In Cold Blood

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Speaker 4 A chilling crime and a killer running out of time.

Speaker 4 I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

Speaker 6 I just walked in like I normally would.

Speaker 6 I noticed Kim lying at the base of the bed, face down.

Speaker 5 Something very violent had occurred here.

Speaker 9 You could see the bullet holes in the wall.

Speaker 11 Detectives have to look at every single person.

Speaker 6 Including me.

Speaker 5 I said, what about a girlfriend? And he readily said, There's a lot going on here.

Speaker 5 You've got drugs, you've got sex. Have you ever had sex with her?

Speaker 3 Be honest with me.

Speaker 8 Nah, I was.

Speaker 2 Putting you at the scene, I can do that.

Speaker 12 The scene's gonna tell the story.

Speaker 13 He tells me that he murdered somebody.

Speaker 5 We asked Derek, Can you turn on the TV?

Speaker 6 Up comes the menu for porn video. I start shaking my finger at it.
That's not mine. That's loose in my house.

Speaker 6 That's your murderer.

Speaker 4 Here's Andrea Canning with In Cold Blood.

Speaker 11 It was coming. Hot air rising, cool air falling, swirling, spinning into a witch's brew of pure misery.

Speaker 11 She wasn't afraid of a hurricane, was she? No, ma'am. Was she an expert on what the damage of a hurricane can do?

Speaker 6 Absolutely. Her expertise is what needed to be done in order to prevent that damage.

Speaker 11 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, it largely spared her state.

Speaker 11 But she, locked inside that house, that gated community, was still doomed.

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 11 It had come. Another storm, different in nature, but not in fury.
It had blown down her door and through her world without warning or a shred of mercy.

Speaker 11 Fun-loving, independent, lovely, Kim Dorsey.

Speaker 7 Yes, I am.

Speaker 11 No wonder Derek Dorsey fell for her. And boy, did he fall.

Speaker 6 Well, the first time I laid eyes on Kim, Tristash, he was beautiful.

Speaker 11 Did you

Speaker 11 express how you felt even in that first moment? Did it get there that night?

Speaker 6 No, I waited till the second date before I told her I love her.

Speaker 11 Second date?

Speaker 15 That's quick.

Speaker 6 Well, when I told her I loved her, her response was, I like you a lot, too.

Speaker 11 Kim wanted to take things slow, he said, for good reason. She was putting herself through school to become a civil engineer.
Seven years of dating passed before he ever popped the question.

Speaker 6 Well, that's the kicker. She got angry.
She got up and walked away.

Speaker 16 Why? Without even saying yes.

Speaker 6 Now just like, oh, dear God, I've made a gigantic mistake.

Speaker 7 Oh, no.

Speaker 6 I've moved too fast. And she gets over there and she goes to her purse and she brings out this box And it's, you know, a long box.
And she hands it to me.

Speaker 6 She goes, I thought you'd try this one of these days.

Speaker 6 And I'm like, oh, dear God, you know, what is it? Is it a big, big no or what, you know, on a piece of paper, whatever.

Speaker 11 On the contrary, inside was a bracelet etched with the letters Y E S.

Speaker 17 Yes.

Speaker 11 They were married almost a year later. After their wedding, they honeymooned in Ireland.

Speaker 5 How do you like the beer here?

Speaker 11 There was Kim, ever fearless, trying her hand at the ancient sport of falconry.

Speaker 18 Beautiful, perfect. That's it.

Speaker 16 That's the one.

Speaker 11 At times, this independent spirit seemed surprised to find herself no longer single.

Speaker 11 Not that married life changed her, or either of them, very much. He was a Jacksonville firefighter and owner of a small general contracting business.

Speaker 11 Kim got her degree and began training building inspectors in hurricane-prone Florida. Was she good at it?

Speaker 6 Absolutely. Within two weeks, I asked her to head up the department.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 6 she would have a class up to 100 rough and tumble men looking at this little girl in the high heels, telling them how to build. But she held her own, which you hefty and they respected her for that.

Speaker 11 They both were laser-focused on their careers. You decided not to have any children?

Speaker 6 At the time, we were both very busy, and we just, we felt if we were going to do it, we wanted to have time to carve it out to dedicate to him, so we never did.

Speaker 11 But you did have your babies?

Speaker 6 Yes, we did.

Speaker 11 And how many of them?

Speaker 6 Three miniature Schnauzers. Dexter, Duncan, and Gracie.
They were her children, no doubt about it.

Speaker 6 Took them to the dog park religiously every weekend, walks every day. That was her little escape during the day in which she got bogged down.
She'd

Speaker 6 harness the herd and take them for a walk.

Speaker 11 Kim's workload seemed to grow heavier by the day. It started to get to her.

Speaker 6 It became

Speaker 6 increasingly difficult for her to be able to turn work off. It just seemed like everything revolved around work.

Speaker 11 She went to see a doctor for depression.

Speaker 6 And she decided to take some medication to help her get a little bit brighter outlook on things.

Speaker 14 Did it work?

Speaker 6 Absolutely. It was like turning a light switch on.
I even told the doctor, who's a good personal friend of mine, I said, thank you for giving me all of my wife back.

Speaker 11 His relief didn't last long.

Speaker 6 The cure became worse than

Speaker 6 ailment.

Speaker 11 Was it causing her to gain weight? Was that one of the significance of that? It does.

Speaker 6 That's one of the large warning signs on it. Weight gain,

Speaker 6 restless sleep, things like that.

Speaker 11 Kim feared that stopping the medication too suddenly could make her more depressed. He said she was making plans that last week of October 2012 to see her doctor.

Speaker 11 In the meantime, it so happened that a storm, a brutal one called Hurricane Sandy, had been heading north off the Atlantic coast.

Speaker 11 How well did she know the anatomy of a hurricane and what it was capable of?

Speaker 6 Very well. Being a civil engineer, she knows what structures can do and what they can't do.

Speaker 6 With her teaching and so forth and training the inspectors, she knew what had to be done to a house in order to protect the inhabitants.

Speaker 11 She makes everyone safe.

Speaker 6 Absolutely.

Speaker 11 Eventually, the superstorm tracked east, giving most of Florida a pass before barreling north and into the history books.

Speaker 11 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, casually shopping.

Speaker 11 That night, Derek said the two watched a movie on their entertainment system that had just been repaired.

Speaker 6 Kim used to call it NASA because I would always have to change the input for her, change a channel, or

Speaker 6 get it to

Speaker 6 the place that she wanted to watch.

Speaker 11 So many people can relate to that.

Speaker 6 Too many remotes.

Speaker 11 And you had just had a sound person

Speaker 11 come in and help you out?

Speaker 6 I was trying to have him simplify it. Take those five remotes on the table and turn it into one.

Speaker 11 The next day, Saturday, the 27th, Derek left his wife sleeping and headed to his fire station to begin a 24-hour shift. It coincided with a big college football game, Florida versus Georgia.

Speaker 6 It's a large influx of people

Speaker 6 into the city. And of course, with the football game comes drinking and foolishness.

Speaker 11 What kind of calls do you get during a weekend like that?

Speaker 6 Usually car accidents, stuff like that. There are more people on the road.

Speaker 10 A lot of them are alcohol

Speaker 16 involved.

Speaker 11 As busy as he was, he called Kim later that day, several times, in fact. Could you get a hold of her?

Speaker 6 No, I couldn't.

Speaker 11 Was that strange or not?

Speaker 6 Not unusual. A lot of times, usually in the morning, if she didn't want to be bothered, she'd put her phone in the kitchen.

Speaker 11 On Sunday, his shift over, he headed home. It was after eight in the morning.

Speaker 11 As he walked into the bedroom, darkened by blackout shades, he said he expected to crawl into bed next to Kim, but she wasn't there. She was on the floor.

Speaker 6 I noticed Kim lying at the base of the bed, face down.

Speaker 11 What did you think when you saw her laying there?

Speaker 6 I didn't know what to think.

Speaker 6 I originally went up to her and thought maybe she'd fallen or hit her head or maybe she had a few too many beers that night.

Speaker 6 But the closer I looked at her, I realized she was bleeding.

Speaker 11 He said the firefighter in him went into action. He did CPR and called 911.

Speaker 11 Kim!

Speaker 11 Kim!

Speaker 11 Soon, the emergency call would go out to Derek's fellow firefighters.

Speaker 11 Men in trucks, sirens blaring, would be racing to the Dorsey's safe, gated community and into his home that looked like it had just been hit by a hurricane.

Speaker 4 What had happened to Kim? Had Derek arrived home in time to save his wife when we returned.

Speaker 22 Are you with her right now?

Speaker 20 Yes, I am.

