Crime Junkie
Crime Junkie
"There ain't no reason to have a gun here on Baldhead Island, okay? You want to put down the gun? Come on, do me the favor and put down the gun." — Davina Buff Jones (via radio transmission)
"The fact that there are no fingerprints, you know, it's one of those things where you look at a crime scene and you go, okay, it's not just what is there. It's what's absent from the crime scene. And that can tell you so much." — Britt (Co-host/Investigator)
"The condition of the scene makes it impossible for us to definitively rule her death as suicide." — North Carolina Industrial Commission Statement (as reported)
This episode of Crime Junkie delves into the tragic and complex death of Baldhead Island Police Officer Davina "Dee" Buff Jones in October 1999. The narrative begins with her last radio transmission, indicating she was confronting three individuals and a subsequent screech, followed by silence. Officer Keith Kane, her partner, responded to the scene near the Old Baldy Lighthouse, finding Dee deceased with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. The initial response to the scene was marred by questionable decisions, including Kane's hesitation to administer aid due to fear, the early removal of Dee's body from the scene by paramedics before a thorough pulse check, and the subsequent mishandling of evidence, such as Officer Kane retrieving Dee's firearm without gloves, potentially compromising fingerprint analysis.
The investigation quickly became mired in conflicting theories and procedural oversights. While the medical examiner initially made significant errors in the preliminary report, the autopsy confirmed a gunshot wound to the back of the head. However, the scene itself presented anomalies, including blood droplets and a bloody handprint on Dee's truck, drag marks, and a moved shell casing, which did not align with a straightforward suicide scenario. Despite these inconsistencies, law enforcement, particularly the District Attorney, leaned heavily towards a suicide ruling, partly fueled by reports of Dee experiencing personal struggles. The local community's desire to protect tourism and avoid negative publicity also seemed to influence the speed at which the case was potentially intended to be closed.
The Buff family, however, remained unconvinced, highlighting numerous unanswered questions and procedural errors, including the destruction of the crime scene itself by hosing down blood evidence before a thorough investigation. Their fight for justice led to a prolonged legal battle. Years later, an undetermined ruling by the North Carolina Industrial Commission allowed the family to receive death benefits, acknowledging the compromised state of the investigation. While later reviews by the SBI suggested suicide and even alleged Dee orchestrated the scene, the case was reopened in 2012, but the investigations have remained inconclusive, leaving the true circumstances of Davina Buff Jones' death a persistent mystery.