Our card this week is Sharon Jones, the 10 of Spades from Florida. The last known people to see Sharon Jones alive around Thanksgiving weekend in 1987 have something in common. They all attended the same apartment party. And when the young woman showed up dead several days later…stories started swirling about what actually went down that night. More than 37 years later, her family’s still hearing remnants of these rumors…rumors they’re hoping someone out there can help them put to rest once and for all…If you know anything about the murder of Sharon Jones in Naples, Florida in 1987, we hope you’ll come forward for this family. You can remain anonymous by submitting a tip through Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers online or by calling them at 1-800-780-8477.Additional ways to contact Naples Police directly:Napes Police Department AppNumber for Naples Police Department: (239) 213-3000Lieutenant Robert Young’s Desk Line: (239) 213-4823Email for Naples Police Department: [email protected] Robert Young’s Email: [email protected] View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/sharon-jones Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org.The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: What is the story behind Sharon Jones' disappearance?
Our card this week is Sharon Jones, the 10 of spades from Florida. The last known people to see Sharon Jones alive around Thanksgiving weekend in 1987 have something in common. They all attended the same party. And when the young woman showed up dead several days later, stories started swirling about what actually went down that night.
More than 37 years later, her family's still hearing remnants of these rumors. Rumors they're hoping someone out there can help put to rest once and for all. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. It was early in the evening on December 4th, 1987, when a guy named Grady made an unexpected pit stop at a vacant lot in Naples, Florida to take a leak.
Chapter 2: How was Sharon Jones' body discovered?
It was a poorly lit industrial area. Especially at night, you know, December, around 5.30, 6 o'clock, it's getting dark. There's junk back there. People throw their garbage. There's some vegetation back there. It's in between two industrial buildings. Nobody's looking back there for bodies. But, you know, he notices something a little to his right. And he realizes this is a decomposing body.
And when he's done going to the bathroom, he gets back in the car. And I believe initially he didn't go to the police. I believe he went home first and told someone. And then they went to the lobby of the police department and told him, hey, there may be a body located in the alleyway just north of Central Avenue on 12th Street.
That was Lieutenant Robert Young. He told our reporter that officers with the Naples PD went out to the scene and found the decomposed body of a woman who had been dumped, hidden away in a dark corner along with trash and debris.
She's bound behind her back with a red dress that was torn apart and it was used to bind her as well as wrapped around her neck to possibly strangle her. You can see the ligature around her neck and her arms that are bound. Looked like she had bindings on her ankles, but over the course of days, they somehow came apart or they were never put on that tightly.
Chapter 3: What details were revealed from the crime scene investigation?
With her torn dress used as bindings and ligatures, she was left completely nude. And investigators didn't locate any undergarments at the scene. Due to her state of decomp, they assumed that she'd been left there for at least a few days or so. And it wasn't that shocking that she hadn't been found until now, considering most people would have no reason to venture into that area.
So detectives collected everything they could from everywhere they could. high and low. On the ground, they didn't get much, aside from the pieces of cloth from her dress. Everything else just appeared to be random litter that was likely already there before their victim. But they didn't stop looking there.
And then they also went to check the rooftops, and they found she had a pair of beige slides, slippers, and they were actually found on the roof of this building. You just check to see if any evidence was thrown. Maybe a knife was, maybe a weapon was thrown over there. So you got to do your due diligence and you check the whole entire area.
I was honestly pretty impressed that they went as far as to check the roof. I know you can never be too sure upon first glance, but it didn't look like the victim had taken a fall or anything. And since this looked like a strangulation case, I'm not sure what they were expecting to find up there.
But find they did, though they think that the shoes were tossed up there for some unknown reason rather than her having actually been up there before her death. With nothing but her dress and shoes, detectives didn't have a clue as to who she was. But the folks in the River Park community were starting to talk and they had a pretty good idea.
Well, there was a rumor going around that a body was found, and they gave a description, and then they finally found out that it was my sister.
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Chapter 4: Who was Sharon Jones and what was her life like?
That was Von Seal, and her sister was 27-year-old Sharon Jones.
