260. What Happened To Diana Duve?

This episode is sponsored by Chewy! Go to chewy.com/husband or click the link to save $20 on your first order. https://prf.hn/click/camref:1011l3Huc8/creativeref:1101l165968 In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the heartbreaking case of Diana Duve, a young nurse whose relationship with the charismatic Michael Jones took a deadly turn. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: CBSNews.com- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/diana-duve-murder-michael-jones-criminal-past-web-of-lies-48-hours/ CBS12.com - https://cbs12.com/news/local/trial-gets-underway-for-murder-of-vero-beach-woman-diana-duve WPTV.com - https://www.wptv.com/news/region-indian-river-county/jury-deliberations-underway-in-sentencing-phase-of-michael-jones TCPalm.com - https://www.tcpalm.com/picture-gallery/news/crime/indian-river-county/2019/09/20/evidence-photos-released-diana-duve-murder-case/2366075001/ SportsKeeda.com - https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/diana-duve-s-case-5-things-know-murder-ex-mike-jones-involvement TheSun.com - https://www.the-sun.com/news/8055538/diana-duve-mike-jones-murder-convicted-felon/ FloridaToday.com - https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2021/05/27/vero-beach-wealth-planner-michael-jones-2019-murder-conviction-upheld-strangling-diana-duve-2014/7455188002/ Legacy.com - https://www.legacy.com/funeral-homes/obituaries/name/diana-duve-obituary?pid=171570372&v=batesville&view=guestbook&page=2 VeroNews.com - https://veronews.com/2021/05/13/diana-duve-murder-subject-of-television-documentary/ FLCourts.gov - https://4dca.flcourts.gov/content/download/746031/opinion/193691_DC05_06022021_160219_i.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:27Speaker 01

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 0:31Speaker 02

  With Monday Note Taker, the meeting ends and the plan already exists. Action items, owners, deadlines. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.

• 0:42Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Marland.

• 0:49Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garret Morland.

• 0:50Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:51Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Just real quick, we got some, some comments and messages about it. Our Patreon wasn't linked below. So if you're curious about bonus content and you're not on Apple or don't want to do Apple subscriptions, our bonus content will be linked below. You can click that and you can check it out. Yeah, that's about it for announcements this week. For my 10 seconds, Peyton and I, actually, we finished it pretty quick, which means that we really liked it and that it does not happen very often to us. It was a new series. It's on Hulu. If you haven't seen it, you really need to go watch it. It's called, it's called Paradise, right?

• 1:31Payton Moreland?

  Yep.

• 1:32Garrett Moreland?

  It's good.

• 1:33Payton Moreland?

  I would dare say episode seven is one of the best episodes that has ever aired on TV.

• 1:41Garrett Moreland?

  I was, Peyton and I were watching seven and we were just glued.

• 1:46Payton Moreland?

  It felt like in one episode, an entire, just like movie.

• 1:51Garrett Moreland?

  It was so good. So good. So we finished that. But now we're mad because then you have to wait for the second season. It's going to take a year and a half for it to come out. And then are you even going to watch it by then? Anyways, it was really good. We loved it.

• 2:03Payton Moreland?

  Have you been keeping up with Severance?

• 2:05Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, Severance has been good. I don't know, something about the first season sucked me in a lot more. The second season's good, don't get me wrong. But I don't know, I think Paradise really kind of took the cake for me. It was just so good that I was like, dang, I want another season of Paradise. Um, any other, nothing else I've really been watching, just that, trying to think if there's any other series that Peyton and I need to watch together. Obviously some movies we need to catch up on, but we don't watch a ton of series or shows together in general. So it was kind of nice to watch that together because we both really liked it.

• 2:37Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, we watch a lot of separate stuff.

• 2:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's kind of what we got going on in our lives. Nothing too crazy. I'm drinking some coffee right here because I'm trying to wake up because I'm supposed to start driving to Vegas tonight at 10 o'clock tonight and I have a five hour drive ahead of me. Yep. You know me.

• 2:55Payton Moreland?

  Oh, and before we get into the um, episode, just a reminder that I have a Twitch account where I live stream. I do get ready with me. Sometimes I'll play games. It just kind of depends. But if you want to come hang out with me and the community over there, it's so fun. It's just randomly throughout the day. Um, but yeah, I live stream over there. Sometimes, well, majority of the time Garrett's on with me as well. So yeah, come hang out. That should also be linked below. Our sources for this episode are CBS News, CBS12.com, WPTV.com, TC Palm.com, Sports Kita.com, The Sun.com, Florida Today.com, Legacy, Verro News.com, and FL Courts.gov.

• 3:33Payton Moreland?

  Okay, so when it comes to a courtroom defense, we've heard a lot of pretty wild things on this show, whether that's self-defense, insanity, please, blaming someone else entirely. You would think that we've heard pretty much any excuse there is for a defense in court.

