Going West: True Crime - Davina Buff Jones // 351

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

In October of 1999, a police officer reported near a lighthouse on a North Carolina island, when she was killed after arrival. With her fellow officers botching the crime scene, years of speculation followed about the circumstances regarding her death. Was it a murder? An accident? A suicide? To her loved ones, the conclusion was clear. This is the story of Davina Buff Jones. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Davina's Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26388583/davina-elaine-jones 2. Charlotte Magazine: https://www.charlottemagazine.com/shadows-by-the-sea/ 3. Asheville Citizen-Times: https://www.newspapers.com/image/198711857/?terms=davina%20buff%20jones&match=1 4. The Herald-Sun: https://www.newspapers.com/image/794046853/?terms=davina%20buff%20jones&match=1 5. Still A Mystery: https://www.amazon.com/North-Carolina-Unsolved/dp/B09NV5GDRN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CTIVXGAMLORD&keywords=still+a+mystery+davina+jones&qid=1696367772&sprefix=still+amaystery+davina+jone%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1 6. Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/crime/2012/06/25/analysis-of-13-year-mysterious-death-of-cape-fear-police-woman/?sh=7083fc336ebd 7. Casetext: https://casetext.com/case/buff-v-nc-law-enforcement-offices 8. Star News Online: https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2003/10/25/officers-death-still-leaves-questions/30528827007/ 9. Harriet's Obituary: https://coastalcremationsnc.com/obituaries/harriet-emily-buff/ 10. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1ofb16/murder_of_officer_davina_buff_jones/ 11. ABC11: https://abc11.com/archive/8661279/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, big thank you to Sierra for recommending today's case. This is a very interesting, very mysterious story that takes place in autumn on an island off the coast of North Carolina. Yes, an extremely puzzling case we have for you guys today. And if you want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered thus far. Check out our socials. We're on Instagram at GoingWestPodcast on Twitter or X at GoingWestPod. We also have about 10,000 of you in our Facebook discussion group, which is just so amazing. It's a place where you can talk about these cases and maybe throw out some theories of your own.

Absolutely. What without further ado, shall we? Yes we shall. All right, guys, this is episode 351 of Going West. So let's get into it. What's behind a life-electrified? What's lighting up our communities? Powering more carbon-free commutes and boosting homegrown innovations? Its electricity generated right here at home.

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like that cemetery bloodline streaming October 6th. Get Paramount Plus and scream, I mean scream now. In October of 1999, a police officer reported near a lighthouse on a North Carolina island when she was killed after arrival. With her fellow officers botching the crime scene, years of speculation followed about the circumstances regarding her death. Was it a murder, an accident, a suicide? To her loved ones, the conclusion was clear. This is the story of Davina Buff Jones. Divina Elaine Buff was born on July 29, 1966 in Charlotte, North Carolina as the middle of three daughters born to Harriet and Lloyd Buff.

She was described by her tight-knit family as loyal to a fault and a great friend and supportive sister. The family spent their days working together at their restaurant, the Peddler Steak House, and when the girls weren't in school, they were helping out at their parents' business, which was situated just outside of Charlotte. So this restaurant offered like a very homie feel with hand-cut steaks and a salad bar, and Davina often helped out as a hostess. Her mom Harriet reminisced later saying quote, she was my best hostess we ever had in 20 some odd years.

A gift for gab. Davina's warm and extroverted nature made her very popular with friends and boys alike, but she also had a bit of a tougher side. And her family remembers her growing up quote, smoking, spitting, and cursing according to one interview. I love that actually. Yeah.

Kind of badass. Well, you'll see how that comes out in her future career. So, Davina had a penchant for writing and she wrote everything down, just scribbling in journals and jotting down lists on scrap pieces of paper. Her dad, Lully, remembered quote, she wrote down almost everything she did. For example, after seeing Forrest Gump, she penned quote, She fell in love with and married two different men, which both Union sadly ended in divorce. That's how she got the addition of Jones to her last name. At 31, Davina underwent a massive career shift, and she actually enrolled in the police academy.

