did. he's a part of our history here now and he always will be. and we miss him. >> and if keith was listening, what would you say to keith? >> that i know he's in a great place. and keith would tell us to forgive becky. not to say that she doesn't have to be held accountable, that she doesn't have to suffer consequences because that's a given and that's the right thing. but keith would ■çactually want us to forgive becky. and i know that. and i would just tell keith well done. your time on earth was well done. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. and this is "dateline." i'm craig melvin. this is dateline. >> they were high school

sweethearts. >> expected to spend the rest of our lives together. >> when she was murdered sympathy turn to suspicion. >> no question it was his. >> the mystery was just beginning because >> dna was some other mail. >> as the town chooses sides, more startling developments in a horrific murder. >> you've got something this bad. somebody has to pay. kevin jones were a couple with a bright future. hello, and hello, and welcome to dateline.19-y nona dirksmeyer, kevin jones were a couple with a bright future. she was a self-confident 19- year-old known for her beautiful voice and he was her devoted boyfriend with big ambitions. than a brutal attack shattered

their dreams. it was a crime that was shake a small southern town to its core and pit to family■ç against the community they called home. here is keith morrison with what happened to the beauty queen? >> look at her. look at the young woman at the heart of our story. your first impression was probably locked in and unlikely to change and that's how it was in russellville, arkansas. a town worth first impression like a patch of cement and for better or worse with the young man accused of killing her. the boyfriend who found the body? >> the boyfriend who found the body. >> first impressions diehard including first ■çimpressions o

murder. years later in the small southern town we had to ask, can they ever change? that question is obvious not a kevin jones but years ago he didn't give a figure whom he impressed her didn't. all he knew was this. he was going places. he was from a good family. lived near a wonderful fat town called russellville and was well-liked. and was adored by one girl in particular, his high school sweetheart, nona dirksmeyer. she was kind of like a soulmate i suppose? >> i was closer to her than anybody else. >> he was going to marry her someday. she was about the prettiest girl in town. local beauty pageant judges were wowed ■çby her looks and poise. already, crowned her as such. here is another truth her boyfriend came to realize. beauty really isn't everything. nona was a sometimes troubled

girl, emotional turmoil. her mother was grateful to kevin for making her daughter happy. >> kevin was really interested in helping nona get through the hard times she was having. he seemed to be a caring person. >> he even brought nona into his family. as mom janice and dad treated her as one of the run. >> she was not a girlfriend. she was our family. >> it was time for kevin to go to college and he and nona stayed in touch and in love through late-night cell chats and texan ■çemoticons. when he didn't respond promptly, she would wake her finger at him. >> she would say, are you still alive? sarcastically. trying to get my attention. >> which is why he was taken aback that they a little week before christmas 2005, it was

december 15. nona uncharacteristically hadn't reached out to him or answered him since morning. at one point he turned her tolland back on her texting google lies, even then, she did not respond. this was not like nona. >> 4.5 years we had made a pattern. that's what we did every day. if that pattern is broken, it waves a red flag in my head why is she not responding? >> were you worried? >> i was concerned. >> who knows why things work out the way they do. on that night, kevin was supposed to drop his mom janice to a christmas party. she remembers being in the car with him. >> i said, you know, there's lots of reasons she may not be answering her phone. maybe her chance changed. >> he called his buddy who delivered pizza near nona's apartment and asked to check

on her. her car was in the lot. house ln but she was not answering the door. >> i said i'm going to come over there. >> they pulled up to the front door. >> ryan and i knocked and rang the doorbell and nobody came. ca we started to get a little frantic. >> they ran around to the back door. kevin said he rushed up to the sliding glass door without taking a moment to look inside. >> when i was grabbing the handle, ryan touched me and said to you not see your? i looked at him and he said dude, there she is. she was laying in her front room. >> nona wasn't moving. kevin threw open the door and rushed inside. >> ryan at one point let my mom in the front door. they called 911 pretty soon after that. >> her name is nona dirksmeyer. >> nona dirksmeyer?