• 3:54Garrett Moreland?

  In fact, just the other week, we covered a case where they allowed the prosecution to bring a bed in the courtroom.

• 4:01Payton Moreland?

  Yes. So

• 4:03Garrett Moreland?

  Insane.

• 4:05Payton Moreland?

  Today's case, though, I think might actually be a first on this show as far as the defense goes. And Garrett's gonna know about this, but if you follow football at all, then you've probably heard this term before. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

• 4:24Payton Moreland?

  Or as it's more commonly known.

• 4:27Garrett Moreland?

  CTE.

• 4:29Payton Moreland?

  Yes, it is a disease that is linked to repeated head trauma. And it can cause a lot of really complicated issues. I would say football is the thing that really brought this to the surface of people recognizing this disease, but it also can happen in boxing, MMA, fighting, honestly, any contact sport where there is repeated hitting to the head. CTE can be a common disease.

• 4:55Garrett Moreland?

  There's actually, if you want like a good summary on kind of what it is, there's a good movie on it with Will Smith. I forget what it's called, but it kind of explains the whole process of when everything was was going down.

• 5:07Payton Moreland?

  So basically, CTE, a recognized disease, can cause mood swings, problems with memory and rationalization, irritability. Now, like I said, while football isn't the only sport that CTEs are seen in, it has definitely brought the most attention to the condition, which is what Garrett's talking about. Yet despite how well known it is, very little is still understood about the disease itself because it is very case to case. And that's even today, which may be why the perpetrator, in today's case, thought it would make for a pretty convincing defense.

• 5:45Payton Moreland?

  But the question is, can CTEs really explain away a history of violent abuse and murder?

• 5:55Garrett Moreland?

  I'm curious to find out what case this is already.

• 5:57Payton Moreland?

  So today I want to introduce you to a 26 year old woman named Diana Duvey. Now Diana lives in Vero Beach, Florida, on the eastern coast of the state, but she's not originally from America. She was actually born in a small little country in Eastern Europe called Maldives nestled between Romania and Ukraine.

• 6:23Payton Moreland?

  Now Diana moved to Vero Beach, Florida with her mom Lena when she was around 13. After her mom met and fell in love with an American man named Bill and then they all go to Florida together.

• 6:36Garrett Moreland?

  Of course, his name's Bill.

• 6:37Payton Moreland?

  So for the teenaged Diana, that move must have felt like moving to an entirely different planet. She didn't even speak a word of English, yet she adapted fast, impressively fast. Two months after starting her new school, Diana was enrolling in English speaking classes. And a few years later, those who knew her said you couldn't even tell the English wasn't her first language. By the time she graduated high school, she had plenty of friends and a bright future ahead of her in America. Because Diana was dedicated to her dream of one day becoming a nurse. So she graduates, she moves away to Gainesville, Florida in 2007 to begin her nursing degree.

• 7:22Payton Moreland?

  But after she graduated, Diana was eager to return home and actually be close to her mother again. So she graduates nursing school, she moves back home and she gets a job at Sebastian Medical Center. It's just a half hour away from home. But Diana was already dreaming of what the next chapter would bring in her life. She was working on obtaining her nursing license in the state of California with hopes of one day moving west. So from Florida to California. But in 2013, Diana met someone at a local bar who would complicate that dream that she had. It was a man named Mike Jones.

• 8:04Payton Moreland?

  Now, Mike was slightly older than Diana by about six years, but that might have been what drew Diana in. Mike was a wealth manager at a local PNC bank branch. Meaning he handled giant multimillion dollar accounts for very wealthy people. And he was one of the top workers at that branch. So he brought in a ton of great clients. He said he knew a bunch of different celebrities that he could bring into the bank that his sister. Was married to the country singer, Jason Aldean, and that he himself was adopted by Ronald Reagan's son as a kid. On top of that, Mike received excellent performance reviews. Even the clients

• 8:46Payton Moreland?

  raved about him. It certainly helped that he had a master's degree and a law degree. Plus, he seemed to have a really great reputation around Vero Beach. Not only did he dress to impress, Michael was always attending charity events, trying to give back to his community. Friends of his used words like genius, trustworthy, ambitious. So on paper, Michael Jones seemed like a really stand-up guy. He, he seems to be the social butterfly, which really helps him in his career. But Diana wasn't completely sold on Michael, not right away at least. Even after what seemed like a few dates, Diana told a friend, she still wasn't sure. She wasn't head over heels

• 9:30Payton Moreland?

  for him yet. But she'd continue to give him a chance, and Michael made sure she did. He charmed Diana every chance he got. He charmed her parents, too. When he met them, he was dressed to the nines. He was well spoken. He was polite. He presented himself as everything you would ever want in a partner for your daughter. And as a result, Diana started to fall for Mike. Just a few months after they started dating, she told her parents that she was planning to move in with Mike, and they had no objections. The two seemed happy. They seemed in love, and they were definitely working towards a bright future together. A few friends said that they were truly inseparable after that,

