Family Still Asks: Where’s Kim Sue Doss?

Davenport, Iowa - If you look up the name “Kimberly Sue Doss” followed by missing, you will find online articles detailing the case of a sixteen year old girl who disappeared from the Davenport area on September 1st 1982.

If you ask those who knew Kimberly Doss, they will tell you the teenager hasn’t been seen or heard from since March of 1980 when she was fourteen years old. The 1982 date is when her mother, Linda Robertson, called Davenport police to file a missing persons report on her daughter.

This was one of many attempts made by Robertson to get her daughter’s disappearance recognized and investigated by law enforcement. This time, her attempt worked and Kimberly was logged as disappearing at age 16, even though by then she had been missing for over two years.

The rest of her story is a jumbled mystery filled with mistakes made by investigators and others. These mistakes have led to Kimberly’s case being dismissed and forgotten. Leaving her loved ones to continue their agonizing search for answers.

A Free Spirited Young Girl

Those who knew Doss remember her as a free spirited teenager. She was very kind, social, and outgoing but could also be stubborn like most teenagers are. Kimberly was also said to be very emotionally mature and generally happy as well as carefree.

At the time of Kimberly’s disappearance, she was living in Davenport, Iowa where her father, Larry Doss and many of her friends lived. Kim also previously lived in Louisiana and the south for five years on and off.

She had moved to Houston, Texas with her mother several months before her disappearance. However, she missed her friends and boyfriend who all lived in the Davenport area. Kimberly went to Iowa with the initial plan to stay with her father. However, she opted to stay with her boyfriend, Dallas Murphy, and his family instead.

During the time she was in Iowa, Kimberly kept constant contact with her mother and would let her know of her movements. She was known to always stay in contact with those she knew and loved. That’s why Kimberly’s family knows she did not run away.

At some point before her disappearance, Kimberly got into a fight with her boyfriend and left his home as a result. After leaving his home she called and told him she was in Ridgeview, Iowa with a friend named “Debbie” and to meet her that night. To this day, none of Kim’s relatives or loved ones know of any friend she had by that name.

After leaving Murphy’s home, she went to the house of two friends, Cecil Williams and Frank Overbeck who both lived in Davenport. They are the last known people to have physically seen Doss alive.

On March 20th 1980, she called her mother to let her know she was going to return home to Houston and had gotten a bus ticket to do so. Linda says her daughter mentioned meeting a girl on the bus in the Quad City area named “Kathy.”

She told her mother that Kathy was from Chicago, Illinois and that she wanted to spend one night there before continuing to Houston. This was the last time Kimberly ever contacted her family again. She has never been seen or heard from since.

A Mother’s Agonizing Search

When Kimberly failed to return to Houston or contact anyone, Linda Robertson called everyone she knew in Davenport and asked if they knew where her daughter was. However, none of them knew where she was and hadn’t seen her since she supposedly left the area to return to her mother’s home.

She attempted to file a missing persons report with the Houston Police Department in March 1980 but they told her they couldn’t do anything since Doss was last known to be in another state when she disappeared. She then contacted Davenport who then told her she had to do it Texas. With no help from law enforcement, Robertson and her family were left to search for Kim on their own.

As a result, Robertson spent the next two years desperately searching for her daughter. During her search, Robertson also sent letters about her daughter’s disappearance to law enforcement agencies across the country. She

After two years of no progress or action, Robertson moved to Davenport where she again attempted to file a missing persons report on Kimberly. This time, her attempt worked and Doss was officially reported as a runaway with the Davenport Police Department on September 1st 1982.

After filing the missing persons report, Linda placed an ad in the local newspaper to let Kim know she was in Iowa and wanted to see her. Doss never answered the ad, however.

Ad posted by Linda Robertson (Quad-City Times 10/03/1982)

Shortly after reporting Doss missing, Linda traveled to Chicago, Illinois with her sister to search for Kimberly since she said she was going there the last time she spoke with Robertson. The local police were helpful in the search but it ultimately led nowhere.

A Misidentification Leads to Years of Confusion

As mentioned previously, police made many mistakes in the investigation into Kimberly’s disappearance. At one point, police felt they had located Kimberly living in California under an alias.

On January 13th 1983, the Los Angeles Police Department made contact with a young female subject who they suspected of being involved with prostitution.

The woman was observed standing on the North East corner of Highland Avenue at Yucca Street in Hollywood, California. This was a popular hangout spot for area prostitutes. The officers on the scene noticed the woman paying particular attention to lone male motorists.

As a result, police concluded the woman was engaged in prostitution and arrested her. The woman identified herself as Kimberly Kathleen Gardner and claimed she was seventeen years old having been born on September 17, 1963. Gardener reportedly matched Doss’s description as she had a slight gap between her front teeth and her eyes were also spaced like hers as well.