>> i straddled her midsection, my knees were on the ground above her midsection. >> he tried cpr but she was no breathing. her eyes usually so luminous, there was no light. there was nothing at all. >> i talked to her and prayed everything was going to be okay until ems got there. >> soon the apartment was overwhelmed by paramedics and police. p it wasn't long before an officer took kevin aside. janice listened as her son's voice rose above the chaos. >> then i heard him cried out. >> a how will? >> that's what it was. he asked them if she was dead and they affirmed yes, she was. >> nona was gone. nothing kevin could do about

it. as he tried to absorbed the enormity, he heard the police, could he come downtown, please. they had a few questions about what happened to nona . did kevin know what happened? police seemed to think so. >> you been in a fight >> recently? >> watch what happened when police were not asking questions . >> oh, my god. please tell me, what am i gonnal do? gonna do? shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. only shingrix is proven over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. [♪♪]

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keith morrison (voiceover): in pictures, for up to 8 hours of powerful relief. nona dirksmeyer forever radiates promise and beauty. ■çin pictures, nona dirksmeyer forever radiates promise and beauty. but there is something ugly that lives on too. her death and the way she was so brutally taken. her mother carol knew it was bad the moment she arrived that night to see police at nona's apartment. >> i told them i want to see my baby and they said you can. they had crime scene tape up. >> police told carol it was obvious that nona had been murdered. they were on the case they told her. they were trying to break down nona's last moments on earth. >> when did you last spoke with her? >> about 1:00 last night. i called her from my house phone. >> questioning the ■çman who ma

have known her best. >> i've never been in a fight. >> kevin jones seemed eager to help police figure out who killed his girlfriend. he agreed to go to the station that night to answer a few routine questions. >> what happened? >> i called her all day. i thought maybe her phone was dead. >> he careen from what looked like disbelief to grief. anger. back again. >> couple of questions. >> a few questions turned to many and were pointed. >> i would never. i would i would kill myself before i heard her. >> ■çthey would leave me alone the room. they would ask me questions. >> oh, my god.

>> after a while, the police told kevin he could go home. they had other people to talk to. young men nona have been seeing while kevin was at college. it was not long before detectives determine the alibis for those other men checked out. 60s later as he prepared to say good-bye to known at the funeral home, police asked him to come back to the police station. >> after 20 minutes they asked if i would take a polygraph test. >> what did you say? >> i said sure. >> they stripped him up and ranç through the innocuous questions and then -- >> did you cause the death of nona dirksmeyer? >> and they analyzed it and came back and said what? >> the man told me he had not seen anybody fail a test worse than is 28 some odd years of

giving lie detector test. >> kevin, there's no doubt that you killed her. >> the murder of the beauty queen was big news in russellville. given the nature of the crime and the victim so young and pretty and vulnerable, the pressure to solve it from the public and press was quite intense. imagine how it was for the lead detective marc frost given that this was his very first homicide case. as he talked to kevin, he sounded like a veteran who had seen it ?@&l and was disgusted. >> you did this. you did it. >> you are dead wrong. >> point-blank. >> wasn't really a questioning. it was more of them yelling at me and telling me they knew i did it. >> the police didn't arrest kevin that night. this is what they did instead. they told nona's mother that the young man she thought would be her son-in-law was in

fact her daughter's killer. >> first thing i was told was he was a social path with a narcissistic personality. >> nona had been stabbed repeatedly and bashed on the head. the medical examiner said that's what killed nona. the police told carol this had to have been a personal attack on something debt but kevin■ç, no carol had two shocks to absorb. >> i knew in my heart it was someone she knew. she would never let anyone in she did not know. >> now, kevin's horrifying's discovery was a dark and troubling spin. the detective said to him, the crime scene out there looked staged. a week later, there was a press conference at which the police told the public don't worry we know who committed this crime. >> police didn't mention the suspect's name then but it was not long before everybody in russellville knew it was kevin

