UPDATE: Kimberly Doss

After a fourteen-year-old goes missing from her boyfriend’s home in Iowa in 1980, her mother puts all the pressure she can on police to take her daughter’s case seriously and bring her home.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ashley Flowers?

  When you're out in nature, you learn to trust your instincts. You pay attention to the trail, your surroundings, and you stay alert to protect yourself from harm. But what if the biggest threat isn't the environment at all? On Park Predators, host Delia Diambra explores true crime cases that happen in national parks and remote wildernesses, the places we usually think of as safe and peaceful. Each episode reveals what happened and how much more there is beneath the surface. Listen to Park Predators now, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Hi, crime junkies. It's Brett. 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's 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 Doss, 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.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  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 Doss.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  On March 24th, 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.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  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, "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

• 3:39Speaker 01

  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,

• 4:22Speaker 01

  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.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  So she does, no hesitation. She packs up her life, moves, and Kimberly is officially reported missing on September 1st, 1982. Now, you might be wondering why Kimberly's dad couldn't report her missing if he was living in Davenport or Dallas's 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 persons report is filled with errors.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  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.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  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 a minute, it feels like her hard work might finally be paying off, when the P.I. 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 P.I.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  ends up connecting with a guy named Don, who runs a youth nonprofit in L.A. called Thursday's Child. According to Don, not only is he working closely with NICMCC, he's seen hundreds of kids come through his shelter. And when he hears Kimberly's description from the P.I., 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 Doss, 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

• 7:55Speaker 01

  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 5'2" 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 21st, 1984, her family reported the sighting to police and asks Davenport PD to follow up on the lead with police in L.A. But when a detective calls LAPD to try to get a mugshot of Kimberly Gardner, they say they're months behind on logging 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.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  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' minds from that point on. And it probably influences how

• 9:24Speaker 01

  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,

• 10:06Speaker 01

  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.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  But police are convinced that Kimberly Gardner is Kimberly Doss. So they never enter Kimberly into the adult missing persons 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,

• 11:33Speaker 01

  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.

• 12:02Ashley Flowers?

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• 14:01Speaker 01

  Linda doesn't hear much from police after this, but in late 1993, she reaches out to them about something she'd learned from Kimberly's cousin Wendy. Something important that they may have missed. And Wendy actually brought this information to police earlier that year. She told them that back on March 23rd, 1980, the day before Kimberly called her mom, she saw Kimberly and Dallas drive by. Kimberly flipped her off, they'd been in some kind of argument recently. And Wendy yelled at Dallas to pull over so she could talk to Kimberly. He did, and stepped out of his truck to talk to Wendy while Kimberly stayed inside. Then he got back in and drove back with Kimberly to his house, which was just down the road. A little while later, Wendy saw Kimberly leave Dallas's house and get into another

• 14:46Speaker 01

  car, a green two-door. That was the last time Wendy ever saw Kimberly, but she recognized the car. It belonged to a guy that she and Kimberly went to school with named Cecil. Even though he was a few years older than her, 17, Wendy had grown up with him and had always got a bad vibe because he did things that made her uncomfortable, like pants her and try to kiss her. When Wendy learned Kimberly had gone missing, she suspected that Cecil had something to do with it. So she went to their mutual friend, we're gonna call him Fred, to ask him if he knew anything. And while we couldn't speak to Wendy, she died in 2019, we spoke to the friend of theirs, Fred, who was actually in Cecil's car that day.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  He said they happened to run into Kimberly, picked her up, drove around. Fred had to be back at his foster home by 3pm, so Cecil dropped him off and drove off with Kimberly. Fred told us that when he asked Cecil what happened, Cecil told him Kimberly left the next morning on foot without her coat. And that didn't make sense. It was a cold march in Iowa. He even remembers there still being snow on the ground. So, why would she walk off without her coat? Fred and Wendy both believe that Kimberly never made it out of town. And they may have been right, because there's never been a confirmed sighting of her at any bus station, even in Davenport. Police never found her mystery friend Kathy either, so no one's even sure exactly where

