tv Dateline MSNBC June 27, 2021 11:00pm-1:00am PDT
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of dateline. i'm natalie, thank you for watching. i just looked unlike really would. i noticed him lying at the base of the bed. face down. then i saw zip ties tyrone her, -- i still can't wrap my head around it. he was >> she was always helping others, now, she needed help. >> cnn ambulance fast. >> his beautiful wife, dead in
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their -- bedroom. >> something very violent had occurred here. >> you can see bullet holes in the wall. >> had he been keeping secrets? >> he said there's a lot going on here. >> he was living tweet from lives. >> let me be somebody else had secrets to. >> they asked her, can you turn on the tv? >> outcomes the menu for a porn video. i start shaking my finger at it. that's not mine. >> no shortage of such acts. >> have you ever had sex with her? be honest. >> the detectives have to look at every single person. >> including me. >> hln crime. >> there is some deep down evil inside when you do something like this. >> and a killer running out of time. >> he tells us something that only the person who was there would know. >> it was coming.
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hot air rising. cool air falling. swirling, spinning into a witches brew of pure missouri. >> she was innovative hurricanes. >> which an expert on with the damage of a hurricane can do? >> absolutely. our expertise is what's needed to be done in order to prevent damage. >> as luck would have it, there was a monster storm brewing off the florida coast. not far from her home that last week of october, 2012. in the end, a largely spared her state. but she, locked inside that house, that gated community was still doomed. >> the kitchen was just torn apart and then her bedroom, torn apart. and then upstairs, we didn't know you know, really where the struggles were happening in this house. >> it had comes, another storm, different addition rooted theory. it had blown down her door and
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threw her world. without warning or a shred of mercy. >> fun loving, independent, lovely, kim dorsey. >> no wonder derek dorsey fell for her. and boy, did he fall. >> well, first time i laid eyes on her, i just thought she was beautiful. >> did you express how you felt even in that first moment? did he get there that night? >> now, i waited until the second day to tell her i loved her. >> second day, that's quick! >> when i told i loved her, her response was i like you a lot to. >> kim wanted to take things slow, she said, for a reason. >> she was putting herself through school to become civil engineer. seven years of dating passed before he ever popped the question. >> well, that's the thing. she got angry. she got up and walked away. without even saying everything.
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and i was just like oh god, i've managed identical mistake. i've moved too fast. >> she gets over there and she goes to her purse and she brings us this box and it's a long box. and she handed to me. and she said i thought you throw this on one of these days. >> oh no, with that i do? a big no, or on a piece of paper. >> on the contrary, and said was a bracelet etched with the letters, yes. they were married almost a year later. after their wedding, they honeymooned in ireland. >> how do you like to be here? >> the beer is absolutely better. much better than america. >> there was, kim ever fearless, trying her hand at the ancient sport of faltering. >> beautiful. perfect. that's it. that's the one. >> at times, this independent period seemed surprised to find herself no longer single. >> yes, let's do it. >> not a married life changed
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her or either of them very much. he was a jacksonville firefighter and owner of a small general contracting business. kim, got her degree and began training building inspectors in hurricane prone florida. >> we should get it? >> in two weeks they asked her to head the department. she had classes up to hundred men looking at this new girl and ideals telling them how to build. but she held her own, which we loved. they respected her. >> they both were laser-focused on their careers. >> you decided not to have any children? >> at the time, we are very both busy and we just felt that we won't be able to do what we wanted to do. so we never did. >> pleaded have your babies. >> yes, we did. >> how many of them? >> three miniature schnauzer. >> they were her children, no doubt about. i took them to the top park religiously every weekend. watch every day, that was her listing the day.
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she'd harness the heard and take them for a walk. >> comes workload seem to grow heavier by the day. it started to get her. >> it became a greasy too difficult. it seemed like everything reveled rock. >> she went to see a doctor for depression. >> and she decided to take some medication to help her get a little bit brighter look on things. >> they work? >> absolutely. it was like turning and light switch on. i even told the doctor, thank you so much. thank you for being my wife. back >> his relief didn't last long. >> the cure became worse than the ailment. >> was it causing her to gain weight? with that one of the side effects? >> that's one of the large warning signs on it. weight gain, restlessly, things like that. >> kim feared that stopping the medication to suddenly could make her more depressed. he said, she was making plans that last week of october, 2012
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to see her doctor. and the meantime, it's so happened that a storm, a brutal one called hurricane sandy had been heading north off the atlantic post. >> how will that she know the anatomy of a hurricane? but it was capable of. . >> i well. being a civil engineer, she knows what's structure can dealing with the can't you. her teaching and so forth and training the inspectors. she knew what had to be done to a household to protect it. >> she makes everyone safe? >> absolutely. >> eventually, the super storm tracked east, leaving most of florida a path before barreling north and into the history books. kim didn't seem to have either the weather or personal troubles on her mind as the weekend rolled around. there she, was friday. the 26th, captured on supermarket security video. that night, he said that he watched the movie on their entertainment system that had just been repaired. >> i would always have to
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change the mp for, change the channel or getting it to the place that she wanted to watch. >> so many people can relate to that. >> too many remotes. >> you had just had a sound person coming unhealthy out? >> i was tiring kavanaugh simplify. it >> they turned it into one. >> the next day, saturday the 22nd, derek left his wife speaking and headed to begin a 24-hour shift. they coincided with a big college football game, florida forces georgia. >> it's a large influx of people and to the city and of course, with the football game comes drinking and foolishness. >> what kind of culture get during weekend like that? . you see car accidents, things like that. as this yes he was he called kimberly that day, several times in fact. >> you get hold of her? was that strange?
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>> not unusual. a lot of times, usually in the morning, she didn't want to be bothered. she put her phone in the kitchen. >> on sunday, hayes shift over, he had it home. it was after aid in the morning. as he walked into the bedroom, darkened by blackout traits, he saw he expected to crawl into bed next cam but she wasn't there, she was on the floor. >> i noticed him lying at the base of the bed. face down. >> why did you think when you saw her laying there? >> i didn't know what to think. originally, she fell or hitter head or she had too many beers. but the closer i looked, i relax repeating. >> he said the firefighting in him. he called cpr, and a 9-1-1. >> soon, the emergency call would go out to derrick's fellow firefighters.
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men in trucks, sirens of glaring would be racing to the dorsey safe, a gated community and into his home that looked like it had just been hit by hurricane. coming up usa right now? if she awake. >> all rolled her i over, and she said, she rolled over, and i saw she was wasn't breathing. >> breathing. >> did you think there was a chance? >> did you think there was a chance? that she but you might still be alive? >> might still be alive? that pointed in. at that point, i did not get the opportunity to know that. >> when dateline, continues... dateline, continues... called tardive dyskinesia - td. and it can seem like that's all people see. some meds for mental health can cause abnormal dopamine signaling in the brain. while how it works is not fully understood, ingrezza is thought to reduce that signaling. ingrezza is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with td movements in the face and body.
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people taking ingrezza can stay on their current dose of most mental health meds. don't take ingrezza if you're allergic to any of its ingredients. ingrezza may cause serious side effects, including sleepiness. don't drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ingrezza affects you. other serious side effects include potential heart rhythm problems and abnormal movements. shift the focus more on you. ask your doctor about ingrezza. it's simple. one pill, once-daily. #1 prescribed for td. learn how you could pay as little as $0 at ingrezza.com >> when derek dorsey called the
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floor. >> i rolled her over and i saw that she was not breathing, i tried to give her cpr. >> did you think there was a chance? that you might still be alive? >> at that point, i didn't know. i did not give an opportunity. >> are you with her right now? >> yes, i am. >> issue wake? >> no, she's not. >> on the 9-1-1 call, it's almost like you're wearing two hats. you're the distraught husband, and then the firefighter. did you feel yourself going back and forth? >> well, i wanted them to know that i was an off-duty fireman. a simple fact, i wanted them to understand it wasn't a lay person that did not know what they were talking about. i knew there was something wrong. >> even has heat begged for help, he said he kept trying to revive kim. >> and they wanted all of this other information, and a look at focus on was giving her cpr.