Speaker 22 Is she awake?

Speaker 23 No, she's not.

Speaker 11 Did you think there was a chance that she might still be alive?

Speaker 6 At that point, I didn't know I was going to give her every opportunity I could.

Speaker 11 When Derek Dorsey called the 911 dispatcher that Sunday morning, send rescue 50, I'm up to the apartment. Come on, he said he couldn't grasp what he was seeing.

Speaker 11 His 38-year-old wife, Kim, lying naked and bloodied on the floor.

Speaker 6 I rolled her over, and I saw she wasn't breathing, and I tried to keep her sleepy hard.

Speaker 11 Did you think there was a chance

Speaker 11 that she might still be alive?

Speaker 6 At that point I didn't know. I was going to give her every opportunity I could.

Speaker 22 Are you with her right now? Yes I am. Is she awake?

Speaker 23 No she's not.

Speaker 11 On the 911 call you it's almost like you're wearing two hats. You're the distraught husband and then you're the firefighter.
Did you feel yourself going back and forth?

Speaker 6 Well I wanted them to know that I was an off-duty fireman for the simple fact. I wanted them to

Speaker 6 understand

Speaker 6 it wasn't

Speaker 6 a lay person that didn't know what they were talking about.

Speaker 6 I knew there was something wrong.

Speaker 11 Even as he begged for help, he said he kept trying to revive Kim.

Speaker 6 And they wanted all this other information, and all I could focus on was giving her CPR.

Speaker 6 And then, after

Speaker 6 a couple minutes of giving her CPR, I realized that

Speaker 6 she was already stiff

Speaker 20 and

Speaker 6 that she was gone. And I

Speaker 6 told communications

Speaker 6 I told him she was signal seven.

Speaker 11 What does that mean?

Speaker 6 I basically pronounced her dead.

Speaker 22 So you think she's beyond any resuscitation?

Speaker 23 Yes, we rescue anyway.

Speaker 22 Yes, rescue is on the way, okay?

Speaker 11 You're the first responder. You

Speaker 11 see this happen to other people.

Speaker 6 I didn't want

Speaker 6 anybody rushing to the scene to get hurt.

Speaker 6 Somebody that was already dead.

Speaker 11 You're a firefighter. You're used to saving people.
Yeah. And it's your own wife, and you can't save her.
Yeah.

Speaker 11 How hard was that?

Speaker 6 After 15 years of going to

Speaker 6 gunshots, cardiac arrest, and everything else,

Speaker 6 and helping everybody else on God's green earth, I can't help him with life.

Speaker 6 It's like all that training had just been put to waste.

Speaker 11 His once vibrant, beautiful wife lay dead on their bedroom floor, and he believed he knew why.

Speaker 22 We are sending rescue. You have to tell me exactly what she did, what happened.

Speaker 23 I don't know. She either cut herself or something.
I can't see. I'm trying to figure it out.

Speaker 6 I thought maybe she tried to hurt herself.

Speaker 11 Derek Dorsey was telling County Dispatch his wife had committed suicide. He immediately thought about Kim's struggle with her medication and the warning that came with it.

Speaker 6 Don't bring yourself off the medication, medication, seek a doctor's advice on coming off of it.

Speaker 11 Now, as he stood over the body of his wife, he said he felt Kim had ignored that warning.

Speaker 6 I had originally thought, damn it, she tried to take herself off her own medication.

Speaker 6 She had.

Speaker 6 Typical Kim wanted to do it herself.

Speaker 11 She just quit cold turkey, which

Speaker 6 she was told not to come off it too quick, yes.

Speaker 11 Within minutes of calling 911, Derek's colleagues came to his aid. Your fellow firefighters and paramedics? Yeah.

Speaker 11 What do you say to them when they arrive?

Speaker 6 She's dead.

Speaker 11 You had

Speaker 11 a reaction to seeing them.

Speaker 11 Your wife is laying there.

Speaker 11 What did you do when they got there?

Speaker 16 I covered her up.

Speaker 6 with a comforter.

Speaker 11 Was that more the husband instinct?

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 A a husband and father, and

Speaker 6 it's decorum.

Speaker 6 My wife's naked there on the ground, and

Speaker 6 I've got half a dozen people in the house. You just cover her up.

Speaker 11 At some point, a call went out to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 9 When something like this happens, they'll call me first.

Speaker 11 Chief T.K. Waters was the on-duty officer that weekend.

Speaker 9 I'll make the decision on whether we're going to go out to that call, we're going to respond to that call or not.

Speaker 9 And that happened to be one that I knew we had to respond to.

Speaker 11 The officer on the other end was telling the detective about a woman's apparent suicide.

Speaker 9 So, naturally, because it's a suicide, we have to go, we have to make sure that everything lines up and it looks as if someone committed suicide.

Speaker 11 The homicide detective figured the call would be a relatively quick one. He figured wrong.

Speaker 4 Coming up, people who commit suicide don't usually miss.

Speaker 10 You can see the the bullet holes in the wall.

Speaker 5 No way could somebody have done this to themselves.

Speaker 4 When dateline continues.

Speaker 11 Chief TK Waters was responding to a call about a possible suicide. As he arrived, he was struck by the neighborhood.

Speaker 9 It's a gated community in our East Jacksonville toward the beach, not very far from the beach at all. Beautiful homes, very nice neighborhood,

Speaker 9 and not very

Speaker 9 easy to access.

Speaker 10 You have to have a way in.

Speaker 11 Soon, he was joined by his then partner, Detective Larry Koskowski, who was also taken with the affluent community and the Dorsey's house itself. You raced to this scene and came up to the house.

Speaker 11 Did you see anything before you even got into the house?

Speaker 5 Yes, as I was walking up the sidewalk to the front door here, I saw a statue of a dog that was laid over

Speaker 12 in the bushes here.

Speaker 11 Anything that was odd about it?

Speaker 5 Just the fact that it looked out of place, that it was tipped over. But I just took note of that and moved on from there.

Speaker 11 This is something, though, that would become very important later in this case. Yes, absolutely.
You just didn't realize it at that moment. That's correct.

Speaker 11 He made a mental note and met Waters in the darkened bedroom.

Speaker 9 It was chaos.

Speaker 10 And you can tell that something really horrible would happen here.

Speaker 9 You walk in initially, you see our victim lying at the foot of the bed. You can see

Speaker 9 even as dark as it was in the room, the lighting wasn't very good.

Speaker 9 It was just a scene that

Speaker 9 read that something horrible had happened here.

Speaker 11 Not far from where Kim lay, 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 at them.

Speaker 10 There had been some gunshots and a wall, and you could see the bullet holes in the wall.

Speaker 11 Officers later found those bullets and the gun that fired them. A pink-handled revolver that had been tossed on the bedroom floor.
There was something else they noticed.

Speaker 5 There was a pool cue, a broken pool cue in the bedroom.

Speaker 5 And it was what I called the fat end of the pool cue.

Speaker 11 As they looked closer, they could see Kim was covered in bruises. It was clear she had not killed herself.

Speaker 5 The room was, there was blood all over the place. I mean, the condition of her body,

Speaker 5 no way could somebody have done this to themselves. This was obviously a murder scene.
Probably one of the most horrific ones that I had ever seen.

Speaker 11 Really? Just because of the amount of blood and

Speaker 5 the sheer violence that was evident in this room.

Speaker 11 They continued looking around the rest of the house. They noticed the kitchen sink filled, bizarrely, they thought, with TV remote controls and a cell phone.

Speaker 11 Cabinet drawers opened, a floor used as an ashtray. All that, and the toppled statue at the front door suggested a break-in, especially when investigators learned more about the gated community.

Speaker 14 Unfortunately, at the time that Kim Dorsey was murdered, I believe that the community was leaving the gate open.

Speaker 11 London Kite, then an assistant state attorney, was called to the murder scene that day.

Speaker 14 So it wasn't as secure as, you know, someone like showing a card and yeah, come on in.

Speaker 14 It was one of those things where at that point it could be anybody because they could have walked through, they could have driven through.

Speaker 11 But the closer they looked at the house, the more they felt this attack had not been a random break-in.

Speaker 5 There was no signs of forced entry, so somebody either had let themselves into the house or Kim had answered the door.

Speaker 11 And if someone had come to rob the Dorseys before killing Kim, they'd done a poor job of it. Kim's yellow hummer sat in the driveway.
The big screen TV was still on the wall.

Speaker 11 There were some expensive items that were in plain sight that were still there, correct?

Speaker 5 Yes. Yes.

Speaker 5 Big house, I mean, a lot of nice things. There were computers on the table.

Speaker 11 Rolex watches.

Speaker 5 Yes, there was a watch case next to the bed.

