A popular crime documentary has uncovered the chilling true story of a bartender who was sexually assaulted with a doorstop and stabbed to death in a brutal attack.
Kim Ancona’s lifeless body was found in 1991 on the floor of the men’s room of the bar where she worked in Phoenix, Arizona.
The 36-year-old mother-of-one had been stabbed six times, with the killer leaving behind a raft of evidence including prominent bite marks on her body.
Postman Ray Krone was convicted of murder, but was eventually exonerated after ten years on death row when the real killer was finally caught.
Here, FEMAIL has exposed the disturbing reality surrounding the case following an episode of Crime scene confidential delves deeper into the ‘Snaggletooth Murder.’
Kim Ancona’s lifeless body was found in 1991 on the floor of the men’s room of the bar where she worked in Phoenix, Arizona.
The harrowing story began on December 29, 1991, when the owner of CBS Restaurant and Lounge arrived just after 8 a.m. to open the doors.
The harrowing story began on December 29, 1991, when the owner of CBS Restaurant and Lounge arrived just after 8 a.m. to open the doors.
After going inside, he soon found night manager Kim dead on the floor of the men’s room.
She was naked and lying in a pool of blood with six stab wounds around her neck and on her back.
Her clothes were scattered on the floor, along with some wooden shims that had been used as doorstops.
Authorities said one of the slithers, which was covered in blood, “looked like the perpetrator used it to stab Kim’s body.”
The “sexual depravity” left the bartender “several tears in the vagina” and former lawyer Chris Plourd said: “She really suffered in a very painful way.”
A host of other evidence was collected – including hair, drinking glass and shoe print – but investigators struggled to draw concrete conclusions as the public space attracted multiple visitors.
There was also a large boning knife, which appeared to have come from the kitchen at the bar, which had been left in the bin with a bent 8 inch blade.
Night manager Kim was found naked and lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the men’s room
Her clothes were scattered on the floor, along with some wooden shims that had been used as doorstops
Authorities said one of the slithers, which was covered in blood, “looked like the perpetrator used it to stab Kim’s body.”
Detectives began putting together a timeline and learned that Kim was cleaning up at the end of the night when she was killed.
They ruled out theft as a motivation, as Ancona’s wallet was still behind the bar and the cash register was full.
During an autopsy, additional evidence was found in the form of noticeable bite marks on Kim’s chest and throat.
The size and width of the teeth, as well as the spaces, gaps and rotations were all analyzed.
It was subsequently determined that the perpetrator appeared to have crooked teeth and he was quickly branded in the media as the ‘Snaggletooth Killer’.
Because of the sexual motives of the attack, detectives turned their attention to people with whom Kim, who was recently divorced, had been in a relationship.
They ended up with a man named Ray Krone, who Kim had told friends she was dating even though his name was written in her address book.
The postman, who had previously served in the US Air Force, had misaligned teeth and denied having a relationship with Kim – despite witnesses claiming otherwise.
He had an alibi for the night of Kim’s death, but detectives executed a search warrant at his home anyway.
Detectives began putting together a timeline and learned that Kim was cleaning up at the end of the night when she was attacked.
During an autopsy, additional evidence was found in the form of noticeable bite marks on Kim’s chest and throat
Detectives have tracked down a man named Ray Krone who Kim told friends she was dating with his name written in her address book
They couldn’t find any damning evidence, but took his fingerprints and DNA before ordering either him to bite down on a piece of Styrofoam to compare with the bite marks on Kim’s body.
Not long after, Ray was arrested on New Year’s Eve before being charged with murder, kidnapping and assault.
He was tried ten months after Kim’s death, with dentist Dr Raymond Rawson called as a witness to claim with ‘almost certainty’ that the bite marks were Ray’s.
This became the most compelling piece of evidence for the jury, who soon returned with a guilty verdict, sentencing Ray to death.
He spent years on death row before being given a new trial in 1996 using new technologies and improvements in DNA testing.
The saliva, hair and fingerprints collected at the scene were found not to match Ray’s own samples.
But when Dr. Rawson again made his claims about the bite marks, Ray was found guilty a second time.
A local man named Kenneth Phillips, who lived 550 meters from the murder scene at the time of Kim’s death, pleaded guilty in 2006 before receiving a 53-year prison sentence.
Ray believed his fate was certain until 2002, when a new law granted Arizona prisoners the right to conduct DNA testing on evidence used against them.
And it was at that moment that the authorities finally got a close match – and it wasn’t Ray.
Instead, it was a local man named Kenneth Phillips, who lived 550 meters from the murder scene at the time of Kim’s death, who came back as a match.
Phillips had been sent to jail on a separate charge 30 days after the murder, but admitted to being at the bar that night.
He claimed he couldn’t remember much, but did remember getting angry after he was cut off from drinking.
The evidence finally ‘conclusively established’ Phillips’ and his guilt pleaded guilty in 2006 before receiving a 53-year prison sentence.
In the meantime, Ray, then 45 years old, was fully exonerated and released from prison in 2002.
Since then, he has spent his time speaking to schools and groups of people as part of his commitment to the nonprofit Witness to Innocence, which works to abolish the death penalty in America.