know everything that he had been doing while he was an informant for them?”

According to Grusing, Scott was “highly intelligent” and “very manipulative,” finding a way to con the FBI, Steven and Jennifer as part of the ruse. 

Jennifer’s dad Bob Marcum believed that Scott was also the last person to see Jennifer before she disappeared. 

Questions Emerge About Justin Kimball’s Accident

As the probe into Scott’s past deepened, Thatcher learned that police in Louisville, Colorado were also looking into Scott for the attempted murder of his son Justin. 

Justin had been seriously injured when a heavy steel grate fell on him on the ranch, but Justin later told police at the hospital that his father had pushed him out of a moving Jeep on the way to the hospital, sparking the investigation.

As Katharina Booth, the Boulder County Chief Deputy District Attorney noted, “I was convinced that it was not an accident or a series of accidents.”

According to Booth, Scott stood to collect $50,000 in life insurance if his son had died and had been looking into the details of the policies the same day of the accident. 

Investigators didn’t have enough evidence, however, to file any charges against him, so Booth joined Thatcher in his quest to nab Scott on check fraud. Authorities tracked him to California and after a wild hours-long car chase, he was taken into custody on fraud charges.

Investigators Uncover More Possible Victims

Meanwhile, Jennifer’s and Kaysi’s fathers had joined forces after learning of Scott’s connection to both missing persons cases and went to the FBI with their suspicions that Scott had been involved in their daughters’ disappearances.

When Lori learned that investigators believed Scott had been behind the disappearance, she told police that Scott’s Uncle Terry had also vanished under unusual circumstances.

“We actually ended up dubbing this case Operation Snowball, because it had that snowball effect,” Thatcher remarked. “Everywhere we went, the case just got bigger and bigger.”

As investigators delved deeper into the case, they discovered another woman LeAnn Emery had also disappeared in early 2003. At the time, Emery had been dating one of Scott’s prison buddies, who was hoping to break out of prison and connect with his girlfriend in Mexico. Scott agreed to assist with the escape plan and befriended Emery using the moniker “Hannibal.”

Her car was later found abandoned in Utah.

Human Remains Are Discovered

Scott, now in jail for fraud, insisted he hadn’t killed any of the women, but then in early 2008 investigators uncovered a receipt that placed Scott near the Routt National Forest around the time Kaysi disappeared. 

Grusing called the U.S. Forest Service and learned that human remains, initially believed to belong to a hiker, had been discovered in the forest. DNA testing later proved the remains belonged to Kaysi. 

Lori made the sickening realization that her husband had taken her to that same park on their honeymoon, not long after he was suspected of killing her daughter.

“You have one job as a mother, and I failed to keep her safe,” Lori lamented. “I’m the one that has to live with that forever.”

Once the remains were discovered, Scott agreed to plead guilty to the white-collar crimes in exchange for a 48-year prison sentence. He also agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and lead authorities to the remains of the remaining victims including Terry, Jennifer and LeAnn.

While the remains of Terry and LeAnn—who were both shot with the same gun—were ultimately recovered, Jennifer’s body has never been found.

Since Scott was unable to live up to his end of the deal, prosecutors were able to renegotiate a stiffer sentence. He was sentenced in 2009 to 70 years behind bars for two counts of second-degree murder. He later received an additional four years behind bars after planning a botched prison escape.