True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: The Chilling Case Of Beauty Queen Nona Dirksmeyer | True Crime Stories
Episode Date: February 6, 2026In True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha unpacks the chilling and heart breaking case of beauty queen Nona Dirksmeyer. A small-town pageant star is found brutally murdered in her own home—but with no... clear suspect, no forced entry, and secrets lurking beneath a polished surface. Who wanted Nona dead, and why? Through careful research and a compassionate, analytical lens, True Crime with Kimbyr explores the relationships, red flags, and unanswered questions that continue to haunt this case. Was the truth hiding in plain sight? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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ripped away and no one can figure out what happened. This is the story of Nona Dirksmeyer.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlya. If you've never been here before,
nice to finally meet you. So all it took was one sentence while I was researching this case
that compelled me to share it with you. The quote was, nothing good happens after 10 p.m.
And my maternal grandfather used to say this to me. However, he said midnight, not 10 p.m.
And I've lived my life believing that same thing. And I hear my grandfather's voice in my head
every single time I'm out late, especially on a day like this, Independence Day.
That quote, and you'll find out who it came from later in the story, made me dive deep into the life of a couple of families from a very small town in Arkansas.
Today, I'd like to introduce you to Nona, Carol Dirksmire. She was named after her paternal grandmother, and she was born in Louisiana on December 26, 1985, to Paul Dean, who served in the military and Carol Dirksmire, who was a nurse.
She was a Christmas baby, and it's a truly exciting time to bring a little one into the world.
there's just lots of decorations, you have the holiday cheer, and the smell of Christmas trees.
I love that and the mistletoe.
But no one knew that way back then what December 2005 would bring for the Dirksemeyer family.
However, the first tragedy would strike on August 20th, 1996, when Nona was only 10 years old,
her father died.
He was 76, which I thought was pretty up there in age for having a 10-year-old daughter,
but I couldn't find any information on how he passed away.
But it turns out that he took a very evil secret to his grave.
And no one would find out until Nona was in high school.
Carol was raising Nona alone in a very small southern town in Arkansas called Dover.
And I'm talking small.
Like they only had a thousand people living there.
And this is the town that's right near the tragic murders that took place in 1987 by Ronald Gene Simmons.
I don't know if you've heard of him before.
Very crazy case.
He killed 14 of his family members.
So that is where Nona grew up.
And she was a shy, beautiful little girl, and she had an amazing singing voice.
One that definitely matched her natural beauty.
She was stunning.
She had these golden, blonde locks of hair, big green eyes and this beautiful smile
that made people just stopping their tracks and look at her.
The thing about Nona, though, is she didn't act like most girls who knew they were pretty.
She wasn't one of those girls that had a lot of confidence.
She actually kept to herself and she didn't show off.
She wasn't the life of the party and she actually had very few close friends.
She was not easy to get to know and she did keep her circle of friends really small.
And nobody knew why until she confided in her best friend.
But before I get into all that, there is one other person that she was really close to,
probably the closest person in Nona's life and that's Kevin Jones.
They met all the way back in kindergarten and they pretty much grew up together and by the time they made it to high school, the two were inseparable.
They were completely attached at the hip.
If you saw one of them, the other one would be following right behind.
Kevin played the trumpet and she played the flute.
So they had that in common and they loved to just watch movies together and eventually they started dating.
Nona thought Kevin was perfect for her, but he'd probably be perfect for any girl in their small town.
He came from a really good family. He was a nice, all-American Southern boy. He was charming, well-mannered, good-looking. He was a wrestling star, and then he also excelled in academics. So he was the kind of guy you definitely didn't mind bringing home to your parents. Nona's family loved him, and his family loved Nona. When you are living in a small town, everyone knows you, so they all know each other, and they tend to stick together. And they kind of follow what the group thinks as a whole. And this town thought, Highland,
of Kevin and his family. His mother's name is Janice and his father, Hiram. And they took
Nona in like she was one of their own children. Kevin was always by Nona's side. He was the one
helping her through everything. And unfortunately, she was struggling with depression and her
lack of confidence was getting in the way of her being way more independent. Kevin made sure she
felt special and she felt loved because he really did truly love her and he showed that. Her friends
loved her too and they saw this bright light in her and such a gorgeous girl with so much potential
and they wanted to find a way to break her out of this darkness and learn to love herself. So they
tried to think of her best qualities. She was sweet. She was nice to everyone. She was smart, funny.
She had this amazing singing voice that no one would believe would come out of this little girl.
It was like a very powerful voice. So her friends put all of her talents together and they decided
that she should enter a local beauty pageant called the Petitine Valley Pageant now.
Before you judge, because I know there are a lot of negatives that can come along with it.
There can be also some positives.
I should know because I was in the pageant circuit for years, also being a Southern girl.
So it's kind of part of the lifestyle and maybe even expected at times.
Pageants are known to inspire women, build confidence and discipline,
and they even get you involved in your community and help you become more.
social and they can bring you some really big opportunities and it seemed that this would be perfect
for nona and she was a bit apprehensive at first but eventually she got excited about this her mom hired
a pageant coach so that she would know how to present herself on stage and practice her talent
she was definitely not used to being in a big crowd let alone singing or speaking in front of
a crowd of people. Side note. I have a very tragic deep dive about another beauty queen. Her name is
Julie and I will link it below and at the end of this video and I highly recommend you watch that
one after this one. Being in a pageant is not easy. So it would take some time before she actually
performed in the pageant. And meanwhile, she was still struggling with her mental health. Kevin
seems like the only one that could get her out of her shell and there were times where she would
have full-blown panic attacks and Kevin would have to come to her rescue. It did seem like he was
truly the only one that could calm her down. Kevin noticed that she had this sad side to her and he
didn't quite understand why. She would tell him things like she felt ugly and she didn't see herself
the way that other people would look at her. Her best friend Chelsea Huckabee was the first one to find out
why because Nona finally confided in someone and she revealed that dark secret her father had taken to
was grave. He stole something from her. He stole her innocence. He had a very inappropriate sexual
relationship with his own daughter from a very young age. And these things make me sick. They make
me sick to my stomach, especially with a young daughter myself. And the fact that a father,
someone that a child trusts, could take advantage of that trust, just sickens me.
Nona was holding on to this secret for so many years. It destroyed her inside. It made
her feel dirty and broken and she couldn't escape it so she turned to cutting that was the first sign
chelsea saw the marks on nona's body and when she pressed her friend nona revealed her secret
kevin already knew however kevin loved her not that her best friend didn't so he kept the secret
to himself unlike chelsea who decided to tell her mother margie she was worried about her friend
that was her best friend. And Margie, having a daughter of her own, the same age, wanted to do something
about it. So she told Nona that she was aware of what happened and she wanted to come up with a plan
to tell Nona's mother. And I am sure that is not easy because sometimes in these cases,
your own mother doesn't believe the allegations. However, Carol did. From what Carol knew of her late
husband, she took Nona's side in all of this. And Carol was beside herself. She thought it was
horrible. She described it as the end of her world and she couldn't believe that something like that
could happen to her own daughter. Carol herself was in the midst of getting her own life together
and this was just another tragic moment in their lives. After Paul died, she began dating a man named
Duane Dipert, who she would eventually marry and Carol was all known or really knew as this
parental figure and with the past being as tarnished by her father as it was, she was very apprehensive
about another father figure coming into her life.
Nona let Kevin in though,
especially with their track record
of being so close as friends since they were little.
He was one guy that she trusted.
They graduated Dover High School in 2004,
and they decided to attend Arkansas Tech University
and Russellville.
It's only 10 minutes away from Dover,
and her mother Carol lived there with Twain,
but Nona, she did not like how strict he was.
So she decides to get an off-campus apartment,
and nearby. Duane was pretty distant from Nona. He didn't feel like it was his place to become a
father or to step in and help raise her because she was already a grown woman. So he expected the
doors to be locked by 10 p.m. So that meant that everyone had to be home by 9. And as far as he
was concerned, nothing good happened after 10 o'clock at night. He's the one that echoed what my
grandfather drilled into my head as a teen. Nona just wasn't having it. She wanted to enjoy her
college life. She was a music education major and she was studying to become an elementary school
music teacher. She sang in two choirs. She was also a member of the first Christian church
disciples of Christ and she sang in their church choir as well. Nona loved to give back. She loved
animals, especially cats. And as someone who wanted to teach music to youth, she decided to volunteer
for big brothers, big sisters of America. And what this is is a youth mentoring program. And the volunteers
assigned kids in need, which are called littles. And Nona would give these children attention.
She would focus on spending time to build up their confidence and their emotional development
and basically promote positive mental health. And I think it also did something for her inside
with those same qualities. But most of the time, she would just have fun with her little. By the summer
of 2005, Kevin and Nona were 19 and they were done with their first year of college and had been
dating for four years. And at this point, Kevin had to tell Nona some really bad news. It's the
kind of news that can break up even the strongest relationships. And no, it wasn't cheating or
anything like that. Kevin was moving away. And I couldn't help feeling bad for Nona. This was
her strength. This was her support system. Kevin was transferring to the University of Arkansas.
And unfortunately, this was 90 minutes away from Nona. But he didn't want to break up.
at all. He told her he was committed and he would drive to see her every weekend plus they had
cell phones, the internet, social media. They could easily keep in touch daily and that's what
they did starting the fall of 2005 and it pretty much became routine during their sophomore
year of college. They would call or text each other every single morning. It never failed and they
would check in throughout the entire day. Then when classes were out for the day and they weren't
working and all their activities were done, they would talk on the phone. Sometimes,
until the early morning hours after midnight.
As a matter of fact, if one of them didn't answer, they had this routine, they would text
the simple, are you alive text?
Just are you alive?
Totally sarcastic in nature just to get the other person's attention and I've done it
before as well.
Nona really didn't like when Kevin would keep her waiting.
So she would kind of reprimand him if he took a long time to answer.
Kevin was gearing up to see Nona as a very first pageant.
And this was exciting, but it was also a scam.
time for her. This is when all the practice was going to come into play. She was a wreck backstage. She
didn't want to go on. It wasn't until Kevin showed up with flowers and he comforted her that she finally
felt ready. She was at ease. But before that, she was having a panic attack. But Kevin breathed confidence
back into her and she was ready to go. She was stunning. She wasn't even up there to win,
but she was stunning. She was up there to prove something to herself that she could overcome what
happened in her past, that she was worth something that others believed in her and most of all,
that she could promote education on the dangers of what happens to children in those type of
situations that she went through. She wanted to teach how to protect them. That was one of her biggest
goals. I actually, this took a while, but I was able to dig up a few clips of her in this pageant,
and I want to show you just how beautiful she really was. It's like she's a real life Barbie doll.
She was so poised and so prepared, and she really did shine.
They asked her this question.
Hi, Nona.
Hello, Lucy.
What changes would you make in the current education system?
I think the biggest change I would make in the current education system
is to let teachers be more creative with their students.
I would encourage the teachers to be themselves
and let the children experience them for who they are,
make the children want to come to school and learn and make them want to be educated.
And I have to say, it's hard answering on the spot, but she gave it her best shot.
She did really well for somebody that's introverted.
And everyone was really proud of her, but it was her singing that absolutely blew people away.
And I wish I could have heard that, but I could not find a clip anywhere.
People who did hear it described her as a soprano with a very big voice.
Again, surprising to come from a girl that looked like her petite and cute.
And when the judges had to make their final decision,
Nona was not expecting anything.
She was just grateful for the opportunity.
But to her surprise, you probably could have guessed,
she was crowned Miss Petitine Valley.
This was such a huge accomplishment.
Not only because she overcame so many fears,
but because winning this pageant makes you eligible to enter Miss Arkansas.
And then the Miss Arkansas pageant is a stepping stone to Miss America.
and that's kind of a big deal. Things seem to be going really well for Nona. They were a far cry from the crippling experiences that she had as a child, but there were still times where she was triggered. And all those fears would come flooding back in. There were a couple of guys that have come up to her and they had been really pushy. And recently some guy actually came to the door of her apartment and he almost pushed his way inside. They were just talking and it really scared her. She was living all alone. But because of her,
past. She was careful about who she gave attention to and she was very cautious, maybe even paranoid.
She would make sure that her doors were locked at all times, her windows were locked.
She would look around. She was aware of her surroundings. And she was pretty standoffish,
but she was still friendly to her neighbors. You really never know when you'll need one of your
neighbors. So you don't want to totally shun them. And her cat went missing. And there was a neighbor who
He was a married guy from across the parking lot, but he helped to find her cat.
So that was nice.
She wasn't completely closed off to people.
Just careful.
It was definitely better when Kevin was around.
And even though they were far by distance, they did seem to be growing closer.
And they had been recently talking about getting married.
Both of them just figured it would happen sooner or later.
They just couldn't do it because he didn't have enough money.
They were not ready yet.
Kevin definitely saw Nona as his one and only.
He missed her.
And it seemed like he was having a harder time dealing with that, with them being apart than she was.
Nona was opening herself up to other people, but just becoming friends with more guys than she had before,
kind of seeing other guys here and there, and Kevin did not know this.
Maybe because she was crowned of beauty queen that boosted her confidence.
And it wasn't certain to those around her if she did plan to marry Kevin or not.
These are the most important years of your life.
there when you're just starting to find yourself and there's a lot of uncertainty it was a really
busy semester for nona she was really looking forward to winter break but she's got to make it through a few
more finals and it had just been a couple weeks before christmas before nona's 20th birthday she was finally
going to be out of her teens and she and kevin were going to get to hang out a lot more since both of them
would be out of school what nona didn't know was this was going to be her last winter break that she would
ever have. She did not have a clue that she would never see the age of 20 because someone was about to
take everything away. On Wednesday, December 14th, Kevin drove to see Nona. He was already out on winter
break, but Nona had a couple finals left. So they spent the whole day together at her place,
and they both had plans the following day. Nona had a final, and then she had a plan for the
evening with one of the little girls from the little sister's organization. She was going to
hang out with her, give her some gifts, and just spend holiday time with her. Kevin had a few errands to run.
He had to work that day. And then he promised his mom, she was a librarian, that he would drop her off
at a Christmas party at the school she worked at around six. So he didn't want to spend the night with
Nona. Instead, he stayed pretty late. And then he drove back to his parents home that was just 10 minutes away.
Their house was back in Dover. And he got in around midnight. And then he called Nona to tell her that he
arrived home safely. The next morning, he woke up a little later than usual. It was his break,
so he slept in. Who doesn't? When he turned on his phone and looked at it, he saw a text for Nona
that she had sent at 9.30, and it said, good morning, Cuddle Muffin. I love you. I hope you have a great
day. He knew she was going to be busy with school and that she would probably call him after her final
to let him know how it went, but she never did. Considering their history, they had this routine for the last
four and a half years, he wasn't expecting her not to call and not to answer his call because he
kept calling and messaging, but there wasn't an answer. That is the worst feeling. I panic. Seriously,
I'm so worried when someone doesn't answer and it's like out of character for them. But Kevin
wasn't worried at first. He was just kind of concerned. It just wasn't like her and so many thoughts
were going through his head. Some of those thoughts could make you angry, like why is this person
ignored me and some could be more concerning like did they get in a car accident i'm sure you know how it
feels then he sent the text that they would send back and forth sarcastically you alive and still nothing
it was the early evening at one point and he's getting ready to drive his mom to the party and
now he's getting pretty worried his mom being a mom was comforting him and telling him there's so many
reasons why someone doesn't answer she could have just like changed her plan so don't panic but he couldn't
focus on anything else. And as he was driving his mom, he called up one of his friends. His name is
Ryan and he delivered pizzas near where Nona lives. So he tells his buddy, hey, this is what's going
on. Can you just drive by her apartment and see if she's there? Like is her car park there?
What's what's the story? So Ryan just drives up to Nona's apartment and he does see her car. So he
parks and he goes up to the door. He knocks. He gets no answer. However, he notices there's an
upstairs light on. So he calls Kevin to let him know. He told Ryan, don't go anywhere. Stay there. I'm on
my way. And he told his mom, we're not driving there. We're turning around. We need to check on Nona.
He was speeding. He was in a panic. I think sometimes people close to you can feel that something
isn't right. I know that I can. It's happened to me before. And it's one of the worst feelings,
especially when your intuition is right. And Kevin's intuition was right. Something was wrong.
in Russellville, a 911 call comes in and the woman on the other line is sobbing. And the operator
asks, what is the emergency? The woman can hardly speak, but she manages to say that they need help.
This woman is standing outside Nona's apartment. She needs help and she gives the operator
the name of the person inside. It's Nona Dirk Smyre.
Police rush to her apartment and once they're inside, they realize.
that something very bad had happened. The first thing they noticed after seeing Nona lying on the floor
completely nude was Nona's face. It was unrecognizable. It was beaten. There was blood everywhere.
And it was obvious that there had been a struggle. Her bra was beside her body as well.
And there was a broken lamp and a pair of jeans that were inside out and panties that were
thrown into the corner. Police are quickly scanning the entire room preliminarily. You never know
if the perpetrator is still in the residence. Someone was there, and it was startling, and police were
confronted with a completely blood-soaked man that was coming out of the shadows. His hands were dripping.
It was all over his clothing, his face everywhere. It was Kevin. His hands were raised up in front of
him as palms toward the officers, and the police were trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Kevin is quickly pulled outside. He's frantic. He seems to be distraught, and he screams,
did somebody do this to Nona and they say yes.
And then he says, is she dead?
And they say yes again.
They immediately detained Kevin.
They go through the normal process once Kevin is cleaned up.
He's ushered into the interview room for questioning.
Nona's mother Carol arrived.
She was in total shock.
It's a parent's worst nightmare.
And the first thing she did was she yelled through tears to police,
I want to see my baby.
Of course, the officers told her, you can't.
They wouldn't let her through the crime scene tape.
And sadly, because of the mental health concerns that Nona had faced throughout her life,
Carol's first thought was that Nona had done this to herself.
Without seeing exactly what happened in there, this was just an assumption,
but she was finally informed that Nona had been murdered.
I thought this was interesting, but Carol said that she wished that she had been the first one to find Nona.
Because as tough as it would have been,
she would have been able to hug her one last time and to hold her and look at her instead of knowing that she was just steps away, yet so far out of reach lying on the floor as strangers picked and probed around her.
Carol was told that Kevin had been brought to the police station for a few questions.
Just a few questions about Nona. This was Kevin's very first time in a police interrogation room, and across from him is Detective Mark Frost.
This was Detective Frost's first time working a homicide case.
And as they say, there's a first time for everything.
Kevin is obviously their number one prime suspect.
And they're already building their case against him.
All they wanted was his confession.
Meanwhile, at the scene, technicians are gathering as much evidence as possible,
known as clothing, anything on her body.
They searched for weapons and they found areas around the apartment that they were preparing for fingerprinting.
Notably, they found what looked like,
a bloody handprint. It was tacky and still wet and it was located on the light bulb inside a broken,
twisted, mangled lamp. On the bottom of the base was strands of blonde hair and a blood smear.
And they figured this is most likely what caused such trauma to her head, which was the area
with the most damage. There was also some blood on the blinds and near the front door.
They did locate Nona's cell phone and they realized the battery was removed and it was missing.
After the technicians were finished gathering everything that they could from Nona, she was sent to the coroner's office for a full autopsy.
Now they wait.
Switching back to the interrogation with Kevin, I do have some clips.
I looked at them several times.
And I'm so curious about what you think about his demeanor.
He's in the room alone at first.
He's rocking back and forth.
He's talking to himself.
He's even praying at one point and he's saying, you know, she didn't deserve this.
She deserved a life.
And he seems to be overcome with sadness.
When investigators get back into the room, here is what he said happened after he didn't hear back from Nona and had Ryan go over.
When I sent a text message to wrap Ryan when I was leaving the house, I said to go over there and then he called me when I was in Roastrow and said that she wasn't answering her door or anything.
So I took a turn off of Main Street and by the whatever the first National Bank is, whatever that road is.
whatever that road is. And we headed out that way and we turned and went to her apartment.
And she wasn't answering her in her door. Who's weak? Me and my mom. And Rod was already there
standing in your door waiting. He tried to open the door up. He's a pizza guy, right? Yeah. He tried to open the
door up. It was locked. So he deemed the doorbell a few times and it didn't work. What's right?
What side? White side. A couple things here. Why so detailed about which roads he took? Because
sometimes people who are guilty, they need time. So what they do is they buy the time by giving
this needless information while their brains are thinking of ways to get past the hard questions.
So I'm going to ask you what you think here. Do you think that this is what's happening?
Also, he seemed very calm. This was only about an hour, maybe a little more, after he found his
girlfriend dead. I know everyone reacts differently to something so traumatic. Now let's see what he
says happened next.
Okay.
And then I had her there.
So I opened the door, the sliding door on the back, she always kept it locked with a stick in it.
Or maybe you didn't even have a lock, and she always kept a stick in, I can't remember.
But she always kept something in that where nobody could do that.
The sliding glass door was unlocked apparently from what he says, that he knew she had a wooden stick or something that was keeping the door from being pried open.
I saw her laying there and I got on top of her and started to pray.
How did you get into that?
It was a lock.
Backsliding door.
I don't know if it kind of had a little bit of...
At first, I pulled it.
I didn't move that and they yanked it and it opened up.
Come here, what you saw when you first entered.
I saw her laying there with blood all underneath her head.
And she had a card from her mom right next to it.
She had her mom to her.
He says he rushed inside and he got on top of her and he prayed that everything would be okay.
The part about the card from her mom made me feel sad.
The next thing he said was that he called her around 1 a.m. or so letting her know he got home.
Then he had a combo with his mom and called her the last time to say good night.
When did you last spoke with me?
I told her to us from my house from.
What did you guys talk about?
I just, she was half asleep.
I was supposed to call her when I got home about 12, 4, maybe it was like 1.30.
It was late.
I talked to my mom and got some stuff.
And then I said, oh, she got a call, oh, so I called her and she said, all right.
I'm going to sleep. I cried mom and I told her letters.
They pressed him that night. They wanted a confession. They kept him there for three hours and he denied having anything to do with Nona's death.
And he told them, check everything. I did not kill Nona. I wouldn't do that. And then he added, I would kill myself before I'd do that.
Now here's where things get a little weird in the interview room. Check this out.
After the investigators leave again and they do this for several reasons, a couple of
tactics. They want to hear what a person will say while they're alone, which is funny to me by now,
I would imagine that people realize that they're being recorded. But another reason they leave
is to gather more evidence to use to get a confession. They might get DNA results back,
something like that. But look, he is seen hitting the back of his chair pretty hard. And
investigators think that this shows a sign of rage. What do you think? Could it be a reaction
to the fact that Nona's dead. I don't know. They took note of what they thought was his propensity
for violence. Now let me share everything the investigators gathered from this interview because I don't
have all the clips. And I'm starting where we left off when he arrives at Nona's. But one small
caveat that I cannot stop thinking about. We know he says he slept in the next day. But he says he
turned on his phone and I found that to be a little odd. And the reason I say that is because
I never turned my phone off. I sometimes put in airplane mode, but back in 2005, did we? Was it different back then? Did people routinely turn off their phones at night? Especially a couple who talk so much and they rely on each other's responses in a timely manner because this seems to play into something that's coming up. But he says he turned on his phone and that's when he saw the text from her and she sent it around 9.30. So he's obviously turning on his phone after 9.30 and then he never heard from her again.
I will fill in more of these gaps as the story unfolds.
And man, there are a lot of gaps.
This case had my head spinning.
Kevin's version of events go like so.
When they arrive, he jumps out, he rushes to the door.
He tries opening it, but it's locked.
He realizes that he usually has his keys, but he doesn't have these keys with him.
Maybe he had his mom's keys.
Maybe it was her car.
I don't know.
But his keys included her apartment key and he didn't have it.
So he runs over to her sliding glass door.
which is in the back. Kevin didn't think they were even going to get in because she keeps this long
wooden stick as an extra measure to keep intruders from coming inside. There were these cream-colored
blinds that were hanging and they were open just a crack. Kevin was so busy trying to open the door.
He did not see Nona. But Ryan did. That's when he stops Kevin. He put his hand on him and he looks at
him and says, do you not see her? As he looks back kind of motioning, you know,
through the sliding door for him to look. That's when Kevin saw her. Nona was on the floor of her living
room. She was nude except for a white pair of socks that were still on her feet. He somehow prized the
door open and rushes to her and he says that he straddled her midsection with his knees on the
ground, so right above her midsection. And he tried to give her CPR, but she wasn't breathing.
And her eyes were in this open, blank stare. They were dark and lifeless. They were dark and lifeless.
He talked to her. He prayed for her until he saw the police and EMT come in. That's when he got up and walked toward them covered in blood. At some point before this, Ryan lets Kevin's mom Janice inside. It was after what she witnessed that she stepped outside to call 911. There's a conflicting thing about that we're going to get into in just a moment though. They finally let Kevin go. And at this point, they really just don't have enough evidence to arrest him for anything. And they have other people to interview like the guys that no, no,
was seeing behind his back. Kevin, after this, goes straight to Nona's mom's house,
and he helps her prepare for the viewing and the funeral, especially because Carol wanted him to
pick out when Nona would wear. That's so sad. Thinking about picking out the outfit of your girlfriend
who you love is going to be buried in. The autopsy report came back in. Her face had been
severely smashed a number of times. She had bruises on her.
brain and her bone in her neck was broken and she had 17 wounds like stab wounds on her body.
There were also some shallow cuts around her neck and her shoulders and her approximate time of
death was between 10 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. The injury that caused her death was a blow to the back
of her head and investigators suspected it was done with the heavy metal base that was on the floor
lamp I'm going to show it to you here. It's pole or rod was like mangled and
twisted and it was laying just inches away from her body with blood on the bulb.
The investigators found something else, something that they considered very significant.
It was in the kitchen on the counter. They found an open condom wrapper, not the condom, just the wrapper.
And this gave investigators a new theory right away, one that pointed right to Kevin, jealousy.
They assumed it wasn't Kevin using a condom, so who was it? And did Kevin find out and go into a rage?
As you can imagine, the murder of a beauty queen in a small town caused a big stir.
It was really shocking to this community.
She was beautiful, talented, so young, with so much life ahead of her.
So there was a lot of pressure put on the police to solve this case.
And the public and the press were intense.
You can imagine the pressure that Detective Frost was under,
considering this was his very first homicide.
We all want cases to be solved.
but sometimes that pressure can lead to the wrong person being convicted.
Detective Frost interviews a number of people, known as friends, family, the residents of the
apartment complex that she lived in, and the guys that she'd been talking to or seeing in a more
friendly manner.
And all of their alibis seemed to check out.
So they were laser focused on Kevin once again.
It was December 21st.
Six days had passed since the last interrogation.
And it was the day of Nona's viewing.
Kevin was gearing up to say his last goodbyes.
However, he had some information that he wanted to give to police.
So he calls them.
And he lets them know that there are some rumors that a man was seen leaving Nona's place on the day of the murder.
And while he's on the phone, police kind of like disregard his information and they say, you know what?
Can you come down to the station?
We're not going to be long.
You'll be back in time for the viewing.
No problem.
