Where is Diana Duve? | Full Episode | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] this is a photo of 26 year old Diana duvet of Vero Beach I don't know where
she is police describe her as 5 3 120 pounds brown hair and I'm looking for her but I don't know she was last seen
leaving the what a Tavern restaurant around 1am Friday morning with a man they say is her boyfriend 32 year old
Michael David Jones neither has been heard from since Harrelson say I'm help with this case
more of this than just a missing person's case we're in a million different directions
trying to find her and him his phone has been turned off her phone is now turned
off Diana is out with some friends they described her as enjoying herself but she was texting a lot they just felt
like it was a little out of the ordinary she left her friends and then went and met up with Mike Jones at another
establishment it's called what a Tavern they appeared to be having a good time as in having quite a few drinks at one
point it appeared as though she was crying and visibly upset but then kind of not and when they were leaving the
bar staff said are you guys okay to get home Mike said I'm gonna drive her home don't worry about it what time was that
it was around 1 30 A.M [Music] I didn't wait for her that night [Music] when I got up in the morning there is
text message there Mom I'm not coming home tonight I just have Diana where you at call me I went
to work around 11 30 it just kind of shocked went through me that wait a second she
didn't call me she was 26 years old and she would call me every day it set me off immediately
I was trying to tell everybody who would listen if she's not calling me it's because she can't
and then we begin to learn about Michael Jones what we learned was he told many of his
workmates I'm not feeling that well I'm going to be gone for a couple of days I've got some things I got to take care
of I thought that they were out of town for a wedding I first met Mike Jones at a networking
luncheon he was a Charming guy Mike and I dated I want to say like two to four months he seemed pretty put together he
was smart he was really funny Mike told me that he was a trust attorney for PNC wealth management he had a lot of
multi-million dollar accounts a lot of people trusted him with a lot of money Mike was very elaborate his stories were
big celebrities involved always knowing people everywhere we went Mike told me that his sister was dating
Jason Aldean and that he was adopted by Ronald Reagan's son I think that he probably had stories
about who he was depending on who he was talking to who he really is to this day
I'm not sure we know just come home everybody love you everybody misses you terribly
all I cared about find her where's my daughter where is Diana [Music] foreign [Music]
we've interviewed all of these people we've run down all the leads that we had we're in a million different directions
[Music] on Saturday June 21st 2014 Lieutenant Matt Harrelson and Sergeant Brad Metz
with the Vero Beach Police Department we're not having much luck trying to find out what could have happened to
Diana duvet and Mike Jones investigators went to Jones's apartment but no one was answering the door we did
get a search warrant that day to get into Michael Jones's Department to try to collect physical evidence or find
Diana and hopefully it'd be you know next to nothing when the investigators returned with a warrant they were
surprised to discover Lena and Bill Andrews Diana's mother and stepfather sitting outside in their car is that
unusual oh my gosh that's crazy Lena is sitting at the house hoping for a sighting of her daughter she's just
beside herself you know she's crying she's upset she wants to go physically kick the door in before investigators
went inside they interviewed Lena she told them that the last communication she had from her daughter was that text
Diana sent in the early hours the previous day at 1 45 am I won't be home it was in
Russian the language they spoke with each other so Lena believed it had to be from her daughter
as the hours passed on Friday with no sign of Diana she grew increasingly desperate
you call Michael Jones I did call Michael Jones yes he was like oh don't worry she's with me
everything's okay oh he said that yes so I was like oh my God Mike you guys killing me I'm I'm worried sick
I need to talk to her I want to hear her voice I told him give her a phone all of a sudden oh she is sleeping well
wake up because I have to talk to her all of a sudden another excuse she's at my place but not there right now I told
them you go home you wake her up call me back in 30 minutes but Jones never called Lena back and she
never heard from him again she was my world [Music] Diana was born in Moldova a small
country in Eastern Europe Diana emigrated to America when she was 13 to join her mother Lena who had married
Bill an American a girl that didn't speak English at all within two months she was in the regular school class in a
few years you couldn't even guess that she's not American in 2011 Diana received her Nursing
degree at the time she disappeared Diana worked with cancer patients at the Sebastian
River Medical Center she really really cared about her patience about patients families
