48 Hours - Beauty Queen Betrayal

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

On December 15, 2005, 19-year-old college student and aspiring beauty queen Nona Dirksmeyer was found murdered inside her Russellville, Arkansas apartment. Police believed Nona's boyfriend, Kevin Jones, flew into a murderous rage when he discovered a condom wrapper on her kitchen counter. “48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 9/20/2008. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca Good evening I'm Nona Dirksmeyer, Miss Petagen Valley. She never knew how pretty she was. She was this strong person who was incredibly multifaceted. When she was 13 she came to me and she said, mama wants to sing. She was really enjoying life for what seemed like the first time in a long time. Nona wants to break the cycle of child abuse through prevention and awareness.

Her helping other people gave her more self-worth. Make the children want to come to school and learn and make them want to be educated. Miss Petitgene Valley, Nona Dirksmeyer. It never really hit me that my girlfriend was a beauty queen. She was just Nona to me. Nona thinks he's really fun to be with and he was very supportive of her, so I was happy about it. We dated throughout our senior year of high school and our freshman year of college. And then I moved to Fayetteville and we continued to see each other on the weekends.

She was very upset about him going to Fayetteville in the fall. I think she felt like she was being abandoned. College is only an hour and a half away. That's not that far. Nonna was telling me that they were starting to have some arguments. He was making her unhappy. I didn't know if they'd stay together or not,

but certainly didn't expect anything like what happened. Her wounds are consistent with homicides of passion. My name is James Bacon and I'm the former police chief for the city of Russellville, Arkansas. We went over to Doe's apartment at around 6.15. She hadn't answered my phone all day. My mom was with me. We drove there together. We pulled over to the apartment.

We saw that her car was out front and her lights were on. Came around the side of the apartment to the back door. I just grabbed the door, tried to pull it open as hard as I could, and then we went inside. 911, where's your emergency? My son's girlfriend, I think she's dead. At that moment, I felt more alone than I'd ever had in my entire life. This was a staged crime scene.

I was straddling her body, trying to find some way to save her life. At one point, I even tried to give her mouth-to-mouth. He was not what I would have anticipated to be a distraught boyfriend that just discovered his girlfriend brutally murdered. If Nona was upset about something, she would raise her voice to Kevin, but I never saw him, never saw him raise his voice to her.

They'd taken him to the station. They left him in the room at one point. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. He does have a temper. This anger was isolated. That's something that we pay attention to. People portraying Kevin as this thug afterward, and I never saw any of that. I didn't do it.

I didn't do it. Some scumbag did this to my girlfriend, and I wanted to get put in jail for it, and I didn't do it. Who killed the beauty queen? Tonight's 48 hours mystery. It doesn't get much more all-American than small town Arkansas. Football friendly, downright neighborly, and hardly any serious crime. So imagine how the town of Russellville was rocked on December 15th 2005 after this 911 call. Is she breathing it out?

No, no she's cold. She's not breathing. She doesn't have a cold. I'm thinking she's dead. What is your name sir? My name is Kevin Jones. Kevin Jones was a 20 year old college student calling from the apartment of his girlfriend Nona Dirksmeyer, a 19-year-old college student and aspiring beauty queen. I was just trying to wake her up,

and I was just praying that her eyes would open. Kevin wasn't alone. He was with his friend and also his mother, who was frantic with the 911 operator. Okay, what kind of accident, ma'am? I don't know, ma'am. It was no accident. It was murder. Nona was beaten to death

and left in her blood spattered living room. As paramedics arrived, Kevin called Nona's stepfather, Duane Dipert. He says, you need to get that down to the apartment right away. It's known I think she's dead, she's cold. He then quickly called his wife, Carol, Nona's mother at the local hospital where she's a nurse.