Due to the matching features and circumstances, detectives felt the woman was Kimberly and that she had fled to California.

An FBI agent received information that Kimberly was sighted at a street group home in California that housed prostitutes and homeless people. The agent said a man told him that Kimberly identified herself as the missing teenager and said she didn’t want to be found or have anything to do with her family. This matched with the information regarding Kimberly Gardner who had been arrested for prostitution.

In November 1985, it was stated that Kimberly’s aunt had identified her niece as being the woman arrested for prostitution in Hollywood, California in early 1983. Her father also came to the police station at the same time and also allegedly said the woman was his missing daughter. On January 26th 1986, Linda called detectives and said the woman was indeed her daughter. However, her family denies they ever identified Gardner as being their daughter.

As a result of the identification, Kimberly’s name has been removed from the National Crime Information Center several times over the years. Many online missing children sites continue to list Kimberly Kathleen Gardner as a possible alias for Doss and state she might be using the birthdate that Gardner gave to police after her arrest. In February 1984, Kimberly’s case was officially closed by Davenport police since Iowa State policy called for missing children who reached 18 to be removed from the missing persons registry.

Article about Kim’s case being closed once she reached eighteen (Quad-City Times 02/18/1984)

In 1991, a detective managed to locate Gardner who’s real name is Shannon Jones. She was living in Minnesota at the time and told investigators that she remembered the incident quite well. Jones recalled she was a working prostitute in the Hollywood area at the time and that she used Kimberly Kathleen Gardner as an alias. She remembered being arrested in 1983 and afterwards was questioned repeatedly on whether she was Kimberly Sue Doss. She denied she was the missing girl then and continued to deny it currently.

However, the misidentification was never corrected. Jones was arrested multiple times in the years following her 1983 arrest and she would continue to use her alias name. This caused investigators to list Doss as recovered everytime Jones had contact with law enforcement. In 2018, a buccal swab was taken from Jones to rule out the possibility once and for all. The swab was compared to DNA samples taken from Kimberly’s family and it was not a match, proving Jones and Doss are not the same person.

Despite the fact that Jones has been ruled out as being Doss, many missing persons agencies continue to claim that Kimberly was seen in California and is using the alias “Kimberly Kathleen Gardner” as well as the alternate birthdate of September 17, 1963. However, all supposed sightings of Doss after 1980 were simply Jones being mistaken for her.

Kimberly’s family has tried to have the information corrected many times but it has not been corrected by law enforcement to date. This has lead to much false information being spread online about the case.

The Sugarland Debacle

On October 22nd 1998, Davenport Police were contacted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children with a lead on Doss. The center claimed another missing children’s organization known as “CHILDQUEST INTERNATIONAL” had contacted them to let them know Kimberly had been identified as a deceased female located in Sugarland, Texas nine years earlier.

The victim was discovered in a dumpster in the Sugarland area on April 5th 1989 and was found to have been murdered. The organization claimed Doss had been identified as the murder victim through fingerprints and dental records by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office in Texas. The identification was not immediately questioned until Linda Robertson called detectives about the matter in early 1999.

She stated she had received a sympathy card from ChildQuest International which stated her missing daughter had been located deceased in Sugarland, Texas in 1989. She called the organization who referred her to the coroner's office that made the identification. When she asked them to look further into the issue, they discovered the identification was false and the body was not that of Doss. The victim was later identified as Sharon Ann Cole of Newport, Arkansas.

Cole was identified through fingerprints and by her parents. Her photo was also shown to Robertson who said that the body was definitely not her daughter’s. This misidentification once again initiated her removal from NCIC but she was added back once the mistake was discovered and corrected.

Still No Kimberly

Despite the best efforts of her family, Kimberly has never been found or positively seen since she last called her mother on March 24th 1980.

Kimberly’s case has rarely been investigated by law enforcement. Most of the work done by them was completed after much persistence from her searching family. The investigation has been closed or classified as inactive more times than it’s actually been looked into.

Article marking the 25th year Kimberly has been missing (The Dispatch 08/31/2005)

Her family does not believe she ran away and have no reason to believe that theory. It’s also completely out of character for Doss to have stopped contacting those she knew. Her family says she would never have stopped contacting them permanently and fear she’s met with foul play.

Her aunt, Debbie Maylum, said she believed her niece had been abducted. Due to the lack of action and investigation, there’s no direct evidence that a crime occurred or that Kimberly was taken by a stranger.

Kimberly was born on February 12th 1966 and is described as a white female with brown hair and brown eyes. She stood at 5 feet 2 inches and weighed 125 pounds. Doss also has a slight gap between her front teeth and one of them is chipped.

If anyone has any information regarding the 1980 disappearance of Kimberly Doss, please contact the Davenport Police Department at (563) 326-7979.