And she took her role very seriously, and was an absolute stickler for the rules, just knowing that she had to work harder than basically most of the men that stood beside her. She had no issues with calling out harmful behavior if and when she sought, regardless of who was on the receiving end of the complaint. Harriet mused, quote, she couldn't learn to keep her mouth shut. When she saw mistakes, she would bring it to the boss. But Davina felt as if she had finally found her calling during her time at the Academy, and upholding justice in order actually gave her purpose.

After Harriet and Loy retired closing their restaurant, they relocated from the Charlotte area to the water, settling in the beautiful coastal town of Oak Island, North Carolina. So Davina followed them, and was stationed on Bald Head Island, which is a drive in a ferry right away. Located just off the coast of North Carolina at the tip of Cape Fear River and flanked by the Atlantic Ocean, Bald Head Island is known for being like a very affluent area. Encompassing just 6 miles or 9 kilometers and housing only 200 full-time residents. It's not known for its criminal activity,

like it's pretty much a very safe area to live. Most of the land there is undeveloped and cars aren't even permitted to be on this island aside from like police cars. So the island boasts a slow pace that matches its small town southern charm. There's nothing like an island with no cars, that just really, really hones in on that small town southern charm. There's nothing like an island with no cars. That just really, really hones in on that small town vibe.

It does, yeah. Definitely and I actually went to Catalina Island a few years ago and it's the same thing. There's no cars, barely any cars allowed on the island. So basically everybody just rides around in golf carts. Yeah, which is really fun. Yeah, it's super fun. So though police work there was pretty quiet,

you know, they mostly dealt with like disorderly, drunk vacationers and golf cart DUIs, Davina still loved being an officer. But the wealthy, sleepy beach community wasn't used to someone who was such a disciplinarian. Baldhead Island residents were used to a very relaxed lifestyle. And actually her bosses and fellow officers even had to caution her to lower her standards for what was deemed criminal, which is something that didn't really come easily for Divina, but she did try. But it didn't really work out, and Autumn of 1999 was a particularly hard season for

Divina. After nine months on the job, she had been searching for a different placement, just kind of feeling that bald head island probably wasn't the right fit for her. She had been sending resumes to stations all over North Carolina, even back in Charlotte where she was from, hoping to find a post that was better suited for her. She had also dealt with a recent complaint of sexual harassment and was in the midst of pressing charges against a co-worker. On top of her work struggles, Davina was navigating a breakup.

So on the evening of Wednesday, October 20, 1999, just two days before her death, Davina called her on again, off again, boyfriend Scott Monzen to discuss what was going on between them. Davina met Scott in their police training program the year before, and things between them had been tumultuous from the beginning. So that night she asked him to come over to her house and talk about what was in store for them. But when he arrived to chat, she was drunk, which was really uncommon for Davina.

He told her they should talk another time when she was in a better headspace and then put her to bed. But desperate to talk to Scott, she followed him home, stumbling inside and begging to speak with him. He claimed he had to take her back multiple times that night because she continued to follow him back to his house, urging to work things out with her. So then, he finally contacted a fellow officer and had them warn Davina firmly to stop driving and stay home. And then that night Scott officially ended things with her. And this is kind of interesting because she seems to be a stickler for the law, but yet she's breaking it.

Yeah, but yeah, she's drunk and she's keeps driving back to Scott's house. And I understand, I mean, probably not the best mix is alcohol and breakup talks, but still. It is interesting, though, knowing how much of a disciplinarian she was, like you said, this doesn't seem like a normal behavior for her. Yeah, it doesn't really align with her morals. Totally.

