Univ. of Idaho Student Who Vanished in 1981 While Riding Bike Was Killed and Dismembered. Was She the Victim of a Serial Killer? By KC Baker

On June 25, 1981, Kristin David returned to her apartment at the University of Idaho to pick up her bicycle and other belongings she left behind at the end of the school year.

The next morning, the 22-year-old college senior set off on her bike from Moscow, Idaho, where the university is located, to Lewiston, Idaho, where she was planning to stay with her sister for the summer.

But David never made it. She was last seen alive on Friday, June 26, 1981, while bicycling south on U.S. Highway 95 towards Lewiston, according to the FBI.

Nine days later, black plastic bags containing David’s dismembered remains began to surface in the Snake River about six miles west of Clarkston, Wash., according to the FBI.  Authorities spent months searching for her killer—but came up empty as the case went cold.

Now, more than 40 years after David’s grisly murder, Crime Junkie podcast host Amy Flowers has launched her own investigation into the mysterious death. In the latest episode, “Murdered: Kristin David,” Flowers asks whether David was the victim of a serial killer—and appeals to listeners to help her solve the case.

David’s blue 10-speed bicycle, clothing, and other personal items were never recovered, leaving little for authorities to go on.

“But there was one clue left behind by whoever wrapped Kristin and put her in those bags,” says Flowers in the new episode. “Each body part was wrapped in newspapers and they realized that the newspapers were from four different issues of the Lewiston Morning Tribune. They were dated April 7, April 17, April 19 and April 24, which to me is interesting because it’s not like someone just found one random paper.”

For years, David was thought to be a possible victim of the Lewis and Clark Valley serial killer who preyed on the Idaho communities of Lewiston and Clarkston in the late 1970s and early 1980s, claiming the lives of at least four young victims and possibly more.

But David’s case, Flowers points out, “has always been the outlier because of how this young woman was found dismembered and in garbage bags floating in the Snake River.”

“The thing is, I think she very well could be a victim of a serial killer, just not [this one].”

Over the years, the FBI developed a 20-point psychological profile of the killer, revealing that he was likely a white male, 21 to 28 years old who lived alone or with a girlfriend or his mother and was intelligent but an underachiever.

The profile states that he probably owned a late-model vehicle “which he is proud of and cruises the area in his vehicle,” Flowers says.

Police focused on a number of potential suspects who fit the profile, but didn’t made any arrests.

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After studying the profile herself, Flowers is now focusing on another person she thinks could be David’s killer and is appealing to her listeners to help her gather information about him.

“I need your help,” Flowers says in the new episode. “I usually don’t bring all of our crime junkies in until way later in the investigation but I actually want to try something new. You guys have proven to be an invaluable resources. All of your eyes and ears and brains combined is better than months of my own head down researching alone, which I’m still not stopping, but here’s what I need. 

“We’re looking for murdered women who were dismembered and bound in trash bags and whose bodies might’ve showed signs of mutilation,” she says.

She is also looking for cases where part of a limb or a part of the victim is still missing since part of David’s right leg never been found.

“I can’t help but wonder, could the killer have kept it?” she asks. “Could this be part of his M.O.?”

For more on Kristin David’s mysterious death, tune in to Crime Junkie on Monday, July 28.

Go deeper into Kristin David’s story with exclusive original reporting in the latest episode of Crime Junkie. Listen to the full coverage here or wherever you get your podcasts.