• 10:11Payton Moreland?

  arm in arm constantly, but not in a way that felt totally healthy. According to Diana's friend, Chelsea, she said it almost felt like they were together all the time in a controlling way. Like, the reason they're together all the time is because Mike wouldn't let Diana out of his sight. When Chelsea met with Diana for lunch one day, just the two of them, Diana sort of hinted that she might be in trouble for going to lunch with her without him. But on April 30th, 2014, that issue almost seemed like it was going to work itself out because Diana decided to break it off with Mike and move back in with her parents. She didn't tell her mother why they had broken up.

• 10:57Payton Moreland?

  But her mother didn't pry. Lena, her mother, did notice, however, that it didn't really seem completely over yet. Mike was still texting Diana, constantly trying to get her back. And they sort of remained in that limbo for the next few months of being on again, off again, seeing each other, but not actually dating, sometimes trying to make it work, other times saying, nope, we're done. But Diana didn't move back in with Mike. She stayed living with her mother and stepfather until June of 2014. And on the night of the 19th, 2014, she went out with a few friends, hoping to take her mind off of the Mike situation, just for a little while. Of course, that's easier said than done. Diana's friends noticed she

• 11:40Payton Moreland?

  was glued to her phone all evening, barely able to hold a conversation with the rest of the group. So they're all out, they're hanging out. Diana's supposed to be broken up with Mike, but she won't get off her phone. And, you know, we've all either been there or been with a friend who's in this on again, off again, relationship with someone. And even when you're hanging out, that's all they can think about.

• 12:00Garrett Moreland?

  It was more of like when I was in high school, though.

• 12:02Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 12:03Garrett Moreland?

  I'm mature now. No, I was kidding.

• 12:06Payton Moreland?

  So eventually Diana left the night earlier than planned, telling her friends that she was actually gonna go meet up with Mike and just talk. So Diana got in her car and made the few minutes drive over to a bar called What a Tavern in Vero Beach. Now surveillance footage shows her taking a seat next to Mike at the bar sometime before midnight. She leaves her friends. She's now at a bar with Mike. Other people at the bar said, for the most part, it looked like the couple was honestly having a nice time. They were talking, they were laughing. Though there was a point in the night where Diana did get visibly upset and might have actually been crying.

• 12:45Garrett Moreland?

  So I was gonna say, you know, what's interesting is... I used to always wonder, how are people like, how do people know this? How are they looking at someone and now they notice someone's crying? They notice someone's happy. They notice, they notice someone's upset, whatever it may be. But I'm not gonna lie, Peyton and I do this at restaurants. Sometimes we'll just be eating, we'll both go silent and we'll just be both staring at a couple thinking, hmm, I wonder what they're talking about? Is this their first day? What are they doing? Oh, they look like they're fighting. Oh, they look like they're happy.

• 13:17Payton Moreland?

  I mean, if I noticed a girl crying at a restaurant, I would probably remember it. By the time police came and talked to me and said, you were at this place at the same time as this couple? Did you notice anything? And if I had seen her crying, I would have remembered that.

• 13:32Garrett Moreland?

  So I think whether we all do it or not, I feel like subconsciously, a lot of us do it.

• 13:37Payton Moreland?

  But I'm not gonna lie, eyewitness accounts are like the most unstable accounts there are.

• 13:42Garrett Moreland?

  That's true.

• 13:43Payton Moreland?

  So she might be crying, but around 1:15 a.m. Diana and Mike were actually seen on the same surveillance footage of the bar, leaving the bar. Now, Mike's place, presumably the one that he used to share with Diana, so where she had moved in with him, was just four miles from that bar. And Diana texted her mother around 1:45 a.m. that night, saying she wasn't gonna be coming home. She sends that message in Russian. That is their native language. Now Lena doesn't see that text until she wakes up the next morning for work, because it came in at 1:45 a.m. But to her, this is an unusual, Diana has been known to just go spend random nights at Mike's house.

• 14:27Payton Moreland?

  She's, she just assumes, okay, that's where she is. Plus, because it's written in Russian, Lena knows Diana was obviously the person who sent it, right? But just to be sure, she messages her back that morning and says, where are you? Though the hours start ticking by and there's no response from Diana.

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• 15:12Payton Moreland?

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• 16:33Payton Moreland?

  Tells them we sent you, really helps the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime in real time. So by the time the entire day has gone by, Lena has come and gone from work and the clock strikes 11:30 PM and there is still no word from her daughter. Lena is past worried. So what does she do? She decides to call Mike. Remember she's met Mike. He's been introduced to the family and the family liked him. So she calls Mike and Mike is cool as a cucumber. He's like, oh, yeah, you know, Lena's just here with me. Don't worry. She can't get to the phone. She's sleeping, but I'll have her call you back.

