By Steve Huff
(Continued)
Dover, Ark. doesn't see much violent crime. Statistics from the 2000 Census indicated only one murder. And Nona was, after all, murdered in Russellville. But still, shortly after Kevin Jones was arrested on the last day of March, the sign on the Bayou Bridge Café on State Route 7 read, "We Love You, Kevin."
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| Bayou Bridge Cafe |
The Jones family has lived in the Dover/Pope County area for generations. By comparison, Dirksmeyer's family has perhaps been in the area for a couple of decades. Some familiar with the case felt that a sign like the one at the Bayou Bridge Café was drawing some sort of line dividing locals between those who supported the accused, Kevin Jones, and his family, and those who believed Kevin murdered Nona Dirksmeyer.
After all, Kevin Jones didn't seem to fit with the concept many might have of a killer. He'd been an honor roll student all through high school, on the Dover High baseball team as well as a member of the school's award-winning band. Kevin lived a fairly active life on the internet, playing games online, even leading groups of gamers, using nicknames like "Warhammer."
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| Kevin and Nona |
Kevin Jones was a young man other young men might very well envy, especially once they saw his girlfriend, Nona Dirksmeyer. Miss Petit Jean Valley was a multi-talented musician, and moreover, a young woman on a mission, her social platform when competing for scholarships in pageants being child abuse. The two shared a close network of friends, some who tried to comfort Kevin in the days after Nona's death even while they mourned their own loss. To them, his arrest might have seemed like a second death.
Was there some split coming between the high-school sweethearts? They had shared each others' lives for nearly 5 years. Both were musicians, and in Nona's obituary, Kevin Jones was referred to as her fiancé. Kevin said after Nona's death that he'd been planning to ask her to marry him.
What was on the greeting card Ryan Whiteside saw Kevin touch in Nona's apartment? Perhaps it was just Christmas tidings. Perhaps an early birthday card, as Nona would have been 20 the day after Christmas.
Whiteside and Jones were able to gain entry to Nona's apartment through forcing the sliding glass door authorities found later that normally that door was doubly-reinforced by a stick that stopped it from sliding back if the locking mechanism failed. Investigators never did find that stick Nona used for added security.
On the counter in Nona's kitchen was an open condom wrapper. No condom was ever found, and the medical examiner found no evidence of sexual activity when he examined Nona Dirksmeyer. She had not been raped.
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