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New push on cold case
Winston-Salem police want to solve '01 death
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Published: November 14, 2009
For Tahita Jones, the killing of her grandmother more than eight years ago still stirs up emotions.
And, she says, she is still waiting for justice.
"I hope they catch the dirtbag who did this," Jones said yesterday. "I hope whoever did this will be brought to justice."
Jones' grandmother, Annie Mae Howell Jones, 80, was found dead inside her house on West 11th Street on Feb. 3, 2001. An autopsy showed that she had been strangled.
A window had been broken out of a back door and items from Annie Jones' purse were found strewn around the house. Money was also reported missing. The killer has not been found.
The Winston-Salem Police Department has put a renewed focus on Jones' case. It is featured on the department's Web site in an effort to draw public attention to it.
Capt. David Clayton, who oversees the department's detectives, said that investigators need leads to solve Jones' killing and that they currently don't have any.
Nor have there been any scientific developments, such as DNA evidence, Clayton said.
Investigators also don't know specifically how Jones was killed, he said.
No weapon such as a rope or cord was found. The killer may have taken the murder weapon upon leaving Jones' house.
Jones' relatives last spoke to her on Feb. 2, 2001, a Friday. They became worried the next day when they called and got a busy signal. When they went to her house, they found her, police said.
The police department created the cold-case homicide unit in June 2008. Two detectives are assigned to the unit, which is reviewing unsolved killings in the city dating back to 1931.
The unit made two arrests this year in unsolved homicide cases. In August, Michael Dwayne Miller, 36, was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in the death of Theressa L. Nicholson, 74, on Aug. 4, 1990.
In March, Abdula Rashea Hall, 29, was charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in the death of Ansel John Rakestraw, 77, on Aug. 14, 2004.
Cold-case detectives look at the most recent unsolved murders and consider which cases can be solved. They review the evidence and witnesses from the original investigations.
Tahita Jones, 39, a local make-up artist, has a theory about her grandmother's death.
Jones said that her grandmother often hired men who lived nearby to cut her grass. Some of those men were alcoholics and drug addicts, she said.
Jones said she believes that at least one of those men could have killed Annie Jones and stole money from her.
"It was one desperate person that did this thing," Tahita Jones said. "This person didn't have the courage to rob bank. They just killed my grandmother."
jhinton@wsjournal.com
727-7299
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