He met me close to elevators and I was just tingling all over and I said, she's dead isn't she? And he said, yeah. It was a grisly end to a life Nona struggled to fill with beauty. She was a really good kid, very thoughtful, very empathetic. Empathetic? Yeah, especially with animals. She just loved her pets. I think she was just a really caring person that didn't want to see anything go hungry

or be abused. Nona's from Russellville and the 19-year-old daughter of Carol and Duane Dipert. Were you in favor of her entering beauty pageants? I was kind of lukewarm about it at first, but I could see that it was helping her and she really liked it. It was so beautiful and mesmerizing. Beautiful as she was, Nona was a most unlikely beauty queen.

She was really shy, like almost painfully shy, like just very, very reserved. Adriel Churchill, Miss White River. Nona's reserved. Adriel Churchill, Miss White River. Nona's friend, Adriel Churchill, had already won a beauty pageant. I had been Pope County Fair Queen, big title I know. And it's first pageant I had ever won. She convinced Nona to compete as well.

I'm not gonna lie, I wanted to crown one of my friends, or at least have the chance to. Your successor as Pope County Fair Queen? The next Miss Pope County Fair Queen. I just thought maybe she'd have as much fun as I did. Do you remember at the ripe old age of 15 what attracted you to Nona? If I didn't say her looks, I would probably be lying.

Because that's a big part of it when you're young, and her personality too. Oh, listen, sister. And when Nona started competing in pageants, Kevin started to notice changes in his girlfriend. It did help her self-esteem a lot. How could you tell? Just the way she acted. And I mean, when people would tell her, you know,

that she was beautiful, it would just make her happy. By the time they were in Dover High School, Nona and Kevin were inseparable. They were just a couple who always got along. You figured they would get married someday. I really thought that he was a good Christian, young man who has a nice family. What did she tell you about Kevin?

That he was a caring, empathetic person and gave her a lot of support. He was fun to be with. She and Kevin were very good for each other. Kevin's mother Janice is a school librarian. He gave her confidence and supported and cheered her on in her struggles. And Nona had a great deal to struggle with. She said years earlier, when she was just a child, she was sexually abused by her biological father.

He died when she was just 10, and for years she told almost no one about the abuse. But she did tell Kevin just after they started dating. She just told me one night over the phone. She was upset and I said, why? And then there was a pause and she said, because my dad sexually abused me when I was six. She never told me. By the time you found out about it, he was dead. What effect do you think that had on her?

She would have flashbacks and bad dreams, but I think she was starting to get better and kind of grow out of it. And I believe the pageant system helped her there, kind of helped develop her poison, self-confidence. Please welcome Nona Dirksmeyer, Miss Petit Jean Valley. In fact, Nona made preventing child abuse her cause when she appeared in Beauty Pageants. She had always said, you know, I know that I need to talk about this because I know that

it makes me feel better to come to terms with it and not just put it away. And she was very strong for doing that, incredibly strong. By the summer of 2005, Nona and Kevin had finished their first year of college together at Arkansas Tech in Russellville. But Kevin was transferring some 90 minutes away to the University of Arkansas. I didn't like the fact that I had to be away from her.

You stayed in touch pretty... Yeah, we talked. Text message. We talked on the phone every day. I really looked forward to going back home on the weekends. And Kevin was back home on December 15, 2005. He and Nona had already spent time together, and Kevin says he expected to hear from her after she took a final exam.

But he didn't. Had there ever been a time when you haven't been able to get a hold of her? There had never been a time when that happened. Kevin continued to call and message Nona until about 6 p.m. when he'd promised to escort his mother to a school holiday dinner. By the time you got in the car to go to the party, what was your state of mind? It was just concerned as to why she hadn't called me back. He said, mom, I can't go to this party and wonder if she's OK.

Kevin then contacted his friend Ryan, who was delivering pizza in the area. He asked him to check if Nona's car was parked outside her apartment. It was. He knocked on her door and he said she's not answering. That's when Kevin and his mother raced to Nona's apartment. My level of concern had raised significantly.

