Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Florida Firefighter's Wife Found Naked, Bludgeoned, Stabbed to Death and Killer Was Someone They Knew
Kim Dorsey, 38, was found dead in her Jacksonville bedroom by her firefighter husband, who’d returned home from a 24-hour work shift. A broken pool cue, knife and gun were found nearby.
On October 28, 2012, Kim Dorsey was found dead in her bedroom by her firefighter husband, Derrick Dorsey, who’d returned home from a 24-hour work shift.
First responders in East Jacksonville, Florida, observed that the 38-year-old wife and businesswoman had been brutally bludgeoned and stabbed to death.
“It was chaos. You could tell that something really horrible happened here,” T.K. Waters, then a sergeant in the homicide division of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, said in the “In Cold Blood” episode of Dateline: The Smoking Gun, airing Thursdays at 8/7c p.m. on Oxygen.
Alongside Waters, Det. Larry Kuczkowski worked to untangle clues. A broken pool cue, a knife and a gun were found near Kim’s body. A wall was riddled with bullet holes, and blood spatter was widespread. TV remotes and a cell phone were dumped in a sink.
Who was Kim Dorsey?
A graduate of the University of North Florida, according to an obituary, Kim trained building inspectors in hurricane-prone Florida. In her spare time, she cared for her three beloved dogs.
Amid personal and professional successes, Kim battled depression as well as side effects of medication. “Weight gain, restless sleep, things like that,” Derrick told Dateline.
On the morning of Saturday, October 27, 2012 — the day of a big college football game, Florida vs. Georgia — Kim was asleep when Derrick left home for work. At around 8 a.m. on Sunday, he returned home in their upscale gated community.
Husband Derrick Dorsey makes horrific discovery
In the bedroom, Derrick found Kim on the floor. She was naked, not breathing and bleeding. He frantically performed CPR and called 911.
“After a couple minutes of giving her CPR, I realized that she was already stiff,” Derrick told Dateline. Despite his training in crime-scene protocols, he covered his brutalized and naked wife with a blanket.
In light of her depression, he believed she committed suicide. “I thought maybe she tried to hurt herself,” Derrick told Andrea Canning, host of Dateline: The Smoking Gun.
Detectives assess the scene
Upon arriving at the Dorsey residence, Kuczkowski noticed a dog statue outside the front door that was on its side. “It looked out of place,” he said. “I just took note of that and moved on.”
Between the shattered pool cue, knife, gun, bullet holes, and blood spatter found at the scene, detectives knew that Kim didn’t kill herself. “This was obviously a murder scene, probably one of the most horrific ones that I had ever seen,” Kuczkowski told Dateline.
Cigarette butts and other evidence at the scene were sent out for DNA testing.
Then-Assistant State Attorney London Kite considered that the crime was a break-in that turned deadly, but there were no signs of forced entry or missing valuables.
The violence of the attack suggested a “connection between the person that committed the act and Kim,” said Waters.
Investigators initially suspicious of Derrick Dorsey
After covering his wife with a blanket and thereby tampering with evidence in investigators' eyes, Derrick caught their attention again when he admitted that he’d been seeing another woman. “He was living two different lives,” Kite said.
But Derrick also had an alibi. As he’d told detectives, he’d spent 24 hours at work. Investigators obtained Derrick’s phone records to solidify his account of his whereabouts.
When authorities canvassed the gated community, a resident reported seeing a small SUV at the Dorsey house.
What happened to Kim Dorsey?
Detectives believed Kim died Saturday morning, not long after Derrick left, because her cell phone had been thrown into a sink and stopped working then.
Kim’s autopsy showed that she died from blunt trauma to the head and a stab wound to the neck. Blood-spatter patterns indicated that Kim had likely been punched in the nose, according to Det. Karen Smith.
It appeared that Kim had been bound at the wrist and lashed to a dresser with zip ties. Evidence showed that Kim managed to get a gun from a drawer and fired five times at her attacker before being killed.
