INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Just a few months before moving to Vero Beach to take a six-figure job with PNC Wealth Management in 2013, accused murderer Michael Jones was being investigated by Fort Lauderdale police for attempting to strangle his live-in girlfriend, according to case file documents.
The police report obtained by Vero Beach 32963 is among 1,267 pages of evidence against 31-year-old Jones that was compiled in preparation for this week’s grand jury indictment in a Vero Beach courtroom for the murder by strangulation of 26-year-old Diana Duve, a Moorings resident and Sebastian River Medical Center nurse.
The details of this second victim’s story are chillingly similar to the incident resulting in Jones’ conviction on a 2012 charge of aggravated stalking, and also to what investigators have found out about Jones’ relationship with Duve. On Feb. 10, 2013, a 29-year-old female walked into the police station with scratch marks and bruises on her neck to file a domestic violence report against Jones after escaping the couple’s apartment when Jones went out to the store.
“According to the victim, she left their apartment approximately a week prior and was staying with her mother as a result of an argument,” the police report states.
Jones was able to get the victim, whose name we are withholding, to return to the apartment “by telling her he was sick.”
“Shortly after getting to the apartment, they got into a verbal argument and as she attempted to leave the apartment, Jones grabbed her by the throat, choked her and threw her on the couch. The victim said that at one point, she was unable to breathe as he was choking her and had to fight Jones off in order to catch her breath. She also told officers she was afraid to leave the apartment because Jones had threatened to kill her or himself if she left.”
The report continues, saying that “Jones is very manipulative” and that the incident “was not the first incident that Jones has been physical with her; there have been at least four occasions.”
After signing a victim’s affidavit, the woman did not respond to phone calls from police investigators, but called back after receiving a letter and made an appointment to come in to give a formal statement on Feb. 27. She never showed up for that appointment.
Police forwarded a probable cause affidavit, along with Jones’ criminal history, reports and photographs of the victim’s injuries to the State Attorney in Broward County. Due to the victim’s unwillingness to cooperate, however, the case was not pursued. “The victim is uncooperative and refuses to provide a statement. Without sworn testimony, felony charges cannot be filed,” the report states.
That spring, Jones moved to Vero Beach to take a job at the Ocean Drive branch of PNC Wealth Management as an investment adviser and waited for his trial date in an October 2012 arrest for aggravated stalking in which Jones threatened to kill his previous girlfriend, according to a Davie Police record. Just a few weeks later, in November 2012, according to the Fort Lauderdale police report, Jones moved in with his second victim, who left him after three months – narrowly escaping with her life.
Fast-forward 16 months to June 23 of this year when Duve was found dead in the trunk of her own car in a Melbourne parking lot, strangled to death, allegedly at the hands of her on-again off-again boyfriend, Jones. Jones was tracked to a Fort Pierce hotel room thanks to cell phone location technology and arrested for violation of probation for being outside Indian River County, and a few days later was charged with murder.