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and then after a few minutes of giving her cpr i realized that she was already stiff. and... that she was gone. and i... i told communications ... i told them she was signal seven. >> what does that mean? >> i basically pronounced her dead. >> so, you think that she is beyond any resuscitation? >> she is. >> rescues on the way, okay? >> you know the first responder ... have you seen the seven other people? >> i did not want... anybody
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rushing to the scene and getting hurt. she was already. did >> your a firefighter, you are used to saving people. >> yes. >> it is your own life, and you cannot save her. >> yeah. >> how hard was that? >> after 15 years... going to gunshots, cardiac arrests, everything else... and helping everybody else on god's green earth, and i can help my wife? it's like all of that training was a waste. >> his once vibrant, beautiful wife lay dead on their bedroom floor. and he believed he knew why. >> we are sending rescue, you have to tell me exactly what she did. what happened? >> i don't know. she got either cut herself or something. i can't see. i'm trying to figure this... out. >> i thought maybe she had tried to hurt yourself. >> derek was telling county dispatch his wife had committed
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suicide. he immediately thought about kim's struggle with her medication and the warning that came with it. >> do not burn yourself off of the medication, was the doctor's advice off of coming off of it. >> now, as they stood over the body of his wife, he said that he felt kim had ignored that warning. >> i had originally thought that she tried to took herself off of her own medication. she had... typical cam, wanted to do it herself. >> she just quit, cold turkey. which... she was told not to. do >> you came off too quickly, yes. >> within minutes of calling 9-1-1, derek's colleagues came to. visit >> your fellow firefighters, and paramedics. >> would you say to them when they arrive? >> she's dead. >> you had a reaction to seeing them. your wife is laying there. what did you do when they got
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there? >> i covered her up. >> was that more of the husband instinct? >> yeah. the husband and firemen. it is decorum. my wife is naked there on the ground, and... i have half a dozen people in the house. you just cover her up. >> at some point, a call went out to the jacksonville sheriff's office. >> when something like this happen they will call me. first >> assistant chief at the time, d.k. walter's was the on-duty officer that weekend. >> i make the decision on whether we are going to go out to that, call respond to that call or not. and that happened to be one of the calls i thought we had respond. to >> the officer on the other end was telling the detective about a woman's apparent suicide. >> so, naturally because it is a suicide, we had to go, and make sure that everything lines up and looks as if someone has committed suicide. >> the homicide effect detective figured that the call would be a relatively quick one.
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he figured wrong. >> coming up -- >> it was chaos, and you can tell that something really horrible it happened. >> people who commit suicide don't usually miss. >> you can see the bullet holes in the wall. >> in no way could have somebody done this to themselves. it was obviously a murder scene. probably one of the most horrific ones that i had ever seen. >> when dateline continues... >> when dateline continues.. what?! turns out, sarah's right about the general. -i told you guys! -oh, can it sarah! for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. pain? yeah. here. aspercreme with max-strength* lidocaine. works fast and lasts. keep it.
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suicide. as he arrived, he was struck by the neighborhood. >> it's a gated community and our east jacksonville, towards the beach. not very far from the beaches. well beautiful homes. very nice neighborhood. and not very easily accessed. you have to have a way in. >> soon, he was joined by his partner at the time, detective hilary, who was also taken with the affluent community and the dorsey's house itself. >> you raced to the scene and came up to the house. did you see anything before even gotten? >> yes, as i was walking up sidewalk into the front door here, i saw a statue of a dog that was laid over in the bushes here. >> anything that was a lot about it? >> just affected look out of place. it was tipped over. i just took note of that and moved on from there. >> this is something though that would become very important later in this case. >> yes, absolutely. >> we just didn't realize it at this moment? >> that's correct. >> he made a mental toll noem
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met matt waters and the bedroom. >> he was. chaos you could tell something really horrible happening. you walk in originally, you see our victim lying at the foot of the bed. you could see, even as dark as it was in the room, because the lighting was a very good, who was just a scene that red as something horrible had happened here. >> not far from where came late, they found a knife. they saw patches of blood soaked into the carpet and specks of red on one wall and on another, something that jumped right out of their. >> there had been some gunshots. in the wall, you can see the bullet holes in the wall. >> officers later found the bullets and the kind that handle them. a pick handled revolver that have been tossed on the bedroom floor. there was something else they noticed. >> there was a pull q, broken pull qanon pedram. it was what i call the fat end of the pull q. >> as they look closer, they could see cam was covered in
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bruises. it was clear she had not killed herself. >> the room, there was blood all over the place. i mean, condition everybody. no way could have somebody dentists to themselves. this was obviously a murder scene. probably one of the most horrific ones that i have ever seen. >> just because of the amount of blood and -- >> the sheer violence that was evident in this room. >> the continued looking on the rest of the house. they notice the kitchen sink filled bizarrely, they thought, with tv remote controls and they sell phone. cabinet drawers open, if lori used as an ashtray. all that and the toppled statue at the front door suggested a break-in. especially when investigators learn more about the gated community. >> unfortunately, at the time that kim court or she was murdered, i believe that the community was leaving the kate opens. >> assistant state attorney, london kite was called to the murder scene that. >> i was in a secure as, you
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know, someone showing a carton, come on in. it was one of those things were at that point, it could be anybody. because they could've walked through. they could've driven through. >> but the closer they looked at house, the more they felt this attack had not been a random break-in. >> there were no signs of forced entry. so, somebody who had left themselves in the house or kim hunter door. >> and if somebody had come to rob the tories before killing him, they turn a poor job of it. can zero hammer said in the driveway, the big screen tv was still on the wall. >> there were some expensive items that were in plain sight there were still there, correct? >> yes. >> yes. >> big house, a lot of nice things. the computer is on the table. yes, there was a watch case next the bed. nothing of value seem to be missing that we could see right there. >> but it was kim's party that spoke the loudest to them. who was clear she had been beaten savagely, downed it's at
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some point with -- unlikely raped. >> this was such a violent attack on kim dorsey. did that tell you anything? just a level of violence? >> yes. it took told us that there is possibly some sort of connection between the person that committed the act and could. >> they perhaps niche? others >> that's correct. >> and this was some kind of rage, crime of passion. >> right, yes. >> the bloody scene made them skeptical about the story comes husband had told the 9-1-1 operator. >> you ask yourself, how could he believe somebody committed to aside. how could he be how truly believe that when you look at that crime scene? >> that was only one of so many questions they had four territory. a man it seemed with plenty of stories to tell. coming up, >> he was living to different. lives >> has been with the secret. >> i said, what about a girlfriend? you have girlfriend?
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he said, there's a lot going on here. >> we really had to figure out what was his, you know, true passion, did he want to live there with him or if he wanted to proceed in the dark side of his life? >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. feeling stressed in your skin? not with new olay retinol body wash. which improves skin 3x better.
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it was like rubber necking at someone else is tragedy waiting for the nightmare to slip by. coffee, -- >> i still can't wrap my head around. it >> he said he kept trying to piece together what had happened. later, he went with officers to the station for questioning. >> i know it is difficult right now, a lot going. on >> detective larry interviewed derek. still on his firefighter uniform. said that the husband seemed willing to answer all of his questions, starting with how he had left him that saturday morning. >> you left the house yesterday morning? >> 17? >> you just started at 8 am, saturday? >> correct. >> do you go back home for any reason? nothing like that? >> is all about that point is that he's at work. and he works to the fire department. 24 hour shifts. they started 8:00 in the morning of the work to the following morning at 8:00. >> a story that would be easy enough to check out. next, the detective found -- asked directly found kennedy got home from work.