jones. this is what appeared in the courier three months after known as murder. known as killer remains free and russellville police department has reqtqáuq" formal charges against one suspect. jones was kevin's father. >> they tried, convicted and sentenced him and 90 days. if he was a stranger walking in a coffee shop visiting russellville and you read that, what would you think? >> it bothered kevin's mother went bumper stickers, justice for nona started cropping up. after all, she loved nona too. >> the assumption i formed and i think many people formed was that justice for nona meant convict kevin. >> topping the news. police make an arrest in the 19- year-old beauty queen. >>■ç not long after the courier

article, police did announce the arrest of kevin jones for the murder of tran -- nona dirksmeyer. whether he was convicted in the court of public opinion was now apparently irrelevant. he was about to stand trial . white possibly be convicted where it really mattered, a court of law. >> coming up. a print in blood on the lamp used to kill nona. guess who? >> no question it was his. >> on another key piece of evidence? >> the tna was some other mail. new mr. clean ultra foamy magic eraser? with the scrubbing power of magic eraser and the cleaning power of dawn. watch it make soap scum here... disappear... and sprays can leave grime like that ultra foamy melts it on contact. magic. new ultra foamy magic eraser.

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keith morrison (voiceover): a small southern city, a local beauty queen murdered, her boyfriend a small southern city, a local beauty queen murdered. her boyfriend accused of the crime. it was hard to be in russellville in 2007 and not be steeped in the story of nona dirksmeyer and kevin jones. >> this case probably had more statewide publicity than any other criminal case in many years perhaps ever in arkansas. >> kevin had a right to a fair trial and impartial jury. 's lawyers argued that would be impossible in a place like russellville. so the venue was changed to the nearby city of ozark. >> the spotlight is on a small town as jury selection begins. >> to the prosecutor the ■ç

location mattered little but what mattered was the evidence. he believed there was enough to put kevin jones away for years. jeff phillips was a deputy prosecutor. >> we believed and i believed that the morning of her death, kevin jones came in unexpectedly. >> when the trial open, the prosecutor told the jury the reason for the crime was as old as the bible itself. jealous rage. kevin jones had walked into his liver's apartment that day and found within it a cheating heart. >> while there, discovered either a text message from another person and/or a used condom wrapper on the counter. things escalated from there. escalated out of control. >>■ç and that the prosecutor sa jones repeatedly stabbing nona then crushing her skull with a lamp base. left his palm print

on the bulb. >> no question it was is? >> no question it was is. the defense didn't even make an issue. >> it's what kevin did next that shows how calculating he could be. he left the apartment with her dead on the floor then waited through the afternoon until hours later, when he could come back with his mother and friend to find nona's body. >> in my opinion, intentional attempt to have someone else find her but him. >> trying to make himself look innocent. if that wasn't telling enough the prosecutor said, surely this was. kevin jones police interview right$çthere, the prosecutor told the jury was kevin's capacity for violence in full view. sitting and listening to this, kevin's father worried how easy it would be for jurors to convict his son. >> it was a nightmare. >> his parents never wavered in

their belief that his son was as innocent as he told police he was. they even bet the family farm. >> we put it up as collateral. >> and use the money to buy their son the best defense they could. and he needed it. kevin's lawyers new their client had become the local poster boy for evil. >> when you've got something this serious, that is this bad, this girl was brutally murdered. >>■ç somebody has got to pay. >> somebody has got to pay. >> somebody but not kevin said the attorney. this of the readout of the polygraph to a independent reader said it was designed to make kevin fail. the rest of the evidence didn't wash either. the palm print, the murder weapon, the attorney agreed it was kevin's print and no wonder it was. kevin was frantically trying to save his girlfriend's life. he could've touched the light

bulb. >> it's a totally innocent situation. the blood got on the light bulb at the time the body was discovered. >> when he is trying to revive her? >> yes. the emt said the lamp was a foot of the body. >>■ç more disturbing? the evidence collected by police. said the defense, first time homicide detective mark frost and the other officers mucked up the case royally. >> the only area that was fingerprinted was the area around the body that there was blood near the front door. there was blood on the venetian blinds. a condom wrapper a short distance from the body. the police didn't go upstairs to see if it was flushed. did not fingerprint the commode. don't dna that. don't dna anything up there. >> the defense did its own dna