We turned and pulled in and parked there. He just hopped out. Kevin and Ryan tried but failed to open the front door, so they ran around to the sliding door in the back. It was rather dim inside, but all I was focusing on was getting the door open. So when did you first see her? Ryan touched me on the arm and he was just looking straight forward and he said dude there she is. Then Kevin forced open the sliding glass door. I ran inside and I turned her over. And Kevin was on the floor next to her, hovering over her. My eyes just kind of scanned down her body

and her socks were on her feet, but otherwise she was naked. I wouldn't let myself think that she was dead. When police arrived, they had to make sense of the gruesome scene. Was Kevin really a grieving boyfriend? And why was he covered in so much blood? They say Hollywood is where dreams are made.

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It's Detective Work 101. When one part of a couple is murdered, the survivor is usually a suspect. So when Nona Dirksmeyer was found dead on the floor of her living room, police wanted to talk to her long-time boyfriend, Kevin Jones. Just to set aside my curiosity, and I'm not teasing you anything,

did you hurt her tonight? No, I promise you, I wouldn't kill myself before I hurt her. There was nothing pretty about the way this Arkansas beauty queen died just 11 days before her 20th birthday. Police believe she was beaten to death with the heavy metal base of a floor lamp. James Bacon was the Russellville police chief and one of the first at the crime scene. I walked in and saw a large pool of blood around the head, several abrasions to the neck and the shoulder. The murder weapon was a few feet from Nona's body.

There were blood stains on the light bulb. There was no sign of sexual assault and no sign of a break-in. But Kevin was covered in blood, Nona's blood. Kevin says he had just finished trying to revive her while his mother and his friend looked on. I felt around kind of on the back of her head and her hair was matted. It was a little sticky, I guess. There was still some wet blood on the carpet. I was straddling her body at the waist,

and I was touching her face and talking to her and just trying to get some sort of response from her. It wasn't just Kevin's appearance, it was also his behavior that Chief Bacon thought was strange. When I got to the apartment, he was standing just inside the door. He stuck his hand out like he wanted to shake hands and then said, oh I can't.

Then did his hands like this to show me they were covered in blood. That night Kevin spent hours at the police station and never asked for a lawyer. What do you think happened? I think somebody just broke in. Police paid attention to everything he said during the questioning, but they were more interested in what he did when he was alone in the interrogation room. he was alone in the interrogation room. What does it tell you about Kevin Jones? Well, it tells me that he does have the capability of striking somebody or striking something,

which he did at that point. Police believe it all began as a fight. And the killer, says Chief Bacon, struck Nona first. In the face, the medical examiner reports indicate that there are blows to the face, above the eye and in the cheek. Hit her hard? That are consistent with the, like a palm heel slap.

As the fight escalated, Bacon believes Nona tried to defend herself and the killer pulled out a knife. There are hesitation marks on the neck, across the front of the neck. Like he's going to cut her throat? Like he's going to cut her throat. But he can't quite bring himself to do it. But I just can't bring myself to do it. marks on the neck across the front of the neck. Like he's going to cut her throat? Like he's going to cut her throat.

But he can't quite bring himself to do it. But I just can't bring myself to do it. And again, that's consistent with crime of passion because that's a difficult thing for some people to do. Soon after that, Bacon believes the fight turned deadly. The floor lamp is slammed into the back of the head and is now the fatal blow. But people who know Kevin like Adrienne, say he would never hurt Nona.

If someone says, well, the boyfriend did it, there might be different situations where with different guys you would say, well, yeah, he always had a temper. I could just see how he snapped. But that was just never the case with Kevin. Kevin's mother mother Janice. When Nona and Kevin were together I always just saw him as a different person. Just a little bit kinder and sweeter and gentle because that's the way he always was with her. But the police are starting to suspect there may be another side to Kevin and they want to know everything he did the day of the murder. Give me a timeline of the events that happened last night and what happened the day.

