Beauty Queen Murder: Who Killed Nona Dirksmeyer?
Nona Dirksmeyer didn't just light up a room — she stole the stage. A 19-year-old soprano, beauty queen, and Miss Arkansas hopeful, she had big dreams and a voice to match. But on Dec. 15, 2005, someone silenced that voice forever. Dirksmeyer's boyfriend, Kevin Jones, found her naked and bloodied body inside her Russellville, Arkansas, apartment, just days before her 20th birthday. Whoever killed her didn't just want her gone — they wanted her erased. The killer beat her with a lamp, stabbed her neck and shoulders, and strangled her so violently it broke her hyoid bone. A condom wrapper lay nearby. Her phone battery had been removed. Her front door wasn't locked. Nearly two decades later, despite two suspects and three trials, no one sits behind bars for her murder.
The Boyfriend, the Polygraph, and the Cleaned Phone
Kevin Jones, Dirksmeyer's high school sweetheart, became the first suspect. He said he grew concerned when she didn't answer her phone. He and his mother, Janice Jones, went to check on her. They spotted Dirksmeyer's body through the sliding glass door. Janice called 911 and said, "My son's girlfriend. I think she's dead. There's been a terrible accident," as reported by the Daily Mail.
Police hauled Kevin Jones in for questioning twice. During the second round, they gave him a polygraph — administered by someone posing as an examiner, who wasn't one at all. The goal? To scare him into confessing. Prosecutors later claimed his DNA and fingerprints matched the lamp used to kill Dirksmeyer. That claim didn't hold up in court.
The defense asked for Dirksmeyer's phone, hoping it might offer clues. But prosecutors had already handed it over to her stepfather, who wiped it clean. He claimed he didn't act out of malice.
In 2007, after eight hours of deliberation, the jury found Jones not guilty.
A Second Suspect and a Chilling Arrest Years Later
With Jones cleared, police turned to Gary Dunn, Dirksmeyer's neighbor. He had a record. Prosecutors said DNA linked him to the crime and argued he tried to rape Dirksmeyer before killing her. But two separate juries couldn't agree. Both trials ended in a deadlock.
Then came the twist.
In 2018, Dunn resurfaced in another Arkansas beauty queen's nightmare. Rylie Wagner, a student at Arkansas Tech and Miss Arkansas USA 2022, noticed a man tailing her through a parking lot. "That's when he tried to force me out of the car and told me get out of the car," Wagner told KATV. "And he kept trying to open my car door, but I had already locked it as he was approaching my vehicle."
Police arrested Dunn 17 minutes later after another woman reported a similar encounter. Inside his vehicle, officers found knives and rope. Dunn pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping and indecent exposure. A judge sentenced him to 15 years, but he's expected to serve only a portion.
Despite the eerie similarities, prosecutors declined to try him a third time for Dirksmeyer's murder.
A Cold Case That Refuses to Chill
The case remains open. Dirksmeyer's family still waits. Her friends still grieve. And her story still echoes across Arkansas. NBC's Dateline podcast, "Murder in Apartment 12," dives deep into the twists, trials, and unanswered questions of a murder that won't let Russellville sleep.
One truth remains: Someone killed Nona Dirksmeyer. And they got away with it.
References: Who REALLY killed Arkansas beauty queen Nona Dirksmeyer? New podcast lifts the lid on how despite two trials and two suspects no one has ever been convicted of her murder | Murder in Apt. 12 About Dateline's New Podcast Unpacking the Murder of Arkansas Beauty Queen | A victim no more: Miss Arkansas USA's encounter with a serial attacker