• 17:13Garrett Moreland?

  No way. I'd be like, wake my daughter up right now.

• 17:17Payton Moreland?

  Diana doesn't call. So Lena tries again. She's like, Mike, enough, wake her up. Like, let me talk to her. She never called me. Let me talk to her. And she's met with another excuse. He's like, oh, well, I actually am not home anymore. She's back at my place. I'll wake her up and have her call you as soon as I get there. That'll be around 30 minutes. Again, there's no call. So Lena and her husband, Bill, are shaking in fear and rage by this point, which is why they decide we're just gonna drive to Mike's house and knock on the door.

• 17:47Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 17:48Payton Moreland?

  When they get there, there's no Diana. There's also no Mike. Neither one of them nor their cars are at the house.

• 17:58Garrett Moreland?

  Gosh.

• 17:58Payton Moreland?

  So Lena's like, that's it. I'm done. I don't care. I'm going to the police and I'm reporting my daughter missing. So it's now Saturday, June 21st, 2014. This is about 36 hours, give or take, since Diana was last seen or heard from, that last message. And detectives are knocking on Michael Jones's door to find he is still not home and there's still no sign of Diana. So she, her mom, Lena, goes to police. It's like, my daughter's missing. Her boyfriend, on off again boyfriend, Mike, said she was there, but when we got there, they weren't there. So detectives go and they're still not there. So they return

• 18:40Payton Moreland?

  to the station with plans to secure a search warrant and they get one and they head back to the house the following afternoon. When they get there though, they're surprised to see that Lena and Bill, this is her mom and Bill, the American man that they moved to America with. Have just been parked outside of Mike's house, watching and waiting for any signs of him or their daughter, which honestly same.

• 19:09Garrett Moreland?

  Good for them.

• 19:10Payton Moreland?

  Same.

• 19:10Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 19:11Payton Moreland?

  And I mean, what else are you gonna do? Right? But the police get inside Michael's house and they expect to find something, anything to tell where Diana is, what might have happened to her. But there's nothing. There's not even any belongings of Diana's to show that she might have spent the night there. And that's when they realized that the only way they're probably gonna find Diana, considering that Michael told Lena that she was with him during the time that she was missing.

• 19:42Payton Moreland?

  They realized they need to find Michael. And the more they look into him, his behavior in the hours before he met up with Diana that night was pretty alarming, to say the least. So just 12 hours before Mike had Diana meet him at the Wada Tavern Bar, he was actually spotted on surveillance footage at his own PNC bank withdrawing money from an ATM. We're not talking a couple hundred bucks. He took out $2,500 in cash.

• 20:12Garrett Moreland?

  I thought you were gonna say 25,000.

• 20:14Payton Moreland?

  Then he told a coworker.

• 20:15Garrett Moreland?

  He can't do that because he'd have to go talk to it. Tell anyways, keep going.

• 20:19Payton Moreland?

  Hey, I'm actually not feeling well, so I'm gonna be taking the next few days off. So that this is, this is 12 hours before he even meets her at the bar. He takes $2,500 out and then tells his coworker, I'm gonna be sick for the next few days. But then he tells another coworker, I'm taking the next few days off to go to a wedding. So he's now told two different coworkers, two different stories.

• 20:42Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 20:43Payton Moreland?

  However, on the morning of the 21st, it appears Mike was still at his house, or at least stopped by to gather some things before the police would arrive that day. Because a neighbor said they saw someone with an odd freaked out demeanor walking around behind Mike's building and afterwards noticed the man get into and drive away in a black Nissan Altima. And you know who drove a black Nissan Altima? Diana.

• 21:13Garrett Moreland?

  Of course she did.

• 21:13Payton Moreland?

  So they're thinking, okay, so before we got here that day, Michael was here and his neighbors saw him acting weird and then drive away in Diana's car when Diana is nowhere to be found.

• 21:24Garrett Moreland?

  I'm curious when the CTE comes into play because gosh, I can't remember the movie and I obviously I'm not an expert on this. It's just honestly what I remember from the movie and I guess different articles I've read here and there, but it's interesting because it sounds like this is being planned out.

• 21:42Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 21:42Garrett Moreland?

  And I am not sure.

• 21:44Payton Moreland?

  Murder via CTE is premeditated?

• 21:47Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm not sure murder, yeah, via the complications due to CTE is planned out and premeditated. I was under the impression and thought it was more of a snap in the moment type thing, not making good decisions, close to in the moment type things, not planning this out 24 hours in advance.

• 22:10Payton Moreland?

  Right. And then around 7:00 AM shortly after that witness sighting, Mike's spotted on surveillance footage at a Walmart in Palm Bay. It's about 45 minutes away. There he actually buys a Samsung flip phone and a prepaid Verizon card.

