Kimberly Sue Morse Knew Her Killer

Kimbery Sue Morse, the oops baby!

Eddie and Ruthie had three teenagers, and they all lived together in their modest home on Beech Ridge Road in small town York, Maine. Their kids (Sandy, Carl, and Cathy) were all closing in on their 18th birthdays, with Sandy being the eldest, when a surprise came along. In 1967, Ruth gave birth to Kimberly Sue Morse—the “oops” baby.

Although Kim was unexpected, she was loved from the moment she opened her eyes, being doted on by her parents and all her older siblings. Beech Ridge Road was a bastion of family, with cousins, aunts, and uncles just a short walk or bike ride away.

Kim was a beautiful child. A photo of 4-year-old ‘Kimmie’ showcased beautiful blonde locks, blue eyes, long eyelashes, and a winsome gap-toothed grin. People were enamored with her. One of her favorite toys as a child was a jumping rocking horse, and it suited her. She was a bundle of energy and she would bounce around on the toy for hours, entertaining herself and others.

From a young age, she was daddy’s little girl. He later became her “chauffeur,” driving her around with her friends wherever she wanted to go. He kept a book with all of the names of her friends and their contact information to keep tabs on where she was at and who she was spending time with.

Kim loved to entertain and to shock people in the most fun-loving and silly ways. But what was fun-loving to her, could be quite shocking for others. One time she terrified her dad. She loved to play hide and seek, and one time she hid a bit too well in the family’s dryer, and everyone was out looking around the neighborhood trying to find her. When her distraught dad finally found her, he went to the hardware store, bought padlocks, and installed them on the dryer door.

Kim was in between generations. As she grew up, her older siblings acted as surrogate parents– Sandy remembered meeting with Kim’s teachers on occasion and keeping tabs on her schoolwork. And once she was in her teens, she was surrounded by the young children of the next generation. And the children loved Aunt Kim as much as she loved them. Her oldest sibling, Sandy, called her the “pied piper”—the new litter of rug-rats would follow her around, and she would take them on adventures. Sandy’s favorite photo of all time is a picture of Kim teaching her young son how to properly give ‘the finger’ to the camera, which is the perfect summation of her personality.

I can only imagine that Halloween was one of her favorite seasons. Kim would dress up all the kids and don one herself. She loved dressing up, something that she would enjoy for the rest of her life.

She wasn’t very athletic or into sports as a kid. She didn’t play any instruments. She was too busy on adventures. She loved people—a true extrovert—and she loved trying new things. Which is a surprising trait, because her parents were both more homebodies who rarely took a vacation or even left the state. As Sandy humorously quipped, “why leave Maine? A vacation is a day off in the backyard.”

In 1985 Kim graduated from York High School. Her yearbook quote read, "You've got to make the most of every day, because it may all be gone before you know it."

Kim’s adventures in York, Maine

Kim remained in York for the next ten years and had a ball.

Kim got into fitness and health as she grew older. She spent a lot of years in the gym, and she’d stay tone doing aerobics, working out with Jane Fonda. She got abs. She got into body-building. She was a very healthy eater and an early riser. She was driven. She picked up golf and snow-skiing. It was the 80’s and it was all about the ‘blondest hair and bronzest bod’. Her hair was rising to new heights and her bangs to new lengths.

She loved the warm weather and would tan at the tanning booth, at the beach, at the pool.

Kim traveled frequently, taking short weekend trips a drive away, and sometime further afield, to Florida or St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where she stayed for quite some time. She got a couple of part time jobs there: one as a waitress and another as painter. She visited Hawaii. She loved the warm weather and was always in search of an endless summer.

Nancy and Kim would get glitzed up and party up and down the Maine Coast. They would hit places like “Aqualounge” (where Nancy worked) and “Bogarts” in York Beach. Sometimes they would cross the state line and hit up “Spin” in Portsmouth or “Scooter’s”. But they were always in search of something bigger and better. They would go to “Bananas” or “Norton’s,” a music venue in Kittery where they would dance and drink and shoot pool—though Nancy admits they were terrible at the game. And sometimes they might even end up at “Nick’s Nightclub” on nickel beer night where they would sometimes skinny dip across the way from the bar in a pool owned by the same folks.

Though Kim and Nancy would drink, Kim didn’t drink to excess—she didn’t need any liquid courage to get the most out of her nights out. She was the life of the party.

One time Kim entered a bikini contest, and when she won some money, she loved it. She started seeking them out in the summer, picking up some spending money while strutting her stuff.

Sandy recalled a time when she was in Florida. She registered for a contest at one of their beach bars and when she went up on stage, she turned around and mooned the crowd! They gave her first place, but she was pissed because instead of money, they gave her a lawn chair that she couldn’t even bring back with her.