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>> i go straight into the bedroom, opened it up, there she is she's not lying, down she's there -- she was on the right side, i think. >> he was upset. did he write down not as much as i think some people would, telling the story about what they just came home to. >> first things coming into my head is -- >> he said that he believed that he thought kim committed suicide and it already told county dispatch that he thought kim had cut herself. now, he was telling the detectives something different. >> what kind of gun is it? >> pink tourists. >> semi automatic? >> a, revolver. >> where is it normally? kept >> in her drawer, that was open. >> did you open that drawer? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think. so did you look at the drawer? >> absolutely. i thought she shot herself. >> he explained that kim had
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been battling depression, then battling side effects from the medicine, he said that their marriage had suffered. >> when is the last time you kim had sex? >> a while back. >> a wall back. when you say well back, like -- >> derek dorsey had something else to reveal. you stepping out, girlfriend -- on your behalf? what is it? >> you got a girlfriend? >> what about a girlfriend? you got a girlfriend. he said, yes. there is a lot going on. >> derrick had just admitted that he had been unfaithful to kim. >> obviously, big red flag. assistant state attorney london, was listening on the interview from another room and hearing a possible motive for murder. >> he was living to different lives he really had to figure out what was his, you know true passion. did he want to live there with, him or did he want the dark side of his? life >> there was another fact that she could not overlook that derek, a seasoned
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firefighter had down the unthinkable at a crime scene. >> but she covered up when you got there? >> no, she was in the book, on the floor. i put the -- after rescue came, pronounced are dead, i was just like, jesus got, guys. >> okay, i gotcha. >> with the comforter. >> okay, so you pulled out on top of? >> yet, he saw me do. it >> okay, and then, that's important to. us >> the thing that he did that was kind of uncharacteristic of someone who is a first responder it goes to scenes like this is that he covered her body with the beading. you know, you wouldn't want that to happen in a crime scene. >> to the investigators it was possible that derek dorsey had tried literally to cover up evidence. everything they were hearing led them to wonder, had he killed his wife? by then at the line of questioning seem to weigh on derek. >> i'm not stupid. you ask me certain questions -- >> right. >> and that means that you think you certain things... >> it's someone harm her?
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is that what it's looking like? >> looks like. that >> did you worry that they might think it was you? >> i don't doubt that they did think it was me but i knew that if they had originally thought or come to light that it was obviously -- there is no way i could've done it. >> you know he said in the interview room detectives outside it were in fact checking out his fire station. alibi >> did his alibi check out? was he really at work? >> yes, he was. he had spent the whole day at work there were some phone calls that he had made to him that went unanswered, but that was not unusual. >> reporter: surveillance footage supported derrick's account. it showed his truck leaving the gated community in the early hours of saturday morning. even though his alibi checked out, derrick wasn't off the hook. investigators thought he still could have had something to do with kim's murder. >> and that's why we wanted to make sure that we looked at his phone records to see who he was contacting. >> reporter: as investigators
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tried to size up the man before them, officers back at the crime scene canvassed nearby homeowners. a neighbor had seen something. >> and he remembered a car, a small suv pulling up in front of the dorseys'house. it wasn't really anything unusual to him. >> reporter: so here's what detectives had so far. a mysterious car. a husband who might or might not be involved. a victim who likely knew her killer. and a house that was ready to tell investigators a whole lot more. coming up -- we found that her nose had been damaged. so to me, it meant that it was a sucker punch. a rare look at a crime scene inch by inch, minute by minute through the eyes of an expert. >> she's zip tied to this dresser. she opens this drawer somehow. she got the gun out and she fired off five shots. and the gun was empty. >> she missed. >> she missed. when "dateline" continues.
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assistant state attorney london kite. this was a real puzzle? >> it was. the kitchen was just torn apart. the drawers were pulled out. and then these electronics were in the sink. and then her bedroom torn apart. we didn't know really where the struggles were happening in this house. >> reporter: soon they would. they believed kim died sometime saturday morning, not long after derrick left for work. her cell phone, damaged from being thrown in the kitchen sink, had stopped receiving signals around then. so you know she was alive to a certain point at least -- >> to a certain point, yeah. >> reporter: her autopsy filled in more details. kim had died of blunt trauma to the head and a single stab wound to the neck. but it was officers like detective karen smith who helped the team understand how this crime unfolded. what's the first thing you saw when you came into the room? >> the first thing i saw was what's called an impact pattern right here on this wall that we've sort of recreated with stickers today. >> reporter: this is blood spatter?
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>> correct. >> reporter: smith, a bloodstain pattern analyst and crime scene expert, followed the trail of kim's blood in the bedroom, speck by speck, using string and 3-d diagrams. she believed kim had just gotten out of bed when her attacker barged in. >> and when the autopsy was completed, we found that her nose had been damaged. so to me that meant that it was a sucker punch. >> reporter: so where would she have been standing exactly to create this spatter? >> right about here. >> reporter: and then something, would have, you believe, hit her in the face. >> right. probably in the nose. since it bleeds very heavily. quickly, your eyes water. you can't see. it's very painful and normally when somebody's punched in the nose that hard, they're going to go down. >> reporter: this first blow, she said, would have brought kim down by the side of her bed. >> she's actually down here on the floor. and there was the large saturation stain here on the carpet. she was down here for quite some time. >> reporter: blood found on the nearby wall and marks on kim's body suggested she was struck repeatedly and so forcibly that she probably blacked out. smith believed kim was then bound at
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the wrists. >> she's zip-tied to this dresser. >> reporter: giving kim's attacker time to step out of that first floor bedroom and into the kitchen that lay just beyond. drawers randomly opened indicated someone had been rifling through the room. but that pause also gave kim time to regain consciousness, free herself and do something incredible. >> she opens this drawer somehow. she got the gun out and she aimed. now, she probably can't see really well. she's been punched in the face. so she fired the gun five times. it went through the doorjamb and up into the ceiling in the kitchen. >> reporter: so her attacker was, you believe obviously was outside the door. >> she either saw him or heard him, and she fired off five shots, and the gun was empty. >> reporter: but she missed. >> she missed. >> reporter: even then, she said, kim did not give up. >> so she's able to move and she leaves this area. she still has the gun in her hand and as she moves around the bed the gun is tossed and it's found
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right underneath the bed here. it's useless to her. it's empty. >> reporter: blood, lit by luminol, traced kim's desperate path to a window on the other side of the bedroom. >> we know that she is opening these curtains. there are transfer stains and saturation stains on the curtain. the pull cord for the blinds has blood on it. so she's opened the blinds and there's blood on the window so now we know she's clamoring to get out of this window. >> reporter: this could have been her escape. >> this could have been her escape route. >> reporter: but he came back. >> unfortunately, he came back. >> reporter: smith said the man probably grabbed kim as she tried to escape and beat her to the floor again -- likely with that pool cue -- before stabbing her once in the neck. >> there was a very, very large saturation stain here on the floor, and the knife was found next to it. this is basically where she was killed. this is where ultimately she lost her fight. >> reporter: the scenario told investigators about kim's brave but doomed struggle. but it also told them about her killer. the zip ties on kim's wrists and the pool cue on the floor appeared to have come
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from the home. the knife matched a set from the kitchen. so he would know the house? >> yes. he would know upstairs and downstairs, too. >> reporter: someone who might possibly know where those zip ties are? >> yes. and also know the habits of kim dorsey. that she's a late sleeper. she sleeps pretty hard was my understanding, too. >> reporter: obviously, one man, derrick, knew all of that. but evidently, there were others who did as well. >> one guy that used to work with us and everything and used to work with me. >> reporter: derrick told them about a friend who had worked construction jobs for him and had even lived with them for a time. his name was lance kirkpatrick. but derrick set detectives straight. >> i honestly really think you're barking up the wrong tree. i had made the comment, lance would have taken a bullet for kim. so you guys are wasting your time. fine, talk to him. you'll understand. you'll know where i'm coming from after you meet him. >> reporter: lance, he added, not only wouldn't kill kim. he
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couldn't. derrick said his friend had taken a new job just before her death. >> well, he's up in georgia, shrimping. >> reporter: out on a boat. >> yes. >> reporter: at sea. >> yes. miles away. >> reporter: but derrick did give detectives another name. and this young man had definitely been in the area that week, in jacksonville, and in trouble. coming up -- >> kim ever come on to you? >> no. >> come on now, a little bit, maybe? >> no, i wish. a suspect who seemed infatuated with kim. >> had you ever had sex with her? be honest. >> no, i wish. >> and had a history with police. >> did it make you question him, this guy on your radar was just in jail? >> yes. does he need money? does he need something? hs ] ♪♪ [ humming ]
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[ door creaks ] oh. [ soft music playing ] what are you all doing in my daydream? it's better than that presentation. a lot better. you know, whether it's a fraction or a decimal, it's still fun, you know? this is a cold call! this is annie. whether it's a fraction will you turn to cold washing in tide. unsubscribe. wait, wait, wait this helps the environment. it saves you money. i will take that money. for the environment. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin from within, keeping you one step ahead of eczema. and that means long-lasting clearer skin... and fast itch relief for adults. hide my skin? not me. by helping to control eczema with dupixent, you can show more with less eczema. investigators were untangling
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dorsey's murder. they knew her killer was familiar with her home. her husband derrick certainly fit that bill, but he had a strong alibi and a willingness to share everything, it seemed, even his infidelity. >> typically in cases like that, you know, husbands that are suspects, they try to hide all those things. they say, oh, no, our relationship was perfect. but derrick, on the other hand, started exposing, kind of, the darkness that was inside that beautiful house. >> reporter: was kim aware that this was going on? >> i don't believe so. if she was, she never let me know. >> reporter: did you worry how that might look to the detectives? >> i didn't even care. they asked me if i had any relationships on the side, and i fessed up to it right then and there. that was the least of my worries, knowing that i'd done that. i wanted them to find who killed her. >> reporter: still investigators couldn't overlook the possibility that derrick had hired someone to kill kim.
