Who are Murder in Apartment 12 victim Nona Dirksmeyers parents?

The new NBC Dateline true crime podcast has been covering the tragic murder of Nona Dirksmeyer. Murder in Apartment 12 has given listeners plenty to think about so far, and the most recent episode has certainly thrown us all through a loop. We heard about the trial of number one suspect, Kevin Jones, of whom many were convinced of his guilt. None were convinced more so than the mother and stepfather of the victim, Carol Dirksmeyer and Duane Dipert.

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Nona’s parents seemed pretty convinced during the trial that it was Kevin Jones who had murdered their daughter, after all, it’s always the boyfriend, right? However, the jury returned with a not guilty verdict much to the dismay of Carol and Duane. Carol in particular had lost trust in Kevin for his previous actions in his and Nona’s relationship so perhaps that may explain why she was so convinced that he was to blame.

For all intents and purposes, Nona’s mother and stepfather seemed like pretty normal people. Although Duane had a pretty distant relationship with Nona according to an older interview with NBC News.

Of course, Duane’s decision to ask the police to give him Nona’s phone, a vital piece of evidence, did not help when it came time to try and convict Kevin. The defense had asked to be given access to the phone only to find that Duane had wiped most of what was on it and replaced the data with his own. Despite Duane’s distant relationship with Nona, the podcast shows that he is still very much hoping to get justice for his stepdaughter.

But what about Nona’s biological father?

Carol had met Nona’s biological father, Paul Dirksmeyer, a decade before their daughter’s birth. The pair had met at LSU where Carol was a music student and Paul was her professor. Carol gave birth to Nona, the couple’s second child, on December 26, 1985. However, things were bad during her childhood as her father sexually molested her at a young age. It’s uncertain how long this went on but Nona told no one until after her father’s death in 1996 at the age of 76.

Sadly, her difficult upbringing led to self harm although she was eventually able to turn things around. Her mother Carol was seemingly unaware of the abuse at the time but believed her daughter when the truth came out, “It was horrible.  It’s such the end of my world.  I just couldn’t believe something like that would happen.  But I knew enough to know that she was telling the truth.”

Knowing more about Nona’s parents and her upbringing just makes her story so much more tragic. While her mother and stepfather still seem dead set on finding justice for their daughter, it seems like they’re barking up the wrong tree based on the evidence we’ve seen in the podcast so far.

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