Kim worked around the York area in a variety of jobs. She worked as a waitress at Jackie Bevan’s, a local restaurant in Perkin’s Cove near Ogunquit beach. She worked in the cafeteria at York Hospital and would volunteer as a candy striper. She drove limos around for a friend’s business, and she did hotel work as a chambermaid helping with room turnover. All of her jobs had one thing in common—they were physical and they required her to interact with people.

Kim loved everyone including the unusual and the eccentric.

She saw the best in people. She would get up and jog every day and would even stop during her run to chat with people that she met along the way. Sandy remembered a time that Kim accompanied her on a work trip, and she started making friends with people during the trip.

And that penchant for shocking people? That followed her into adulthood:

One time Sandy brought Kim down to Camp Lejeune, where her son was graduating from marine training. Kim anticipated that she might get some attention from the young men on base, so for a little bit of fun, she brought some fake plastic dentures that showcased a set of teeth in pitiful condition, complete with buck teeth and hideous discoloration. Kim hid them from Sandy on the way down. She popped them in when they got to her nephew’s room, and right at that same time, his roommate’s mother was in town as well, and to Sandy’s absolute horror, her teeth were in a similar condition. Sandy still blushes when she tells this story.

When you took Kim somewhere, you had to be careful!

One time a friend of Kim’s came over to the house, changed into Kim’s clothes, and left her own clothes in Kim’s room. She was beside herself that her parents let it happen, but she decided to roll with the punches and make a joke out of it. She memorialized it with a photo that captured her holding up the lace panties and she inscribed the back of the print with this timeless quote: “Mary Jo’s used undies.”

Kim loved dressing up. She loved shoes. She would even make her own clothes. And she had a very eclectic sense of style. She loved to shop at thrift stores and this New England treasure, The Christmas Tree Shop.

Kim moves to Providence for the Foxy Lady

Kim had gotten to know someone from Providence, Rhode Island, that said that while she was making OK money up and down the coast of southern Maine, she was missing out on the chance to make some real money as a dancer at a strip club. So as Kim was nearing her 30th birthday in 1997, she decided to get breast implants and to start dancing at the Foxy Lady near downtown Providence.

She stayed with some friends that she made in Providence until she got her own apartment in North Providence, about a 15-minute drive from the club. She took her Black Mazda Miata with her and started to forge a new and exciting life for herself there.

Her apartment was a 1-bedroom, 1 bath, basement unit in a 3-floor condo building called Brick Manor Condominiums. Though she didn’t have a washer/dryer in unit, it was just down the hall. As an adult, Kim was very clean and organized. Her place was spic and span. And for the most part, she lived alone.

Kim didn’t work all the time; the money was good, and she only worked a few nights a week and would spend a lot of time back home in York on the weekends with her friends and family.

She continued to travel, going to Hawaii and to South Beach. And she dated a couple of guys, good-looking body-builder types.

Around this same time, she starting taking a real interest in a young Heather Marquis, a 5-year-old girl who lived just down the street from her parents. She was the daughter of one of Kim’s friends who had moved to Florida, leaving her in York to be raised by her grandmother. Heather loved Kim, and Kim would come home on the weekends to take her on adventures. Kim was like a second mother to Heather.

At one point, Heather was facing potentially being turned over to foster care, and Kim offered to officially adopt her if it came to that.

In Providence, she started to make a new network of friends, and one of them was Becky, another dancer at Foxy’s. Becky was taking classes at the Warwick Academy of Beauty Culture, an aesthetician school, and Kim was starting to look toward the future, so she decided to take classes as well. Becky welcomed an accountability buddy. They would motivate each other. She said that Kim was always on time. Her? A little later…

Some of the other friends that she made were regular patrons of the club, and a few of them were quite taken with her. Some of them paid some of her bills, some of them bought her expensive gifts (like a computer and a camera), one of them even bought her a Jeep, free and clear, in Kim’s name.

In the summer of 1999, after a couple of years in Providence, Kim got some devastating news: her father, who she dearly loved, passed away from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a lung disease similar to emphysema. After the burial service, she made plans to go with her sister, Sandy, on a road trip to see her other sister, Cathy, in Ohio.

In the fall, Sandy came down to pick up Kim from Providence. Kim showed Sandy her apartment and the Foxy Lady and took her around town. Sandy was impressed with the security procedures of the club, and Kim’s presence of mind about her own safety.

After a day or so in Providence, they got on the road.

She brought some of her gear from her aesthetician classes and tried it out on her older siblings—they were these little face massagers with different serums and oils. After she graduated, she was thinking of getting a job at a day spa specializing in facials.

During that trip, her phone was blowing up with calls from her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Penny. They had broken up, but he had not moved on and they were having constant and difficult conversations.

That Christmas, she came home and spent 2 or 3 weeks with her family in York before returning to Providence for the last time.