testing on the condom wrapper. by the prosecution's account, it was a key piece of evidence. the thing ■çthat set kevin ofte has murderous rage. but think about it said johnson, if kevin actually saw the condom wrapper, he would've picked it up. left his own dna on it. but -- >> we sent the wrapper off to a lab and they found the dna. the dna was some other male. >> someone else's dna and not kevin. probably, said the defense, the condom was used by the killer. but who? neither defense nor prosecution had an answer. the dna didn't match anybody in the database. kevin's lawyers did have this. an alibi for their client. kevin's grandmother told the court he could not have killed nona because he was with her miles away in the town of dover around the time the state said nona ■çdied. >> she is a down to earth, very

levelheaded person. she was an incredible witness on the stand. >> there was one compelling piece of evidence in the case of the defense, and they wanted jurors to see more of it. that police video of kevin. >> she didn't deserve this. she deserved a life. >> the defense watched all of it. it was betting this image would convince jurors they should change what may have been the first impression and decide kevin was not the killer the prosecutors painted but a grief stricken young man who was innocent. what to believe? in the courthouse, the jury wrestled with the verdict.■ç 50 miles down the road in russellville, the town cried for justice. if that meant conviction, well, so be it. >> would jurors convict kevin

jones of murder? and whose dna was on the key piece of evidence? coming up. >> is that it matches. he said, well, it matches gary dunn. >> who is gary dunn and what, if anything, did he have to do with known as murder? i was sad. colton: i was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. brett: once we got the first initial hit, it was just straight tears, sickness in your stomach, just don't want to get up out of bed. joe: there's always that saying, well, you've got to look on the bright side of things. tell me what the bright side of childhood cancer is. lakesha: it's a long road. it's hard. but saint jude has gotten us through it. narrator: saint jude children's research hospital works day after day to find cures and save the lives of children with cancer

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the far right national rally party now leading in the first round of voting in parliamentary elections. this comes just weeks after the president called a snap election following similar victories for the far right across europe. in nigeria, 18 are dead after coordinated attacks from female suicide bombers in the northern part of the country. a group or individual has yet to claim responsibility. welcome back to dateline. i am ■çcraig melvin.

kevin jones was on trial for the murder of his girl friend, nona dirksmeyer. prosecutors painted kevin as a jealous boyfriend whose bloody palm print found at the scene was evidence he committed the crime. the defense countered that kevin left the print while trying to save nona's life. it was time for the jury to decide. here again is keith morrison with what happened to the beauty queen. >> kevin jones sat in the courtroom, watch the fight for his life swirl around him and felt in that uncomfortable chair, the withering stares of the jury. >> they can look at you and if you do one thing wrong, they deem it as wrong, that might sway them the opposite way. >> one facial ■/%ujuárjjñ >> one click of a pen. one bite of your fingernail. you never know how people are going to think. >> he had every reason to worry.

later the jurors would recall how the images of the crime haunted them. >> blood all over the pictures. >> the palm print. >> but to the jurors, the evidence, or lack of it, looked bad for police too. >> the glass door for example the perpetrator when out was not fingerprinted inside or out. the kitchen floor would've been excellent for footprints. he obviously walked across there. no prints were taken. >> they said that sloppiness made them wander. what else did the police miss? what other suspects? the police claimed■ç that they had checked the alibis of all these potential suspects. >> as well as the gathered evidence? >> what really stuck with them was kevin sitting in the police interrogation room looking to be genuinely distraught.