Several suspects emerge
Derrick knew where to find the pool cue and zip ties, but who else did? Investigators learned that Derrick’s friend, Lance Kirkpatrick, who worked construction for him, had lived at the house.
Derrick immediately ruled him out to police. He added that Kirkpatrick was in Georgia on a shrimping boat.
Derrick mentioned Joshua, a 21-year-old man he’d given a job. For a few months, he’d lived with the Dorseys.
Detectives interviewed him and informed him Kim was dead. “He took it like you had told him that his mother died,” said Kuczkowski. Joshua’s alibi checked out and he was crossed off the suspect list.
At this point, Derrick was allowed to return to his house. Accompanied by detectives, Derrick found a pornographic DVD in the player. It wasn’t his.
Derrick said the entertainment system installer, JR, had been at the home to make repairs the day before Kim’s murder.
Detectives focused on JR. Their radar pinged upon observing that JR worked with zip ties and had scratches on his hands. But investigators eventually crossed him off their list as well.
Missing SUV leads to break
As they worked the case, detectives learned that Kirkpatrick was linked to a stolen car report filed on October 30. “That helped us... put the puzzle together,” Waters said. Kirkpatrick wasn’t in Georgia at the time Kim was killed, as Derrick believed.
Per the report, Kirkpatrick had taken a small SUV during a house party in the early morning hours of October 27 and he never came back.
This line of investigation led investigators to Brian Kiefer, who’d been at the party. He ran a construction company and had a criminal past. He was questioned about Kirkpatrick.
“He tells me that he murdered somebody,” Kiefer told police. He said Kirkpatrick said that he’d entered his boss' home and was confronted by the man’s wife. The encounter turned violent.
Kiefer added that Kirkpatrick told him about the pool cue, being shot at five times and TV remotes in a sink. Kiefer mentioned things that only the person who was at the murder scene would know, according to investigators.
RELATED: Pennsylvania State Trooper Fatally Slashes Throat of Girlfriend's Estranged Husband
Lance Kirkpatrick admits to being at Kim Dorsey's home the weekend she was killed
Kirkpatrick told detectives that he’d driven to the Dorsey house on October 27, but that he didn’t go inside.
Detectives didn’t buy that. Then Kirkpatrick made a statement that tied all of the disconnected clues together. He mentioned that a key was kept under a dog statue outside the Dorsey's front door.
Detectives had found their smoking gun. “I think he knew where the key was, because he lived there... So he got that key and he went in,” Waters said.
Kiefer was cleared as a suspect. Derrick, whose electronic and financial records showed no ties to his wife's murder, was also eliminated as a suspect.
Lance Kirkpatrick charged
Lance Kirkpatrick pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary, sexual battery and murder. It would take more than two years for him to stand trial.
At the proceedings, Kiefer testified that Kirkpatrick admitted gaining access to the house and confronting Kim violently when she picked up her phone to call for help, according to Dateline: The Smoking Gun.
“He said that he grabbed a pool stick and hit her a bunch of times and smashed the pool stick,” Kiefer told the court. After Kim shot at him, Kirkpatrick responded brutally. “I just stabbed that bitch in the neck,” he said, according to Kiefer.
RELATED: Texas Woman Found Slumped Over Bathtub, Dead and with Her Hands Tied Behind Her Back
At his trial, Kirkpatrick admitted he was responsible for Kim’s death, but said that he didn't mean to kill her.
Kirkpatrick’s defense was that he’d gone to the Dorsey home to get a football jersey and ended up having to protect himself from Kim.
Kirkpatrick said that the pornographic DVD was his. He then claimed that he and Kim had sex in her bedroom. He said that afterwards, Kim's mood changing and the violent, fatal attack ensued.
Who killed Kim Dorsey?
Despite Kirkpatrick’s persistent denials that he didn’t rape or murder Kim — including ones to Dateline's Canning — jurors found Kirkpatrick guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced him to life without parole.
Find out more about the case in the “In Cold Blood” episode of Dateline: The Smoking Gun, airing Thursdays at 8/7c p.m. on Oxygen.