Kim’s life brutally taken

It was Tuesday, January 18th, 2000, and she spoke to her sister on the phone, letting her know that she would be home on Friday to have a joint birthday celebration with Sandy. She went to work for her shift at the club, and got off around 1:45AM. She checked out with the valet, a bouncer walked her to her car, and she drove home.

She pulled into her asphalt parking lot and let herself into her plain, red-brick condo building, the click of her heels following her as she walked. She opened the front door and then walked down a few stairs to the lower level. She passed the laundry room and came to Unit 28, and opened the door to her apartment. As soon as she stepped into her kitchen, someone attacked her, catching her completely off-guard, and they cut her throat. She didn’t even have a chance to struggle. Kim Morse bled to death on the floor of her kitchen.

Her friend, Becky, must have called 10 times that day, starting that morning around 8:00 or 9:00AM, not knowing what happened to Kim. Kim was never late for class, and plus, Becky needed her to pick up something on the way to school. They had run out of some supplies and the teacher had asked if she could have her grab them from the store.

It wasn’t until 5:30PM on Wednesday that the world learned what had happened to her.

Around 5:00pm, the fire alarm in her apartment went off. Then smoke was smelled and seen seeping out from under her door. A neighbor dialed 911 and firefighters responded right away. When they arrived, her unit was filled with smoke and they crawled to the bathroom where they discovered flames coming from the bathtub. Kim’s naked body was laid face-up in the tub, draped with towels that covered her torso and legs, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. They extinguished the blaze before it could spread to any other apartments and no other units were damaged.

Once the smoke had cleared, they discovered the murder scene before them and called police.

North Providence police responded right away and started to analyze the crime scene. Capt. Paul Marino entered the basement apartment, and he immediately noticed the pool of blood on the kitchen floor. I can only imagine the horror of the firefighters when they learned what they had been crawling through to make it to the bathroom. They discovered Kim’s keys and her gloves sitting on the kitchen counter and they theorized that she had had only enough time to remove her gloves and drop her keys before being attacked. They discovered cuts in her winter coat, suggesting that she hadn’t had time to remove it after she walked in. After she was dropped to the ground, she was stabbed several more times on the kitchen floor.

There was no sign of forced entry, so they believed that the killer had a key, suggesting she may have known him. They believed that the killer had struck in the middle of the night, but they never explained the 15-hour gap of time between 2:00AM and 5:00PM. What was going on in that unit during those 15 hours? Did the killer stay with her? Or did he leave the complex and then return later? They dusted for fingerprints, they took samples of blood, they discovered that there some things missing from her unit: a safe containing cash, her computer, jewelry, a camera, a VHS camcorder, and a stuffed white teddy bear. They logged over a hundred pieces of evidence for their records, but unfortunately none of those were the murder weapon.

They found the place to be meticulously organized and neat. Some clothes were laid out, as though she were getting ready to go on a trip; she was planning to head home to York on Friday, but Tuesday does seem a bit early to pack.

They canvassed the other residents and the neighborhood, but the only thing that they reported to have learned was that a neighbor heard a thumping noise that night, but no scream. He muted his television set for a moment and listened and then heard something that sounded like footsteps.

Lieutenant Thomas Jones said, quote, “It was personal. Her body was dragged to the bathroom and placed inside the tub. Her clothes were taken off of her and she was then set on fire.”

Kim’s body is buried in Maine

The York Police Department took the responsibility of notifying the family. Sandy remembered that she was with her mother when they knocked on the door in the middle of the night and broke the news.

The Medical Examiner’s office would later conduct an autopsy, and they, too, contacted the family, asking for someone to come down to Providence to identify the body. Nancy Tooher’s father ended up going on the family’s behalf.

About a week later, on Monday, Jan 24, 2000, there were visiting hours at Lucas and Eaton Funeral Home in York in the evening, and the following day, on Tuesday, they held a service at her childhood church, York Street Baptist. They processed from the church to Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, in Eliot, Maine, (which is near Kittery), and buried her.

North Providence police came up from Rhode Island to attend the funeral services. They wanted to see the visitor’s log. They questioned guests at the visitation in a side room, asking for help with the case.

They even went through Kim’s childhood room at her parents’ home.

Media reports started to cover the case, and the chief of the North Providence Police Department said that, quote, “All of his detectives” were assigned to the case and were conducting interviews.

Kim knew a lot of people, so they had their work cut out for them.

Kim’s family were, in those first months, very impressed with the efforts of the police.

A month or two after the funeral, one of Kim’s exes, Tom Shahinian, came up and asked if Sandy could show him to Kim’s gravesite. She obliged, and when Tom read the gravestone, he exclaimed, “She lied to me! She WAS older than me!”

Even in death, Kim’s personality lived on.