Speaker 5 Nothing of value seemed to be missing, you know, that we could see right there.

Speaker 11 But it was Kim's body that spoke the loudest to them. It was clear she'd been beaten savagely, bound at some point with zip ties, and likely raped.
This was such a violent attack on Kim Dorsey.

Speaker 11 Did that tell you anything? Just the level of violence?

Speaker 9 Yes, it told us that there was possibly some sort of connection between the person that committed the act and Kim.

Speaker 11 That they perhaps knew each other?

Speaker 7 That's correct.

Speaker 11 And this was some kind of

Speaker 6 rage.

Speaker 11 Rage. Crime of passion.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 The bloody scene made them skeptical about the story Kim's husband had told the 911 operator.

Speaker 9 You ask yourself,

Speaker 9 how could he believe she committed suicide? How could he actually believe that when you look at that crime scene?

Speaker 11 That was only one of so many questions they had for Derek Dorsey. A man, it seemed, with plenty of stories to tell.

Speaker 14 Coming up, he was living two different lives.

Speaker 4 A husband with a secret.

Speaker 5 I said, What about a girlfriend? You got a girlfriend, and he readily said, There's a lot going on here.

Speaker 11 Derek Dorsey sat in the back of a squad car, staring at the crime scene tape surrounding his home. It was like rubbernecking at someone else's tragedy, waiting for the nightmare to slip by.

Speaker 6 I still can't wrap my head around it.

Speaker 11 He said he kept trying to piece together what had happened. Later, he went with officers to the station for questioning.

Speaker 27 It's

Speaker 11 Detective Larry Kiskowski interviewed Derek, still in his firefighter uniform.

Speaker 11 He said the husband seemed willing to answer all his questions, starting with how he'd left Kim that Saturday morning.

Speaker 27 Okay, so you left the house yesterday morning, probably

Speaker 27 about 7-10. So the shift started at 8 a.m.
Saturday, but did you go back home for any reason? Nothing like that.

Speaker 5 His alibi at that point is that he's at work and he does work for the fire department. They work 24-hour shifts.
They start 8 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 5 They work until the following morning at 8 o'clock.

Speaker 11 A story that would be easy enough to check out. Next, the detective asked Derek how he'd found Kim when he got home from work.

Speaker 28 I go in, just go straight to the bedroom.

Speaker 27 When I opened it up,

Speaker 27 see what I'm laying down. She's on the floor.
Did I touch her anything? No? Okay.

Speaker 27 So

Speaker 27 I touched her.

Speaker 27 Come over.

Speaker 27 I think she was on the right side.

Speaker 5 He was upset. You know, did he break down? Not as much as I think some people would, you know, telling the story about what they just came home to.

Speaker 27 I started looking around the house, so the first thing that's popping into my head is she's taken her life.

Speaker 11 He said he believed Kim had committed suicide. He had already told County Dispatch he thought Kim had cut herself.
Now he was telling the detectives something different.

Speaker 27 So she has a gun of her own. Yes.
We'll find a gun for us pretty good.

Speaker 27 Some of you all know that.

Speaker 27 Where's it normally kept? And her drawer was open.

Speaker 27 Did you open that drawer?

Speaker 27 Did you look in the drawer next?

Speaker 27 Kim, I thought she shot herself.

Speaker 11 He explained Kim had been battling depression, then battling side effects from the medicine. He said their marriage had suffered.

Speaker 27 When is the last time that you and Kim had said

Speaker 27 while back? A while back. When you say a while back, like weeks.

Speaker 11 Derek Dorsey had something else to reveal.

Speaker 27 Or either when he is stepping out, you know, girlfriend on your behalf or boyfriend on hers.

Speaker 5 I said, what about a girlfriend? You got a girlfriend?

Speaker 5 And he readily said,

Speaker 5 there's a lot going on here.

Speaker 11 Derek had just admitted that he'd been unfaithful to Kim.

Speaker 14 Obviously, big, big red flags.

Speaker 11 London Kite was listening in on the interview from another room and hearing a possible motive for murder.

Speaker 14 He was living two different lives. We really had to figure out what was his,

Speaker 14 you know, true passion. Did he want to live there with Kim or did he want the more seedy or dark side of his life?

Speaker 11 There was another fact she couldn't overlook, that Derek, a seasoned firefighter, had done the unthinkable at a crime scene.

Speaker 27 Now, was she covered up when he got there? No, she thought that was a little cold. I put the

Speaker 28 after rescue came, pronounced her dead,

Speaker 27 they're like, Jesus got passed on.

Speaker 27 Okay, I got you.

Speaker 27 Okay, so you pulled that on top of her. Okay.
They saw the case. Okay, and that's important to us.

Speaker 14 The thing that he did that was kind of uncharacteristic of someone who is a first responder that goes to scenes like this is that he covered her body with the bedding.

Speaker 14 You know, you wouldn't want that to happen in a crime scene.

Speaker 11 To the investigators, it was possible Derek Dorsey had tried literally to cover up evidence. Everything they were hearing led them to wonder, had he killed his wife?

Speaker 11 By then, the line of questioning seemed to weigh on Derek.

Speaker 27 I'm not stupid, you're asking certain questions, but it looks certainly a threat. And that means you're thinking certain things.

Speaker 27 That looks so bad.

Speaker 27 Looks like that.

Speaker 11 Did you worry that they might think it was you?

Speaker 6 I don't doubt they did think it was me. But I knew that if they originally thought it it would

Speaker 6 come to light, that there's just obviously no way I could have done it.

Speaker 11 Even as he sat in that interview room, detectives outside it were in fact checking out his fire station alibi. Did Derek Dorsey's alibi check out, was he really at work?

Speaker 5 Yes, he was. He had spent the whole day at work.
There were some phone calls he had made to Kim that went unanswered,

Speaker 5 but that wasn't unusual.

Speaker 11 Surveillance footage supported Derek's account. It showed his truck leaving the gated community in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Even though his alibi checked out, Derek wasn't off the hook.

Speaker 11 Investigators thought he still could have had something to do with Kim's murder.

Speaker 14 And that's why we wanted to make sure that we looked at his phone records to see who he was contacting.

Speaker 11 As investigators tried to size up the man before them, officers back at the crime scene canvassed nearby homeowners. A neighbor had seen something.

Speaker 5 And he remembered a car, a small SUV, pulling up in front of the Dorsey's house. It wasn't really anything unusual to him.

Speaker 11 So here's what detectives had so far.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 24 Coming up,

Speaker 4 a rare look at a crime scene inch by inch, minute by minute, through the eyes of an expert.

Speaker 11 She's zip-tied to this dresser. She opens this drawer somehow.
She got the gun out and she fired all five shots. But she missed.
She missed.

Speaker 4 When dateline continues.

Speaker 11 As detectives interviewed Derek Dorsey downtown.

Speaker 6 Did you text her yesterday?

Speaker 11 Their colleagues were searching for clues across town. A man's castle was now a crime scene and a confusing one at that.
Former Assistant State Attorney London Kite. This was a real puzzle.

Speaker 14 It was. The kitchen was just torn apart.
The drawers were were pulled out, and then these electronics were in the sink. And then her bedroom torn apart.

Speaker 14 We didn't know really where the struggles were happening in this house.

Speaker 11 Soon they would. They believed Kim died sometime Saturday morning, not long after Derek left for work.

Speaker 11 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

Speaker 5 point, at least.

Speaker 11 Her autopsy filled in more details. Kim had died of blunt trauma to the head and a single stab wound to the neck.

Speaker 11 But it was officers like Detective Karen Smith who helped the team understand how this crime unfolded.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 This is blood spatter.

Speaker 3 Correct.

Speaker 11 Smith, a bloodstain pattern analyst and crime scene expert, followed the trail of Kim's blood in the bedroom, spec by spec, using string and 3D diagrams.

Speaker 11 She believed Kim had just gotten out of bed when her attacker barged in.

Speaker 11 And when the autopsy was completed, we found that her nose had been

Speaker 11 damaged. So to me, that meant that it was a sucker punch.
So where would she have been standing exactly to create this spatter? Right about here.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 And normally, when somebody's punched in the nose that hard, they're going to go down. This first blow, she said, would have brought Kim down by the side of her bed.

Speaker 11 She's actually down here on the floor.

Speaker 11 And there was the large saturation stain here on the carpet. She was down here for quite some time.

Speaker 11 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 the wrists.

Speaker 11 She's zip-tied to the stressor, giving Kim's attacker time to step out of that first-floor bedroom and into the kitchen just beyond.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 It went through the door jamb and up into the ceiling in the kitchen.