And the police department called me because I worked for the city at the time, so they knew me. They called me in to tell me that it was my sister that they found over by the Naples Daily News. She was struggling with the drug abuse. I must admit, at first, I was giving her money to support her habit because I didn't want her to do that, you know, what they do to support the habit.
And then my husband said, Bonsai, you just enabled her. Stop doing that. And I did. Eventually, it was hard. And we talked, and I tried to get her off. The tough love didn't work. I mean, nothing worked.
It was her fingerprints on file that confirmed, at autopsy, the rumors Von Seal was hearing. The autopsy also confirmed what investigators had already assumed. Sharon's cause of death was ligature strangulation, the makeshift ligature being her own dress. There were no signs of sexual assault, and there were also no obvious signs of trauma that could have come from some type of assault or beating.
The ME estimated that she had likely been dead around four or five days. And detectives were able to pinpoint November 26th as the last day one of her sisters had contact with her. But they needed to nail down who she'd been spending time with around then.
Detectives go down to the area where all the drug dealers and drug users hang out or reside. So they get some information that there was a party. And during this party, these were the five or six individuals that were present. Sharon was one of them. Girls were expected to exchange sexual favors for crack cocaine, which was very popular at the time.
And two of the people that were present were Arthur Neesmith and Robert Ruscha. And we had at least two people, females that were present there, who stated that Sharon went into a room with those two subjects. You had people there who were in this apartment who all had criminal histories. So everyone pretty much at the party has given a statement with the exception of those two guys.
And even to this day, you know, when we tried to interview them, Rache just gets angry and shouts, he had nothing to do with it. And Neesmith says, I have an attorney, I'm not making any statements.
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Chapter 5: What happened at the party on the night of Sharon's disappearance?
There were two party attendees who were willing to talk, though. Two women who, to protect their identities, were going to call Maria and Monica. A weird coincidence, if you believe in coincidences. Monica was actually in the car with Grady when he accidentally stumbled upon Sharon's body.
Admittedly, these two women were both under the influence that night, so while their memories were a bit hazy, their stories revolving around Robert and Arthur are nearly identical and I think speak to their credibility.
They were also both seemingly open about their involvement in other illegal activity, like substance use and sex work, so they truly appeared to be acting in good faith when they spoke with law enforcement during the initial investigation, as well as throughout the following years.
Here are voice actors reading from a section of a transcript from one of Maria's interviews with the detective as she recollected the sequence of events involving Sharon in more detail. Please note some parts have been cut and slightly edited for time and clarity.
Okay. What happened to Sharon?
Well, what happened, I don't know. But I can tell you what happened, what I seen. Okay?
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Chapter 6: Who are the key suspects in Sharon Jones' case?
That's okay.
We went in and the agreement was she was going to trick Neesmith for drugs.
Okay. Okay.
But we all started smoking because she was so high. She was paranoid and shaky. And he was pushing her to, come on, take your clothes off. You know, he wanted to have sex. And she was so high, you know, she kept telling, wait, wait, wait, wait. And he was waiting. And she was really, really high. And like, we heard a noise. And then when we opened the door, he had slapped her.
I really, it's been a long time.
Okay. Take your time.
It's something I try to forget about. I don't remember, but I know he hit her. He hit her.
Okay.
There was another guy there.
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Chapter 7: What did witnesses Maria and Monica reveal about the party?
Neesmith. When he hit her, Sharon hit the floor and, like, passed out.
Okay. Was he freaking out, or was he calm?
He was mad. Okay. He was really mad and I went, when I went in to say something, he told me to shut up or he was going to hit me too.
Okay. What did they do with Sharon?
I know that Neesmith went to grab her up and the other guy had her feet.
Okay.
And they said, because I said, where are you going? Where are you going? And they said that she was really f***ed up and they were taking her home.
It seems like Maria was eventually able to identify Robert Ruscha as the other man she'd been referring to during that interview. Both Maria and Monica remembered Sharon being hauled out of the apartment and into a vehicle outside. But neither woman remembered her being tied up in any way when she was carried off.
So it seems most likely that Sharon was unconscious and wasn't actually deceased when she was taken away. Since we know that she was tied up and that her cause of death was strangulation, the murder likely occurred after the group left the apartment.
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