which is highly intelligent always motivated Chelsea demaio was Diana's best friend and former roommate she's
very easy going just fun to be around in the summer of 2013 Chelsea says Diana met Jones at a bar in Vero Beach did she
seem smitten from the start no no no she never had an initial oh wow Mike Jones it seemed more like he definitely
had his sights set on her and she kind of eventually came around Lena and Bill say they didn't know much
about Jones except that he worked for PNC Bank in wealth management and had gone to law school he was extremely
polite now he's dressed well spoken seems like the ideal boyfriend his apartment she seemed happy so we
were okay with it Chelsea says Diana and Jones quickly became Inseparable you would never see her without him and she
had never done that in relationships before over time Chelsea says she became concerned there was a time where we were
getting lunch I remember she wanted to go somewhere where Mike wasn't going to see her or run into her or see her car
it was almost as if she would have been in trouble getting lunch with me Chelsea says before she could sit down
and have a serious talk with her friend Diana and Jones had a domestic dispute that would officially end their
relationship it was April 30th 2014 just two months before Diana would disappear dear [ __ ]
please yeah hey I think I got a domestic for you around the next door neighbor and his girlfriend song Went again on
Twitter Mike Jones's neighbor made this 911 for about an hour just been yelling and
screaming or yeah it just sounds like you're trying to dominate the crap out of her so it's just been verbal right
well I can't even hear any slaps or anything but I'll tell you it's not good officers responded knocked on the door
made contact with with both Diana and Mike Jones according to the police incident report Jones told them that the
noise was from rough sex Diana told police everything was fine but she asked him to wait for her as she grabbed her
things and left she called me in tears leaving his apartment I told her to just come
straight to where I was and she did and she was still in her pajamas hysterical had you ever seen her like that before
that upset never never she was explaining that he was screaming at her that it had been going
on for what felt like hours and he just wasn't letting up and if he finally got to the point where he had
put his hands around her neck and started strangling her I could clearly see that there were marks on her neck so
Chelsea says she took these photos which showed what appears to be hand marks on
Diana's neck I need to document this I need to protect her but despite Chelsea's efforts to get her to make a
formal report Diana chose not to press charges she just wanted to move her things out and remove herself from the
situation and that's what we did Diana moved back in with her parents and did not tell them that Jones had tried to
strangle her I think she was just trying to protect me so I wouldn't worry and she thought that she handled it in her
mind it was over but Lena says Jones continued to pursue Diana she would tell me he text me looks
like he doesn't understand that I broke up with him now with a search warrant almost 48
hours after Diana was last seen with Mike Jones investigators entered his apartment
you can see the sheer fair and panic and Lena's eyes I said lean I promise you I'm gonna get your daughter back for you
one way or another that I was walking back and forth in the front of this apartment neighbors people
that I don't know all coming out this girl just came and hugged me and said oh everything's gonna be okay
and I looked at her and said no it won't oh we want to find Diana we want to reunite
her with her parents we want to make sure she's okay as detectives searched Mike Jones's apartment they were hopeful
they would find Diana duvet but they were met with disappointment we didn't find a lot but we didn't find
any belongings that we felt were Diana's we didn't find any sign of her but they
were not discouraged Sergeant Metz was motivated by that promise he made to Diana's mother Lena that he would find
her daughter what really drove me to keep pushing forward was a mother begging you
please find my daughter for me they knew that in order to find Diana they needed to find Mike Jones
investigators grew concerned when they learned that about 12 hours after Jones was last seen with Diana at the what a
Tavern bar he was captured on surveillance footage visiting a PNC Bank in Vero Beach when he went to the PNC
Bank he withdrew 2 500 in cash and then told many of his workmates he said you know I'm not feeling that well I'm going
to be gone for a couple of days I've got some things I got to take care of prior to moving to Vero Beach he had
been charged with aggravated stalking for threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend near Fort Lauderdale in 2012. 911 what
is your emergency this is the 9-1-1 call from that incident good night ex-boyfriend just called me and told me
that he has practice done and then as soon as I walk outside they're going to go off on my head what
happened my ex-boyfriend threatened to kill himself tonight and then when I told him that we were not
getting back together he told me he would kill me Anthony I see we've met angry before
he pleaded no contest and as part of a plea deal Jones was given five years probation in lieu of jail time he was