So anyway, on Friday, October 22nd, 1999, so two days later, Davina and Scott spoke yet again, but this time on the phone. And according to Scott, they reached a mutual agreement that their relationship had become like too toxic to sustain,

but that they both wished the best for each other and wanted to remain in touch. Scott explained, quote, she asked me something to the effect that no matter what had happened, no matter what lies ahead of us, we would still be friends. And I told her yes, I felt that she was still a good friend of mine, even though both of us had said things and done things we probably regretted. That evening, her shift began at 6.30pm and it went until 6.30am the following morning. Now, D'Vina drove from her home on Oak Island to the Southport Ferry Station,

boarding a 6pm ferry headed to Baldhead Island, because remember, she did live off the island. Now, on her way, she stopped for cigarettes and a coke, and then, while aboard the ferry, though her shift had yet to officially begin, she spotted three men drinking beer out of open containers, which was prohibited on this ferry at the time. So much to their annoyance, she forced them to pour the beers out over the edge of the boat. When the ferry docked, Davina headed to the station to begin her shift with her partner Keith Kane.

Then around 10pm, the two took a break for dinner, during which they received a call that someone had stolen a golf cart from a restaurant called the River Pilot Cafe, located where the boats docked at the Marina. So they departed police headquarters, which was a humble trailer in the center of Baldhead Island, and Keith got into a Chevy Blazer for his patrolling while Davina set out in a white Ford Ranger pickup truck, because remember, police were the only ones that were allowed to have cars. While they were unable to determine who had made the call about this stolen golf cart,

and they did locate this golf cart which was verified by its registration number. Then they returned headquarters together and Davina ran a search on the registration of the golf cart. Keith was finishing his dinner while Davina was on her computer, apparently also working on sending out resumes to prospective employers. Then around 11 p.m., Davina rose from her desk, telling Keith that she was going to do a lap around the island.

And he remembers that she had departed so quickly that she didn't even hear his offer to go with her. Then less than 20 minutes later, at 11.19pm, Davina called her ex-boyfriend Scott, which was the third call to him that day, from a payphone near the baldhead island Marina. Scott remembered that she was especially quiet on the call, which was very unlike Davina's usually outspoken personality. He remembered later, quote, if you knew Davina, you'd know that she was loud. When she was happy, she was loud.

She was talkative. On this particular call, he claimed, quote, she wasn't as loud. Her voice wasn't as loud as it normally was. About a half an hour later, at 11.48 pm, Keith, who remember is Davina's partner, received a radio transmission from Davina reporting that she was approaching three suspicious male subjects. Remember this. She can be heard saying quote, 10-4, show me out with three, stand by please. So Keith headed out to Helper, hopping in his Chevy Blazer. But then, he heard Davina say, there ain't no reason to have a gun here on Bald Head Island, okay?

So guns are prohibited on the island, by the way, but then Davina continued saying quote, you wanna put down the gun. Come on, do us a favor and put down Then, ears splitting feedback intercepted her radio call. So Keith and an operator continued to try calling Davina, but couldn't hear anything and didn't receive an answer back from her. Keith raced around the island searching for his partner until he came upon a pair of

static headlights near the old Baldi Lighthouse, which is a 200-year-old institution on the island. The white Ford pickup truck that had been Davina's patrol car that evening was left with the motor running and its lights on, and a late flash light was in the front seat with the driver's side door left open. Approaching cautiously, Keith spied what he initially thought was a pile of leaves or trash, but upon further inspection, he realized that it was Davina's limp body. So Davina was lying face down looking left with her feet pointed toward the car.

She had been shot in the head and a gun was found under her right hand. Keith frantically checked her pulse but found none so he called back up and both the police chief and paramedics responded to the scene. Caught up in the chaos, Keith moved the gun from the scene of Davina's discovery to the ground near his vehicle, eventually moving it inside his vehicle. Now later he was asked why he touched the gun and he said that he was concerned there was an active shooter still in the vicinity. That doesn't really make sense to me because if there's an active shooter still in the vicinity, that's not really an excuse to move the gun that was underneath her body to his car.