Speaker 11 So her attacker was, you believe obviously, was either she saw him or heard him and she fired all five shots and the gun was empty. But she missed.
She missed.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 And as she moves moves around the bed, the gun is tossed and it's found right underneath the bed here. It's useless to her.
It's empty.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 So now we know she's clamoring to get out of this window.

Speaker 11 This could have been her escape. This could have been her escape room.
But he came back. Unfortunately, he came back.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 There was a very, very large saturation stain here on the floor, and the knife was found next to it. So this is basically where she was killed.
This is where ultimately she lost her fight.

Speaker 11 The scenario told investigators about Kim's brave but doomed struggle, but it also told them them about her killer.

Speaker 11 The zip ties on Kim's wrists and the pool cue on the floor appear to have come from the home. The knife matched a set from the kitchen.
So he would know the house.

Speaker 14 Yes, he would know upstairs and downstairs, too.

Speaker 11 Someone who might possibly know where those zip ties are. Yes.

Speaker 14 And also know the habits of Kim Dorsey. That she's a late sleeper.
She sleeps pretty hard. It was my understanding, too.

Speaker 11 Obviously, one man, Derek, knew all all of that, but evidently, there were others who did as well.

Speaker 11 Derek 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 Derek said detectives straight.

Speaker 27 I honestly really think you're brought up the wrong shit.

Speaker 6 I made the comment, Lance would have taken a bullet for Kim.

Speaker 6 So you guys are wasting your time.

Speaker 6 Talk to him. You'll understand.

Speaker 6 You'll know where I'm coming from after you meet him.

Speaker 11 Lance, he added, not only wouldn't kill Kim, he couldn't. Derek said his friend had taken a new job just before her death.

Speaker 6 Well, he's up in Georgia shrimping.

Speaker 11 Out on a boat. Yes.
At sea.

Speaker 6 Yes, miles away.

Speaker 11 But Derek did give detectives another name. And this young man had definitely been in the area that week, in Jacksonville, and in trouble.

Speaker 4 Coming up, a suspect who seemed infatuated with Kim.

Speaker 5 Have you ever had sex with her?

Speaker 8 Be honest with me. Nah, always.

Speaker 4 And had a history with police.

Speaker 11 Did it make you question him? This guy on your radar was just in jail.

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 5 Does he need money? Does he need something?

Speaker 11 Investigators were untangling the mystery surrounding Kim Dorsey's murder. They knew her killer was familiar with her home.

Speaker 11 Her husband Derek certainly fit that bill, but he had a strong alibi and a willingness to share everything, it seemed, even his infidelity.

Speaker 14 Typically in cases like that, you know, husbands that are suspects, they try to hide all of those things. They say, oh no, our relationship was perfect.

Speaker 14 But Derek, on the other hand, started exposing kind of the darkness that was inside that beautiful house.

Speaker 11 Was Kim aware that this was going on?

Speaker 6 I don't believe so. If she was, she never let me know.

Speaker 11 Did you worry how that might look to the detectives?

Speaker 6 I didn't even care. They asked me if I had

Speaker 6 any relationships on the side, and I fessed up to it right and then there. That was the least of my worries, knowing that

Speaker 6 I'd done that. I wanted to find who killed her.

Speaker 11 Still, investigators couldn't overlook the possibility that Derek had hired someone to kill Kim. Did you worry that they might think that you could have enlisted some help? No.
Hired someone.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 11 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, Derek gave them another name, Joshua Veal.

Speaker 6 Josh was a young man.

Speaker 6 just somebody that needed a job.

Speaker 6 Didn't have a whole bunch of

Speaker 6 construction experience and everything, but I always needed someone to help clean up and straighten up the job sites and such.

Speaker 11 So he gave Joshua work in the general contracting business he ran on the side, and later a place to stay.

Speaker 6 We saw a young man that needed some direction, and we tried to help him out the best we could.

Speaker 11 For a few months, Joshua lived with the Dorseys, but Derek said the arrangement soured when Joshua took a wrong turn.

Speaker 6 Josh decided that recreational pharmaceuticals were more fun than working in the hot hot sun every day.

Speaker 11 That must have been heartbreaking for you because you really wanted to see this young man succeed. It was.

Speaker 6 You wanted to shake sense into him, but people have to make their own mistakes in order to learn.

Speaker 11 He told Joshua to leave, but said they remained friends.

Speaker 6 He called 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.

Speaker 11 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 detective's attention. Did it make you question him?

Speaker 11 This guy on your radar was just in jail. Yes.

Speaker 5 Does he need money? Does he need something?

Speaker 11 And Joshua had also been kicked out of the Dorsey house.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 6 He could be angry about that.

Speaker 16 Of course.

Speaker 11 Not the best house guest.

Speaker 9 Not the best house guest.

Speaker 11 There was more, and to detectives, it was explosive. Derek 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.

Speaker 11 Only Joshua never showed.

Speaker 5 At that point, we set out trying to put our hands on Joshua.

Speaker 11 And he's just out there. No one seems to know where he is.
That's correct. Is that a sign that there might be something up there that this guy didn't show and now no one can find him?

Speaker 16 Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 11 And right around the time that Kim Dorsey was murdered.

Speaker 5 Right. The morning that she's found, he can't be found.

Speaker 11 But he didn't stay hidden for long. Later that same day, Derek told investigators that Joshua had just called.

Speaker 11 The two men arranged to meet at a local restaurant, but Detective Larry Kiskowski decided to surprise the young man instead.

Speaker 5 We were sitting there waiting on him, and as soon as he got out of the car, I introduced myself to him and said we needed to have a talk.

Speaker 11 This is Joshua Veal, and he remembers that moment very differently. Were you scared? Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 19 Six, seven undercover cars come pull up and ask about you. Tend to get a little nervous.

Speaker 11 The talk the detective wanted with Joshua took place downtown at the sheriff's office. The officer didn't mention Kim's murder at first.

Speaker 29 I used to get home Friday night at 10, 11 o'clock from the jail.

Speaker 11 Did it feel though like it wasn't a friendly conversation? Yes, ma'am. Like you were being treated kind of as a suspect type?

Speaker 19 I was already under the impression I was treated as a suspect for something, but I had no clue what for.

Speaker 29 You spent Friday night at the house?

Speaker 7 Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 29 You didn't go anywhere Friday night? No.

Speaker 11 Joshua said he'd spent the weekend hanging out with friends.

Speaker 5 Should you go to Wingen on Saturday to watch a football game or what?

Speaker 7 Yeah, I think I'll do.

Speaker 29 Anyone else up there that could vouch that you were up there Saturday?

Speaker 8 Uh

Speaker 3 probably so.

Speaker 11 Now were you supposed to go to work for anybody on Sunday or they asked why he hadn't shown up at the gas station to meet Derek for work that Sunday morning.

Speaker 11 Surveillance showed Derek at the station, but not Joshua. Where was he?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I didn't make it to Dad. I kind of slept in and didn't hit my alarm.
Did he call you to like chew you out or anything?

Speaker 19 It was cussing me and was like, you little, you should have came up.

Speaker 2 Or you just kind of kangaroo this morning at eight.

Speaker 11 Finally, the investigators asked about Kim Dorsey. They wanted the 21-year-old to explain his relationship with the 38-year-old woman.

Speaker 12 How'd she look?

Speaker 7 One to ten.

Speaker 19 Would you ask me if I would hit it?

Speaker 8 Sure.

Speaker 7 Eight.

Speaker 5 Kim ever come on to you?

Speaker 7 Nah.

Speaker 8 Ah, come on, no. Nah, she ain't no.
A little bit, maybe?

Speaker 19 Nah, I wish.

Speaker 5 Have you ever had sex with her?

Speaker 3 Be honest with me.

Speaker 8 Nah, I wish.

Speaker 14 What he revealed about Kim was really interesting is that he almost had an infatuation with her.

Speaker 14 Not that, you know, she was just my boss's wife, but someone that he almost had a romantic pull towards.

Speaker 11 How are investigators feeling now about Joshua Veal? Is he starting to go to the top of the list?

Speaker 14 Yeah, he's definitely going, he's going up.

Speaker 11 Now, the detective was ready to drop a bombshell.

Speaker 5 And eventually I brought up Kim and why we were talking.

Speaker 29 Well, I got some bad news.

Speaker 12 Something happened to Kim.

Speaker 19 I just talked to Derek like 45 minutes ago.

Speaker 3 He means something happened to Kim.

Speaker 5 And I had asked him, you know, do you know what happened to Kim? And he'd like, no, he was unaware that she was dead.

Speaker 11 How did he take the news?

Speaker 5 He took it like you had told him that his mother died.

Speaker 8 She's dead.

Speaker 8 Oh, don't tap that, man.