• 22:28Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 22:29Payton Moreland?

  He's then spotted on parking lot footage, going back to the car, grabbing a plastic bag, trying to throw something in the dumpster by Walmart, which is locked. So he puts it back in the car and drives away. Now, all of this is shady enough. I mean, if this guy knows his girlfriend is missing, he should be helping her parents look for her, but it gets a lot more suspicious when police look into Mike Jones's background and find he has a criminal record. So before living in Vero Beach, Mike lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This was back in 2012, so only like two years prior. And there he was charged with, get this, aggravated stalking after he threatened to

• 23:14Payton Moreland?

  kill an ex-girlfriend. So police look Mike up and they realize he's already been charged for wanting to harm an ex-girlfriend.

• 23:22Garrett Moreland?

  My kids are gonna hate me because I'm gonna do a background check on every single person they ever date.

• 23:28Payton Moreland?

  As you should.

• 23:29Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 23:29Payton Moreland?

  So for this crime, Mike pleaded no contest and was only given five years probation. By the time of sentencing, though, he was living in Vero Beach. And he was told if he left the Vero Beach area without getting permission from his probation officer, he could be placed under arrest. So when detectives learn all this, they decide to call this probation office because Mike is nowhere to be found. And it seems he's gotten the heck out of Vero Beach by this point. And the probation officer is like, no, he definitely didn't get permission from me to leave. So now, police have cause to arrest Mike the second they find him.

• 24:04Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 24:04Payton Moreland?

  If they can find him. Now Lena and Bill are totally shocked by this news that Mike has this criminal record. According to them, they had no idea that Mike was at all possessive or abusive in any way. Definitely not towards their daughter. But according to some of Diana's friends, Mike kinda did some of the same things in his relationship with her. The most notable was on April 30th, 2014. This is just two months before Diana went missing. Early that morning, a little before 1 a.m., Mike Jones's neighbor made a call to 911. And he's like, hey, yeah, I think I have a domestic disturbance call for you. My next door neighbor and his girlfriend have been screaming at each other for an hour. Then he says, and this is a direct quote, "It sounds like he's trying to dominate the crap

• 24:49Payton Moreland?

  out of her." Now, the police show up at the house minutes later. And when they knock on the door, Mike answers. And at first, he's like, I was asleep. He pretends that he was sleeping and he doesn't know what the neighbor's referring to. And then they're like, well, the neighbor didn't make it up. And he's like, okay, yeah, me and Diana, we were just having rough sex. So they asked to speak with her. She comes to the door in her pajamas and police say, well, she looks frustrated with the situation. She doesn't appear to have any marks on her. Right before the officers are about to leave, Diana says, wait, please don't go. I want to get my things and I don't want to do it alone. So one of the officers says she practically begs them to stay with her and let her get out

• 25:32Payton Moreland?

  of the house safely, which they definitely find alarming.

• 25:36Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, DV 101.

• 25:37Payton Moreland?

  But they help her out. Once again, outside of the house, they ask her, are you sure you're okay that nothing has happened? They examine her again for cuts and bruises. And she's like, I'm fine. I just want to go home. So they let her leave. But Diana doesn't go home. She calls her friend Chelsea, who works at a bar nearby. Now Chelsea says Diana was hysterically crying on this phone call, and she told Chelsea she was coming to work to see her. She gets there a few minutes later. Chelsea says she's inconsolable. She's hyperventilating. Her face is puffy and swollen from crying. Plus, she's standing at this bar in her pajamas. And Chelsea sees this as a big red flag because Diana would never be out in public in her pajamas unless this was an emergency of some sort. So Chelsea rushes her into the

• 26:19Payton Moreland?

  bathroom. And that's when Diana opens up to her friend about what actually happened earlier. She says that they got into an argument. Mike pushed her down. He got on top of her. He started choking her while saying over and over, I'll effing kill you.

• 26:32Garrett Moreland?

  Holy, holy.

• 26:35Payton Moreland?

  And Chelsea can see red marks all over Diana's neck. So clearly, the officers missed this or didn't look very hard. She tells Diana, we need to take pictures of this. So Chelsea takes pictures of these marks for evidence. Chelsea's like, look, you have to go back to the police and file a complaint. You can't let this slide. But Diana's like, no. Which is not unusual in cases like this. Though, that is the time that she moves out of the house and back with her parents. So remember how I told you earlier that they had split and she didn't tell anyone really why? Chelsea knew why, and it was because he'd been physically violent with her and told her he was gonna kill her. But as we know, Diana and Mike kept talking on and off for the next several months, until that night in June, when they

• 27:17Payton Moreland?