required to stay in the Vero Beach area and could be arrested if he left without
getting permission from his probation officer I spoke to the probation officer who told us if we come in contact with
him that's probable cause we can't arrest him for a probation violation at minimum at that point
all of a sudden doubt that that he's convicted Fallon that he is on probation Lena says she
and Bill were blindsided by the news it's something that was extremely unexpected and nobody knew about it
investigators continued to work the case but were running out of leads so they turned their attention to analyzing cell
phone tower pings from Diana and Jones's phones we had to kind of like overlay two separate maps to be able to see
where she may have been and where he was Prior I was getting pretty tired and something told me just give it a couple
more minutes and this is why I would say that divine intervention was definitely a play here
within a few minutes I found something that was really odd Sergeant Metz noticed there was only one ping from
Jones's phone off a cell tower located in the Fort Pierce area approximately 25 minutes from Vero Beach so Mets had
dispatched alert local authorities there to be on the lookout for Jones's gold Honda and Diana's black Nissan I'm on my
way home getting bad and then my phone rings Fort Pierce PD had located Mike Jones car
Jones's gold Honda was located in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn hotel surveillance footage showed that Jones
had checked into the hotel almost 24 hours after Diana went missing he appeared to be alone according to the
front desk staff Jones paid in cash for two nights and instructed them not to tell anyone he was there and not to
transfer any calls to his room you don't know what you're going to find when you get in that room you know your
heart's racing you've been going for two days straight and now you're this close
from getting who you believe is a possible suspect and also hopefully finding Diana around 11 30 PM using a
key card given to them by the front desk Mets and Harrelson entered Jones's hotel
room he seemed surprised he was surprised to see us absolutely he was sitting on one of the double beds with
like a v-neck t-shirt on and some shorts and smoking a cigarette and he was talking on a phone on a cell phone it
was a burner phone a phone that is difficult for police to trace hi Mike um he had a pretty good reason why we're
here I'm sure this is audio of Sergeant Metz speaking to Jones in his hotel room
I'll tell you unequivly I don't know where she is why won't he just give me the information I'm looking for your
girlfriend's missing this is somebody that you professed that you loved and profess that you cared about you should
be helping law enforcement try to find her I said if you're not willing to give us any information I said you're going
to jail right now for the violation of probation Harrelson were relieved to place Jones
behind bars but they still had no idea where Diana was or her car you go from very high because you found him and
you're bursting in the room to like here we are back again investigators decided to trace the
purchase of that burner phone Jones had been using and learned that he bought it
at a Walmart located about an hour north from the Hampton Inn when they pulled their surveillance footage from the
Walmart they made a startling Discovery it's a little grainy but it appeared to be Diana's car in this surveillance
footage from the morning after Diana went missing her Nissan entered the Walmart parking lot parked then you see
what appeared to be Mike Jones wearing a red baseball hat walk into the store buy
the burner phone and then walk out there was no sign of Diana but despite buying the burner phone
Jones occasionally still turned on his primary phone he would turn it on and then use it for something and then turn
it back off let me go through these pings one last time I said maybe I'm missing something here I found one I
mean maybe we can catch lightning in a bottle twice so Mets and Harrelson analyze Mike Jones's primary cell phone
paints one more time looking for any pings in and around the area of the Walmart he and I are kind of looking at
together I'm like well this one's strange he goes well what do you mean what's he doing up in Melbourne it
appeared that Jones had picked up a call in the Melbourne area almost one hour north of Vero Beach so local police were
alerted and asked to search that area for Diana's car and just 30 minutes later detectives received a call they
had been desperately waiting for they had found her vehicle three days after Diana had gone missing
her car was located in a Publix parking lot in Melbourne Florida we jump in the car we're rocking and rolling
she was crazy crazy [Music] foreign [Music] we're on the Ragged Edge you know we we
haven't slept you know because you're just you're moving it was around 4 30 A.M arrived at a Publix parking lot where
Diana duvet's black Nissan had been discovered Lieutenant Harrelson feared they would
find her body here and I told Brad I said she's in the trunk I said I don't know I said it's just so
cliche it's something like out of a movie it didn't didn't make much sense to me