Speaker 8 Oh, no, it was killed.

Speaker 11 Did his emotional reaction to her death was that enough for you, for your gut to say,

Speaker 11 not sure he's our killer?

Speaker 5 It was for me at that point.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 29 I'm trying to find out.

Speaker 20 And

Speaker 5 need to know if you know

Speaker 8 anything or some way that might be trying to hurt her.

Speaker 8 Hurt Derek. Bro, I promise you

Speaker 8 you wouldn't catch me right here if I knew somebody was trying to hurt them.

Speaker 8 I promise you that. Okay.

Speaker 7 All right.

Speaker 7 That was a woman you don't know. No, you don't sure.

Speaker 3 I'm sure she was.

Speaker 8 Damn.

Speaker 30 There's just about anybody out there who could be our suspect.

Speaker 11 Days passed without an arrest. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office asked the public for help.

Speaker 30 And like I said, 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 24 Coming up,

Speaker 5 an X-rated clue.

Speaker 6 I look at the DVD player, and I'm going to show murderer. That's going to be who's in my house.

Speaker 4 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 25 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

Speaker 25 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 25 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 25 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 21 Hi there, it's Andy Richter, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, The Three Questions with Andy Richter.

Speaker 21 Each week, I invite friends, comedians, actors, and musicians to discuss these three questions. Where do you come from? Where are you going? And what have you learned?

Speaker 21 New episodes are out every Tuesday with guests like Julie Bow and Ted Danson, Tig Nataro, Nataro, Will Arnett, Phoebe Bridgers, and more.

Speaker 21 You can also tune in for my weekly Andy Richter call-in show episodes, where me and a special guest invite callers to weigh in on topics like dating disasters, bad teachers, and lots more.

Speaker 21 Listen to the three questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 11 Days after finding Kim's body, detectives crossed one name off their suspect list. They looked into Joshua Veal's alibi, and it checked out.

Speaker 5 Josh was just up on the north side of Jacksonville.

Speaker 11 Nowhere near the Dorsey home, as far as they could tell. Kim's husband, Derek, likewise had a solid alibi, but detectives still weren't sure what to make of him.

Speaker 11 They knew he was an unfaithful husband, which gave him a possible motive. At this point, were you able to rule out Derek Dorsey?

Speaker 5 Absolutely not. I mean, you know, there's, he could have, he could have definitely had something setting this up.

Speaker 11 Then again, if he had hired someone to kill Kim, why was he acting so darn helpful?

Speaker 5 Derek's calling me daily.

Speaker 5 Obviously, there are times I had to call him, you know, to get some information about things at the house, you know. And

Speaker 5 so, yeah, he's cooperating. He's doing everything, you know, that I'm asking of him.

Speaker 11 Finally, officers and technicians were done done processing the crime scene and Derek could return to the house.

Speaker 5 So the night we go to turn the house back over, I think it was Halloween, the 31st.

Speaker 11 They hoped the walls might talk to Derek, might reveal something officers had missed.

Speaker 5 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, hey, that's not right.

Speaker 11 As it turned out, the house wasn't just speaking to Derek, it was practically shouting.

Speaker 6 The blood's still on the floor. The plates shattered on the ground are still there.

Speaker 6 At that point,

Speaker 6 they wanted me to try to help piece together things. And I'm noticing everything, everything.
You know, this is wrong. This is here.

Speaker 6 I don't understand why the damn remotes are in the sink.

Speaker 11 Detectives Larry Kiskowski and TK Waters showed us what happened when they ushered Derek into his TV room.

Speaker 5 So we were standing here and we asked Derek, Can you turn on the TV?

Speaker 5 So Derek, you know, he comes in here.

Speaker 11 Why? Why did you ask him to turn on the TV?

Speaker 5 Well, we had never, the TV wasn't on when we got here, and we had found all the remotes in the sink. So we just

Speaker 5 wanted to see how it worked.

Speaker 6 The moment I turned it on and changed the input to the DVD player,

Speaker 6 up comes

Speaker 6 the menu for porn video.

Speaker 6 At that point, I start shaking my finger at it

Speaker 6 and going, that's not mine.

Speaker 6 There's no way that's mine, and there's no way Kim would be looking at that. And then I look at the DVD player and I'm going, that's your murderer.
That's going to be who's in my house.

Speaker 11 That's a creepy clue.

Speaker 6 As soon as I knew that, I didn't think they're going to be able to get him. They're going to be able to find out who did this to my wife.

Speaker 9 It was one of those moments where the hair would stand up on the back of of your neck because to have that video in there and having Derek here saying, that's not mine.

Speaker 9 So it automatically raises an antenna and gets you curious.

Speaker 11 But it was what Derek said next that really got their attention.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 6 So he would have known where the kitchen was and everything else. There's an open photo pan in the center.
But

Speaker 6 he would have had a familiarity with the house.

Speaker 11 Derek told the detectives that the installer, a man named J.R., could be the person they were looking for.

Speaker 6 In my mind, that was a very strong possibility it was him. I'd known him before.
He'd worked on another house I'd done. I'd had no

Speaker 6 reason to think that, but that was the only possible logical person that I could think could have done it.

Speaker 11 So what would his motivation be?

Speaker 6 Stealing the system that he just tweaked. Have no earthly idea.

Speaker 11 Was there anyone else who knew how to work the entertainment system? No.

Speaker 9 I mean, who else would be handling the remotes when he's tooling the surround sound system and then throw them in a sink to get the evidence off of it? So, yeah, all those things come into play.

Speaker 11 So, detectives paid a surprise visit to this JR, to the shop where he worked.

Speaker 18 I came back, and there's a couple of detectives here at the shop wanting to ask some questions.

Speaker 11 At that point, JR said he hadn't heard about Kim's death and detectives were vague about why they needed to talk to him.

Speaker 11 Initially, he thought they simply wanted information about his client, Derek Dorsey.

Speaker 18 They said, do you know

Speaker 18 Derek Dorsey? I was like, yeah, he's one of our customers. And he's like,

Speaker 18 When's the last time you were at the house? And I told him, you know, I was there Friday or whatever it was.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 18 She was very sweet, very nice.

Speaker 5 You know,

Speaker 18 she'd always, you know,

Speaker 18 I've only only saw her a couple times.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 18 I remember just she walked, she walked by and said, hey, I'm alright, guys, I'm headed to the gym.

Speaker 3 And I said, okay, I'm going to see you.

Speaker 18 And Derek didn't say anything to her.

Speaker 19 So

Speaker 18 I thought that 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.

Speaker 11 Yeah, because something must have jumped out at you. Because, first of all, you don't even know this couple very well.
Right.

Speaker 18 Kind of weird. You know, they didn't have a very, to me, I never saw an

Speaker 18 affectionate kind of relationship, you know, between the two at all.

Speaker 11 As the detectives listened to JR, they took in what he did for a living.

Speaker 11 They noticed the the wires and cables he worked with, the tools he used. More importantly, they noticed his hands.

Speaker 5 Coming up, he's got cuts on his hands.

Speaker 4 And something interesting in his tool kit.

Speaker 11 He worked with zip ties?

Speaker 5 Yes, yes.

Speaker 9 We're thinking he's a possibility.

Speaker 11 The man who had been inside the Dorsey's home the day before the murder said at first he had no idea why detectives were asking him about Kim, Derek, and the layout of their house.

Speaker 18 I was like, yeah, I know Kim just by being at the house doing their installs.

Speaker 11 The entertainment system installer, J.R., said he thought Derek gave his wife the cold shoulder, especially that Friday as she headed off to the gym.

Speaker 5 He just sensed there wasn't a strong, you know, loving relationship.

Speaker 11 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 JR had sensed an opportunity with Kim.

Speaker 5 Did he have the hot sport? You know, did he come show back up on Saturday morning? He'd been there Friday night, you know, felt maybe he'd go over Saturday morning.

Speaker 5 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, you know, opportunity here with her.

Speaker 11 They wondered, had JR come calling on Kim only to get a chilly reception? Had Kim's rejection set him off? Detectives got to the point. They asked JR if he'd heard about Kim's murder.

Speaker 11 His reaction seemed calm, too calm for the prosecutor. What did that tell you that he wasn't overly emotional about the news?

Speaker 14 That could be, you know, a sign that he's more involved.

Speaker 14 A person like that committed this type of crime, obviously, they're cold-blooded.

Speaker 11 But it was his hands more than his demeanor that really heightened their interest.

Speaker 5 He's got cuts on his hands.

Speaker 5 Thinking, well, could these be defensive wounds, you know,

Speaker 5 from when

Speaker 5 she was hitting him if he was the killer?