Kevin said he could account for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. Okay, you want to go over the times? Yeah, please. Police say they were being careful and detailed in their investigation. I think in a period of about a week we interviewed about 50 different people. Among them, a close girlfriend of Nona's. I've never seen them fight in my entire life. I've been with them a whole lot.

And they've never had any fight. Then, on the eve of Nona's funeral, Kevin voluntarily returned to the Russellville Police Department. Well, my question to you is, would you be willing to take a polygram? Yeah, I'll do anything that you guys want me to do. I'll do a DNA test, I'll do anything.

Given my primary job is polygraph examination. He did everything the police wanted. You intend to enter a truth-lead equation about that? Yes. He even agreed to take that lie detector test. Did you cause the death of Nola Berksmire? No. And that might have been a big mistake.

He failed it. And failed it miserably, investigators said. There's no doubt in my mind that you killed her. I don't know if you killed her because she was mad. No, I swear to God. Or you was mad. Please check everything. Please check everything. They said, you failed this polygraph test and we know that you killed her.

My gosh, man. Do you not remember smashing the back of her head in? I didn't do it. Yes you did. I didn't do it. They turned from, we're your friend, we're trying to find out who did this, to we know you did it. I know what happened. Were you scared?

Yeah. I was really scared. Kevin had more reason to be afraid than he knew because by now, six days after the murder in this apartment, police had the closest thing yet to a smoking gun. Remember the blood on the light bulb found here? It turns out there was a palm print on that bulb, and it was Kevin's. The only way that print could have got there, the only way that print could have got there was in the process of the crime. That is the only way way and it's yours.

To the naked eye, it looked like a small blood stain. But to crime scene investigators, it matched perfectly with Kevin's print in Nona's blood on the murder weapon. And police had developed a theory about why Kevin was covered in so much blood when they arrived. They believe he was trying to contaminate the crime scene. He meticulously articulated everything to the nth degree so that he could come back

and say, anything that you find is accountable because I went in and grabbed the body and now look at me. Cross contamination. But why would Kevin want Nona dead? Well, fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. I gotta love one man till I die. Can't help loving that man of mine. To hear Kevin Jones tell it, Nona Dirksmeyer wasn't just his girlfriend for now.

He's got him selling your girlfriend, right Kevin? She was his partner forever. I knew I was going to marry her. There wasn't a question about it to me. How'd you know? I don't know. I didn't see it in the other way. That was why police now believe

Kevin flew into a murderous rage when he found something unexpected while visiting Nona the morning of December 15th 2005. He comes into the apartment probably having a simple conversation. He finds the condom wrapper. An empty condom wrapper. The police say it was sitting on Nona's kitchen counter and it was part of Kevin's motive. Did you see the condom wrapper in the kitchen?

No, there was one. So she was raped. Don't know that. Did you see it? Did you ever touch it? No, I didn't even know it was there. Me and the machine, I never used condoms. It didn't take long for the police to find out

that while Kevin might have thought he was Nona's only boyfriend, he was wrong. How many times y'all have sex? I mean, maybe less than 10 times. Police interviewed her other lovers. When y'all had sex, did you use a condom? No. But they cleared them.

To your knowledge, was Nona seeing other men? At that point, no. She was not or you didn't know about it? At that point, I did not know about it Do you believe she was now? Yes But the investigation kept leading back to Kevin and Just six days after Nona's murder lead detective Mark Frost told him he was no longer just the prime suspect

He was now the only suspect. You cannot deny this anymore, okay? Here's the deal. An altercation went down between you and no one. Listen, listen to me. It went down because she's seen other guys. Listen to me. Listen to me. You do know. You found out. And there's an alter guys. No, I didn't. Listen to me, listen to me. No, I didn't. Listen to me. You do know. No, I don't. You found out. No, I never found out.

And there's an altercation. I had no idea. At first I was scared and nervous because it's the police. They have a lot of power. They have the power to put someone in jail for the rest of their life if they want to. Well, that is kind of where this was headed. Yeah. Did that register on you that you could go to the penitentiary for the rest of your life?