Like that doesn't really make sense because an active shooter would probably have their own fucking gun. Well, even if they weren't right, and even if they were using her gun, it's like in his head, someone's gonna run up from nowhere and grab the gun and shoot them, but it's like, isn't everybody else armed? Yeah, you've got the chief there, you've got Keith there, you've got the paramedics there now. But also, if you think that there's an active shooter, there could be evidence on the gun, so why are you touching anything in a crime scene? Yeah, does not, not a very smart or good look.

Yeah, then this is a devastating move, for sure, as we'll talk about later. So nearby, someone who worked on the island recalled hearing what he said was the slamming of a garbage can lid, which we now know was the gunshot. However, no one in the area that night saw or heard anyone fleeing the scene. Nor did they see a boat speeding away or any sort of commotion. Which nobody heard or saw anything this guy was,

like the only one to hear anything and he thought it was a trash can lid so it doesn't seem like anybody is really around to hear or see anything anyway. Yeah, and to be fair, this is down by like a lighthouse. So, and down by the marinas, it's probably not like a heavily trafficked area at night, especially midnight. Yeah, sorry.

But also an aerial photo of the scene taken in the aftermath of her death revealed a golf cart parked by the lighthouse, leaving some to wonder if the call placed earlier that evening about the stolen golf cart had been a distraction or possibly a red herring. But this lead was never followed up on, and the origin of the complaint about this stolen golf cart remains a mystery, like nobody knows who made this call. Which is weird because originally when they were looking for that stolen golf cart and the caller that couldn't find it anyway. So the fact that that happened shortly before her death

and that this theory even came up that it could have been a red herring is really suspicious to me. Well, on top of this, what makes this whole case interesting from the get-go is how inaccessible Baldhead Island is, because it's only reachable by private boat or ferry. Meaning whoever did this could not easily flee this area unless they did have their own boat. But still then you could get caught because you're probably the only guy out there

or midnight on his boat. Very true. And also nobody heard any boats leaving the marina that night. Right. So the county sheriff ordered that Davina's body be removed from the scene at once, because the shooter was believed to still be at large and in the area. Now as Divina was whisked away on a boat toward the mainland, the Coast Guard and the remaining

officers including Keith attempted to secure the scene, still believing that an armed gunman was in their midst. And they remained on the scene for hours without gathering any evidence, basically treating it as a standoff before coming to the realization that whoever had shot Davina was long gone. Meanwhile, Davina's bloody body was transported openly for anyone to see on a stretcher on the ferry. When the ferry reached the mainland, she was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital.

And sadly, around 4 a.am, when she reached the hospital, Davina was officially declared deceased due to this gunshot wound. A preliminary autopsy was performed, and the bullet was discovered to be that of a 40-calibre pistol, which is the same weapon that Davina used while she was on duty. And the weapon that was found underneath of her that night was actually hers. Which would make sense anyway if she was trying to protect herself from a shooter across from her that she would have her gun in hand. Right, but the weird thing here is that the police on the scene never confirmed that the bullet did in fact come from Davina's gun. Gunpowder was found in the wound indicating that it was fired at close range, but there

were also copious amounts of mistakes in the cursory autopsy. For example, the medical examiner listed her height as 65 inches, or 5 foot 5, when Davina was actually 59 inches, or 4 foot 11. The report listed her weight as 140 pounds, when she weighed less than 100 pounds. Which these are a lot of inconsistencies, I mean, the first one, they're off by six inches, and then the next thing, they're off by over 40 pounds. Like, those are pretty big inconsistencies,

and why? Very much big inconsistencies, and also it just gets worse here. It does, so basically, the bullet wound was also incorrectly listed as being under her ear when it was actually in the center of the back of her head, which is something that would greatly affect

the investigation because it would have been much more difficult for her to achieve that angle herself. Like, if you're able to safely try to like make a gun out of your fingers and put it to the center of the back of your head. That hurts. That's a hard to do.