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did you worry that they might think that you could have enlisted some help? >> no. >> reporter: hired someone? >> i knew that i could account for my whereabouts. i didn't know how they could even think i was an accomplice to something like that, no. >> reporter: he said he was an open book with investigators. in fact, when they asked if anyone else knew the layout of his home, besides his pal lance, derrick gave them another name. joshua veal. >> josh was a young man, just somebody that needed a job. didn't have a whole bunch of construction experience and everything. but i always needed someone to help clean up and straighten up the job sites and such. >> reporter: so he gave joshua work in the general contracting business he ran on the side and, later, a place to say. >> we saw a young man that needed some direction and we tried to help him out the best we could. >> reporter: for a few months, joshua lived with the dorseys. but derrick said the arrangement soured when joshua took a wrong turn. >> josh decided that recreational pharmaceuticals
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were more fun than working in the hot sun every day. >> reporter: that must have been heartbreaking for you because you really wanted to see this young man succeed. >> it was. you wanted to shake sense into him, but people have to make their own mistakes in order to learn. >> reporter: he told joshua to leave but said they remained friends. >> he'd call up and say, hey, mr. d., i need to do some work. and i was more than glad to help him. he did a good job when he showed up. >> reporter: yet joshua couldn't let go of his vice. he was picked up for drug possession and released one day before kim was murdered. that really got the detectives'attention. did it make you question him, this guy on your radar was just in jail? >> yes. does he need money? does he need something? >> reporter: and joshua had also been kicked out of the dorsey house. >> yes. >> reporter: he could be angry by that. >> of course. >> reporter: not the best house guest? >> not the best houseguest. >> reporter: there was more and to detectives it was explosive. derrick said that on that sunday morning, just before finding kim's body, he stopped at a gas station to pick up joshua for a job. only joshua
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never showed. >> at that point we set out trying to put our hands on joshua. >> reporter: and he's just out there. no one seems to know where he is. >> that's correct. >> right. >> reporter: is that a sign that there might be something up there? that this guy didn't show and now no one can find him? >> yes, absolutely. >> reporter: and right around the time that kim dorsey was murdered. >> right. the morning that she's found, he can't be found. >> reporter: but he didn't stay hidden for long. later that same day, derrick told investigators that joshua had just called. the two men arranged to meet at a local restaurant. but detective larry kuczkowski decided to surprise the young man instead. >> we were sitting there waiting on him. and as soon as he got out of the car, introduced myself to him and said, we need to have a talk. >> reporter: this is joshua veal, and he remembers that moment very differently. were you scared? >> yes, ma'am. six, seven undercover cars come pull up and ask about you. tend to get a little nervous. >> reporter: the talk the detective wanted with joshua took place downtown at the sheriff's office. the officer
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didn't mention kim's murder at first. >> i see you get home from 10:00, 11:00 from jail. >> reporter: did it feel, though, like it wasn't a friendly conversation? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: like you were being treated kind of as a suspect type? >> i was already under the impression i was treated as a suspect for something. but i had no clue what for. >> you spent friday night at the house? >> yeah. >> you didn't go anywhere friday night? >> reporter: joshua said he'd spent the weekend hanging out with friends. >> so you go to wing it saturday to watch the football game or what? >> yeah, i think i did. >> anybody else up there that can vouch that you were up there saturday? >> probably so. >> now were you supposed to go to work for anybody on sunday? >> reporter: they asked why he hadn't shown up at the gas station to meet derrick for work that sunday morning. surveillance showed derrick at the station but not joshua. where was he? >> yeah. i didn't make it today. i kind of slept in and
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didn't hear my alarm. >> did he call you to like chew you out or anything? >> he was cussing me. he was like you little (bleep). you should have come or you should have been at the kangaroo this morning at 8:00. >> reporter: finally, the investigators asked about kim dorsey. they wanted the 21-year-old to explain his relationship with the 38-year-old woman. >> how did she look? >> one to ten? would you ask me if i would hit it? >> sure. >> eight. >> kim ever come onto you? >> nah. >> come on now. a little bit maybe? >> no, i wish. >> have you ever had sex with her? be honest with me. >> nah. i wish. >> what he revealed about kim was really interesting, is that he almost had an infatuation with her. not that, you know, she was just my boss'wife but someone that he almost had a romantic pull towards. >> reporter: how were investigators feeling now about joshua veal? is he starting to go to the top of the list? >> yeah, he's definitely going -- he's going up. >> reporter: now, the detective was ready to drop a bombshell. >> and eventually i brought up kim and why we were talking. >> well, i got some bad news. something happened to kim. >> i just talked to derrick like 45 minutes ago. what do you mean something happened to
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miss kim? >> i had asked him, do you know what happened to kim? and he didn't know. he was unaware that she was dead. >> reporter: how did he take the news? >> he took it like you had told him that his mother died. >> she's dead. oh, don't tell me that, man. oh, not miss kim. >> reporter: did his emotional reaction to her death, was that enough for you for -- for your gut to say, mm, not sure he's our killer? >> it was for me at that point. i just, you know, don't eliminate him completely but set him off to the side for now. and we knew where he was. he wasn't going anywhere. i'm trying to find out and need to know if you know anything or somebody that might be trying to hurt her? hurt derrick? >> bro, i promise you, you wouldn't catch me right here if
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i knew somebody was trying to hurt them. i promise you that, man. >> all right. >> that was a good woman. you don't know. you don't know. she was. >> i'm sure she was. >> (bleep) damn. this ain't fair! >> there's just about anybody out there who can be our suspect. >> reporter: days passed without an arrest. the jacksonville sheriff's office asked the public for help. >> like i said, because of the lack of witnesses, the physical evidence, nothing has led us a whole lot farther today in identifying or leading us to a suspect than we had that sunday morning. >> reporter: but there was another piece of evidence. it had been right inside the house all along hiding in the dark just waiting for someone to come along and push the right button. coming up -- it was a hidden camera standing up. an x-rated clue.
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>> there's no way that's mine. >> i looked at the dvd player. and i'm going that's your murderer. that's going to be who was in my house. look at insurance compan that's what i've been telling you. -can we sit with you? -(sips) ahhh. for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage, go with the general. it's a simple fact: nothing kills more germs on more surfaces for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years than lysol spray. it's a simple fact: it even kills the covid-19 virus. science supports these simple facts. there's only one true lysol. lysol. what it takes to protect. lowe's is home to value. that's why we're introducing the lowe's price promise, with competitive prices everyday. if you find an exact product from a qualifying retailer for less, we'll match it. home to any budget. home to any possibility.