At that point, yeah, it did. And then I thought, no, I didn't do this. They're not going to put me in jail for something that I didn't do. The police built their case against Kevin methodically. The bloody floor lamp with his palm print on it and the empty condom wrapper would become two central pieces of evidence against him. But Kevin kept giving police information willingly. On the night police called him a murderer, Kevin had come in on his own.

Did you have a lawyer at this point? No. You didn't? No. It didn't occur to you that you needed a lawyer? No. Again, I was still under the impression that I had nothing to hide while I needed a lawyer. But Kevin's interrogation dragged on behind closed doors for nearly seven hours. His parents became desperate to see their son.

And I just started yelling Kevin's name and I yelled for him to come out. I said, you can get up and leave. You don't, you know, just come on out of there. How loud were you? I was as loud as I could be. And I said I don't understand what's going on. All he's tried to do is help. That's all we've done is try to help. After that session was over, how convinced were you that this was the guy? Very. That Kevin Jones is a murderer? Very.

Why didn't you arrest him? Uh, I wanted to. But the Pope County prosecutor wasn't convinced he had a case yet. And we had to let him walk out the door. How'd that feel? Not very good. So Kevin Jones, by now accused but not yet charged with her murder, went to Nona's funeral.

Which was the next morning. What was it like for you to go to the funeral under those conditions? I put it out of my head, and I said said I don't care what these people think. Kevin was like, you know, crying. I said don't let him sit with me. By now, Nona's mother Carol and stepfather Duane knew Kevin was a suspect. He was just blubbering away for an uncomfortably long time. Uncomfortably. So you think when he was crying at the funeral...

It was all an act. He seemed very upset. He cried a lot. Real tears, not crocodile tears, not fake. If there were ever crocodile tears, I've never seen anyone do it better. According to Kevin, the pain could not have been more real. Nothing at that point mattered to me. Why? Because I was hollow. All I could think about were the

times that she and I spent together and that I never get to spend another time with her like that ever again. He's a con artist. Really? Oh yeah. Why do you say that? He's a manipulator. I really think he ought to go into acting. You don't believe him? No, not a bit.

We went through a series of people and everything kept coming back to Kevin. Months passed and Kevin still had not been arrested. Winter winds and rampant rumors swirled through this small town. People were telling me they're saying the boyfriend did it. That's what was going around. The boyfriend? The boyfriend did it.

The boyfriend is your son? In fact, yes. Kevin, anything to say? Did you kill Nona? It was March 31, 2006. More than three months after Nona was murdered, more than three months after the Russellville police department became convinced that Kevin Jones was her killer.

I remember my dad called me and he said, I wish I had some good news but I don't. And I could tell he was pretty upset and he said, they want you at the police station at 10. I said, I wish I had some good news, but I don't. And I could tell he was pretty upset. And he said, they want you at the police station at 10. I said, OK. It was what the Jones family feared most. Kevin was arrested for murdering Nona. That's when it really hit me that I

could possibly go to jail. There were no guarantees that I had my life. My life would be in the hands of 12 people. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudine Gay is now gone.

We've exposed the DEI regime and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today. The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities.

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Deputy prosecutor Jeff Phillips built the case on blood. Her blood. Her blood. Not his. Hers. Nona's blood was on the lamp used to kill her, and embedded in her blood was the palm print of Kevin Jones. Where was the palm print? It was on the light bulb. The entire case came down to that bulb.

It was the best evidence discovered by Russellville Police Chief James Bacon. He believes Kevin bludgeoned Nona to death with the lamp. And it breaks. The natural instinct is to try to grab it. And that scramble to try to grab it is when the blood print is deposited to the bulb. The critical piece of evidence.

