Toni Lister, Jimmy Lee Eacker: Seward, Alaska, Murder On ID’s ‘Did He Do It’ Season Finale
The case of Toni Lister and Jimmy Lee Eacker cold case murder will air tonight on the first season finale of the hit Investigation Discovery show Did He Do it. The television docu-drama debuted on the ID channel for the first time on April 2. Tonight’s finale will show prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and defense attorney Darren Kavinoky presenting both sides of the case of Jimmy Lee Eacker and let viewers decide who did it.
The Toni Lister case started as a missing persons investigation after Toni Lister’s husband, Calvin Lister, informed police that his wife never came back home after a night at the bar in Seward, Alaska. According to police records, Toni Lister was listed as missing on March 6, 1982. Her body was found over a month later in a remote wooded area near Seward City Dump in Alaska. An autopsy report concluded that Lister had been stabbed to death with a screwdriver before the body was discarded, according to a 2010 article by KTUU.
The 25-year old cold case baffled detectives for years. Rumors and speculation pointed the fingers at Toni Lister’s husband. But, the case eventually went cold. New life was blown into the unsolved murder when it was reopened in 2006. Interviews with various subjects led to a man named Jimmy Lee Eacker as the last person who saw the missing woman alive. By 2007, law enforcement officials had enough evidence to arrest and charge Eacker with the murder. In 2012, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Prosecutors believed that Jimmy Lee Eacker left the bar that night with Toni Lister and murdered her in or outside his truck after the two had sex. But the case was more complicated to prosecute with the evidence that they had. Eacker ended up giving different accounts of what happened that night. One theory included that Lister’s husband had found out that she was out at the dump having sex with Eacker. Another theory was that they were attacked at the dump. There is also the friend who says she saw Jimmy Eacker wash blood off of himself the night Toni Lister vanished, according to the Peninsula Clarion.
In tonight’s Did He Do It episode, Darren Kavinoky will be answering the question of “who killed mother of four Toni Lister – and why?” Get ready to tune in to the gripping cold case mystery on Investigation Discovery.
Here is the tease for Did He Do It: episode Burden of Proof
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD-5fZLRwF0
“Toni Lister is the victim of an attack; her body is found with 27 stab wounds. The suspects? Husband Calvin and friend Jimmy. There’s insufficient evidence to charge either with murder. Twenty-four years later DNA testing finally reveals the killer’s identity.”
[Photo Credit: Twitter]
