Mary Willis

Jennifer Marcum’s mother.

Jennifer Marcum is born

June 15th, 1977

Jennifer as a baby. (Courtesy Bob Marcum)

Jennifer as a baby. (Courtesy Bob Marcum)

Jennifer Marcum is born in Aurora, Colo., to Bob Marcum and Mary Willis.

Her parents will divorce when Jennifer is 6 months old,  and she will move to Springfield, Ill., with her mother and older sister at age 4.

Jennifer’s interests ranged from Wiffle ball and volleyball to reading and studying wildlife — especially lizards. As she got older, she also developed an appetite for mischief.

“She was a wild cat,” Willis said. “Sneaking out and being defiant. Testing the boundaries.”

Jennifer at 8. (Courtesy of Bob Marcum)

Jennifer at 8. (Courtesy of Bob Marcum)

Because of trouble at home, Jennifer and her sister ended up in foster homes for a couple of years, but neither of her parents would share details.

“My ex-wife and I had a very dysfunctional relationship, and the kids didn’t enjoy life because of it,” said Bob Marcum.

Jennifer ended up dropping out of high school, marrying a former classmate and moving to Colorado Springs, where she got divorced after a year.

Shotgun Willie's, in Glendale.

Shotgun Willie's, in Glendale. (John Aguilar / Camera)

Jennifer Marcum starts stripping at Shotgun Willie’s, in Glendale, Colo.

A FoxNews television crew captures her first night, documenting her motivation and nervousness before taking the stage.

“I probably will cry, to be honest,” she says. “It’s a very scary feeling for me. I’ve always had manager jobs and (been) looked at as a very respectable person.”

She hopes the job will provide her the financial security to pursue bigger dreams with the father of her son, introduced on TV as her husband although the two never legally married.

“I could probably make more in a week than he can in two, and I’d like to live in a house, and so I have higher goals,” she tells the TV crew.

Jennifer’s father, Bob Marcum, said his daughter worked as a stripper primarily to support her son. She kept the job until her death, but Mary Willis, Jennifer’s mother, said she was anxious to get out at the end.

“She was wanting away from there real bad,” Willis said.

Read a transcript of the Fox News show. (PDF)

Bob Marcum holds a picture of his daughter at age 8. (Kristen Schmid Schurter/for the Camera)

Bob Marcum holds a picture of his daughter at age 8. (Kristen Schmid Schurter/for the Camera)

After trying for more than a year to find the man with their daughter’s belongings, Bob Marcum and Mary Willis fly to Denver and put up fliers of Jennifer Marcum all over town.

Bob Marcum talks again with FBI Special Agent Carle Schlaff, pushing for information about the man with Jennifer’s furniture.

Schlaff won’t give up the man’s name, but eventually gives Marcum a cell-phone number for Scott Kimball.

Ask for Joe Snitch, the agent says.

(Date is approximate.)

The contract found in Scott Kimball's possession, apparently meant for Mary Willis. (Courtesy of Lafayette police)

The contract found in Scott Kimball's possession, apparently meant for Jennifer Marcum's mother, Mary Willis. He used his FBI alias, Joe Scott, although his handler at the bureau introduced him as Joe Snitch. (Courtesy of Lafayette police)

Hoping to find out more from the man who has their daughter’s furniture, Jennifer Marcum’s parents meet with Scott Kimball, whom they know only as ‘Joe Snitch,’ at Broomfield’s North Midway Park.

Joe Snitch tells Bob Marcum and Mary Willis that Jennifer had been murdered, and he knows who did it and where they left her body. He tells Willis that if she’ll let him into her hotel room that night, he can demonstrate how Jennifer was killed.

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Less than two weeks after meeting “Joe Snitch” in a Broomfield park, Jennifer Marcum’s mother, Mary Willis, records a phone conversation with Scott Kimball, referring to him as Joe.

Willis demands to know more about Jennifer but says she won’t strip naked and let Kimball demonstrate how her daughter was killed.

“You had your chance,” says Kimball, who wanted Willis to sign a contract allowing him to have sex with her in an effort to re-create Jennifer’s murder.

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Scott Kimball, when he returned Jennifer Marcum's furniture. (Photo by Bob Marcum)

Scott Kimball, when he returned Jennifer Marcum's furniture. (Photo by Bob Marcum)

In a second face-to-face meeting, Scott Kimball returns Jennifer Marcum’s furniture and belongings to her parents, Bob Marcum and Mary Willis.

Kimball, who’s had Jennifer’s items since she disappeared in February 2003, is accompanied by FBI Special Agent Carle Schlaff.

They all convene in a strip mall parking lot in Broomfield for the exchange.

A billboard of Jennifer Marcum outside Shotgun Willie's. (Courtesy of Bob Marcum)

A billboard of Jennifer Marcum outside Shotgun Willie's. (Courtesy of Bob Marcum)

Jennifer Marcum’s parents unveil a billboard outside of Shotgun Willie’s, the Glendale strip club where their missing daughter worked.

The billboard attracts media coverage, and in an interview with Denver’s Westword newspaper, Bob Marcum intentionally mentions Scott Kimball as an acquaintance of Jennifer’s.

Marcum had learned Kimball’s real name shortly after his surreal meeting with “Joe Snitch.”

Scott Kimball at his sentencing hearing in the Boulder County Justice Center. Camera file photo

Scott Kimball at his sentencing hearing in the Boulder County Justice Center. Camera file photo

Scott Kimball pleads guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of LeAnn Emry, Jennifer Marcum, Kaysi McLeod and Terry Kimball, and is sentenced to 70 years in prison.

In an emotional hearing at the Boulder County Justice Center, the victims’ families finally have a chance to face the man who killed their loved ones.

LeAnn Emry’s mother said her daughter was “no more important to him than the carcass of a dead animal.”

“He made the deliberate choice to murder, and he made that choice at least four times,” Darlene Emry said through tears.

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