And this is a finger, not a big fat gun. Whereas she easily could have received a self-inflicted gun shot wound on her neck below her ear, which is where the coroner listed it to be. Again, a huge discrepancy. Those are completely different places on your head. So why was it listed that way that's that i don't know if you're a trained corner you would be able to easily differentiate a gunshot wounds to the neck and to the back

of the head so this just to me and consistency it feels very suspicious to me yeah i agree i agree so in the coming hours divling's parents and friends woke up to the shocking news, just reeling from this sudden loss. Then a major setback came up. So that day, Saturday, October 23rd, just hours after Davina's death,

the entire crime scene was hosed down by the fire department. And the reasoning for this is going to absolutely piss you guys off. Okay, so basically that evening, the evening of Saturday, October 23rd, the wedding of a wealthy, prominent resident of Baldhead Island was to be held at the chapel that's adjacent to the lighthouse. So they didn't want the conspicuousness of a crime scene, like, tarnishing their wedding day. So the fire department was asked to clean it up,

and they obliged. So they basically just said, fuck this crime scene. We don't really care, like, this prominent family is trying to have a wedding. And, like, it's just like, what? But that's the energy that is across this whole investigation. This is a small town. Very, very, very little crime is committed here. Almost nobody lives there full time.

You know, you said 200 residents full time? Exactly. That's almost nobody. And the fact that you can't drive onto the island, you have to take a ferry or a private boat. This is just a happy little magical place, you know? So I think this was such a rarity to happen at all for there to be a death by gunshot wound.

That they just didn't know how to deal with it. And they probably didn't care. They're like, oh, this doesn't happen here. Let's just try to kind of literally wash this away. So police chief Karen Grasty later said, quote, I was horrified by the way the body was handled, but the way the investigation was handled was equally horrifying.

I was shocked, totally shocked. I raised hell and was sent home. Wow, so even she thinks that this whole thing is... This is the police chief. Yeah, she thinks it's all messed up. Yeah, not just how her body was handled, but how the crime scene was handled, which is everything, because if we don't keep

the integrity of the body in the scene, how can we investigate? Right. So Davina's funeral was held that Tuesday, four days after her death. Local businesses shut her their doors out of respect. And during the service, Davina's uncle called her quote, a shooting star, saying, quote,

how quickly seen how soon disappeared and gone, how long remembered. The following day, a public address was held to allow law enforcement to answer the questions and concerns from residents. And sadly, on an island where crime is very, very little, they had little information to offer about this situation. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations became involved immediately, and announced, quote, we are open to every possibility. We're looking for an answer as fast as we can. It shouldn't be as fast as you can. It should be to your best ability. Sure, I mean, I think they're just saying that because they want the residents of this small It shouldn't be as fast as you can. It should be to your best ability. Sure.

I mean, I think they're just saying that because they want the residents of this small island to feel comfortable. But I also think that that quote says a lot, that they're just trying to get answers and close the case and move on. Sure. Because they want, they don't want the people on the island

to be scared. There's a lot of powerful people that live on this island. They just want to put the medis and carry on. And unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that's in Davina's best interest. No, not at all. So Davina's family was brought to her home to begin surveying what she left behind. And as you could expect, the house was in order as usual, and Davina had left no indication that anything was wrong. There was no good buy note or letter, and she had even left behind a to-do list for the coming weekend.

Lloyd said doubtfully, quote, you can't tell me that somebody would make a note to themselves if they were planning to kill themselves later that day. But suicide quickly became the scapegoat for the lack of an investigation. So now police are saying, hey, we don't think there was a homicide. At first, they're like, oh, there's probably an active shooter. Then they realized there wasn't, and now it's, oh, she probably took her own life. But even so, police claimed that they were ruling out persons of interest one by one, but there were very few.