but when they opened the trunk Lieutenant Harrelson's premonition turned out to be true
there are certain things in this job that you can't unsee you can't unlive you'll never forget
I remember putting my hands on my knees and kind of just putting my head down it was not the way I wanted to find her
and I opened the door and here's chief police in complete uniform the saddest thing in
my life was what seeing him come out the driveway and he told me to find her not her to
lose her like this it's undescribable as painful as it was this was no longer a missing person's case but a homicide
an autopsy would later reveal Diana had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had been strangled to death
investigators believed they had a strong case connecting Jones to the parking lot
where Diana was found but something was gnawing at them how did Mike Jones leave
the area without a car so we just started cold calling some of these taxi agencies and I said hey did you get a
fair for the Vero in the last couple of days and man we hit one and I was like wow you know like that's just like that
doesn't happen every day so we got lucky on that one around 8 A.M after Jones dropped off Diana's car a man called for
a taxi down the street I showed up and there was a guy outside with a red hoodie on
and um he got in the passenger side of the vehicle during the hour-long ride they
've chatted I asked him questions like what brought you down here and he said oh well I I came here with a
friend of mine you know um and so then I asked him I said um how come you didn't get a ride back with
your friend to Vero Beach and we still go they got into an argument and she's very pissed with her
Vero Beach it was Mike Jones's apartment the kicker was he was able to pick him out of a lineup too which really helped
our case and just two days after they found Diana's body they had enough evidence to
officially charge Mike Jones with her murder he would plead not guilty he didn't show any emotion he didn't ask
any more questions he just sat there nothing [Music] signed to process a prostate attorney Thomas backadal as
they started digging they soon learned that Mike Jones was no ordinary suspect he doesn't fit the mold of your your
average violent murderer Jones was well educated with a masters and law degree and he was a respected member of the
Vero Beach Community it was shocking that Mike would would have done this I think it blew everybody's mind
Stuart Pierce was friends with Jones Mike Jones was a guy that you wanted to be friends with he was clean cut real
nice guy first met him at a networking luncheon shortly after Jones had moved to Vero
Beach in the summer of 2013. we saw him everywhere that there was to be seen cufflinks and a well-start shirt Jones
was often seen at local charity events here is a guy who was able to work his way into the community here I mean he
was doing charitable activities he actually showed up and walked for the very same domestic violence organization
that I'm a board member for Jones was also active in the bar scene and had made many friends in a short
period of time investigators interviewed some of them on audio tape I would say that he was
ambitious I could trust him with things that I would trust my family with Michael was a genius one of the smartest
people I'd ever you know dealt with and when it came to work Jones thrived at his job in wealth management at PNC Bank
he brought people in who had a lot of money and he had performance reviews emails that went back and forth between
PNC Personnel raving about his job performance and how great he was doing there for Diana was
Michael was on ethics and Leadership qualities he is a big asset for PNC this guy's a master
manipulator this guy was running multi-million dollar accounts for a bank as a convicted felon so he was able to
con a bank we reached out to PNC Bank to ask if they knew Jones had a record and was on
probation for stalking that woman near Fort Lauderdale in 2012. they decline to comment
his friends however had no idea but what they did know about Jones's past is there were a lot of stories I remember
the stories like every time there was a Zinger Ellie Sexton dated Jones shortly before
he started dating Diana Mike told me that his sister was dating Jason Aldean and he told me that he was adopted by
Ronald Reagan's son Mike drove a gold Honda Accord that was probably 10 years old but he told me
that he had a penthouse in Fort Lauderdale that he had a Porsche that he just didn't want to damage well Mike
Jones told me that he was adopted and that he played some minor league baseball but one time hanging out on the beach
and seeing him throw a football made me think that he'd probably never played Minor League Baseball nothing in his
life was the truth who he really is to this day I'm not sure we know prosecutors were certain of one thing
that Mike Jones was a murderer and now as they prepare to go to trial they learned that Diana was one of Mike
Jones's mini victims the only difference is the others got away my family has all
said you know you skipped death [Music] say a woman's name with whom he had a relationship and
there is abuse as prosecutors continue to unearth more details about Mike Jones they say there
was a clear pattern in how he treated his ex-girlfriends he's Prince Charming in the door right but then slowly he'll