Yes. Kevin and his family steeled themselves for his trial and its outcome. Did you acknowledge the possibility that your son could go to the penitentiary? No. If I shut the lights out and tried to lay in bed, the thoughts would haunt me. But Nona's mother, Carol Dipert,

thought a prison term for Kevin would not be enough. Kevin is a murderer. He took someone's life, and he deserves to forfeit his. The courtroom was closed to cameras. Kevin is a murderer. He took someone's life and he deserves to forfeit his. The courtroom was closed to cameras. Kevin never took the stand and jurors were soon influenced by the state's most compelling evidence. The palm print on the light bulb. That was a big factor. It was a big factor. Do you remember touching that light bulb?

No. To this day I don't remember touching the light bulb. Was he guilty in your mind when you first sat down? You bet. Statistically, it's usually someone close to the person. And here they had the boyfriend. And they had him with a bloody palm print. It wasn't just that there was blood on the bulb. It was the texture of the blood that was critical.

Was it wet or dry when it was discovered? If the blood was dry, that proved it had time to harden. And that meant that Kevin left it while murdering Nona hours before police were called. But if the blood was still wet when police arrived, that meant that Kevin was telling the truth. The palm print was left when he was trying to revive Nona just before the 911 call. Words are important here. Listen to how the police and prosecutors describe the texture of the blood. It could have been tacky. It had the appearance of tacky. Tacky. It would be a word, not a witness, that would course through the courtroom. What does tacky mean to you?

Appearance of wet. A witness. Sticky. Yeah, sticky. Wet. Not fully dry. Right. I certainly do believe that the word tacky creates a problem. In fact, it created a huge problem for Tom Bevel, the prosecution's blood expert, because

it contradicted his own theory that the blood was put on the bulb at the time of the murder. The blood on the bulb on both sides was placed there at the time of the killing as opposed to some later time frame. If this blood is tacky, could it have been deposited on this light bulb at the time of death? If the blood is tacky, it certainly could not have been deposited there at the time of death. No way? No way.

But Police Chief James Bacon stands by his initial observation and his word, tacky. It's just an observation. It was the best way that I knew how to explain it. Five days later when I looked at it, it had the same appearance. When it would certainly have been dry. Correct. How important is, in this case, is the word tacky? Very.

Very. It's almost like a smoking gun. Smoking gun? And it's a potent weapon for Kevin's lawyers Michael Robbins, Kenny Johnson and Bill Bristow. The key is going to be whether the blood impression was dry or tacky. And if any portion of it had the consistency of being tacky then that's indicative of

it being put there at the time the body was discovered. The state of Arkansas is attempting to get a conviction based on the blood that they have no way of proving occurred at the time of the murder. Bacon says he was referring to a blood stain on another part of the bulb, away from Kevin's palm print. But he says the jury never understood that. But prosecutors also have that condom wrapper. Police say Kevin found it at Nona's and it sent him into a rage.

They considered checking it for DNA, but chose instead to check for fingerprints that might identify who touched it more accurately. The crime lab told us you had a choice because if we do fingerprints we potentially are going to destroy DNA. If we do DNA we're going to potentially destroy the fingerprint. No fingerprints were found, but it turned out there was some DNA left on the wrapper and Kevin's legal team found it. What did you find on them? Male DNA, not Kevin Jones.

Police believe that supports their theory that Kevin's motive was jealousy. But the defense charged the police work was sloppy. They also zeroed in on Nona's cell phone. Who had she been in touch with the day she died? Kevin's lawyers asked to examine that phone to the great embarrassment of the lead detective. And he finally said, look, I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but the investigator gave the cell phone to the stepfather. I know what happened.

It seems strange, but Mark Frost, the lead investigator, gave Nona's phone to Dwayne Dipert, known as stepfather, in the middle of the investigation. Tell me, why did you want her cell phone back? First of all, I'm a cheapskate. You know, you talk to anybody. You're a cheapskate. Yeah, I'm kind of tight. I could use it at that time, you know, because everything was activated. So I started putting my numbers in and taking her numbers off. But do you know how strange that sounds, that you would take this cell phone because by your own admission you're a cheapskate?