>> i felt bad watching him in this little cubicle of a room. >> the evidence pointed more to innocence than guilty. after eight hours, they had their verdict. not guilty. kevin was free. enormously relieved but furious at detective mark frost in the russellville police. >> it frustrates and angers me that the police did not care enough to do their jobs the right way.■ç it frustrates me they did not find the person who did this. >> nona's mother believed the old boyfriend had possibly just gotten away with murder. >> if you think somebody else did it, why are you trying to find them? >> who can begrudge a grieving mother's challenge. not the jones family. the day kevin was acquitted they stood here on the steps and felt they would do whatever it took to find nona's killer. kevin's father financially wiped out by the cost of all of

this as to son's legal team one more favor. >> said this is what i've got. don't know how much i need. don't know how i can pay you, but i need this. >> the lawyers agreed to help. they asked an investigator, thiç man, to keep working the case. his name is todd, part-time police man in dover just outside russellville. part-time detective and full- time preacher. what an odd combination. >> i used to say it's the ultimate good guy. >> right away he knew there was a key piece of evidence that amended a closer look. the condom wrapper found in nona's apartment. it held someone's dna, but whose? he wondered if police cleared the male friends and neighbors of nona too quickly in the early days of the investigation. >> do they have a valid alibi? either i'm missing something or -- i began to feel some of those people may be needed to

have their dna compared. >> his legal team rolled up their sleeves and slacks and went diving through trash belonging to ■çthose young men and they got some dna samples, but none matched the dna on the condom wrapper. the policeman preacher needed a lead. you could say he needed a miracle. and wouldn't you know? he got it. came in the most mundane way. two months after kevin's acquittal in more than a year after nona's death, the police chief told him to question a suspect in a recent burglary. a man by the name of gary dunn. his eyes widened at that. >> my chief looked at me and i said, do you know who he is? he said yes. he was one of the neighbors to nona dirksmeyer. >> gary dunn, a neighbor of nona's. he was among the ■ç men who had

been question and cleared by police. he knew that dunn would've had the opportunity to kill. 's bedroom window looked across the small parking lot at nona's bedroom window. now, he had to get the dna . >> how did you do that? >> i asked him for it. >> he said yes? >> basically. i asked if he would be willing to give fingerprints and a dna sample. if i can rule it out, then we are done. >> there was a problem. to get the sample tested he needed the jones family to pay for it. at first kevin's mother hesitated. it would cost $600 but the investigator insisted. >> eventually, she said something like, ■çoh, shucks, it's just money. >> so she paid for it and what a good investment it turned out to be. weeks later he got a call from one of kevin's lawyers, the dna

tests were back. wouldn't you know. >> i said it matches. he said, it matches gary dunn. >> the results strongly suggested the dna on the condom wrapper was left by jeni neighbor, gary dunn. now he needed to check out the alibi for the day she was killed. dunn said he was shopping with his mother at the time of the murder, december 15, that was his alibi. he went looking for copies of receipts from those stores to back up the alibi. this is the store where supposedly gary dunn came to do shop( we checked out his alibi. the store had boxes and boxes of receipts. the old fashion sign slipped receipt. >> boxes going back years. he routed through piles of forgotten paper. how many boxes did you go through? >> i have no idea.

i think i tried to forget that. >> just when he thought it was a wasted effort, he pulled out this scrap. did you find it? >> i found it. >> there it was. a receipt that showed gary and his mom were out shopping all right on december 13 not the 15th when they said they were. when nona was murder. it wasn't the same day at all. ç >> no. >> none of the receipts from the stores where they said they were shopping gave him an alibi for the time nona was killed. police and the prosecutor did not mention that . now, a new prosecutor was on the case and he found the dna results and faulty alibi compelling. when you're after kevin's acquittal, gary dunn was charged with murder. many people in russellville struggled to know what to think. their first impression was that kevin jones murdered nona

dirksmeyer, but they believed this latest arrestee was the real killer? could the state of arkansas prove it? >> coming up. gary dunn was the one on trial. why did it ■çseem as if kevin jones was as well? >> the first thing is your son is on trial again even though he's not. . ahhh! my bottom's been saved! with its diamond weave texture, charmin ultra strong cleans better with fewer sheets and less effort. enjoy the go with charmin.