They even interviewed the three men on the ferry that Davina had scolded for like drinking beer earlier that Friday night, but they were ruled out. Which is interesting, and I'm glad they at least interviewed them because remember what was one of the last things that Davina told Keith is that she was closing in on three suspicious men on the island. Yes, and that's one of the things in this episode that I don't think, or in this case,

that I don't think people really took a good look at because it's almost like by them saying that she took her own life, they're completely taking away from this call that she had made back to the station. So then, Davina Sister Tanya claims that her recent ex-boyfriend Scott may have been involved, as he was even found to have been in the area of the Southport Fairy dock on the evening of her death, but he was ruled out as well. Investigators spoke with and swiftly cleared any of Davina's friends, family, exes, and co-workers who may have been considered of involvement.

It makes me wonder, sorry, really quickly about the person that she was pressing charges against for sexual harassment. I was thinking about that too. What up with that? Yeah, I mean, that's very, very suspicious that, you know, she's got a claim against one of her co-workers at the department because that was very, very soon before her death. So it's very, very soon before her death, so it's very, very suspicious to me.

But public opinion on the small island was already veering toward Davina having killed herself, and soon enough, it seemed as if Davina's own, the police force, were starting to believe that as well. Well. This episode is brought to you by Coca-Cola Creations. The sights and sounds of the future are a mystery to us, accessible only through our imaginations, but for the first time ever, the taste of tomorrow is closer than ever. New from Coca-Cola Creations, Coca-Cola Y3000, the bright, fruity taste of the future. Search Coca-Cola Y3000 to learn more.

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Lego Duplo sets! Everyday life is their big adventure to learning grow. Lego is a trademark of the Lego group. Devastated at the handling of the case, Davina's family hired a private investigator, Monty Clark, not trusting the work being done by the police. But just as Monty and the family were settling out to make their case, the disappointing news came.

Six weeks after Dvena's death, the investigation was closed with the manner of death being ruled a suicide. The Brunswick County District Attorney Rex Gore released a statement that read, quote, it appears that Divina Jones, an officer for the village of Baldhead Police Department, died from a self-inflicted wound. The evidence that we now have from the Baldhead Police Department, the Brunswick County Sheriff, the State Bureau of Investigation, and the the FBI strongly points to suicide.

The different agencies working together have put together a thorough investigation. A number of factors led investigators to begin to consider suicide early into the probe. The fact that finally led this office to conclude that suicide was the most likely cause of death or the results from a test performed by the FBI. The lead slug taken from Miss Jones, together with the lead from the bullets from the clip in her gun, were sent to the FBI to be analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emissions spectroscopy. The test revealed that the slug that killed Miss Jones was analytically indistinguishable

from the slugs from her gun clip. The report says that this is consistent with the slug from her body, originating from the same source as the bullet lead from her clip. I gotta say though, I think that that being a reasoning of the bullet, sorry, the bullet came from her clip, that that's your reasoning as that the w the bullet sorry the bullet came from her clip that that's your reasoning as if it's not possible that somebody could have grabbed her gun off of her you know what I mean like that's your reason yeah I mean it's definitely possible but that wasn't conclusively they didn't say that it was conclusively matched right well they said analytic

analytically indistinguishable so basically but again they also had put on her autopsy that she was shot below her ear when it was actually the center of the back of her head so they just bungled a lot and it's hard to know if what they're saying feels accurate right yeah because they already messed up so many times so many times so though district attorney gore expressed for the family, he was also firm in his findings, announcing, quote, that decision was not made without a lot of thought. It was not made in a vacuum. Our conclusion was that evidence wasn't there to support a homicide.