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detectives crossed one name off their suspect's list. they looked into josh's al by, and it checked out. >> josh was just up on the north side of jacksonville. >> nowhere near the dorsey home as far as they could tell. kim's husband derrick, likewise, had a solid alibi. but detectives still weren't sure what to make of him. they knew he was an unfaithful husband, which gave him a possible motive. at this point, were you able to rule out derrick dorsey?
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>> absolutely not. i mean, you know, he could have definitely had someone setting this up. >> then again, if he had hired someone to kill kim, why was he acting so darn helpful? >> derrick's calling me daily, and obviously there are times i had to call him, you know, to get some information about things at the house, you know. and so, yeah, he's cooperating. he's doing everything, you know, that i'm asking of him. >> finally officers and technicians were done processing the crime scene and derrick could return to the house. >> so the night we go to turn the house back over, i think it was halloween, the 31st. >> they hoped the walls might talk to derrick might reveal something officers had missed. >> part of the turnover back to him was to bring him out to the house, to have him look around, walk us through the whole house, show us anything that maybe was out of place that we missed as investigators and the evidence technicians to say, that's not right. >> as it turned out, the house wasn't just speaking to derrick. it was practically
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shouting. >> the blood's still on the floor. the plates shattered on the ground are still there. at that point, they wanted me to try to help piece together things. and i'm noticing everything, everything. you know, this is wrong, this is here. i don't understand why the damn remotes are in the sink. >> detectives larry kuczkowski and t.k. waters showed us what happened when they ushered derrick into his tv room. >> so we're standing here and we asked derrick, can you turn on the tv? so derrick comes in here. >> why? why did you ask him to turn on the tv? >> well, we had never, the tv wasn't on when we got here and we had found all of the remotes on the sink so we just wanted to see how it worked. >> the moment i turned it on and changed the input to the dvd player, up comes the menu for a porn video. at that point, i start shaking my finger at it
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and going, that's not mine. there's no way that's mine. and there's no way kim would be looking at that. and i look at the dvd player. and i'm going, that's your murderer. that's going to be who was in my house. >> that's a creepy clue. >> as soon as i knew that, i knew they were going to be able to get him. they were going to be able to find out who did this to my wife. >> it was one of those moments where the hair would stand up on the back of your neck because to have that video in there and having derrick there saying, that's not mine, it automatically raises an antenna and gets you curious. >> but it was what derrick said next that really got their attention. he told them the man who installed that complicated entertainment system, the one kim nicknamed nasa, had been there to make repairs the day before her murder. >> so he would have known, you know, where the kitchen was and everything else. it's an open floor plan in the center. but
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he would have had a familiarity with the house. >> derrick told the detectives that tin staller, a man named j.r., could be the person they were looking for. >> in my mind, that was a very strong possibility it was him. i'd known him before. he worked on another house i'd done. i had no reason to think that. but that was the only possible logical person that i could think of had done it. >> so what would his motivation be? >> stealing the system that he just tweaked. have no earthly idea. >> was there anyone else who knew how to work the entertainment system? >> no. >> i mean, who else would be handling the remotes when he's tuning the surround sound system, and then throw them in a sink to get the evidence off of it? so, yeah, all of those things come into play. >> so detectives paid a surprise visit to this j.r., to the shop where he worked. >> i came back and it was a couple detectives here at the shop, wanted to ask some questions. >> at that point, j.r. said he
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hadn't heard about kim's death, and detectives were vague about why they needed to talk to him. initially, he thought they simply wanted information about his client derrick dorsey. >> they said, do you know derrick dorsey? and i said, yeah, he's one of our customers. he's like, when was the last time you were at the house? and i told him, you know, i was there friday or whatever it was. >> they also asked if he knew anything about kim. even then, he said he had no idea why police were so interested in the dorseys. >> she was very sweet, very nice. you know, she'd always, you know, i only saw her a couple of times. >> one of them was that friday. he had been called to the dorsey home to fine-tune the entertainment system. while he was there, he noticed a chill between the husband and wife. >> i remember just she walked -- she would walk by and say, hey, guys, i'm headed to the gym. and i said, okay. we'll see you. and derrick didn't say anything to her. i thought that
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was weird. you know, i was like, you don't say bye to your wife? but i guess he was more interested in getting his electronics fixed, i guess. >> yeah. because something must have jumped out at you. first of all, you don't even know this couple very well. >> right. kind of weird. they didn't have a very -- to me i never saw an affectionate kind of relationship between the two at all. >> as the detectives listened to j.r., they took in what he did for a living. they noticed the wires and cables he worked with, the tool he used. more importantly, they noticed his hands. coming up -- >> he's got cuts on his hands. >> and something interesting in his tool kit. >> he worked with zip ties? >> yes. >> yes. >> what are you thinking about solomon? >> i'm thinking he's a possibility. >> when "dateline" continues. possibility. >> when "dateline" continues
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dorseys'home the day before the murder said at first he had no idea why detectives were asking him about kim, derrick, and the layout of their house. >> i was like, yeah, i know kim just by being at the house doing their installs. >> the entertainment system installer, j.r., said he thought derrick gave his wife the cold shoulder, especially that friday as she was headed off to the gym. >> he just sensed there wasn't a strong, you know, loving relationship. >> other than that, he said he didn't make much of the investigators'questions. but they found a lot in his answers. they thought it possible j.r. had sensed an opportunity with kim. >> did he have the hots for her? you know, did he come -- show back up on saturday morning, he had been there friday night, you know, felt maybe he'd go over saturday morning? you know, remember he doesn't think they're in a loving relationship. does he go back, thinking, hey, you know what? i have some opportunity here with her? >> they wonder had j.r. come calling on kim only to get a chilly reception? had kim's
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rejection set him off? detectives got to the point. they asked j.r. if he'd heard about kim's murder. his reaction seemed calm, too calm for the prosecutor. what did that tell you that he wasn't overly emotional about the news? >> that could be, you know, a sign that he's more involved. a person like that committed this type of crime, obviously they're cold-blooded. >> but it was his hands more than his demeanor that really heightened their interest. >> he's got cuts on his hands. and we're thinking, well, could these be defensive wounds, from when she was hitting him if he was the killer? >> they asked about those scratches. j.r. said he got them on the job handling wires and plastics. he also worked with zip ties? >> yes. >> what are you thinking then about the sound man? can you cross him off your list? >> we think he's a possibility. >> more than a possibility, thought the prosecutor. >> he had scratches. he had injuries to his hand, which,
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you know, from kim's body, we knew that she fought for her life. she was engaged in a tremendous struggle. so he said that was just something he got, you know, during the course of his job. but obviously, as an investigator, you're seeing the other side of that. is he just making an excuse? >> so there are some things they're seeing that could potentially be tying him to this crime. >> absolutely. >> they just need to find out more. >> yes. >> the detectives asked j.r. where he'd been the previous weekend when kim was killed. he explained he'd been around town, had even been at a local ball field. did you feel like their questions were getting a little intense? did you feel like you were under the spotlight? >> i guess at the moment, i didn't because i didn't think that much about it. i was more like thinking of the situation that they just told me happened. >> it wasn't until the detectives left that he had that light bulb moment. they weren't looking to him for information. they were looking at him.
