0:00

Hello, I'm Keith Morrison from Dateline NBC

0:02

with a special preview of our new podcast,

0:06

Murder in Apartment 12.

0:09

It should have been a season of joy,

0:12

choirs and twinkling

0:14

lights and bright paper packages.

0:17

And it certainly started out that way in

0:19

a little place called Dover, Arkansas,

0:22

population about 1300, where

0:25

middle school teacher Janice Jones

0:28

was in a Christmas frame of mind. Of

0:30

course she was. Her youngest son,

0:32

Kevin, was home from college and

0:35

had agreed to be Janice's date to her school's

0:37

holiday party.

0:39

I laughingly offered

0:42

him the opportunity to take me on a date Thursday

0:45

night to our staff Christmas party. And

0:47

he accepted, as long

0:50

as there was a big stake.

0:51

Made a joke about, is

0:54

there an open bar? I'd like to see some of my former

0:56

teachers, you know, a little tipsy. They thought that would be

0:58

very humorous.

0:58

What fun it

1:00

should have been.

1:02

But no. On this night,

1:05

December 15th, 2005, the season

1:08

of light suddenly turned

1:10

very dark indeed with

1:13

a call to 911. I'm

1:16

going to skip 911, OK? OK. It

1:19

was the night of the awful discovery.

1:22

Is she breathing at all? No, no,

1:25

she's cold. She's not breathing. She

1:27

doesn't have a pulse. I don't think she's dead. The night

1:29

of all the panic and the confusion and

1:31

the sudden grief that tore through them like

1:33

a knife. You need to name a dead

1:36

person.

1:36

This

1:40

is the story of what happened on that

1:42

December night and all that came after.

1:46

It's a story of a beautiful young woman

1:48

named Nona Dirksmeyer, a

1:50

local beauty queen who'd

1:52

been keeping secrets. This

1:58

case probably had...

1:59

the more statewide publicity

2:03

than any criminal case in

2:05

many many years perhaps a ever in

2:07

arkansas apply as tony and is

2:09

police officer in town here had

2:11

the who did it melted into the

2:14

everybody has an opinion but

2:16

that doesn't convict and are course it's

2:19

the story of three sensational trials

2:22

is a story about police power and

2:25

the people who wielded

2:26

see on

2:29

him what i know and

2:32

to you right now it's

2:36

about gossip about public opinion

2:39

i realized that the comment on today's

2:42

realized it wasn't see v this

2:44

is reality t it or not to read

2:46

believe anything you read it was

2:49

a case that divide in this town

2:52

and it got pretty hot in arkansas

2:54

for a while too hot for

2:56

some

2:57

and says it says you know

3:00

we'll know to exposure

3:04

to lose both

3:10

yes and it's about pride and

3:12

prejudice

3:13

and a tortured search for a killer

3:16

there's a cold blooded killer up

3:19

he knows who he is what are we

3:21

on do

3:24

you were listening search for murder

3:26

and apartment twelve years a full

3:28

episode now be free or

3:31

subscribe to dateline premium on apple

3:33

podcasts subscribers get

3:35

early access to new episodes and

3:37

can listen to all podcasts

3:40

ad free

3:44

sergeant and mrs smith you're going

3:46

to love this house is that

3:48

a tub in the kitchen there's

3:51

no field manual for finding the right home but

3:53

when do usa homeowners insurance

3:55

can help affected the way restrictions

3:58

apply