Kristin David’s 1981 Murder: Was a Serial Killer Behind It?
In the summer of 1981, 22-year-old University of Idaho student Kristin David vanished while biking from Moscow to Lewiston. Just nine days later, her dismembered body surfaced in black plastic bags floating in the Snake River. The disturbing case shocked the region and has remained unsolved for over four decades. Now, true crime podcast Crime Junkie is reigniting interest in the case, raising the chilling question: was Kristin David the victim of a serial killer?
Kristin had just finished her senior year and returned briefly to her Moscow apartment on June 25 to retrieve her belongings and her blue 10-speed bicycle. The next day, she set off on a roughly 35-mile ride to Lewiston, where she planned to spend the summer with her sister.
Witnesses last saw her alive on June 26, cycling along U.S. Highway 95. She never arrived in Lewiston.
Nine days later, black plastic bags containing human remains began appearing in the Snake River, near Clarkston, Washington—just across the border from Lewiston. Police later confirmed the remains were Kristin’s. The contents were wrapped in editions of the Lewiston Morning Tribune from April 1981. Her bicycle, clothing, and other personal items were never recovered.
The FBI and local law enforcement launched an intensive investigation, but the trail soon went cold. With no suspects and limited forensic evidence, the case grew stagnant.
Over the years, some speculated that Kristin had fallen victim to the suspected “Lewis-Clark Valley Serial Killer,” believed to have murdered multiple young people in the Lewiston-Clarkston area between 1979 and 1982. However, Kristin’s case stood out due to the particularly gruesome nature of her killing and the disposal method used.
Ashley Flowers, host of the Crime Junkie podcast, is now taking a fresh look at the mystery. In the July 28 episode titled Murdered: Kristin David, Flowers explores the possibility that Kristin was the victim of a different serial killer—one with a distinct and deeply disturbing modus operandi.
“She was the outlier,” Flowers says. “Dismembered, wrapped in bags, and floating in a river. It feels calculated—ritualistic even.”
The newspapers used to wrap her remains provide an eerie clue. They were all dated from April 1981 and came from different issues of the Lewiston Morning Tribune. This detail suggests the killer may have been local, collecting papers over time, possibly in preparation.
The FBI once developed a psychological profile of a potential suspect: a white male, 21 to 28 years old, likely living alone or with a female partner or his mother. He was described as intelligent but an underachiever and probably drove a late-model vehicle he took pride in.
Despite multiple persons of interest over the years, no arrests have been made. Now, Flowers is appealing to her vast audience for help.
She’s asking listeners to look into unsolved murders involving women who were dismembered, placed in trash bags, or had missing body parts—details that might align with Kristin David’s case. Flowers speculates that the killer might have kept part of Kristin’s body as a trophy, since a portion of her right leg was never recovered.
“I can’t help but wonder—was this part of his M.O.?” she asks.
Kristin David’s tragic death remains one of the most haunting mysteries in Idaho’s criminal history. As Crime Junkie and its community dive deeper, there’s renewed hope that modern interest and collective investigation could finally bring long-awaited answers—and justice—to Kristin’s family.