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>> did they -- were they thinking that might have been scratches on my arms from something like that? but that crossed my mind. that probably bothered me more than anything in the whole interview, you know, whole questioning. >> because kim really fought for her life. she fought hard. >> wow. >> and whoever she was fighting with would have had scratches on them. >> yeah. >> no doubt. >> right. >> he also thought back to how he'd answered their questions about the murder and about kim. did you have that little moment where your heart's beating like, i was just there. >> yes. >> i hope they don't think i had anything to do with this. >> they said she was murdered saturday or something like that. and i was like, are you kidding me? i was just there friday night. they even asked me did i have any relationships with her. no. they asked me did i kiss her. anything. no, nothing like that. >> wow. did you thouknow that derrick h been pointing the finger at you? >> i had no clue. >> he was telling the police that he thought you could be a suspect. >> that's interesting. i had no clue. >> if anything, he sadr rick as the most likely suspect. >> he seemed like a very
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short-tempered kind of guy. we'd been in his house. how he gets amped on certain situations, gets excited. you could tell how he just kind of short fuse kind of thing. it crossed my mind, yeah. because usually they do think it's someone very close to them that does this stuff first. >> still j.r. said he did his best to cooperate fully with the police. did they take your dna sample? >> they did. right here at the office they did. and i volunteered, i was like, yeah, absolutely, no problem. >> reporter: that has to be unnerving to you though. >> yeah. fingerprints and did a mouth swab and all that. and
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i've never had that in my life. i've never been arrested in my life, you know? >> there's a lot of things that might make the police look at you. >> i could see that, yeah. >> that's not a great place to be in. >> no. >> but he wouldn't be there long. by then, a police report was making its way downtown through the sheriff's office. it was about to change everything. coming up -- could a stolen car help solve a murder? >> did you find it on the video? >> yes. >> in the gated community the day that kim dorsey was murdered. >> yes. >> that's huge. >> what that tells us is he's in town. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues. if they're ever in a car accident with you. this mini majorette's gonna march her way right into your heart. -i'm sorry. can we stop? i know that we're selling car insurance here, but, you know, all the cute little animals, it's too much. define "too much." what's wrong with cute animals? -so are we doing this or what? -nah, it's over. [ sighs ] well, someone's got to break the news to mittens. [ squeaks softly ] she's a diva. [ mittens squeaking ]
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utter such attacks. now, back to dateline. when the detectives got back to the station, they reviewed what they had on j.r., the entertainment system installer, his alibi, his dna, his scratched hands. but soon they had something else -- doubts. >> he installs sound systems. and so, you know, he's always working in tight spaces, and that's how he's cut his hands up. >> did you believe him? >> it's believable. >> yeah, it's very understandable. i mean, with the kind of work that he does, you could see his hands getting cut up. >> and they learned that j.r.'s alibi for the weekend kim died checked out. two men, josh way veal and j.r., the installer, were now off the suspect list. you're going from person to person to person, but no
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arrest. >> no, not yet. >> are you getting a little frustrated or are you just following the trail? >> just following the trail because the trail -- it tends to -- tends to start narrowing after a period of time. we felt like it wasn't going to be a situation where this was going to go unsolved. there was just too much, too much information for us to follow up for that to happen. >> optimism alone doesn't solve crimes. hard work, of course, does. but so, too, can luck. a stolen car doesn't usually fall into that last category, but it did for investigators in this case. >> there's a lady here in jacksonville, she reports her car stolen. the report is written by a patrol officer with the sheriff's office. eventually that report gets, you know -- goes through the channels. >> where it might have gone largely unnoticed if not for an eagle-eyed crime analyst who saw the name of the suspected
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car thief listed on the report. >> lance kirkpatrick was listed in that report as possibly stealing this car. >> an suv. >> suv, yes. >> lance kirkpatrick as in derrick's good friend, employee, and house guest. the man derrick said would take a bullet for kim. lance kirkpatrick is the one person you haven't been able to talk to? >> that's correct. >> derrick had also insisted that lance had been on a shrimp poet all week. now a police report was challenging that story. what does this mean to you? >> what that tells us is he's in town. he's not on a shrimp boat. >> that's picking up team again. that helped us go in the direction that we needed to go in to put the pieces of this puzzle, the pieces of this case together. >> the woman said someone had taken her car in the early morning hours of october 27th, only he never came back. where is lance kirkpatrick? does anyone know? >> not at that point. >> any friends or family who had any idea where he was? >> no. we talked with his father and grandmother. they hadn't heard from him. him and his father had a -- wasn't the best relationship. so it wasn't
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unusual that they wouldn't hear from him for a period of time. >> suddenly they remembered the neighbor who saw a small suv the dae kim died. his description matched that of the stolen vehicle. detectives wondered if cameras outside the dorseys'gated community caught the car coming or going. did you find it on the video? >> yes. >> in the gated community the day that kim dorsey was murdered. >> yes. >> this is your huge moment in this case. >> yes. >> yes. >> but the video didn't reveal who was driving the suv. and they also weren't sure if the woman who reported it stolen, a known drug user, was telling the truth. >> things like that, unfortunately, aren't uncommon for, you know, people that are addicted to drugs to kind of trade their car for drugs, so we weren't really sure about
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that whole situation. >> even so, they needed to find lance. >> so i called the coast guard to see if there was anything that when the shrimp boats go out, if they file a manifest of any kind of who is on board. and they don't. >> so it's not something that you can radio each boat and say, hey, is lance kirkpatrick on your boat. >> correct, yes. >> the search for lance did lead detectives to another man, an acquaintance named brian. he'd been at the same house party when the suv disappeared. there was someone else who also had access to that suv potentially. brian kiefer? >> yes. >> brian kiefer, aka, money. brian's nickname is money? >> yes. >> do you know why? >> he said that's what, you know, the drug dealers call him. and i believe it's probably because he is a boss. he owns his own company. and he runs in those same circles of people. >> brian ran a building
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renovation business, but he also had a criminal past. troubling to you? >> yes. it's always troubling when you know they have records and they're doing things that are outside the law. so that's always a concern. >> did you think for a moment that possibly he might have done this? >> yes. everybody -- once again, everybody is still on the table. we don't know who did it. >> and unlike lance who either was or wasn't on a shrimp boat, detectives learned that brian had been spotted in jacksonville recently. now they wanted to talk to him. coming up -- >> brian tells us some things that only the person that was there would know. >> but couldn't that make him a suspect. >> yes. >> it could. >> and he also reveals something else, what a friend told him. >> what does he say? does he say that she was dead or does he say anything about that? >> he said the lady was saying, stop, you're killing me.
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needed to find lance kirkpatrick and a man named brian kieffer. the first one they found was brian at a mcdonald's. so he gets completely ambushed at the mcdonald's? >> yes. >> soon brian was in custody at the sheriff's office sitting down with a detective and proposition cuter london kite. >> can i stand up? >> if it makes you feel better. >> well, brian comes in and basically he's real animated. full of energy that night. >> they asked brian where he'd been the last weekend of october. >> i want to direct your attention to florida/georgia weekend. do you remember that weekend? >> yes. >> reporter: brian told them he was at his place. and, yes, he
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had company. >> it's lance kirkpatrick, but there is a middle name. >> and he goes by the nickname of l.j.? >> l.j. >> and he told them lance had been at his apartment that friday night, partying. he said lance had borrowed someone's small suv to buy drugs and never came back. >> i spent $480 for about four hours of riding around in a cab looking for l.j. everywhere he'd been to, went, everything. >> and were you able to find him? >> didn't find a trace of him. >> it wasn't until a day later, sunday, that lance called him, begging to meet at a gas station. brian said he immediately noticed lance's hands. >> you noticed i guess that his hand was hurt at that point in time. do you recall what hand? if you don't, it's okay. >> i thought it was a left, but i know he hits with his right. so i just -- >> if you can't recall, that's
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fine. >> i can't recall. >> all right. >> that would be a better statement. >> but you did remember that he had an injury to one of his hands. >> yes. >> brian said he was unprepared for what lance was about to tell him. >> he tells me that he murdered somebody and just pretty much is going to prison, and there's nothing that can be done about it. and i'm saying -- i said, what do you mean you murdered somebody and your life is over and you're going to prison, and he was like, i'm going to prison. >> he thought lance was making up stories. but a few days later, lance revealed details of his crime. he said he had let himself into his boss's home, only to be confronted by
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the man's wife. when she picked up her phone to call for help, he panicked. >> he said, i took her cellphone and i told her to get out of my way, that i just wanted my stuff. >> from there, brian said the argument quickly turned violent. >> pretty much just goes into -- i don't know whether he hit her with that pool stick, but he kind of emphasized swinging the pool stick. >> okay. >> and then he emphasized being shot at five times. >> the story was so awful, so incredible, brian said he department think it was true. yet, investigators did. they believed brian had just described the murder of kim dorsey. >> and i told my brother, you know, like -- and he's like, do you really believe that (bleep)? >> ac. >> and i was just like, not really, you know. but i didn't -- you know, i didn't know. >> brian's not sure if he should believe lance. >> brian's not sure if he should believe lance. are you believing brian? >> brian tells us some things that only the person that was there would know. >> but couldn't that make him a suspect? >> yes. >> it could. >> were you looking at him as a possible suspect? >> at that point he was, yes. >> yes. >> what were the details he knew about? >> he knew about the electronics in the sink. that's not anything that we ever released. that's not something we would ever tell anyone. he also knew about the pool cue, and he knew that it was a very
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expensive pool cue, that it was over $1, 000, which that was accurate. >> and he gave detectives a chilling detail. kim's last words. >> what does he say? does he say that she was dead or does he say anything about that? >> he said the lady was saying, stop. you're killing me. >> investigators were now determined to find lance. brian knew exactly where he was. >> our friends from the marshal's office went and paid that apartment a visit and lance was found hiding in the apartment. >> the long missing lance kirkpatrick once thought to be at sea had now washed up in a police interview room. >> lance, have a seat over there, okay? >> the beginning of the interview was -- i mean, it was just a conversation. he was fairly forthcoming with his answers. well, i'd like to talk to you, okay, about some stuff, all right? >> the tee detective asked
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lance about the dorseys. he was careful not to mention kim's murder. >> you and derrick get along pretty well? >> oh, we get along great. >> how about you and kim? >> we get along fine. >> have you ever had any problems with her. >> uh-uh. >> no, nothing like that? all right. >> no, i pretty much get along with everybody. >> lance said he'd been to see his palander rick at his fire station. >> went out to the station 45 and got a hundred bucks from him to go down south. >> he said he was only gone for a day or so. he later tried to pay derrick another visit at his home. >> i went over there a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago looking for him. >> you remember what day it was that you went over there and did that? >> yeah, it was georgia/florida. >> georgia/florida. >> it was georgia/florida. right before the game. >> the very dae kim died. lance was now putting himself at the crime scene. he told the detective he knocked on the dorsey door, but no one answered.