Why? Well, yeah, but... It's a little ghoulish, I guess. Well, I don't know. I guess I didn't think of it that way. I didn't think of it as ghoulish at all. I thought about it and I said, well, no, I don't care if you use it. I think no one would ghoulish at all. I thought about it and I said, well, no, I don't care if you use it. I think no one would want you to have it.

Do you wish he didn't give the phone back to Mr. Dipert? Absolutely. The reality is that everything the state could have obtained from the phone was obtained and that you should never give evidence back on a pending case, period. And that was done. What impression do you think that jury got of your department? That we had no idea what we were doing. But those closest to Nona were convinced,

even if the police made some mistakes, in the end, they got the right man. They had overwhelming evidence against him that you just can't refute, you know. For a year and a half, Kevin's life had hung in the balance. Now, he waited for the jury's verdict. I had a lot of dreams and it was like Nona was right there next to me and then I'd wake up and there would be nobody there. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little known British territory called Pitcairn and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that was still a virgin. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars

on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique lonely Pacific Island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery App, Apple podcasts or Spotify. Flat? I don't know what that is. I don't know what kind of a head is flat. Comes the return of Dark Sanctum. Look. What is that coming under the door?

It's blood. Seven original chilling tales inspired by the Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt. Get back in your car. Lizzie, it's okay. I'm here now. Josh, get in your car. Lizzie, it's okay. I'm here now. Josh, get in your car! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Clive Standen, and Michael O'Neil. Welcome to The Dark Sanctum. Listen to Dark Sanctum Season 2 exclusively on Wondry+. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. ["Wonderful Night"]

The jury has begun deliberations in the murder trial of Kevin Jones. There was just a lot of emotions. Everybody wanted to talk because we hadn't been able to talk about this for almost two weeks. When jurors began deliberating the case against Kevin Jones, the opinions in the jury room were split down the middle. And it just took a while to calm everybody down. They went home the first day without reaching a verdict. How are you feeling? Pretty nervous. When they go into deliberation, anything can happen,

and there are no guarantees. But then, midway through the second day, they reached a decision. Before we sent our verdict in, we all held hands and said a prayer. What did you pray for? We prayed that we had made the right decision and that there would be justice for Nonah. The bailiff came out and said we got a verdict. What did that feel like? Well, my heart started beating very, very fast. The judge asked the foreman

if they had reached a verdict and she said yes, and they handed a slip of paper across, and then he read it. Not guilty. Not guilty. It felt like a 10,000 pounds had been looted off my shoulders. I was sitting there with my mouth hanging open, not guilty. And so I stood up and said, you got away with it, Kevin. You got away with it. I was in a state of shock for a few seconds. I couldn't do anything. I was like... I'm not a criminologist. I'm not a criminologist. I'm not a blood expert.

But I looked at everything that they gave us in the jury room. There just wasn't enough to convict. There wasn't anything that pointed to Kevin as a killer. For 18 months, Kevin lived as an accused murderer. And now it's over. Today, justice was done for Kevin Jones and his family. I just want to thank the jury for seeing the truth.

I mean, it was a horrible thing that happened in a horrible situation, but at that point, I was just happy that I was a free man and that people would stop saying the things about me that they'd said. And people would stop judging my family and me. Is Kevin innocent or is he not guilty, if you know what I mean? Kevin was not proven guilty. There is not enough evidence to prove him guilty. I think he's innocent. Innocent. Innocent, yes.

Didn't do it. Didn't do it. Even former police chief James Bacon told us Kevin Jones now has the right to live as an innocent man. Janice Jones knows her son is not guilty in the eyes of the law, but she also knows in the eyes of some of her neighbors, Kevin is guilty.