But when you looked at all that there was, the likely answer was a suicide. But let's look back at what Keith said. He heard Davina say right before she died. She had apparently said, there ain't no reason to have a gun here on Baldhead Island, okay? Because again, guns were prohibited on the island. And it does sound like she's talking to somebody, so who was she talking to? Because then she can be heard saying, you want to put down that gun? Come on, do us a favor and put down and then it goes, then you hear that loud bang over the radio. And that was it, unless she came up with some master plan to make her suicide not look

like one by acting like she was talking to someone else. But that just seems really bizarre. But because the same type of bullet was used and because there were no suspects on this tiny island, it seems that they just wanted to close the case. When asked what really happened at the lighthouse late that October night, Rex Gore said that ultimately, they could never be certain that only quote, God and officer Jones know what really happened. Aside from the lack of viable suspects in the positioning of and bullets from the gun, investigators offered another reason that for Davina's family was vague and frustrating. They cited her rocky history of mental health as another clear indication of Davina having

taken her own life. Rex said diplomatically, quote, facts revealed during the investigation relating to the personal life of Miss Jones also point to the possibility of suicide. Since those are personal issues, we will not discuss them. It points to a decision that she was not murdered, that she chose a different path. Her family were the first to admit that Davina was being treated by a doctor for depression, leading up to the end of her life, but also claimed that they did not believe that she would

ever have harmed herself. Her sisters and parents even poured over her recent journal entries, where she recorded all of her most intimate thoughts and feelings, and found no indication of suicidal ideation. And not to say that there wasn't one, but it just really felt like someone else did this to her. Tanya said quote, my sister was doing the best she had ever done in her life. She was happy. Then, a theory was hatched, painting Divina as an opportunist with a dark history.

If Divina took her own life, she would have nothing to leave behind for her parents, but if she were killed in the line of duty, her family would receive a payout. And some speculated that this was a calculated move on Divina's part. One last kindness that she could leave her family. But Tanya argued against this point, saying that her parents were retired, happily settled in Oak Island, and that they did not need the money. So she just continued to push that suicide was not the case. On October 20, 1999, the day she had her final fight with Scott, Davina saw Dr. Resshli.

And when he was asked about this in his professional opinion, he felt that Davina was not at risk for suicide and did not warrant hospitalization based on what they discussed in their final session. In her final call to Scott from the payphone on the evening of her death, Scott remembers quote, She asked me something to the effect that no matter what happened, no matter what lies ahead, would we still be friends and I told her yes." Which obviously Heath already told us, but then Scott says that when he told her that he needed to go, she simply said she would talk to him later and that was the last time

that they spoke. So all of this, along with the lack of evidence at the scene of her death and the lack of suspects, led to the district attorney's ruling of Suicide. But aside from both the body and the gun being moved in the aftermath of the shooting, as well as the crime scene being a hose down, other curious details pulled at the strings of the district attorney's supposedly airtighttight suicide ruling. So get this, the gun was free of fingerprints completely, even Davinas, and Keith's were also not present even though he had moved the gun twice after she was already pronounced dead. So why were there no fingerprints on this gun? Obviously, it seems like somebody wiped down the gun. You would imagine, and remember, it wasn't hose down because by the time the fire department

hosed down the area, the gun had been moved into Keith's car. Right. So, how did it not have anybody's fingerprints on it at all? That is super suspicious. Now aside from these really strange details, there were also rumors of a kilo of cocaine having washed up on the beach in the days following Davina's death. And Davina's dad, Lloyd, said that she had spoken to him about an active drug trafficking scene on the island and believes that she may have found her way into a drug drop.

Lloyd remembered that she had filled him in about, quote, all this drug activity near the lighthouse. The week she told me, she was killed. So could Davina have been a whistleblower and been struck down while she was simply trying to do the right thing? Because Davina seemed to genuinely believe that there were drugs and money being exchanged at the lighthouse. And then that's where she dies?