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>> did you go inside? let yourself in? >> no, no, no, no, no, the key wasn't there. >> where's the key supposed to be? >> it's supposed to be up under the dog right there. >> where's the dog where? >> there's a little dog about like a fake dog by the door. >> spare key? little dog? lance had just admitted he knew how to let himself into the dorsey home. suddenly, the upended statue the detective noticed the morning they found kim's body made sense. >> what if i told you i didn't believe all your story? >> what part of the story don't you believe? >> larry kuczkowski was convinced lance had, in fact, found that key and sneaked into kim's house. the detective was certainly not about to let this sleeping dog lie. coming up -- >> how could somebody do that to begin with. then, again, how could someone do that to someone who didn't have a mean bone in her body. >> betrayed by a friend. >> like some damn wounded animal in a trap. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues. hide our skin? not us. because dupixent targets a root cause of eczema, it helps heal your skin from within,
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detectives he had driven over to the dorseys'home that saturday morning but had not gone inside. detective kuczkowski wasn't buying it. >> i know you went inside the house last saturday, or two saturdays on florida/georgia weekend. >> i haven't even given you the tip of the iceberg yet, bro. all right. you play cards? if i show you my hand, do you think i'm going to win? >> if you've got a good enough hand. >> the detective thought he did. >> putting you at the scene i ain't going to break a sweat. i can do that. the scene is going to tell a story. >> that's when lance put down his cards. >> i'm not saying anything else. >> even so, the detectives felt they had enough. >> okay. man, time to go to jail. >> lance kirkpatrick was under arrest for kim's murder. but had he acted alone? investigators cleared brian of any involvement. though they still weren't sure about derrick. they examined his
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electronic and financial records and eventually came up with nothing that tied him to his wife's murder. >> we were looking to see if derrick had a life insurance policy on kim that he was trying to connect or gain, you know, some type of financial benefit from her death. >> did he? >> to my knowledge, he didn't. it actually put him in a worse position to have kim out of the picture. >> derrick dorsey was no longer a suspect in his wife's murder. the jacksonville sheriff's office called to give him the news about lance. >> the chief of detectives said, mr. dorsey, we made an arrest last night. and i said, who was it? and they told me, lance kirkpatrick. and i said, what did you arrest him for? >> it didn't dawn on him that lance had, in fact, been arrested for kim's murder. >> he had an outstanding warrant for some traffic violations and so forth. i figured finally they're questioning him, they're going to clear him, and, okay, so this is no big a deal. >> but it wasn't to be. >> no. he told me they had arrested him for the murder of
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my wife. the only thing i could do was howl like some damn wounded animal in a trap. it was the betrayal. >> this is the man that you said you believed would take a bullet. >> i defended him. >> he would take a bullet for your wife, you said. >> how could somebody do that to begin with? but then, how could someone do that to someone who didn't have a mean bone in her body? how could someone do that to someone who had went out of their way to try to help him? >> lance kirkpatrick pleaded not guilty to the charges of burglary, sexual battery, and murder. it would take more than two years for lance kirkpatrick to stand trial. prosecutor london kite knew the challenges that lay ahead. was there a weak area of your case? >> yeah. there's no witnesses. not one single person could say, yes, that's what happened to kim dorsey. >> still, she believed the evidence would show lance kirkpatrick's guilt. the state opened its case, explaining how
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lance had been determined to get inside the dorsey home any way he could that saturday, october 27, 2012. >> we know how his day started. >> the prosecutor showed the video of lance pulling into the dorseys'community in that suv. >> i went over there a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago looking for him. >> she replayed lance's police interview where he put himself on the couple's doorstep that morning. >> did you go inside? let yourself in? >> no, no, no, no, no, the key wasn't even there. >> she said the evidence would show that lance had lied to police then and was still lying about what really happened that day. lance had broken into the dorsey home, intending to rob them. >> it was our theory that kim was asleep and was awakened by, you know, noise, and that she wasn't expecting anyone and that she wasn't inviting anyone in. >> so when she awoke that saturday morning to find lance kirkpatrick standing in her
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home, kick likely went ballistic. the prosecutor called a reluctant brian kieffer to the stand. >> to get up on the stand and to tell the truth, everybody's sitting there going, you snitch. you this. you that. you that. you know, but they don't know the whole story. >> he explained how lance had confessed everything to him, how lance admitted entering the house and confronting kim violently when she picked up her phone to call for help. >> and he said that he grabbed a a pool stick and hit her a bunch of times and smashed the pool stick. >> leaving her unconscious on the bedroom floor. he said lance described stepping out of the room. but then, kim woke up. >> and she got a gun and started shooting at him. and he said, and i knew it was a revolver. he didn't say he was in fear of his life or nothing like that. but he was -- you
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could tell he was angry. and then he said that she said, stop, you're killing me. and he said, and that's when i just stabbed that bitch in the neck. >> and if you didn't believe brian kiefer, said the state, believe the science. lance's dna had been found on kim's body on the pool cue used to beat her and on the trash he left behind. did you find any dna on those cigarette butts? >> yes. >> and it belonged to? >> lance kirkpatrick. >> more evidence against him that he was there. >> yes. >> derrick dorsey also took the stand. he said lance and kim had once been friends, but in the months before her death, she had grown tired of their house guest. kim had a house rule? >> no smoking in the house. >> was lance able to follow that rule? >> not 100%, no. >> that must have driven kim nuts. >> it would aggravate the daylights out of her. >> did it get to the point where he had to leave over it? >> yes. >> so it was really because of
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the smoking. >> yes. >> after they kicked lance out, kim wanted nothing more to do with him. in closing, the prosecutor said the defendant broke into the house because he knew that kim would never willingly let him in. when she confronted him, he killed her. as he listened, kim's husband realized how badly he had misjudged his former friend. >> you know the old saying, the devil's in the details? during the whole trial, during the investigation, i wanted to know every detail i possibly could. i wanted to know when, where, why, how and in what chronological order. i'm here to tell you that's not something you want -- i'm here to tell you that's not something you want to know. >> now those details were out, made public in a court of law, and lance kirkpatrick was about to use them, awful as they were, to defend himself. coming up -- lance talks to the jury and to
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us. >> i have never so much as raised my hand to a woman. >> did you rape kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. >> did you murder kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. no, i did not. >> when "dateline" continues. this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize
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trial, lance kirkpatrick had changed his story. he now admitted he was indeed responsible for kim dorsey's death, but he didn't mean to kill her. >> the whole thing was just a terrible tragedy. i mean, you know, i'm sure he wishes he could just rewind that whole part of his life. >> attorney teresa sopp said lance kirkpatrick's defense was that he tried to protect himself from a raging violent kim that morning, and he went too far. >> he was being fired at, he was shot at five times by a pink handled revolver held in the hand of a woman who was