begin telling them what to wear what friends to hang out with he's calling incessantly he's showing up at
restaurants he's reading her phone a couple of the women that we talked to he would hold them in place for long
periods of time he was very controlling Ellie Sexton only dated Mike Jones for a
few months but says she witnessed his violent temper Mike never got physical but there were a few times
that he just had some jealousy behaviors I do remember him screaming in my face one time and getting really close to me
and feeling fear and investigators also learned that Mike Jones's stories about his past were flat
out lies he's a pathological liar in a personal essay he wrote for a College admission Jones claimed that he
was born into poverty to uneducated and abusive parents he wrote that he was placed with several Foster families and
eventually was adopted what is the truth about his upbringing what do you think he was spoiled rotten
his his parents bought him motorcycles they put him in private school and it wasn't until his parents told him that
they weren't going to pay for any more education meaning law school that was the point where he broke it off with
them manipulating trying to get what he wanted we reached out to Jones's family but we never heard back from them
and the manipulation continued while Jones attended a graduate law program at the University of Miami according to an
email to his fellow students in 2010 Jones claimed that he was battling prostate pancreas and stomach cancer and
other alleged medical conditions that prohibited him from often attending classes we have no record of any type of
cancer diagnosis in his background or anything like that but despite Mike Jones's dark past of lies and abusing
other women about his abuse abuse Diana and her murder you should be convicting somebody
for the crime that they committed not based upon what they've done in the past and when it was time to go to trial they
had to make an important decision whether to go for the death penalty well that was a tough one we sat down
with Lena and we said listen when we take this step it's a whole different process he
explained that the proceedings could drag on for years and even if one juror did not believe Jones deserved the death
penalty he would be given a life sentence instead I won a death penalty absolutely he lost his right to live
when he killed her when he killed Diana Brian and I agreed with them and thought
that this is the the route we need to take in October of 2019 Mike Jones's trial
finally began in Vero Beach during opening remarks prosecutors told the jury that Mike Jones abused Diana
mentally and physically during their short six-month on and off-again relationship she would talk about her
feelings and the things that he had done and how he would be demeaning and and he
would flip it he would flip the scripts and start blaming her and accusing her and suggesting that it's her fault
what he was doing was gaslighting her to back up their claims of physical abuse prosecutors Call Diana's friend Chelsea
demaio and showed the jury the photos she took after that domestic incident when Jones allegedly strangled Diana
I could clearly see that there were marks on her neck as disturbing as that was back a doll explained that after
that domestic incident Diana had secretly started seeing Jones on and off again this is what happens in domestic
violence people want to know why would she go back and it's because of the control and he had total control over
her prosecutors said no one knows what they talked about in the early hours of Friday June 20th 2014 when they left the
bar together and went to Jones's apartment now they had been drinking that evening and of course that has an
impact on your judgment but back at all thinks Diana was trying to end the relationship for good she was telling
him that night it's over I have no doubt in my mind that this was the end of this
relationship in fact according to Lena Diana had upcoming plans to go out west to visit a friend and when he got wind
to that that was it prosecutors said they believe Jones lost his temper and that's when he beat and strangled her he
had beaten her so badly that he knew at that point in time he could not let her go he knew that if she were to leave the
house that night and been covered in bruises a jig was up for this guy and he couldn't allow that to happen and so we
resorted ultimately to murder the state admitted they didn't know exactly what time the murder took place but said
blood evidence showed that Jones placed Diana's body in the trunk of her car while it was parked in his garage next
to the threshold where the garage door comes down where the concrete meets it we found like two very small droplets of
blood whose were they Diana's when it was the defense's turn to lay out their case they told the jurors that in fact
no one really knew exactly what happened after Jones and Diana left the bar on June 20th they raised the possibility
that Diana's death could have been an accident Jones's defense team declined our request for an interview
they tried to act like that you know he was an upstanding citizen in our community you know he had a solid job
why would he do this to her it was almost insulting sometimes to for them to even try to act like he wasn't the