Speaker 11 They asked about those scratches. JR said he got them on the job, handling wires and plastics.
He also worked with zip ties.

Speaker 5 Yes. Yes.

Speaker 11 What are you thinking then about the sound man? Can you cross him off your list?

Speaker 9 I'm thinking he's a possibility.

Speaker 11 More than a possibility, thought the prosecutor.

Speaker 14 He had scratches. He had injuries to his hand,

Speaker 14 which,

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 14 But obviously, as an investigator, you want, you're seeing the other side of that. Is he just making an excuse?

Speaker 11 So there are some things they're seeing that could potentially be tying him to this crime.

Speaker 14 Absolutely. They just need to find out more.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 11 The detectives asked JR where he'd been the previous previous weekend when Kim was killed. He explained he'd been around town, even been at a local ball field.

Speaker 11 Did you feel like their questions were getting a little intense? Did you feel like you were under the spotlight?

Speaker 18 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 18 Did they...

Speaker 18 Were they thinking that might have been scratches on my arms from something like that but that crossed my mind that that probably bothered me more than anything in the whole interview you know whole questioning because kim really fought for her life she she fought hard wow and

Speaker 11 whoever she was fighting with would have had scratches on them yeah no doubt right

Speaker 11 he also thought back to how he'd answered their questions about the murder and about kim

Speaker 11 Did you have that little moment where your heart's beating like, um, I was just there. I hope they don't think I I had anything to do with this.

Speaker 18 I said she was murdered

Speaker 18 Saturday or something like that. I was like, I was like, are you kidding me? I was just there Friday night.
They even asked me, do you have any relationships with her?

Speaker 18 I was like, no, I had, they asked me, did I kiss her?

Speaker 16 Did I anything? I was like, no.

Speaker 18 Nothing like that.

Speaker 11 Did you know that Derek had been pointing the finger at you?

Speaker 16 Had no clue.

Speaker 11 He was telling the police that

Speaker 11 he thought you could be a suspect.

Speaker 18 That's interesting.

Speaker 18 I had no clue.

Speaker 11 If anything, he saw Derek as the most likely suspect.

Speaker 18 He seemed like a very short-tempered kind of guy. You know, we've been in his house and just how he gets amped on certain situations, you know, gets excited.

Speaker 18 You could tell how he just kind of like short-fuse kind of thing.

Speaker 18 It crossed my mind, yeah, because usually they do think it's someone very close to him that does this stuff first.

Speaker 11 Still, J.R. said he did his best to cooperate fully with the police.
Did they they take your DNA sample? They did.

Speaker 18 Right here at the office, they did. That is unnatural.
And I volunteered. I was like, yeah, absolutely no problem.

Speaker 11 That has to be unnerving, too, though. Yeah.

Speaker 18 Fingerprints and did a mouse swab and all that. And I've never had that in my life.
I've never been arrested in my life.

Speaker 11 There's a lot of things that might make the police look at you.

Speaker 18 I could see that.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 11 That's not a great place to be in. Yeah.

Speaker 11 But he wouldn't be there long.

Speaker 11 By then, a police report was making its way downtown through the sheriff's office. It was about to change everything.

Speaker 24 Coming up,

Speaker 1 could a stolen car help solve a murder?

Speaker 11 Did you find it on the video? Yes. In the gated community, the day that Kim Dorsey was murdered.

Speaker 9 Yes, it's huge. What that tells us is that he's in town.

Speaker 4 When dateline continues.

Speaker 11 When the detectives got back to the station, they reviewed what they had on JR, the entertainment system installer. His alibi, his DNA, his scratched hands.
But soon, they had something else.

Speaker 11 Doubts.

Speaker 5 He installed sound systems, and so he's, you know, he's always working in tight spaces, and that's how he's cut his hands up.

Speaker 11 Did you believe him?

Speaker 5 It's believable.

Speaker 9 Yeah, it's very understandable. I mean, with the kind of work that he does, you could see his hands getting cut up.

Speaker 11 And they learned that JR's alibi for the weekend Kim died checked out. Two men, Joshua Veal and JR the installer, were now off the suspect list.

Speaker 11 You're going from person to person to person, but no arrest?

Speaker 5 No, not yet.

Speaker 11 Are you getting a little frustrated or you're just following the trail?

Speaker 9 Just following the trail because the trail

Speaker 6 It

Speaker 9 tends to start narrowing after a period of time. We felt like that it wasn't going to be a situation where this was going to go unsolved.

Speaker 9 There's just too much, too much information for us to follow up

Speaker 6 for that to happen.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 5 There's a lady here in Jacksonville. She reports her car stolen.

Speaker 5 The report is written by a patrol officer with a sheriff's office. Eventually that report gets, you know,

Speaker 5 goes through the channels.

Speaker 11 Where it might have gone largely unnoticed if not for an eagle-eyed crime analyst who saw the name of the suspected car thief listed on the report.

Speaker 5 Lance Kirkpatrick was listed in that report as possibly stealing this car.

Speaker 11 An SUV.

Speaker 5 SUV, yes.

Speaker 11 Lance Kirkpatrick, as in Derek's good friend, employee, and house guest, the man Derek said would take a bullet for Kim.

Speaker 11 Lance Kirkpatrick is the one person you haven't been able to talk to. That's correct.
Derek had also insisted that Lance had been on a shrimp boat all week.

Speaker 11 Now, a police report was challenging that story. What does this mean to you?

Speaker 16 It's huge.

Speaker 9 What that tells us is that he's in town.

Speaker 6 He's not on a shrimp boat.

Speaker 9 So now we're starting to pick up steam again. That helped us.
Go in the direction that we needed to go to begin to put the puzzle together, the pieces of this case together.

Speaker 11 The woman who filed the report said Lance had taken her car during a house party in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 27th, only he never came back. Where is Lance Kirkpatrick?

Speaker 11 Does anyone know?

Speaker 5 Not at that point.

Speaker 11 Any friends or family who had any idea where he was?

Speaker 5 No, we talked with his father and grandmother.

Speaker 5 They hadn't heard from him. Him and his father

Speaker 5 wasn't the best of relationships, so it wasn't unusual that they

Speaker 5 wouldn't hear from him for a period of time.

Speaker 11 Suddenly, they remembered the neighbor who saw a small SUV the day Kim died. His description matched that of the stolen vehicle.

Speaker 11 Detectives wondered if cameras outside the Dorsey's gated community caught the car coming or going. Did you find it on the video?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 In the gated community, the day that Kim Dorsey was murdered? Yes. This is your huge moment in this case.

Speaker 6 Yes. Yes.

Speaker 11 But the video didn't reveal 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.

Speaker 14 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

Speaker 14 we weren't really sure about that whole situation.

Speaker 11 Even so, they needed to find Lance.

Speaker 5 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, who's on board?

Speaker 5 And they don't.

Speaker 11 So it's not something you can just radio each boat and say, hey, is Lance Kirkpatrick on your boat?

Speaker 1 Correct. Yes.

Speaker 11 The search for Lance, though, did lead detectives to another man, an acquaintance named Brian. He'd been at the same house party when the SUV disappeared.

Speaker 11 There was someone else who also had access to that SUV potentially. Brian Kiefer?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 Brian Kiefer, aka Money.

Speaker 11 Brian's nickname is Money?

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 11 Do you know why?

Speaker 14 He said that's what,

Speaker 14 you know, the drug dealers call him.

Speaker 14 And I believe it's probably because he

Speaker 14 is a boss. He owns his own company and he runs in those same circles of people.

Speaker 11 Brian ran a building renovation business, but he also had a criminal past. Troubling to you?

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 11 Did you think for a moment that possibly he might have done this?

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 5 Once again, everybody's still on the table. You know, we don't know who did it.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 24 Coming up.

Speaker 5 Brian tells us some things that only the person that was there would know.

Speaker 4 And he also reveals something else, what a friend told him.

Speaker 13 He said the lady was saying,

Speaker 13 stop.

Speaker 7 You're killing her.

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Speaker 11 Detective Larry Kiskowski needed to find Lance Kirkpatrick and a man named Brian Kiefer. The first one they found was Brian at a McDonald's.
So he gets completely ambushed at the McDonald's. Yes.

Speaker 11 Soon, Brian was in custody at the sheriff's office, sitting down with the detective and prosecutor London Kite.

Speaker 13 Can I see you now?

Speaker 8 You can, yeah, I don't.

Speaker 7 If it makes you feel better.

Speaker 5 Well, Brian comes in and basically he's really animated, full of energy that night.

Speaker 11 They asked Brian where he'd been the last weekend of October.

Speaker 14 I want to direct your attention to Florida, Georgia weekend. Do you remember that weekend?

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 11 Brian told them he was at his place and yes, he had company.