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irate. who was taking medication which says on the label that it can cause suicidal or homicidal actions. it was a very intense social setting that resulted in just a very tragic end. >> she said the state could not prove otherwise. >> when you just put the physical evidence out there, and lance is the only one to explain what happened, that's a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. >> lance kirkpatrick took the stand. >> i've never so much as raised my hand to a woman. >> i was working with my uncle all the time. >> lance told the court then and maintains now there was no bad blood between him and kim, that she never kicked him out, as derrick claimed. he simply chose to live elsewhere. he sat down with "dateline" to explain. >> we were still friends at
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this point. just because i wasn't living with them, i decided not to go stay there, doesn't mean we stopped being friends. >> he told an entirely different story about that morning. he said he went to the dorseys because of the big football game that saturday. >> i went over there to get my georgia jersey which i left over there before, which i thought i'd left over there. >> kim answered the door and let him in, he said. for a while he played pool upstairs, then came down to talk to her. he felt sorry for her. >> she didn't have friends. she didn't go out. >> she was suffering from some depression? >> yes. she was. she was self-conscious about her weight. >> you saw what? >> oh, yeah. >> he started watching a porn movie on that big entertainment system. he said kim wasn't interested in the show but she was interested in him. before
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long, they were having sex in the bedroom. afterwards, he recalled kim's mood changing. >> she was depressed, you know? she was insecure. that, you know, i antagonized her a bit after -- you know, we argued. >> as they argued, he said he stepped away to the kitchen. he insisted it was kim who first became violent. >> she was standing in the bathroom door area in her bedroom. and you can see at the kitchen right there. well, the next thing you know, pow, pow, two shots. i hit the floor. i don't know where she's at. when she took it to that, you know, extreme, what was i supposed to do? >> leave. >> listen, where i was at in the kitchen, there's only two ways out. there's a back door and a front door. i go either way, i have to stop and unlock the door. i unlock the door, she's got a clear shot at me. >> based on the trajectory of the bullets, she was on the floor next to the nightstand beside the bed shooting up at you. >> yes. >> so, again, why don't you just run out of the house once the shots stopped? her gun was unloaded. why didn't you run out? >> i don't know where she -- i didn't know where she was at. >> he said his gut reaction was to pick up the pool cue and charge toward her. >> i don't know how many times i swung. i don't know how hard i was swinging. my adrenaline was pumping to hard i probably could have bench pressed a car. my aim was not to hurt kim. it
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was a reaction. >> even when she was down and out, he said, he still felt the need to act. why did you zip tie her after she was unconscious? >> my first thought was to restrain her till the police got there. and then once i started putting them on, i was like, oh, this is stupid. then i went to the kitchen to get scissors. couldn't find scissors. got the knife, come back in to cut them off. there was no way to get them off without cutting her. so i did away with that whole idea. >> he said he dropped the knife, stepped away, and came back to the bedroom. kim had somehow freed herself. she was now standing, holding the knife. >> in that situation, it's -- you know, it's hard to say what you would do or what the right thing is to do or -- you're not thinking. you're just reacting. >> this went very wrong.
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>> yes, i agree. >> very wrong. again, he said, they fought. before he knew it, the knife was on the floor and so was kim. dead. >> i remember getting up, i remember looking at the knife and seeing the blood and knowing that i had to have stabbed her or something, and i went to check to see where she was stabbed. >> at first he said he waited for police, but when they department show, he left. when the police brought you in, why didn't you tell them the story that you told in trial? >> i was scared to death. i was scared to death. i didn't say it out loud even to myself for six months after this happened. >> did you rape kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. >> did you murder kim dorsey? >> no, i did not. no, i did not. when i took her life, it was totally unintentional. >> not true, countered the state on cross. it said lance kirkpatrick intentionally killed kim when she dared to confront him. >> you were pounding on that woman, weren't you? >> i wasn't aware of how hard or how light i was punching. i
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was just swinging. >> you did kill kim dorsey, right? >> yes, i did. >> when you stabbed kim dorsey in the neck, she would never walk this earth again, right? you knew she was dead. >> i didn't know she was dead until after i checked. >> there are people, law enforcement, prosecutor, people who have heard the story who think that what you say happened that day are just totally far-fetched. >> they're far-fetched. they took this bloody horrible scene and just thought of the worst possible thing that could have happened and went with it. >> some people think that you turned into an animal when you went into that room. >> and if you show blood splatter and everything else and just throw it out everywhere, yes, that can be said. but that wasn't what happened. that wasn't what happened at all. >> he insisted he had killed kim to protect himself. there was no premeditated murder, he
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said. no burglary. and certainly no rape. the defense noted the medical examiner could only determine kim and lance had sex, not that kim had been raped. >> the only testimony was that the sex was consensual. everything else is physical evidence and speculation. so unless there's somebody else testifying, yes, i was physically assaulted, no, i did not consent, you don't have that and all you have is the physical evidence, it's difficult to speculate that it was sexual battery. >> the defense closed by saying the state had failed to prove its case. it argued lance kirkpatrick should only be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. those who worked to build the murder case against him shook their heads in disbelief. >> if you're defending yourself, do you need to tie her up with
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zip ties? do you need to rape her? beat her with a pool stick? do you need to do the things you'd done to her in defense of your life? complete made up story. >> as the case went to the jury, derrick dorsey sat in the courtroom and seethed. >> he killed her, raped her, sodomized her. this wasn't just some loss of control. to do something like this, you've got a hole in you. there's something deep down evil inside of you to do something like this. >> the jurors agreed. they found lance kirkpatrick guilty of murder in the first degree. now they faced another agonizing decision, whether to sentence him to death. >> i never thought i was ever in any danger of the death penalty. because i didn't feel i had done something to deserve that. >> in the end the jury sentenced him to life. derrick dorsey thinks his old friend got off way too easy. if you could say anything to lance kirkpatrick, what would you say? >> at what point did you make the decision that kim's life
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had less value than you getting into trouble? at what point did you decide to kill her? >> derrick said it's taken time to move on with his life. he's retired from the fire department. >> we have derrick dorsey's last day pulling engine out for the last time. >> he's also remarried. that's not to say he's forgotten kim, the life they made, or the mistakes he's made. >> it led to infidelity on my part. probably the most disrespectful, rude thing i could do to her. and i'm going to live with that for the rest of my life. she didn't deserve it. >> and didn't deserve, either, the man derrick knows he brought into their world. still, he clings to the good things they shared. what memories does she leave behind for you? >> every time i look at the dogs, i think of her. they were her children. she was quiet, a little bit of an introvert. just a caring individual. i see many, many times someone needs a hand or someone just needs someone to talk to, she was there. >> in some ways she still is,
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but he knows that for every welcome memory, there's a brutal one of her and what happened churning somewhere like a storm, surprising and devastating when it hits.. i'm this sunday, tragedy on miami beach. 156 people still missing in that building collapse. >> we have official word. we're trying to hold onto whatever hope remains with us. we know that they're gone. >> the heroic moments. >> she was asking, please don't leave me alone. >> our top priority continues to be search and rescue and saving any lives that we can. >> and now a three-year-old report surfaces identifying
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