Right. And she had apparently even requested that an officer who worked in vice meet her there that night to verify those claims, but no one ever showed. And she was left to navigate the situation on her own. Which makes you wonder if that's why at that time, she rushed out and said, all right, Keith,

I'm gonna go do a patrol or what, what is she, a loop? A loop, yeah. So I wonder if maybe she was like, oh, I gotta gonna go do a patrol or what, what is she, a loop? A loop, yeah. So I wonder if maybe she was like, oh, I gotta go meet that device agent. And that's why she didn't maybe even ask Keith if he wanted to come with her. I mean, that could be the reason she rushed out of there.

I mean, it's definitely possible here. So Karen Grasstee, the police chief at the time, has stated that she believes it's absolutely possible that Divina intercepted a drug deal knowingly or not and that she paid for it with her life. Scott Monzen told the Buff Family's private investigator quote, she told me several months before she was killed, she got information that they were making big drug deals down by the lighthouse. Not quarter bags, kilos, big suitcases of money were being transferred.

Four years after Davina's death, her family took the case to the North Carolina industrial commission, a state agency for social services based in Raleigh. And the hearing went so far as to attempt to recreate Davina's physical position at the time that the gun was fired. Using women her size to see if they could arrange themselves the way that Davina would have had to in order to shoot herself in the back of the head. Well, the Commission's report described requiring, quote, ''strained maneuvering to be able to position the gun that way, so the Commission ruled it a homicide,

and then finally, in 2012, Davina's case was officially reopened. So between Davina's death and the reopening of her case, two of the key players were indicted on felony charges, which although unrelated to her case, greatly discredited their opinions. And we always kind of knew that the police on that island were a bit shady, but it just

goes even deeper. Well, here we go. So in 2012, the same year that Davina's case was reopened, Brunswick County District Attorney Rex Gore was indicted on felony conspiracy charges. In 2008, Sheriff Ronald Hewitt, who had been the one to order that Davina's body be moved from its resting place on the evening of her death, was indicted on felony obstruction of justice charges. Now among the charges against him were sexual assault, embezzlement, and even arriving to crime scenes intoxicated.

John David, Brunswick County's District Attorney Replacement, made it a personal mission of his to seek closure for Divina and her family. He announced this after taking office, quote, since the time that District Attorney Rex Gore made his initial determination, several questions have arisen regarding the cause of death. There are many people, including the family members of Officer Jones, who believe that Officer Jones was murdered. Their primary concerns are whether there

was a rush to judgment in this case, and whether those responsible for the investigation were thorough in their analysis. Despite these findings, District Attorney Rex Gore was unwilling to change his initial determination or rule the cause of death as undetermined. Unfortunately, this action on Mr. Gore's part led many to conclude that he was not acting in a fair or impartial manner. Regardless of the truth of this assertion, such a perception is damaging to the office

of the district attorney. So, in 2013, John David officially changed Devinas' cause of death to undetermined. Bald head islands town manager Wade Horn remarked, quote, "'To me, what is really bothersome about this whole thing is that we're never really gonna know the answer. We're not. The evidence was lined up on both sides, and I think a reasonable person could argue either side. I believe that."

Davina's mother Harriet passed away in 2020, and then her husband Louis followed in 2021. Now, her sisters are continuing their fight for justice for Davina. Now her sisters are continuing their fight for justice for Divina. In 2008, one of them even penned a memoir about the harrowing experience and their journey to get the case taken seriously as a homicide. It's called Out With Three, the murder and betrayal of Baldhead Island police officer Davina Buff Jones. If you have any information about the suspicious death of Davina Buff Jones, please call the Baldhead Island Police Department at 910-457-5252. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Man, I am so glad they looked back at this case and thought this, we cannot concretely rule this suicide. Just the fact that they changed it to undetermined and that her case was reopened. I mean, all you can really hope is that somebody that knows something comes forward because all the evidence is gone, essentially now. Which is super, super unfortunate.

Hopefully there will somehow be answers anyway. So thank you Sierra again for recommending this case. Thank you guys everybody for tuning in. And we'll see you in a few days! Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger! 1.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5%

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