monster that we knew him to be after the prosecutors felt confident I expected a guilty verdict but I didn't
expect it to happen as quickly as it did how quickly did it come back like 45 minutes that says something that says a
lot that says that somebody finally saw through Michael Jones's but they knew there were many challenges
ahead now the jury would have to decide whether Mike Jones would live or die what did you tell Lena right after the
trial I remember hugging her I specifically remember telling her now the heavy lifting comes be ready
what do you think is the most outlandish lie that Mike Jones told go inside the investigation at 48hours.com
thank you she had so much good in her heart and she knew that nearly a month after the verdict the
same jury that convicted Mike Jones of first-degree murder would now decide whether he would live or die the penalty
phase is everything about the defendant prosecutor bacadal warned Lena that this
sentencing hearing would be difficult to sit through the poor defendant all of the issues
faced by the defendant throughout his life to the absolute and utter exclusion of of her daughter the defense called
medical experts who testified Jones had received multiple blows to his head possibly from doing Motocross as a teen
and he suffered brain damage one expert testified that Jones's frontal lobe which regulates decision-making and
impulse control have been damaged and caused a significant cognitive defect they wanted the jury to believe that he
had this major or minor cognitive deficit the problem is in order to have that particular deficit you can't do
things like balance a checkbook pay rent and here's a guy who went to law school
and managed multi-million dollar accounts when it was time for her Victim Impact
statement Lena surprised everyone and confronted Jones face to face do that was your bare hands
to the person that you supposedly love how can anybody do that how foreign she brought Diana to life in
that courtroom and if we were going to get the death penalty it was going to be on the back of that testimony
it was just a mother's love for her child it's big throughout the entire trial Jones showed
no emotion he absolutely had zero remorse absolutely zero even as his sentence was about to be
read his attorneys they had their their faces in their hands they were leaning on the tables and he just sat there like
statue Mike Jones received a life sentence much to the prosecutor's disappointment for
me it was devastating because we didn't finish the job that uh we had promised Lena and
the family I realized at that moment if I can't get death in this case what case
do you remember how many four how many against yeah I remember I'll never forget it was 11-1 the defense was
playing for one hold out the entire time that's all they need we needed to be perfect
foreign jail one way or another and he's never gonna hurt another girl again at the end of the day
my daughter Diana she's not coming home she's not and he's still alive graduation day
she was happy all her adult life started it was a good day Lena wants people to remember and learn
from her daughter's story if this has happened to Diana it's gonna happen to anybody
if you feel something is not right listen to yourself because something is not right
today after all these years Diana's bedroom looks exactly the way she left it it was one of the older pictures of
Diana when she's a baby in Moldova she really didn't want to take this picture she was a little bit grumpy here
I'm thinking about Diana minute I wake up she's the last thing I'm thinking about
when I fall asleep every single day and this is forever that's how it's going to be
[Music] an intruder came into her house and attacked her stabbing her repeatedly a
woman's Iron Will there's no earthly reason why I'm alive none and the thin line between life and death the amount
of strength that goes into that is just unimaginable 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus
[Music]

When a woman disappears with her boyfriend, investigators learn he was entrusted with millions at his bank job, but he also told outlandish lies about who he was. "48 Hours" contributor Michelle Miller reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

Diana Duvet was murdered by her boyfriend Michael Jones after a history of domestic violence; he was later convicted of first-degree murder.

Key points

The Disappearance of Diana Duvet. Diana, a 26-year-old nurse, goes missing after a night out with her boyfriend.
The Search for Diana. Investigators struggle to find Diana and her boyfriend, Michael Jones, after they go missing.
Tragic Discovery. Diana's body is found in the trunk of her car, marking a shift to homicide investigation.
Mike Jones Arrested. Mike Jones is arrested but maintains his innocence, shocking the community.
The Manipulator. Mike Jones, a convicted felon, managed multi-million dollar accounts at PNC Bank.
Trial Begins. Mike Jones's trial for the murder of Diana begins, revealing a history of abuse.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was no longer a missing person's case but a homicide.

The shift in the investigation's focus after Diana's body is found.

22:25WatchMay 12, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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