Speaker 13 It's Lance Kirkpatrick, but there is a middle name.

Speaker 14 And he goes by the nickname of LJ.

Speaker 13 LJ.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I spent $480

Speaker 13 for about four hours of riding around in a cab looking for LJ everywhere. He's been to, went,

Speaker 13 everything.

Speaker 14 And were you able to find him?

Speaker 13 Didn't find a trace of him.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 14 You notice, I guess, his hand was hurt at that point in time. Do you recall what hand it? If you don't, it's okay.

Speaker 13 I thought it was the left, but I know he hits with his right, so I just.

Speaker 14 If you can't recall, it's fine.

Speaker 13 I can't recall. All right.
That would be the better statement.

Speaker 11 But you did remember that he had an injury to one of his hands.

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 11 Brian said he was unprepared for what Lance was about to tell him.

Speaker 13 He tells me that he murdered somebody and is

Speaker 7 pretty much

Speaker 13 just going to prison and there's nothing that can be done about it. I'm saying, I said, what do you mean?

Speaker 13 You murder somebody and your life is over and you're going to prison. He's like, I'm going to prison.

Speaker 11 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 the man's wife.

Speaker 11 When she picked up her phone to call for help, he panicked.

Speaker 13 He said, I took her cell phone

Speaker 13 and I told her to get out of my way that I just wanted my stuff.

Speaker 11 From there, Brian said the argument quickly turned violent.

Speaker 13 Pretty much just goes into,

Speaker 13 I don't know whether he hit her with that pull stick,

Speaker 13 but he kind of emphasized swinging the pull stick.

Speaker 7 Okay.

Speaker 13 And then he emphasized being shot at five times.

Speaker 11 The story was so awful so incredible Brian said he didn't think it was true, yet investigators did they believe Brian had just described the murder of Kim Dorsey

Speaker 13 And I told my brother

Speaker 13 you know like

Speaker 13 but and he's like do you really believe that

Speaker 13 okay and you know, I was just like

Speaker 11 really you know but I didn't you know I didn't know Brian's not sure if he should believe Lance. Are you believing Brian?

Speaker 5 Brian tells us some things that only the person that was there would know.

Speaker 11 But couldn't that make him a suspect?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 Could. Were you looking at him as a possible suspect?

Speaker 5 At that point,

Speaker 16 yes.

Speaker 11 What were the details he knew about?

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 14 He also knew about the pool queue, and he knew that it was a very expensive pool cue that was over $1,000, which that was accurate.

Speaker 11 And he gave detectives a chilling detail. Kim's last words.

Speaker 14 What does he say? Does he say that she was dead, or does he say anything about that?

Speaker 13 He said the lady was saying, stop.

Speaker 13 You're killing her.

Speaker 11 Investigators were now determined to find Lance. Brian knew exactly where he was.

Speaker 5 Our friends from the marshal's office went and paid that apartment a visit, and Lance was found hiding in the apartment.

Speaker 11 The long-missing Lance Kirkpatrick, once thought to be at sea, had now washed up in a police interview room.

Speaker 3 Lance, have a seat over there, okay?

Speaker 5 The beginning of the interview was, I mean, it was just a conversation. He was fairly forthcoming with his answers.

Speaker 29 Well, I'd like to talk to you, okay?

Speaker 12 All right, about some stuff, all right?

Speaker 11 The detective asked Lance about the Dorseys. He was careful not to mention Kim's murder.

Speaker 5 You and Derek get along pretty well.

Speaker 28 Oh, we get along great.

Speaker 29 How about you and Kim?

Speaker 27 We get along well.

Speaker 33 Have you ever had any problems with her?

Speaker 27 No, nothing like that. that okay

Speaker 27 all right

Speaker 11 no i'm pretty much getting along with everybody lance said he'd been to see his pal derek at his fire station went out to 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 derek another visit at his home i went over there

Speaker 28 a week ago Maybe a week and a half ago, looking for

Speaker 20 him.

Speaker 5 Do you remember what day it was that you went over there and did that?

Speaker 6 Yeah, it was Georgia, Florida.

Speaker 27 Georgia, Florida.

Speaker 33 So, it was Georgia, Florida. It was right before the game.

Speaker 11 The very day Kim died, Lance was now putting himself at the crime scene. He told the detective he knocked on the Dorsey door, but that no one answered.

Speaker 5 Did you go inside then and let yourself in?

Speaker 12 No, no, no.

Speaker 28 The key wasn't even there.

Speaker 5 Where's the key supposed to be? It's supposed to be up under the dog right there.

Speaker 33 Where's the dog where?

Speaker 12 There's a little dog,

Speaker 33 like a fake dog by the door.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 29 What if I told you I didn't believe all your story? What part of the story don't you believe?

Speaker 11 Well, the part Larry Kiskowski 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.

Speaker 24 Coming up,

Speaker 4 betrayed by a friend.

Speaker 6 The only thing I could do is how.

Speaker 4 When dateline continues.

Speaker 11 Lance Kirkpatrick told detectives he had driven over to the Dorsey's home that Saturday morning, but had not gone inside. Detective Kiskowski wasn't buying it.

Speaker 5 I know you went inside the house last Saturday.

Speaker 12 Or two Saturdays in Florida, Georgia.

Speaker 12 I haven't even given you a tip of the iceberg camp, bro.

Speaker 8 All right.

Speaker 12 Do you play cards?

Speaker 28 Okay, if I show you my hand, do you think I'm going to win?

Speaker 29 You got a good enough hand.

Speaker 11 The detective thought he did.

Speaker 12 Putting you at the scene? I'm not going to break a sweat to put you the scene.

Speaker 20 I can do that.

Speaker 12 The scene's going to tell the story.

Speaker 11 That's when Lance put down his cards.

Speaker 28 I'm not saying anything else.

Speaker 11 Even so, the detectives felt they had enough.

Speaker 30 Okay, man, time to go to jail.

Speaker 11 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 Derek.

Speaker 11 They examined his electronic and financial records and eventually came up with nothing that tied him to his wife's murder.

Speaker 14 We were looking to see if Derek 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?

Speaker 14 To my knowledge, he he didn't.

Speaker 14 It actually

Speaker 14 put him in a worse position to have Kim out of the picture.

Speaker 11 Derek Dorsey was no longer a suspect in his wife's murder. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office called to give him the news about Lance.

Speaker 6 Chief of Detectives said, Mr. Dorsey, he was we made an arrest last night.
And I said, who was it? And they told me Lance Kropacher. And I said, what did you arrest him for?

Speaker 11 It didn't dawn on him that Lance had, in fact, been arrested for Kim's murder.

Speaker 6 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 deal.

Speaker 11 But it wasn't to me.

Speaker 6 No. He told me they'd arrested him for the murder of my wife.

Speaker 6 The only thing I could do was howl,

Speaker 6 like some damn wounded animal in a trap. It was the betrayal.

Speaker 11 This is the man that you said you believed would take a bullet. He would take a bullet for your wife, you said.

Speaker 6 How can somebody do that to begin with? But then how can someone do that

Speaker 6 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 them?

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor knew the challenges that lay ahead. Was there a weak area of your case?

Speaker 14 Yeah, there's no witnesses. Not one single person could say, yes, that's what happened to Kim Dorsey.

Speaker 11 Still, she believed the evidence would show Lance Kirkpatrick's guilt.

Speaker 11 The state opened its case, explaining how Lance had been determined to get inside the Dorsey home any way he could that Saturday, October 27, 2012.

Speaker 34 We know how his day started.

Speaker 11 The prosecutor showed the video of Lance pulling into the Dorsey's community in that SUV.

Speaker 28 I went over there

Speaker 28 a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago, looking for him.

Speaker 11 She replayed Lance's police interview, where he put himself on the couple's doorstep that morning.

Speaker 5 Did you go inside and let yourself in?

Speaker 12 No, no, no.

Speaker 28 The key wasn't even there.

Speaker 11 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 the couple.

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 11 So when she awoke that Saturday morning to find Lance Kirkpatrick standing in her home, Kim likely went ballistic. The prosecutor called a reluctant Brian Kiefer to the stand.

Speaker 35 To get up on the stand and to tell the truth, everybody's sitting there going,

Speaker 18 you snitch, you this, you that, you that.

Speaker 35 You know, but they don't know the whole story.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 35 And he said that he grabbed a pull stick

Speaker 31 and

Speaker 35 hit her a bunch of times and smashed the pull stick.

Speaker 11 leaving her unconscious on the bedroom floor. He said Lance described stepping out of the the room, but then Kim woke up.

Speaker 35 And she got a gun and started shooting at him.

Speaker 35 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 could tell he was angry.