Kim was only a month away from finishing her studies, and she and Becky were some of the oldest dancers at Foxy’s, and they were looking to move on. Kim was getting ready to travel to Florida to spend time with her close friend Julie Pratt, who had helped line her up with a job there. If things went well, she was planning to move, and if she had just had a couple of more months, she would have left Providence, and perhaps the danger lurking there, behind her.

Sandy filed an insurance claim in the wake of the fire for some of Kim’s belongings, and because of meticulous records it made the claim easy to file.

Sandy also reflected on her father’s death the previous year. She felt relief that her dad had passed before Kim. It would have devastated him to see his daughter brutally murdered. He was her protector.

The investigation

As the days ticked by without answers, cops turned to the FBI for help. They provided the details of the murder to criminal profilers, hoping that a fresh look would help prioritize and focus efforts.

They reached out to a psychic, “Cyd”, who provided a detailed analysis of the crime scene and gave them some new leads to explore.

Unsolved Mysteries expressed some interest in the case, too, but I don’t believe that they ever ended up producing an episode on Kim’s case.

But with so many people in Kim’s life, the best that the police could do was narrow it down to about 15 potential suspects.

Reward, Theories, DNA

In May, 4 months after the murder, Cathy and Sandy traveled to North Providence to announce a hefty reward: $20,000 for information. The money was raised by friends of Kim’s family and the Carole Sund-Carrington Foundation.

No one ever claimed that money. Kim’s killer remains free.

Other than a tip in 2014 that led investigators to Michigan, there have been almost no new public developments in the case.

In 2019, a cold case unit in the Pawtucket Police Department created a pack of playing cards highlighting 52 unsolved homicide and missing person cases. Kim’s case was featured as the 7 of clubs, describing her as having been “viciously attacked in her home.”

In an interview conducted right around the time the cards were released, Lieutenant Thomas Jones said that they have the DNA of the person they believe killed Kim, but there hasn’t been a match yet. He added, “It’s only a matter of time before we come knocking. So when you think you got away with it—think again.”

Though there has been no official suspect named in the case, it hasn’t stopped family and friends from developing their own theories.

Sandy recalled that Kim had bought locks for her bedroom door and that she wanted to change the locks to her apartment. When she asked why, Kim told her that she was afraid of her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Penny. Kim had also told her Anthony tried to break the door down while her friend was living with her. This is the same man who was calling and hanging up when Kim was on her road trip with Sandy, and Kim told Sandy that, during their tumultuous break-up, Anthony told Kim menacingly, “Women don’t break up with me. I break up with them.” Sandy thinks that Anthony, a body-builder himself, would have had the strength to overpower Kim, who was no slouch. The timing of their breakup—at the end of 1999—lines up with the timeline of her murder, too.

Other friends of Kim’s wonder about a man that lived in the apartment community—an older guy—that seemed to follow her around, even showing up in the parking lot of her work. She was friendly with him at first, but she grew increasingly wary. He may have even worked for the landlord, giving him access to her apartment.

Becky recalls a couple that lived with Kim in 1999 for a month or so. Though they were in a relationship, the man became infatuated with Kim. She got a chilling vibe from him and thought that since they had keys to Kim’s place, perhaps he could have returned after being scorned.

Becky also remembered picking up a voicemail from Kim, just a day or two before the murder, of Kim complaining of a huge road-rage encounter that had happened to her. Kim left a long voicemail and was shook by the incident. Though no one was hurt, and no one got out of their cars, it was a strange coincidence.

The last theory that we heard was some speculation about those regular patrons of the club who were showering her with expensive gifts. Could they have been wanting more? Or wanting Kim to themselves? Perhaps Kim refused…

Reflection

It’s hard for family and friends of Kim’s to understand how someone could take Kim’s life. She had no enemies. She showed love to so many people and touched so many lives.

Heather described Kim as “basically like the sun. You just wanted to be near her to be warm.”

Kim’s killer (likely one of the men on the police’s radar) is still free. It’s been 22 years since Kim’s death. How many others have they harmed?

Heather has some words of wisdom for those that might consider Kim’s life as less important. She admonishes you to look closely at Kim’s character and not make assumptions about her because of her job. She continued, “if you ever needed help, she was there. She came from a kind loving family, and she, too, was kind and loving. Don’t be rude. Be safe, be smart, be kind.”

Those simple words are things that Heather learned from Kim. She still asks herself, what would Kim do? Heather, now a 30-year-old woman, still asks herself, “how can I be more like her? How can I give back, or be kinder? She meant a lot to me, and she still does.”

Sandy, too, admired her little sister’s bravery and verve for life. She said, “you have to look at how much she did in the short time that she was on this earth. She was an adventurer. She lived life to the fullest.”

There is still a hole in people’s hearts that was left by Kim’s death, and a killer still remains on the loose.

If you have any information about the murder of Kim Morse, I encourage you to contact the North Providence Police Department at 401-231-4533.

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