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SALT LAKE CITY -- The father of a missing woman is opening up about the discovery of remains, believed to be his daughter's, and the man who may have killed her.
A suspected serial killer led law enforcement to the remains in the Book Cliffs area of Grand County. That man, Scott Kimball, is linked to a trail of missing people.
"She had a very loving heart," Howard Emry said. He says that was his daughter's best quality, and her biggest weakness.
In 2002, Leann Emry left an abusive marriage and moved in with her parents in Colorado. Her father says she soon struck up a friendship with a prison inmate. Through him, she met Scott Kimball.
"He likes to prey, evidently, on young girls, people who are in an emotional state that is low, which my daughter was," Howard said.
In January 2003, Leann left for a trip to explore caves in Mexico. Authorities found her car abandoned in Grand County.
With no sign of his daughter, Howard believed she was just in trouble and would call him to say she was still alive. "Year after year, I kept hoping and waiting for that call, but it never came," he said.
In 2007, Howard did get a call from an FBI agent who said his daughter's disappearance may be linked to Scott Kimball.
Kimball was in prison in 2002 when he was released to become an FBI informant. Over the next two years, his uncle, Terry Kimball, disappeared. So did Jennifer Marcum and Kaysi McLeod, whose remains were found in Colorado in 2007.
Kimball is a suspect in those cases too, but he hasn't been charged.
Then a couple of months ago, Kimball, who's in prison on an unrelated charge, told authorities where to find the remains of two women. Authorities believe the remains they found in the remote canyons of southeastern Utah belong to Leann.
Her father wants a resolution for his family and the family of the other victims, and he hopes Kimball will stay in prison for the rest of his life. "He needs to be punished, and there needs to be restitution here. And he needs to be put away so he can't do this again," Howard said.
Investigators told Howard it will take a couple of weeks before the remains are positively identified. He says if it's not his daughter, he won't give up looking for her.
Authorities will search for the second set of remains in the next few weeks.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
