Michelle Kinney

True Crime All The Time

The episode covers the brutal murder of Michelle Kinney, a compassionate 53-year-old woman in Dubuque, Iowa, who was stabbed to death after offering help to a stranger carrying groceries. Detectives utilized city traffic camera footage

Key takeaways

• Michelle Kinney was found stabbed 41 times with blunt force trauma after helping a stranger carry groceries into her Dubuque apartment on July 21, 2018.
• City traffic cameras captured Gary Cornell James walking with Michelle at 7:44 p.m. and leaving the building alone at 8:32 p.m., narrowing the suspect pool significantly.

Main topics

• True crime investigation methodology
• Traffic camera surveillance utilization

Notable quotes

"No good deed goes unpunished."

Conclusion

The episode serves as a sobering examination of how unchecked violence

Transcript preview

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See terms at casino.draftkings.com slash promos. Ends November 22nd, 2026 at 1159 p.m. Eastern Time. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 537 of the true crime all the time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Give me, how are you? Hey, Speaker 2 (1:24) I'm doing good. You? Speaker 1 (1:25) Always Speaker 2 (1:26) great. Speaker 1 (1:26) I am always great, man. Yeah. You're just good. I'm great. That's just life. That's just how. Nobody likes somebody Speaker 2 (1:35) that's always great. Speaker 1 (1:36) I, I love my life. Screw you, man. Speaker 2 (1:40) No, that's good. All Speaker 1 (1:41) right, buddy. You ready to get into this episode of true crime? We're talking about Michelle Kinney, 53 year old Michelle Kinney was a kind woman who was known to take people in when they were down on their luck. When concerned neighbors found her stabbed to death inside her apartment, investigators utilize city traffic camera footage in the surrounding area to identify the suspect who was another stranger. Michelle was trying to help. You know what they say? No good deed goes unpunished. I've never quite understood that saying or where that comes from. Yeah. But here's this woman who was known to help people who were struggling. And one of the people that she was trying to help, you know, ends up killing her. But these cases fascinate me when you talk about. Speaker 1 (2:31) camera footage right we got a lot of camera footage nowadays and some of it's very controversial the flock cameras and some of those but camera footage does help solve a lot of crimes michelle kenney was born on august 25th 1964 in dewitt iowa she grew up with four siblings on a farm in the midwest she remained close with her sisters throughout her life michelle worked as a waitress for many years She had two sons and four grandchildren. Well, she's got a lot of kiddos. Yeah. Running around. I'm still waiting for my first grandchild. I am also 53 years old. And I think I'm going to be waiting. Yeah. I don't know if they're really in a big hurry. Nope. I don't think they're ready. They've said as much. They're Speaker 2 (3:19) probably just still in practice mode. Yeah. Speaker 1 (3:21) I don't want to think about that, but I appreciate you throwing that in my head. Michelle's obituary states that she was a comedian who made everyone laugh and always put everyone's needs before her own. She was a social butterfly and was very devoted to her faith. And I'll tell you, part of that sounds like my mom. Speaker 2 (3:43) Yeah. My Speaker 1 (3:44) mom has always been that person who puts everyone else's needs before her own. She did it when I was a kid. She would buy me new clothes for school and stuff, and she wouldn't have enough money for her, so she'd just wear the same stuff she always had. And she does it now. She looks out for everybody else and herself last. Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:07) she's a sweetheart, man. A lot of times she'll come over here and bring you soup, Speaker 1 (4:11) and Speaker 2 (4:11) then she'll text me and say, I put the bigger part of the soup, the bigger pot. In your truck. Yeah. So, you know, just wanted you to know. I'm like, oh man, you're the best. She does like you. Speaker 1 (4:24) Michelle's sister, Robbie Haas, described Michelle as kind, sweet, and an old soul with a childlike spirit. Michelle's favorite time of year was Halloween because she loved to dress up. She also loved doing crafts and her favorite tool was a glue gun. She was known for wearing blinged out clothing to match her personality. Speaker 2 (4:45) That sounds like you back in the day when you went to the office, coming in all blinged out with his clothing. Oh, yeah, with Speaker 1 (4:51) the fake, with the rhinestones and all that. Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:54) that little Speaker 1 (4:54) gadget thing you used. What was that thing called? Who was it? Bedazzler. Speaker 2 (4:58) Yeah, your bedazzler that you had. Yeah, I liked to bedazzle my jean jacket. Sometimes he calls in the office while we were sitting there doing our review. You were sitting there bedazzling us, you know? Speaker 1 (5:09) Yeah, because I did not care about you at all. At the time of her death, Michelle was living alone in an apartment on Iowa Street in Dubuque. At 1.45 a.m. on July 23rd, 2018, the Dubuque Police Department responded to a report of a deceased individual in an apartment. Michelle was found by three friends slash neighbors who stopped to visit her in the early hours of July 23rd. One of her neighbors noticed that her door was open. So she went inside and found Michelle dead on the kitchen floor. She said in the 911 call, she believed her neighbor had been killed. Would you go in? Speaker 2 (5:50) I would, you know, carefully today. Now, 20 years ago, I probably would have went in, but I wouldn't have thought about, you know, preserving the site. Speaker 1 (6:02) Oh, yeah. We obviously. But doing as much research as we've done over the years, you would probably think more about that now. Yeah. Yeah, I think it would be up to the individual. Now, it might have made a difference that they had numbers, right? If there was three of them, okay, maybe they felt a little better about it. Right. If you're by yourself, I don't know, maybe just call 911 or call Speaker 2 (6:27) the police. Speaker 1 (6:27) Well, you got to Speaker 2 (6:28) be Speaker 1 (6:28) careful, Speaker 2 (6:28) right? Because maybe whoever killed her is still in there. Speaker 1 (6:33) Well, yeah, but you don't even know at that point, right? Until you go in, you have no idea. Yeah. But an open door. It doesn't scream