JUSTICE FOR KIM - PART II
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Imagine the mental anguish of knowing your daughter was brutally murdered and the person who killed her is still walking free.
That is what Larry & Kathy Clements from Dothan, have been going through for more than five years.
In June of 1999, their daughter Kim Clements Ball was found dead in the Florida Panhandle.
Okaloosa County deputies say they haven`t made an arrest because the evidence is too circumstantial.
Kim Ball had never seen Tom Bowman, but Bowman feels he knows Kim very well. Bowman is investigating the crime, and he vows to find her killer. Tom said, "I never met Kim while she lived but I have met her afterwards, and I do take it personally. I gave my word and I`m not going to break that."
But that`s of little comfort right now to Kim`s parents. They have waited five years for the Okaloosa County Sheriff`s office to make an arrest, and their patience has run out. Larry says, "You can count on one thing...if it was one of their kids, someone would already be arrested by now."
Kim Clements Ball graduated from Mosely High School in 1989 and later moved to Ft. Walton Beach. On June 10, 1999, she disappeared from her home in Okaloosa County. Two days later her body was found in a bayou in Walton County. Bowman was assigned to the case in 2001 when the investigation was at a standstill. In the past three years, he has gone through thouands of pages of documents, re-interviewed witnesses, and travelled cross country following up leads. He says he isn`t ready to make an arrest now because most of the evidence is circumstantial. He says, "until you`ve exhausted all of your leads, until you`ve exhausted all of your research to make sure you can get everything you can get, it doesn`t make sense to go to court prior to that."
But the search for more evidence is very frustrating for the Clements. As we learned in part I, physical evidence might have been destroyed when Walton County allowed unauthorized vehicles into the crime scene. There was also some confusion over which county should have jurisdiction. The Clements feel the early mistakes are the main reason Okaloosa County doesn`t want to take the case to court.
The Clements say they brought their story to us to expose the problems with the present-day standards of law enforcement and prosecution. Larry said, "this is not just about Kathy and I and my family and Kim. It`s about all those other unsolved murders in Walton and Okaloosa and Bay, and how they are treated, how the cases are handled."
Including the Kim Ball case, there are 11 unsolved murders in Okaloosa County, one in Walton, and 18 in Bay. That is 30 families just like the Clements, wondering if they will ever see justice for their loved ones.
Investigator Bowman is hopeful that there is someone out there who might know something about Kim`s murder...perhaps a witness who has seen something or heard something. If you have any information, five him a call at 850-609-2000.