  meet up, and then Diana was never seen again. By the way, this wasn't just Diana. And it wasn't just the woman he was dating in Fort Lauderdale either. The one who he had stalked and been charged with. As the police dig, they find there's been abuse in almost all of Mike's past relationships. Patterns are always the same. Charm the pants off them, start to tighten the reins, control, control, control, escalate to violence. This is a clear sign of a predator. Police no longer have any doubts that Mike is the reason for Diana's disappearance. And as much as they want to bring her home to her parents, it's not looking good now that they know the truth about Mike's background. So the pressure is on. They need to find Mike Jones. It has now been three days since Diana

• 28:01Payton Moreland?

  was last seen and they know they need to step it up. So on the afternoon of June 22nd, they begin analyzing Mike and Diana's cellphone data to see what towers her phone last pinged. And they find that Mike made one of his most recent calls near Fort Pierce, Florida. This is about 25 minutes from Vero Beach. So Vero Beach Police contacted the officers there and tell them to be on the lookout for either Diana's black Nissan or Mike's gold Honda. And just a few hours later, they get a call back. Mike's car has been spotted in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn hotel. So officers rush over there to speak with the front desk. They

• 28:42Payton Moreland?

  find Mike Jones had checked in about 24 hours after Diana disappeared. They also learned he had paid in cash for a two night stay. And he told the front desk not to tell anyone he was there and not to transfer any calls to his room.

• 28:56Garrett Moreland?

  That's so funny. Like the front desk cares to keep this a secret.

• 28:59Payton Moreland?

  So police are like, let's see your cameras. They look at the surveillance footage and see that Mike checked in alone. Diana is not with him, which is not a good sign. So the front desk gives the police a key card, offer up his room number and basically are like, yeah, go do whatever you need to do. I don't know. So police go up, they go up to his floor, they get up to his door of his hotel room. And they just use the key card and let themselves in.

• 29:24Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:25Payton Moreland?

  And there he is. He's sitting on the bed, talking on his burner phone that he was seen on surveillance buying to someone. Which by the way, he has this burner phone, but he's also still using his regular phone too, because that's how they found him there. Which means Mike's really not the smartest criminal. But when they berate him with questions about Diana, Mike refuses to offer up any information. Here's the thing though, they have Mike backed into a corner. They say to him, look, you can answer our questions or we can place you under arrest since you violated your parole. But Mike still doesn't budge, which means he's placed in handcuffs and taken down to the station for booking. However, the question remains. Where is Diana?

• 30:05Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, can they charge him for Diana?

• 30:07Payton Moreland?

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• 30:52Payton Moreland?

  so nice for me to get access to the money I've already worked for and earned in between those pay periods.

• 31:00Garrett Moreland?

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• 31:42Garrett Moreland?

  I think sometimes we have thoughts and experiences that we want to, you know, remove or delete from our brain. And sometimes that's just not how it works. I think therapy is a great place to help process those thoughts. So yeah, if you're interested in therapy, you really should give BetterHelp a try.

• 32:01Payton Moreland?

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• 32:27Garrett Moreland?

  BetterHelp is now in network with more than 125 health plans with many copays as low as $15 for eligible members. And if you don't have eligible insurance or live outside the US, you can still get 20% off your first month. Sign up and get 20% off at betterhelp.com/husband. That's better A G L P dot com slash husband.

• 32:47Payton Moreland?

  With Mike unwilling to talk, officers have to sort of retrace his steps on their own. They figure tracking his cellphone worked once, let's do it again. And what they find is the morning after he was last seen with Diana, remember how he went to Walmart to buy that burner phone and then he was seen in the parking lot getting into Diana's car and driving away? Well, apparently after that little trip, his phone pinged another tower around Melbourne, almost an hour north of Vero Beach. So again, police call the officers at that precinct and tell them we're searching for a black Nissan. This is Diana's car. And again, it works. Around 4:30 AM that night, after arresting Mike Jones, they find Diana's car sitting in

• 33:32Payton Moreland?

  a Publix grocery store parking lot abandoned. But when they open the vehicle, they're searching it, they pop the trunk, see what they can find.

• 33:41Garrett Moreland?

  Nothing. Oh.

• 33:44Payton Moreland?

  Diana is dead.

• 33:45Garrett Moreland?

  Holy shit.

• 33:47Payton Moreland?

  In her own trunk. Her body is sitting.

• 33:50Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap.

• 33:51Payton Moreland?

  In her car's trunk.

• 33:53Garrett Moreland?

  That's horrible.

• 33:53Payton Moreland?

  In this parking lot of a random Publix grocery store.

• 33:57Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 33:58Payton Moreland?

  Which means that Diana's missing person case is now officially a homicide.

• 34:05Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 34:05Payton Moreland?

  And the autopsy indicated that whatever happened to Diana was not an accident. She had multiple defensive wounds, as well as red marks around her knees and ankles that told detectives she had likely been tied up. She'd suffered blunt force trauma to the head and her cause of death was strangulation.

• 34:21Garrett Moreland?

  This is why the other week when we were talking about domestic violence, it is so, it's just so dangerous.

