Kansas Cold Cases: Nelson Jones

HOPE, Kan. (WIBW) – Rising up within the small city of Hope, Kansas, Nelson Jones was each bit the standard boy.

“He preferred the outside. He preferred to fish, baseball,” his youthful sister Melissa Bowell stated.

Melissa, the center of three kids, stated her brother additionally was aggressive – and fearless.

“(We’d see) who might go the bottom, who might bounce the farthest, who might run the quickest,” she stated. “We might climb on high of the water shed, and he had tied a water hose to a tree and we’d climb on high of the shed and we might swing down like Tarzan! He all the time had loopy concepts.”

Courageous sufficient that on October 27, 1990, he insisted he might keep house alone whereas the remainder of the household took a day journey to Wichita.

“He had begged my mother to remain house,” stated Melissa, who was 9 on the time. “He was 11, and he had by no means stayed house by himself earlier than, and he was supposed to hang around with anyone across the neighborhood.”

Dickinson Co. Sheriff Jerry Davis, who was a 12 months into his job as a patrol deputy in 1990, would later took a more in-depth have a look at the case as a prison investigator.

“They acquired house round 6 p.m. Nelson wasn’t at house,” Davis stated. “There was a faculty carnival only a few blocks away on the faculty, so the household assumed he’d left and gone to the carnival.”

Melissa stated the household went to the carnival to search out Nelson.

“We went up there and couldn’t discover him. No one had seen him, so we went again house,” she stated.

Whereas Melissa’s mother acquired on the telephone to name neighbors to ask if any of them knew the place he was, her youthful sister went into Nelson’s room.

“She got here out and he or she stated, ‘Mother, I discovered Nelson and he appears to be like all beat up.’ So all of us went into the bed room, and he was kneeling like he would to wish on the mattress, and his higher half (of his physique) was laying on the mattress. I simply keep in mind he regarded very pale and blue,” Melissa remembers. “Mother walked across the aspect and he or she grabbed his arm to really feel for a pulse and I keep in mind her saying, ‘Oh, God, Dennis. He’s lifeless;’ and my stepdad ran up barefoot to get the law enforcement officials.”

Nelson had been strangled. Greater than 30 years later, Davis stated, the case stays open.

“There have been a number of witnesses who noticed him taking part in with folks and biking round city. They have been all interviewed,” he stated. “It was type of a neighborhood the place everybody acquired alongside, everybody knew one another, and everyone trusted one another, so this was very stunning for the neighborhood at the moment.”

It was particularly stunning – and devastating – for just a little woman.

“I used to be terrified. I used to be terrified of the darkish. I used to be scared to show 11 – I used to be afraid I’d get killed, too,” Melissa stated. “To be in your house and to not really feel protected in your individual house is…is fairly traumatizing.”

Melissa stated her emotions about not understanding who killed Nelson travel.

“Generally I’m actually offended, as a result of I take into consideration the way it modified our household, the dynamics and all of the ache it introduced,” she stated.

The home the place it occurred is gone now. The situation is a grassy lot within the city of Hope. Melissa’s mother has handed away, as effectively.

However among the many pictures and a poem her mother wrote a couple of youngster at heaven’s gate with massive blue eyes. Melissa nonetheless finds hope. Nelson was chosen because the three of hearts within the Kansas Chilly Case deck. It’s a brand new effort to get suggestions in unsolved circumstances by that includes them on taking part in playing cards.

Melissa says she’s grateful Nelson shouldn’t be forgotten.

“I usually take into consideration what life could be like if he’d been right here,” she stated. “What sort of brother would he be? What sort of uncle would he be to my kids? Would now we have competed in sports activities in highschool?”

Sheriff Davis stated the case stays private to him.

“Nelson was an harmless sufferer, and he deserves to have his story informed. His household deserves to know what occurred,” he stated. “Proper now, Nelson would know what occurred and the one who killed Nelson would know what occurred. Proper now, these are the one two leads we could have, and Nelson’s gone. He can’t converse for himself, so hopefully the proof will converse for him.”

Greater than 30 years later, Melissa wish to discover closure.

“I feel I’d need to know why – why did they do this? And perhaps inform them what it did to my household – the implications of their actions, that alternative that that individual made,” she stated. “I’d wish to know that they’ve a conscience, and I hope sometime that they may confess and search forgiveness.”

If something about Nelson’s demise – or any unsolved case – name the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-KS-CRIME.

Prior KS Chilly Case Profiles:

John Waller

Joshua Jernagin

Clarence “Butch” Lavin

Arthur Goebel

Gary Leo Nelson

Charles Giles

James Winston III

Mercedes Holford and Crystal Andrews

Tirell Ocobock

Carla Avery, Eric Avery, Tamesha Lee, and Marvin Woods

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