It's very hurtful. It is very frustrating. So Janice is determined to clear Kevin's name. I made a promise to Kevin when he was in jail and sitting at the cemetery with my hand on known as the gravestone, I have promised both of those kids that I would keep looking and searching until we found the person who did this.

And Janice Jones may get her wish. Remember that DNA they found on the condom wrapper? After the trial, Kevin's defense team continued looking for a match to another suspect. And on February 6, 2008, attorney Michael Robbins announced they had finally found a match. I think this person is a viable suspect, and the investigation into this individual needs to go forward. A special prosecutor was appointed, and a new investigation began. Hopefully it will eliminate all doubt that I was the person that did this

and we can bring the person to justice that did do it. And just last month... Our top story takes place in Russellville where there has been an arrest of one of Arkansas's most notorious murder cases. A suspect in the 2005 murder of Nona Dirksmeyer is in custody tonight at the Pope County Detention Center. Police arrested 28-year-old Gary Dunn, charging him with capital murder. Dunn was a neighbor of Nona's.

His arrest comes more than a year after Kevin Jones' acquittal for Nona's murder. Before the trial, during the trial, and after the trial, we worked very feverishly to try to find a match. And it took us a considerable amount of time. We were finally able to match that DNA on that condom wrapper to Gary Dunn. Nona's mother and stepfather did not want to talk to us about the arrest. Dunn's mother, Martha, said that her son didn't actually know Nona, even though they lived in the same apartment complex.

I know in my heart my son didn't do this, and I stand by Honey 100%. And I feel sorry for Nona's parents for what they're still going through. You know, they need closure, they need answers. But my son didn't do this. Gary Dunn does have a criminal record. He was on parole at the time of Nona's death. He'd been convicted of second degree battery after attacking a woman in 2002 on a jogging trail. It has been two and a half years of hell.

Kevin Jones' mother is hoping for vindication for her son and justice for Nona finally. Our goal is to know the truth and I felt very strongly that this young woman deserved that from the people who loved her. I think that a lot of people's minds have been changed since the arrest and if there is a conviction then I think you know I wouldn't have to change anybody else's mind. For Nona's family and friends, whatever happens,

her death remains a painful end to a life filled with beauty and haunted by cruelty. She should just be remembered as this remarkable person who came through so much. If you're going to remember her as a beauty queen, you should remember her as the girl who didn't win right away and kept doing it because she enjoyed it and because she wanted to make a difference. Gary Dunn was tried twice for Nona's murder, but the jury deadlocked both times. He was later convicted of kidnapping in an unrelated case and sentenced to 15 years. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at Wondery.com slash survey.

Did you know that after World War II, the US government quietly brought former Nazi scientists to America in a covert operation to advance military technology? Or that in the 1950s, the US Army conducted a secret experiment by releasing bacteria over San Francisco to test how a biological attack might spread without alerting the public? These might sound like conspiracy theories, but they're not. They're well-documented government operations

that have been hidden away in classified files for decades. I'm Luke Lamanna, a Marine Corps recon vet, and I've always had a thing for digging into the unknown. It's what led me to start my new podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries. In it, I explore hidden truths and reveal some eye-opening events like covert experiments and secret operations that those in power tried to keep buried. Follow Redacted Declassified Mysteries with me, Luke Lamannaanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen ad free join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.

Did you know that after World War II the U.S. government quietly brought former Nazi scientists to America in a covert operation to advance military technology? Or that in the 1950s the U.S. Army conducted a secret experiment by releasing bacteria over San Francisco to test how a biological attack might spread without alerting the public? These might sound like conspiracy theories, but they're not. They're well-documented government operations that have been hidden away in classified files for decades. I'm Luke Lamanna, a Marine Corps recon vent, and I've always had a thing for digging into the unknown. It's what led me to start my new podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries. In it, I explore hidden truths and reveal some eye-opening events like covert experiments and secret operations that

those in power tried to keep buried. Follow Redacted Declassified Mysteries with me, Luke Lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen ad free, join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years.

I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.