• 34:28Payton Moreland?

  So dangerous.

• 34:29Garrett Moreland?

  Because.

• 34:30Garrett Moreland?

  Honestly, I'm fairly convinced that every single, sorry, not every single, I'm fairly convinced that seventy-five, as it goes, alright, let's go seventy, seventy percent of DV cases would probably end up in murder if they went down long enough.

• 34:48Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 34:49Garrett Moreland?

  I just think that.

• 34:51Payton Moreland?

  I mean, I don't know the statistics on that, but I do know it's.

• 34:53Garrett Moreland?

  I just think it, well, I think people.

• 34:54Payton Moreland?

  The most dangerous thing.

• 34:55Garrett Moreland?

  I think people get out, I think people leave, but I think if someone stayed long enough, or, I don't know, it's just, it's so dangerous. DV is extremely dangerous.

• 35:06Payton Moreland?

  Actually, attempting to leave is the, one of the strongest triggers for a.

• 35:13Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, I'm sure.

• 35:14Payton Moreland?

  Because they don't want you to.

• 35:15Garrett Moreland?

  I'm sure if you were attempt to leave in the wrong situation, majority of people who are committing domestic violence would probably kill someone.

• 35:23Payton Moreland?

  So they're like, okay, we need to prove that if he drove her here with her body in the trunk and left it here, we need to prove that he then somehow got home. Cause how did he get home from here? So they begin calling taxi companies around the area, seeing if anyone picked up a guy fitting Mike's description from that Publix parking lot. And they get lucky. Again, they find one taxi driver who says he picked up a guy in the exact same clothes Mike was seen wearing in surveillance footage that day. Now during that nearly hour ride back to Vero Beach, the cab driver said he was trying to chat with Mike, asking him what brought him there. Mike told him he and his friend had gotten into a fight and she had left him.

• 36:04Payton Moreland?

  But the real kicker was when they presented the cab driver with a lineup of suspects, they're like, can you do, uh, can you try to identify him? He picks Mike out right away. So now they have a witness, a strong witness who's gonna say, I drove Mike from that Publix back to Vero Beach and he told me in the car that he'd gotten in a fight with a friend and she had left him. But nothing beats physical DNA evidence in court. And when police do a search of Mike's home and garage, they find a few small drops of blood. When they test it, they prove it's Diana's DNA. So on June 25th, 2014, Mike Jones is charged with first degree murder for killing Diana. And his plan is to maintain his innocence through and through.

• 36:45Payton Moreland?

  But as we know, the trial will bring forth a bunch of other surprises. Now, as the prosecution begins digging into Mike's background to build out a case against him for trial, they learn this guy wasn't just abusive to the people in his life. He also made up many elaborate lies to rope people in and keep them close. Remember, Mike had a lot of really interesting facts about himself that he shared with people, that his brother-in-law was country singer Jason Aldean, that he was adopted by the Reagans, and that he played minor league baseball, that he had a penthouse in Fort Lauderdale. He had a Porsche that he only drove on the weekends.

• 37:17Garrett Moreland?

  My gosh.

• 37:18Payton Moreland?

  None of this is true. Mike Jones was a pathological liar. In fact, he was so good at it that he'd even conned the bank he worked at. Remember, before he got the job, Mike was a convicted felon. Banks don't usually let convicted felons manage multimillion dollar accounts. Yet Mike somehow weaseled his way in there. Actually, that job might have been one of the only real things about Mike's life. Well, that and his really prestigious academic career. Because it appears Mike really did get a master's and a law degree. But when it came to his social life and a lot of other personal details, they all just seemed to be a lie. The prosecution was ready to tell the jury this, so they knew they could not trust Mike. So Mike Jones's trial began in October of 2019. And the prosecution painted a solid picture of what they're pretty sure happened that night.

• 38:03Payton Moreland?

  They think Mike, who had always tried to control the narrative and control his sexual partners, snapped after Diana told him she no longer wanted to be with him. They think she called it off later that night when they got back to his place, and Mike refused to accept it. Including the part where she told him she had plans to move out west to California. But Mike's defense team argued there was so much more to the story. And that the jury should have a little bit of sympathy for him because of two very traumatic things that had happened to Mike. Prior abuse and a traumatic brain injury. This is where the defense comes in. Mike's defense claimed that Mike himself was a victim of abuse growing up and that it had even pushed him into doing the same. Mike's uncle Teddy Jones even took the stand to support this.

• 38:46Payton Moreland?

  So Teddy says he remembers there's an incident when Mike was in his early twenties. Teddy arrives at the house to find Michael's father holding him up against a wall by his throat. Teddy screamed at Mike's father to let him go and eventually took Mike home with him because he was scared for his nephew's life. Now, I know hurt people hurt people. Is that an excuse for murder?

• 39:04Garrett Moreland?