Speaker 20 And then he said,

Speaker 13 she said,

Speaker 6 stop, you're killing me.

Speaker 35 And he said, and that's when I just stabbed that bitch in the neck.

Speaker 11 And if you didn't believe Brian Kiefer, said the state, believe the science.

Speaker 11 An analyst testified that 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?

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 And it belonged to Lance Kirkpatrick. More evidence against him.
Yes. He was there.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 11 Derek 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?

Speaker 6 No smoking in the house.

Speaker 11 Was Lance able to follow that rule?

Speaker 6 Not 100%, no.

Speaker 11 That must have driven Kim nuts.

Speaker 19 It would aggravate women daylights out of her.

Speaker 11 Did it get to the point where he had to leave because of it? Yes. So it was really over the smoking.
Yeah.

Speaker 11 Derek said 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 Kim would never willingly let him in.

Speaker 11 When she confronted him, he killed her. As he listened, Kim's husband realized how badly he had misjudged his former friend.

Speaker 6 You know the old saying,

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 I'm here to tell you that's not something you want to know.

Speaker 6 I'm here to tell you that's not something you want to know.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 4 Coming up, Lance talks to the jury

Speaker 4 and to us.

Speaker 36 I've never so much as raised my hand to a woman.

Speaker 11 By the time his case went to 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.

Speaker 17 The whole thing was just a terrible tragedy. I mean,

Speaker 17 you know, I'm sure he wishes he could just rewind that whole part of his life.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 17 He was being fired at.

Speaker 17 He was shot at five times by a pink-handled revolver held in the hand of a woman who was irate, who was taking medication which says on the label that it can cause suicidal or homicidal actions.

Speaker 17 It was a very intense social setting that resulted in just

Speaker 17 a very tragic end.

Speaker 11 She said the state could not prove otherwise.

Speaker 17 When you just put the physical evidence out there and Lance is the only one to explain what happened,

Speaker 17 that's a reasonable hypothesis of innocence.

Speaker 11 Lance Kirkpatrick took the stand.

Speaker 36 I've never so much as raised my hand to a woman, but I was working with him all the time.

Speaker 11 Lance told the court then and maintains now there was no bad blood between him and Kim, that she never kicked him out as Derek claimed. He later told us his version of events.

Speaker 11 He said he went to the Dorsey's that morning to get some things he'd left behind. Kim was home alone.
Before he knew it, they were having sex in her bedroom. At some point, he said, they argued.

Speaker 11 When he stepped away to get something in the kitchen, she snapped.

Speaker 36 She was standing in the bathroom door area in her bedroom, and you can see at the kitchen right there.

Speaker 36 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?

Speaker 11 Leave.

Speaker 36 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 to try and go either way. I have to stop at the door, unlock the door.

Speaker 36 I unlock the door, she's got a clear shot at me.

Speaker 11 Based on the trajectory of the bullets, she was on the floor next to the nightstand beside the bed. shooting up at you.

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 11 So again, why don't you just run out of the house?

Speaker 8 Because I shot

Speaker 6 her.

Speaker 11 Her gun was unloaded. Why didn't you run out?

Speaker 36 I don't know where she, I didn't know where she was at.

Speaker 11 He said his gut reaction was to pick up a nearby pool cue and charge toward her.

Speaker 36 I don't know how many times I swung. I don't know how hard I was swinging.
My adrenaline was pumping so hard, I probably could have bench pressed a car. My aim was not to hurt Kim.
It was a reaction.

Speaker 11 Even when she was down and out, he said, he still felt the need to act. Why did you zip tie her after

Speaker 11 she was unconscious?

Speaker 36 My first thought

Speaker 36 was to restrain her till the police got there. And then once I started putting them on, I was like, oh, this is stupid.

Speaker 36 And 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.

Speaker 36 So I did away with that whole idea.

Speaker 11 He said he dropped the knife, stepped away, and came back to the bedroom. Kim had somehow freed herself.
She She was now standing, holding the knife.

Speaker 36 In that situation, it's, you know, it's hard to say what you would do or what the right thing is to do.

Speaker 11 You're not thinking, you're just reacting. Well, this went very wrong.

Speaker 16 Yes, very wrong.

Speaker 11 Again, he said, they fought. Before he knew it, the knife was on the floor, and so was Kim, dead.

Speaker 34 I remember getting up, I remember looking at the knife and seeing the blood and knowing that I had to have stabbed her or

Speaker 34 something, and I went to check to see where she was stabbed.

Speaker 11 At first, he said he waited for police, but when they didn't show, he left. When the police brought you in, why didn't you tell them the story that you told in trial?

Speaker 6 I was scared to death.

Speaker 36 I was scared to death. I didn't say it out loud, even to myself, for six months after this happened.

Speaker 11 Did you rape Kim Dorsey?

Speaker 36 No, I did not.

Speaker 11 Did you murder Kim Dorsey?

Speaker 36 No, I did not.

Speaker 36 No, I did not. When I took her life, it was totally unintentional.

Speaker 11 Not True countered the state on cross. It said Lance Kirkpatrick intentionally killed Kim when she dared to confront him.

Speaker 34 You were pounding on that woman.

Speaker 34 I wasn't aware of how hard or how light I was punching. I was just swinging.

Speaker 14 You did kill Kim Dorsey, right?

Speaker 7 Yes, I did.

Speaker 34 When you stabbed Kim Dorsey in the neck, that she would never walk this earth again, right? No, I did not know that. I didn't know she was dead until after I checked.

Speaker 11 There are people, law enforcement, prosecutor, people who've heard this story who think that what you say happened that day are just totally far-fetched.

Speaker 36 They're far-fetched.

Speaker 36 They took this bloody, horrible scene and

Speaker 36 just

Speaker 36 thought the worst possible thing that could have happened and went with it.

Speaker 11 Some people think that you turned into an animal when you went in that room.

Speaker 36 Yeah, and

Speaker 36 if you show blood splatter and everything else and just throw it out everywhere, everywhere, yes, that can be said. But that wasn't what happened.
That wasn't what happened at all.

Speaker 11 He insisted he had killed Kim to protect himself. There was no premeditated murder, he said.
No burglary, and certainly no rape.

Speaker 11 The defense noted the medical examiner could only determine Kim and Lance had sex, not that Kim had been raped.

Speaker 17 The only testimony was that the sex was consensual. Everything else is physical evidence and speculation.

Speaker 17 So

Speaker 17 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.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 11 Those who worked to build the murder case against him shook their heads in disbelief.

Speaker 9 If you're defending yourself, do you need to tie her up with zip ties?

Speaker 6 Do you need to rape her?

Speaker 9 Do you need to beat her with a pull stick? Do you need to do the things that you've done to her in defense of your life?

Speaker 9 Complete, complete made-up story.

Speaker 11 As the case went to the jury, Derek Dorsey sat in the courtroom and seeth.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 There's something deep down evil inside of you to do something like this.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 36 I never thought I was ever in any danger of the death penalty because I didn't feel I'd done something to deserve that.

Speaker 11 In the end, the jury sentenced him to life. He is appealing his conviction.
Derek Dorsey thinks his old friend got off way too easy. If you could say anything to Lance Kirkpatrick, what would you say?

Speaker 6 At what point did you make the decision

Speaker 6 that Kim's life

Speaker 6 had less value than you getting into trouble? At what point did you decide to kill her?

Speaker 11 Derek said it's taken time to move on with his life. He's retired from the fire department.
We have Derek Dorsey's last day pulling the engine out for the last time

Speaker 11 and helps out at a friend's mental health counseling business.

Speaker 6 You whole family services, this is Derek. Can I help you?

Speaker 11 He has lots of time now to reflect on Kim, their life together, and the mistakes made.

Speaker 6 It led to infidelity on my part. And it was probably the most disrespectful, rude thing I could do to her.

Speaker 6 And I'm going to live with that for the rest of my life. She didn't deserve it.

Speaker 11 And didn't deserve either the man Derek knows he brought into their world. Still, he clings to the good things they shared.
What memories does she leave behind for you?

Speaker 6 Every time I look at the dogs, I think of her. They were her children.
She was quiet, a little bit of an introvert, and just a caring individual.

Speaker 6 I've seen it many, many times someone needs a hand or someone just needs,

Speaker 6 you know, just someone to talk to, she was there.

Speaker 11 In some ways, she still is. 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.

Speaker 4 That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central.
And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.

Speaker 5 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 4 For all of us at NBC News, good night.

Speaker 26 Hey, everybody, Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson.

Speaker 26 It's called Where Everybody Knows Your Name and We're Back for Another Season.

Speaker 26 I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it.

Speaker 26 Listen to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts.