The violent demise of a cherished teenage competition queen in her school room is a cold case that has rattled the small the town of Russellville, Arkansas for nearly two many years.
Nona Dirksmeyer was overwhelmed, bludgeoned, and stabbed to dying within her apartment days prior to her 20th birthday in 2005.
The beauty festival contestant and soprano singer was attending Arkansas Tech University when she used to be discovered useless in her off-campus housing, Inglewood Apartments, when her boyfriend found her bare frame in a pool of her personal blood.
And, despite police establishing two major suspects and prosecutors conducting three full trials in a bid to pin down the killer, no one has been held in control of her murder.
Her murder is set to be tested in NBC’s Dateline new podcast, Murder in Apartment 12, which shall be launched on September 26.
Nona Dirksmeyer used to be overwhelmed, bludgeoned, and stabbed to loss of life inside her off-campus school rental days prior to her 20th birthday in December 2005 – on the other hand, no one has ever been convicted of her horrific murder
The first suspect used to be her long-term boyfriend, Kevin Jones, who was once acquitted after a tribulation. They had been relationship for 4 and a part years, and he used to be the person who discovered her frame in December 2005
Gary Dunn was once twice charged and attempted in the murder case of Nona Dirksmeyer, but each instances the jury used to be hung. He used to be a unfastened man, till he attempted to kidnap every other Arkansas beauty queen and was once sentenced to 15 years in prison
The first suspect used to be her long-term boyfriend, Kevin Jones, who used to be acquitted.
The 2d suspect was Gary Dunn, her neighbor, whose two murder trials led to hung juries.
Dunn is now, mockingly, sitting in prison for his unnerving come across with a different beauty queen in the Arkansas identical the town.
But justice for 19-year-old Nona has never been served.
On December 15, 2005, a condom wrapper used to be discovered a couple of feet away from Nona’s bloodied, bare frame inside of her faculty rental.
The simplest clothes she used to be dressed in used to be small, white socks. It used to be believed that her head had been smashed with a heavy base of a lamp mendacity close by.
She had been punched in the face so laborious it caused bruising on her brain, and she had shallow stab wounds in all places her neck and shoulders.
Nona had also been strangled to the point her hyoid bone in her neck was once damaged.
Her boyfriend Kevin Jones, who went to another school and came to visit Nona in December, become anxious when he couldn’t achieve her that day.
He went to her condominium along with his mother, because the pair had been about to move off to the mom’s Christmas birthday party, and his pal Ryan.
They noticed her frame through the sliding glass patio door, which had no longer been properly locked.
Dirksmeyer, a former beauty competition contestant and soprano singer, was once attending Arkansas Tech University used to be discovered useless in her off-campus apartment in 2005
Justice for 19-year-old Nona has never been served. She is pictured all over her beauty queen days
Janice Jones, Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend’s mom, used to be the person to make the haunting 911 call. She stated: ‘My son’s female friend. I think she’s dead. There’s been a horrible twist of fate.’
In an audio clip, Kevin Jones may also be heard many times pleading: ‘I didn’t do it.’
Kevin and Nona had met at kindergarten in Little Dover and during their four and a half year dating, Nona was ‘part of their circle of relatives,’ his father Hiram in the past advised Dateline.
On the morning of her dying, Nona had despatched her boyfriend a text message: ‘Good morning cuddle muffin. I really like you and hope you have got a really perfect day.’
It was later in the day when she stopped answering his calls that he knew one thing used to be flawed. He despatched her a textual content: ‘You alive?’
When he made his option to her rental to test on her, he saw her body and rushed within. There was once blood on her face and a puddle of blood beneath her head. Kevin desperately tried to perform CPR, and lifted her in his hands to carry her.
Nona’s mom Carol Dirksmeyer later said she wished she had found her daughter, in order that she can have held her for the last time.
When Carol arrived at the scene, crime tape was once already up and the police investigation had started.
Nona was a wonderful soprano singer – a talent she showed off at the pageant competitions
Kevin Jones, left, walks along with his parents, Hiram Jones, 2d from right, and his mother Janice Jones. He used to be put on trial – however used to be discovered no longer accountable – of murdering his girlfriend. His mom Janice was once with him when he discovered her useless body, and made the 911 name
Carol, left, mother of Nona Dirksmeyer and her husband Duane Dipert speak to the media all through a information convention, Friday, March 31, 2006
Kevin used to be known as in for questioning twice, and the second time was once matter to a polygraph take a look at that the examiner stated he failed miserably.