• 16:13Speaker 01

  Kimberly made that call to her mom from. But according to Fred, police never even interviewed Cecil, who, by the way, built up a long criminal record, starting in 1985, including charges of sex abuse, assault, domestic violence, and unlawful possession of a firearm. Nine charges would have been on his record by the end of 93, the year Wendy and Linda went to police with this tip. But any information police could have gotten from Cecil died with him earlier this year. Also, this is a side note, we don't know if police ever questioned Dallas, even though as far as anyone knows, he and his family threw out her things after she failed to come back to their house.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  I mean, if police did question him, nothing came of it. And then Dallas died in 2011. And on the 14th anniversary of Kimberly's disappearance, March 24th, 1994, Davenport PD reviews the case, and again, decides that woman calling herself Kimberly Gardner is their Kimberly. So the case stays closed. And the next time Linda gets any kind of update on Kimberly's case is January 12th, 1999, when she gets a sympathy card in the mail from a nonprofit organization that focuses on finding missing and exploited kids. A card in memory of Kimberly.

• 17:36Speaker 01

  The nonprofit puts Linda in touch with the Houston Coroner's Office, and they tell her that in 1989, Kimberly's body was found in Sugarland, Texas, and has recently been identified using dental records. But no one told Linda about this. Devastated, she once again calls Davenport PD and asks why she wasn't notified of her daughter's death. But the officer she speaks to doesn't know anything about this, and like most conversations she's had, it goes nowhere. After a week of getting passed around, Linda's finally shown a photo of the girl whose body had been found in Texas. And she immediately says, "This isn't Kimberly." Turns out, that girl had used Kimberly's name as an alias.

• 18:21Speaker 01

  It was all a mix-up. But Davenport was told about this positive ID three months before Linda got the sympathy card in the mail. Before sending it, the nonprofit called to ask if Davenport would notify Kimberly's family, and the sergeant who took the call said, "Maybe a detective who worked Kimberly's case was still around, and maybe they could do the notification." Then he wrote, quote, "This report concludes my involvement in this matter." End quote. It's unclear if he even passed that message on. And even if he did, Davenport couldn't get their act together this one time to notify Linda that as far as they knew, her daughter was dead. But because of this, they do learn that there aren't any dental records uploaded into NCIC for Kimberly,

• 19:06Speaker 01

  so they submit them in 2000. In 2004, police reach out to Linda when another set of remains are found in Texas. This time, she gives DNA samples, and while the remains aren't a match for Kimberly, the DNA goes into the NCIC system too. For a while, that's where the case stands for Linda, just waiting to get a match. Until October 14, 2019, when a Davenport PD officer assigned to review Kimberly's case reaches out to meet with her and Kimberly's sister because he wants to show them a photo. It's of Shannon, or Kimberly Gardner. But Linda and Kimberly's sister both said again, "That is not Kimberly. Never has been, never will be." And in 2021,

• 19:52Speaker 01

  that DNA file confirms once and for all that Kimberly Gardner is not Kimberly Doss. So for all those years, that false ID, the one that kept this case closed, was wrong. Then, in 2023, Kimberly's sister posts a missing flyer in a Facebook group, which connects her and Linda with the woman who eventually becomes their family advocate and FOIA's Davenport PD for the case files. When they receive those files, they see clearly how this idea police had of Kimberly being a runaway, without anyone actually taking the time to corroborate sightings or leads. It killed any real investigation from the very beginning. Police latched on to a false narrative and got tunnel vision on it.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  But now that a new detective on the case has worked with the family to separate fact from fiction, the family's working on correcting that false narrative everywhere it still appears, which is exactly what I hope this episode was able to continue to do. Kimberly went missing 45 years ago this year. She has a family who loves her and has never stopped looking for her. And their advocate told us that even after all the time that's passed and the missed opportunities, they're still optimistic about where the investigation stands today. And they want to be clear that it's not more of the same. 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.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  So if you or anyone you know has any information about the disappearance of Kimberly Doss, please contact the Davenport PD at 563-326-7979, or call Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities at 309-762-9500 to leave an anonymous tip.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com, and you can follow us on Instagram at @crimejunkiepodcast. And we'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

• 22:41Ashley Flowers?

  Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?

• 22:51Speaker 02

  When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir. And that can only mean one thing. Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful. You never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Growing up in a small town, I know how deeply a crime can shake a local community. And I know that what makes the headlines is rarely the full story. That's what Kylie Lowe explores on her show Dark Down East. She digs into cases from Maine and New England using original reporting, archival records, and conversations with the people who knew them best. Each episode takes you inside the communities these stories shaped and the families who never stop searching for answers. Listen to Dark Down East wherever you get your podcasts.