safety. No. It's also almost 2 o'clock in the morning. Which is Speaker 2 (6:46) even more reasons maybe why you wait outside. If Speaker 1 (6:50) this was 11 o'clock in the morning with the sun out and all of that, maybe it's a little different. Dispatch didn't have much information from the neighbors who found Michelle. Officer Brandon Gudenkopf was on patrol, and he responded to the 911 call. He encountered a group of people. Standing outside the residence, including the 911 caller, they told the officer they were concerned about their neighbor, but they only knew her by the name Auntie. Oh. Didn't even know her real name. It's our Auntie. Or Auntie. Auntie. Speaker 2 (7:24) However Speaker 1 (7:24) you want to say it. Officers went in and they found Michelle nude on her kitchen floor. She was covered in blood from dozens of puncture wounds. They also... found evidence of blunt force trauma. Michelle's face was unrecognizable according to officer. And you actually hear that quite a bit, you know, in the stories that we cover and it paints a, an extremely gruesome scene. It does. When you think of a person's face being unrecognizable, that means a tremendous amount of damage. Speaker 2 (8:01) I mean, what would be the reason to do something to somebody's face? Do you hate them that much or you hate the look they give you or do you hate just like that face? Speaker 1 (8:11) I don't know. I mean, I think if you're law enforcement, you have to try to make something out of all the facts, Speaker 2 (8:18) right? Speaker 1 (8:19) Normally when we talk about somebody being stabbed 60, 70 times, right? People say, well, that denotes rape. Sure. Well, what does this mean? That you're mad at this person. You want to. To hurt them, you want to disfigure them. Don't know. It was clear that there had been a great struggle as three cabinet doors were pulled off and there was blood on the cabinets, fridge, and stove. Officers found a knife on the kitchen counter and a bent fork on the floor with blood on it. Speaker 2 (8:56) So, I mean, the fork could have been used on the face. Speaker 1 (8:59) Well, there were marks on Michelle's body. That look like they were made by the tines of a fork. You Speaker 2 (9:06) know how much pressure you have to use to make that happen? Yeah, Speaker 1 (9:11) so much so that you're probably going to end up bending the fork. Yeah. Which I think is what happened here. A blood-stained bra was found in the kitchen. And a bloody pair of men's shorts were found in the adjoining room. And I think, you know, as an investigator, you're going to make a lot out of that as well. Sure. I mean, she's found nude. So right off the bat, you have to go to some sort of sexual assault, right? You find the bloody bra, but then you find men's shorts. And you have to believe that there's a good chance those belong to her killer. Speaker 2 (9:49) Yeah, potentially. I mean, unless she liked to wear men's shorts just because they were comfortable. Which, yeah, Speaker 1 (9:54) which some women might. They might like them baggy or buy them bigger or whatever. But by and large, I think if you're an investigator, you're probably thinking maybe a good chance that these belong to the killer. We mentioned it, right? None of her neighbors knew Michelle's name, but investigators found her ID card. The woman who called 911 identified herself as a neighborhood friend. She explained that she came over to check on Michelle because she always stopped by after work on Monday through Friday. She usually hung out. around the stoop and talk to Michelle. She noticed the decorations Michelle normally used to cover her window were missing. She sensed something wasn't right. So she decided to check inside Michelle's apartment and found her body. And you know what seems strange to me? That you stop by this woman's house every night, Monday through Friday, and you don't know her real name. Speaker 2 (10:50) I find that very strange too. Speaker 1 (10:52) At one point you didn't say. What's Speaker 2 (10:54) your Speaker 1 (10:54) real name? What's your real name? Or, Hey, hi, I'm, I'm Gibby. You are. Yeah, I get it. People go by nicknames or, or things like that, but you would think spending that much time with a person at some point, their real name is going to come up. Right. So I found that strange. I do too. Police canvassed the neighborhood. Most of the residents had no information to give investigators, but the woman next door provided the useful tip. She said, Michelle had people in and out of her apartment fairly often. She usually had multiple people over at a time. This neighbor's pretty observant. Yeah. Which you, you have neighbors like that. Sure you do. You know, I've, I've told the story before about my grandpa. He was that kind of guy. He loved to know what was going on in his little condo complex. And so he would be looking out the window all the time, seeing what the neighbors were doing. He could tell you who was over, or maybe not who they were, but which neighbors had visitors and things like that. He would be great for the police. Oh, Speaker 2 (12:00) I bet. If anything Speaker 1 (12:01) ever happened. Michelle's sister, Charlene Kilberg, was the one who got the call that Michelle had been murdered. She was shocked. And she had a ton of questions. Her siblings wondered who would ever want to harm Michelle. And I think that's a natural question or reaction. And we talked about it, right? She was pretty beloved. She was active in her church. She helped these people out, took in people when they were down on their luck. She seemed like a very nice, great all-around person. Yeah, just super kind, man. So what did she do to someone or? What happened that made someone want to kill her? Unless this was just a random encounter, stranger like attack, but Speaker 2 (12:45) not just killer. I mean, Oh Speaker 1 (12:46) yeah. There's much more to it. Speaker 2 (12:48) Yeah. It was definitely brutal. You Speaker 1 (12:50) know, we're talking possible sexual assault, but, but the murder itself was brutal. Speaker 2 (12:56) Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:57) You know, there are a lot of different ways to kill someone and we've probably covered pretty much all of them. The. blunt force trauma, the up close multiple stab wounds. Yeah. There is something to that. You know, you are, you're right up in somebody's face. It's very personal, right? When it's an extension of your hand and you know, you're right there plunging something into somebody. It's gruesome, but you got to think about that. Speaker 2 (13:28) But there's got to be