He used to be then arrested on March 31, 2006 for the murder of his female friend.
At first, police and prosecutors argued that it was once Kevin’s DNA and fingerprints on the lamp that had been hit over Nona’s head – but this used to be soon debunked.
The protection additionally asked to look Nona’s cellular phone, which had had the battery removed during the murder, as they argued there might be evidence on it.
But the state admitted that that they had given the cellular phone to Nona’s stepfather, Duane Dipert, who had utterly erased its content material. He denied it was once finished out of any malice.
It additionally became out that the ‘examiner’ who had administered the polygraph take a look at on Kevin was now not an actual examiner, and the test was once simply to get him to confess to the crime.
After an intense trial in 2007, and 8 hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously made up our minds that Kevin Jones was once no longer responsible.
Jones, Nona’s boyfriend, observed being interviewed by way of police on December 21, 2005, days after her death. He was once subject to a polygraph test – which used to be run via any person who was once now not an authorized skilled
This picture, launched by the Pope County Sheriff’s Office, presentations Kevin Jones, then 20, in a police reserving picture Friday, March 31, 2006. He was once arrested for murder and went to trial – however he was once in the end found no longer to blame because of the lack of proof
Jones, chatting with Dateline, mentioned: ‘I know exactly what it feels like to have other people assume you did something that you didn’t do, and I wouldn’t ever want that on anyone else.
‘I still now and again have dreams with her in it… and it’s like she’s proper there.’
After failing to convict Jones, investigators became their attention to another person of passion – Gary Dunn. He lived in the identical development advanced as her, and had a legal history.
Prosecutors charged Dunn, and said that there was once DNA proof linking him to the crime. They said that he raped or tried to rape Nona, sooner than killing her.
But two separate trials ended with deadlocked juries – and Dunn used to be released.
By chance, 13 years after the demise of Nona Dirksmeyer, Gary Dunn was arrested again in December 2018 on fees of attempted kidnapping.
He was once on parole for a separate case at the time.
Ironically, it was once every other Arkansas beauty queen that was burdened via Dunn who helped put him at the back of bars.
Rylie Wagner, who was once at Arkansas Tech University, the same college Nona had attended over a decade previous, noticed that Dunn was following her in his automobile on day.
Rylie Wagner, who was once at Arkansas Tech University, the identical college Nona had attended over a decade earlier, noticed that Dunn was once following her in his automotive on day
This is the automobile that Gary Dunn used to stalk, block in, and try to kidnap two ladies in. It used to be later revealed that he had ropes and knives in his automobile. He was once sentenced to fifteen years in jail for the crime
It was after Rylie Wagner and every other girl reported Dunn’s behavior that he got put in the back of bars – however not for the murder of Nona 18 years previous – as an alternative, for tried kidnapping
Wagner recalled to KATV: ‘I remember thinking to myself how absurd it was as a result of of intently he used to be following me. And that’s when I began paying attention to the sort of automobile he was once driving and I noticed it was a person in the automobile.
‘And I really just began observing the whole lot as a result of I had a sense that one thing wasn’t proper.’
He blocked her car into a spot in a car park and pressured her to get out of the automobile. It used to be later printed that he had ropes and knives in his vehicle.
She stated: ‘That’s when he attempted to drive me out of the automotive and advised me get out of the automotive. For a moment I iced up and I wasn’t certain what to do because the whole thing was happening so fast, it used to be so surreal. I was in shock.
‘And he kept seeking to open my automotive door, but I had already locked it as he was coming near my vehicle.’
She started calling 911 and he fled the scene, however just 17 mins later, police received a second name from some other girl who had additionally nearly been forced into a automotive via the similar guy.
Dunn was once arrested for attempted kidnapping. He used to be sooner or later sentenced to 15 years in jail, however has best needed to serve a third of that sentence.
Prosecutors decided not to to try to Dunn for a 3rd time in the murder of Nona Dirksmeyer.
Her murder case is due to this fact still open, with no conviction.
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