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keith morrison (voiceover): kevin jones's parents had won and lost.

they'd won freedom for their son kevin, kevin jones parents won and lost. the won freedom with her son kevin but had lost a young woman they considered a daughter. they wanted justice so badly for nona that they spent their last dime to find her killer. they believe their sacrifice finally paid off when police arrested her neighbor, gary dunn , for her murder. >> ■çi believe he committed thi crime, but that's my belief based upon what i saw. >> the trial opened in april 2010. jones listened as the state which had already tried his son now argue that dunn was a sexually violent man who had been stalking the young beauty queen his bedroom he could see across the parking lot. his own wife testified he was violent in bed with her and weeks before nona's bed, she

caught him hanging around nona's front door in the middle of the night. so, a jury could be sure that dunn killed nona after forcing asexual encounter. the condom wrapper proved to. >> this wrapper that was found that had the dna on it■ç that d not have kevin's dna on it, that had his dna on it. >> dna evidence, disturbing background, and alibi that turned out to be no alibi at all. it was hard to see how his public defender could argue against their client's lies and dna. that is what they did. and with gusto. what you are saying is the state is wrong. >> the state was wrong. >> what's more, they could prove it. for starters, they said the state was not honest on the dna. it was only a mixed partial match to gary dunn they said.

>> any thousands, millions of people are also not excluded. >> let me ask. if what you are saying, gary dunn did not touch that condom wrapper? >> that is what we are saying. he was across the parking lot in his apartment. >>is minding his own business when nona was murder. it's true the defense said that he was not a shopping as he first claimed. it's at got in his days mixed up. it was two weeks after the crime when detectives asked her a detailed alibi. >> they asked for receipts and they found receipts. they gave it to the police department. >> it wasn't for that day? >> he cooperated and gave them what they asked. >> the defense that it was not e his alibi they should question. if anything, the lawyers said they should look at someone else for nona's murder . her old boyfriend.

that moment, jones realized with dread just where this trial was heading. >> first thing you get hit with is her son is on trial again even though he's not on trial. he is. that's part of the defense that they use. >> how right he was. the attorneys tried to persuade the jury that kevin jones, the first suspect in the case had one shaky story after another. the 911 call were kevin's mother was crying. >> her name is nona dirksmeyer. >> the defense said janice jones and kevin's friend gave conflicting details of how they came upon nona's body and what they were doing to save her. >> they are lying. all three are lying. >> the pizza boy, his mother, kevin is lying? >> without question. >> in fact they tried to claim come you couldn't keep up with the joneses and all their lies.h even kevin's grandmother who said she was with kevin in

another town the morning of nona's death, couldn't be trusted. his grandmother knows ? >> i don't know what they know but they are covering for him. >> the lawyers said he could not explain one thing away. the bloody paw imprint in nona's apartment. it was his and not gary dunn's. did it work? yes, it did. after three days of deliberation, the jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked. the judge declared a mistrial. the prosecutor was not giving up. he promptly refiled murder charges and gary dunn's second trial began in 2011. >> gary dunn tried a second time after his first trial ended in a hung jury. >> the judge allowed the prosecutor to reveal a dark fact about gary dunn. he was a convicted felon before nona was murder. jurors heard from a woman named

kelly joe fitz harris who had the grave misfortune of jogging past gary dunn on the wrong date in the wrong place. in 2002. it's a popular trail with runners but very isolated. kelly joe came running by herself from that direction. she saw a man sitting here on this bench. as she ran up the trail this way, she heard footsteps behind her, turned around, and the man had a huge stick and he hit heri over the head with a. he knocked her down and hit her kn repeatedly. she realized the only way to escape was to wriggle free. she ran up the trail that way as quickly as she possibly could. calling for help, pretending there was someone nearby. the police came a little later. they found gary dunn hiding in the water. they arrested him. he spent 18 months in jail. he and then, newly out on parole, he moved into nona's apartment complex and set up house across the parking lot months before nona's death.

the lawyers admitted it was a blow to their defense. >> we had to deal with it he may get -- not make it any worse. >> or was it already done? this time they knew the man sitting in the defendant's chair wasn't as prone to violence but a convicted criminal. so, the first impression that kevin jones murdered the beauty queen finally be undone? >> the 12 people who will decide gary dunn's fate weigh the evidence. coming up. the evidence -- the verdict. t. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [music playing] see? homequote explorer lets you easily compare home insurance options so you can get what you need without overpaying. yeah, we've spent a lot on this kitchen. oh, yeah, really high-end stuff. -sorry, that's our ghost. -yeah, okay. he's more annoying than anything. too bad there's mold behind the backsplash. [ sniffs ] yep, that's mold. well, then, let's see if we can save you some money with progressive.