  Never.

• 39:05Payton Moreland?

  No, but the defense said that prior abuse wasn't the only factor. Michael was an avid motocross rider and sustained so many injuries over the years that he suffered from CTE.

• 39:16Garrett Moreland?

  Here's the hard thing is if we compare this to the case we did the other week where the girl was actually being abused and killed her abuser. And she's in jail.

• 39:30Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 39:30Garrett Moreland?

  I have zero sympathy for this.

• 39:33Payton Moreland?

  But here's the thing, there is no medical records ever presented as evidence to show that Michael had repeated head trauma, that he had been diagnosed with them, but the prosecution had an excellent rebuttal for all this. If the plan was to argue that Michael Jones had some sort of cognitive deficiency that made him take his girlfriend's life. Well, then that same cognitive deficiency would have made it hard for him to do his job. To get all of those accolades he received doing such an amazing job.

• 39:58Garrett Moreland?

  Becoming, getting a lot of gree, yeah, you're right.

• 40:01Payton Moreland?

  So they tell the jury, this is just another elaborate lie. Like this is not even real. He was trying to fool the jury using the same tactics he had used to fool his friends, his colleagues and his girlfriends. They shouldn't fall for it. Turns out they didn't. After deliberating for only 45 minutes.

• 40:20Garrett Moreland?

  Sheesh.

• 40:20Payton Moreland?

  The jury was back with a verdict. Michael Jones was guilty of first degree murder, meaning premeditation.

• 40:27Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 40:27Payton Moreland?

  And with that, the jury also had the option of recommending the death penalty.

• 40:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 40:32Payton Moreland?

  However, they chose to show Mike some mercy. He got a life sentence instead.

• 40:36Garrett Moreland?

  Nope.

• 40:36Payton Moreland?

  Diana's mother Lena had a lot to say about Michael's punishment though, and she put it in words that I think any mother or loved one could relate to. During his sentencing hearing, this was the statement she read directly to Michael. Look at me. You came to my home, you sat at my table and you took my daughter away from me. There is no punishment harsh enough for what you took from me. Nothing can happen to you that will satisfy me ever again.

• 41:04Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, wow.

• 41:04Payton Moreland?

  Because you're a coward. If hate could kill, you would be dead now for what you took from me.

• 41:11Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I mean, I don't even, I'd feel the same way.

• 41:15Payton Moreland?

  Before I wrap this up, I want you to know if you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. And that is the case of Diana Duvey.

• 41:31Garrett Moreland?

  Do have to say, I was reading the YouTube comments, we've done a couple DV cases recently and it's sad and blows my mind on how many of our listeners as well have been through domestic violence. I don't know if you've read some of the YouTube comments. It was crazy. And first of all, I'm so sorry. And second of all, it sounds like a lot of you have gotten out of those relationships. So I'm happy for you.

• 41:56Garrett Moreland?

  It's wild. It's wild. It's wild. And yes, I know it does happen to men too. But I feel like the majority of it, at least from our comments and our YouTube videos was females. And I'm just like, what's going on, man?

• 42:09Payton Moreland?

  And you might get out, but you don't get out unscathed.

• 42:12Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, no, no.

• 42:13Payton Moreland?

  Talk about the emotional, mental trauma. And you could have physical trauma from it as well. I mean, it just, it's, it's a thing that keeps on happening over and over.

• 42:21Garrett Moreland?

  It's just crazy. I think, I think domestic violence is one of the things that, because like, I mean, we, a lot of us are in relationships. We've been in relationships and we understand being upset with our partner and, you know, being angry and being frustrated. But to take it to the level that, to get physical at all is not, it's just not okay. Not okay. It's not okay.

• 42:46Payton Moreland?

  Down that you're not gonna.

• 42:47Garrett Moreland?

  And I know there's like a mental abuse as well.

• 42:51Garrett Moreland?

  I think that could be a little more complicated. So I'll leave that out for now. But just being physically harmful to your partner, to anyone, unless you're, unless I'm watching a pay-per-view UFC fight, is just not okay.

• 43:06Payton Moreland?

  This is my biggest argument of why we should teach kids from a young age that physical harm is not the option, which is, in my opinion, why we shouldn't spank children. Because those children can't grow up and then spank people. You're teaching them that this is how you punish people. You're teaching them that physical violence is a punishment. But when you're an adult, you can't physically punish someone. It's literally illegal. And so it's like, any type of physical violence is just not acceptable.

• 43:38Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 43:38Payton Moreland?

  All right, you guys, that is our case for today, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 43:43Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 43:44Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 43:56Speaker 02

  With Monday Note Taker, nobody has to take notes again. It joins your call, transcribes it, and turns the whole conversation into a clear plan. Action items, owners, deadlines, all right there on your monday.com board, ready for the team. So the meeting ends, and the plan already exists. Meetings aren't just talk anymore. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.