At about 9:08 p.m. on March 25, 1988, an officer stopped Lisa Marie Kimmell near Douglas, Wyoming. She was eighteen, traveling from Denver toward Billings with a planned stop in Cody. Her mother reported her missing when she didn’t arrive. The traffic stop gave the family and investigators a place and time to work from. [1]
On April 2, a fisherman found Lisa in the North Platte River near Government Bridge, southwest of Casper. Her car was missing. The cold water complicated estimates of when she died. Investigators saved biological material from the case. Years passed before they could use it to identify a suspect. [1]
What the search uncovered
In 2002, DNA evidence led to Dale Wayne Eaton, who was incarcerated in Colorado on another felony conviction. Investigators searched his former property near Moneta. They found parts of Lisa’s car and the rest of the vehicle buried there. The DNA gave officers a name to investigate. The search brought them to the property that had disappeared with her. [1]
Different accounts of how the encounter began came through an inmate and a physician who evaluated Eaton. The court describes them as accounts offered in the proceedings. The record still leaves uncertainty about Lisa’s movements after the traffic stop and when she died. [1]
A note with a contested author
A separate strand concerned a note left on Lisa's headstone. A handwriting examiner considered Eaton its likely author; Eaton denied writing it. The trial record and later proceedings addressed both the attribution and defense counsel's decision not to contest it in the way Eaton later argued they should have. The lawyers also considered how the note might be interpreted during the penalty phase. [1]
That evidence requires a narrower caption than “the killer's confession.” The handwriting opinion was an attribution, the defendant disputed authorship, and the timing of the note was uncertain. The gallery uses a generic document symbol and reproduces neither handwriting nor an invented message. It places the note beside the DNA and buried vehicle so the reader can see that the evidence differed in strength and meaning. [1]
The original trial also had separate stages: the jury first considered guilt, then punishment. The 2008 opinion reviewed issues arising from both. Later removal of the death sentence changed the punishment without erasing the murder conviction. Keeping those stages distinct helps explain how the case could lead to a new sentencing outcome decades after the decisive physical evidence was found. [1][2]
Trial and the original sentence
A jury convicted Eaton in 2004 of first-degree murder and related crimes, including kidnapping, robbery and sexual assault.
The judgment imposed a death sentence. In 2008, the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentence.
That historical opinion is an important source for the evidence. It is not the last word on the punishment Eaton received.
A sentence overturned without an acquittal
A federal court vacated Eaton’s death sentence in 2014 over inadequate representation during the penalty phase.
The murder conviction was not erased by that ruling.
Further proceedings considered whether the state would again pursue capital punishment. Sheridan Media reported [2] that Eaton was resentenced on March 25, 2022, to life imprisonment without parole, with an additional consecutive kidnapping term.
A change from death to life is a major legal outcome. It should appear prominently rather than being buried beneath the original sentence.
The years of sentencing litigation also extended the period in which Kimmell’s family had to return to court and revisit the crime.
Lisa’s mother reported her missing because there were people waiting for her in Cody and beyond. The traffic stop fixed one point on that trip. The car surfaced fourteen years later, after a comparison became possible using evidence investigators had kept from the original case. [1]
Case brief
Natrona County / Casper area, Wyoming · 1988
- Recorded outcome
- Dale Eaton convicted; death sentence vacated; resentenced to life without parole 2022
Key moments
People in this case
- Dale Wayne Eaton
Convicted of murdering Lisa Marie Kimmell
Photo at source · Death Penalty Information Center · photograph of Eaton
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The preserved biological evidence
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
A later DNA comparison supplied a lead after years without a suspect identified through that evidence.
No real profile or biological material is shown.
The car beneath the ground
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Recovery of Lisa’s car near Moneta added a distinct physical link to the DNA finding.
Generic car illustration, not the actual vehicle or a reconstruction of the excavation.
The disputed headstone note
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
An examiner considered Eaton the likely writer; he denied authorship. The note figured in later arguments over defense strategy.
No authentic text or handwriting reproduced. “Likely” attribution is not certainty.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Eaton v. State, 2008 WY 97Disappearance, preserved evidence, car recovery and original conviction.
- Dale Eaton sentenced to life without parole — Sheridan Media2014 sentencing reversal and completed 2022 resentencing.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 631 words