Her case was given its name due to her vehicle, a Honda CR-X, which had the distinctive personalized license plate reading "LIL MISS", a fact widely publicized in efforts to recover her.

Kimmell remained a missing person for eight days before her body was discovered floating in the North Platte River near Casper, Wyoming.

[2] At the time of her disappearance, Kimmell's case was profiled nationally on the series Unsolved Mysteries, and her murder has been subject to various true-crime documentary segments.

[4] Upon graduating from Billings Senior High School in 1987, Kimmell took a job managing an Arby's restaurant in Aurora, Colorado, near Denver.

[5][6] Kimmell's mother, Sheila, was a regional manager of the restaurant chain, and the two commuted between Billings and Denver—a distance of approximately 555 miles (893 km)—weekly.

[16] Eight days after her disappearance, on April 2, Kimmell's body was found floating in the North Platte River near Casper, Wyoming, by a local fisherman.

Evidence showed that she was then taken to the Old Government Bridge (42°38′18″N 106°37′03″W / 42.63824°N 106.61748°W / 42.63824; -106.61748), where she was hit on the head with a blunt object, stabbed six times in the chest and abdomen, before being thrown into the river.

The CODIS database matched the DNA to Dale Wayne Eaton, 57, of Moneta, Wyoming, who was then serving time in Englewood federal prison at Littleton, Colorado on an unrelated weapons charge.

Eaton's next door neighbors reported to investigators that they had seen him digging a large hole on his property in Moneta, Wyoming, approximately 75 miles (121 km) from Casper.

[18] The site was excavated in the summer of 2002, and Kimmell's Honda CRX was unearthed, still bearing her distinctive "LIL MISS" license plate.

Because Kimmell's body was located in a popular fishing spot (creating a public spectacle) and her car was buried on his property (kept as a trophy) it is believed that Eaton exhibited some of the tell-tale signs of being a serial killer.

[22] Amy Wroe Bechtel, a woman who disappeared in 1997 from Lander, Wyoming, is considered by law enforcement to be among the Great Basin killer's potential victims.