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welcome back. means i'll never miss a day of freshness. did gary dunn murder nona dirksmeyer? the first jury was deadlocked over that question. stick did stick did gary dunn murder nona dirksmey») the first jury was deadlocked over the question. but at the second trial, jurors learned he was a convicted felon and heard gripping testimony from the victim he attacked. the defense countered the real killer was still on the loose. nona's loved one waived a battle for justice, was there fight finally coming to an end? here is keith morrison with the conclusion of what happened to the beauty queen? >> this was the third time the state of arkansas had tried

someone for the murder of nona dirksmeyer. the second time gary dunn stood accused. when they started to delivery, the jurors were not thinking about second or third. they were thinking the first. kevin jones, the first suspect in the case. were any of you suspicious that maybe it was actually kevin who did this? >> the jury thought in the beginning it was a high probability it was kevin because the defense did a good job of getting it believe it was kevin. >> once again dunn's retried kevin jones for the murder of nona dirksmeyer. the jurors eventually came to a sort of peace with that. >> this is his trial and we need to look at the evidence against her for him. >> they were troubled. on the witness stand, the jogger described how brutally he attacked her just as nona had been attacked. >> that was a big factor in my thinking about whether he was

guilty or innocent. it tied into everything else. that's what happnld to nona. >> it should dunn was a brutal man who was a convicted felon . he even lied about where he had been that day. >> he don't have no alibi. that looks really bad. that looks really bad. >> they talked about the dna on the condom wrapper founded nona's apartment. some thought it did belong to gary dunn, but that made them wander too. >> this guy was supposedly so careful to not leave no other dna or fingerprints, in this crime scene, then you think he would've been smart enough to take the condom wrapper. >> there it was. dna evidence against dunn, interesting of not proof. circumstantial evidence which was compelling. they took a poll, guilty or not. several actually. then0çon the last go around the

knew they were finished. they went back to the courtroom and looked at nona's family. >> coming up and being in front of her parents was the hardest thing for me. i dashed it made me sad because i knew they were waiting to see if there would be closure. we couldn't do it. we couldn't give them closure. >> once again, the case of arkansas versus gary dunn ended in a hung jury. the more powerful reason? the first impression among many in russellville that it was kevin jones who had killed nona dirksmeyer. in the aftermath, kevin headed back to court. not for anything he did, ■çbut for the damage he said was done to him. by police. >> they just looked at me and said he's the one who did it. >> kevin jones always believed the police zeroed in on him as

the suspect in nona's death and never considered anyone else. >> you do this. you did it. you killed her. >> kevin sued mark frost and others too for withholding evidence. a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit because the statute of limitations had passed. frost denied making mistakes and withholding evidence and neither russellville police department or the prosecutor would comment on the investigation. kevin has moved on. reasons you may understand. he became a criminal defense attorney, and get this? decided■ç to practice law in, o all places, russellville. the last time we spoke, kevin told us he made peace with the one person whose opinion really does matter to him. nona's mother. she no longer believes kevin killed her daughter. in fact, she says she loves kevin. as for the others, more

cynical, he tries not to dwell on what they think or whisper about him and the girl he once loved. nona dirksmeyer, the songbird, the beauty queen. the girl for whom justice is denied. in 2018, gary dunn found himself in handcuffs again after two incidents that occurred on the same night. both unrelated to nona dirksmeyer. he pleaded no contest■ç to attempted kidnapping and indecent exposure. he was sentenced to 15 years. barring new evidence, the state doesn't plan to file charges against him for a third time in the nona dirksmeyer killing. that's all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. hello, hello, i'm craig melvin. this is dateline. >> it happens on tv.