It should have been the season of joy, choirs and twinkling lights and bright paper packages.

And it certainly started out that way in a little place called Dover Arkansas, population

about 1,300, where middle school teacher Janice Jones was in a Christmas frame of mind.

Of course she was. Her youngest son Kevin was home from college and I'd agreed to be Janice's date

to her school's holiday party. I'd laughingly offered him the opportunity to take me on a date

Thursday night to our staff Christmas party. Sure. And he accepted. As long as there was a big stake.

Made a joke about, is there an open bar? I'd like to see some of my former teachers, you know,

a little tipsy. They thought that would be very humorous. What fun it should have been.

But no. On this night, December 15, 2005, the season of light suddenly turned very dark indeed,

with a call to 911. It was the night of the awful discovery.

The night of all the panic and the confusion and the sudden grief that tore through them like a knife.

This is the story of what happened on that December night and all that came after.

It's a story of a beautiful young woman named Nona Dirk Smire, a local beauty queen who

been keeping secrets. This case probably had more statewide publicity than any criminal case

in many, many years, perhaps ever, in Arkansas. You probably ask any police officer in town here

that who did it and they'll tell you who did it. Everybody has an opinion that that doesn't

convict in our courts. It's the story of three sensational trials. It's a story about police

power and the people who wielded it. I'm telling you what I see. I'm telling you what I know.

And I'm telling you right now, you did this. It's about gossip, about public opinion.

I realized as the time went on that these were lives. It wasn't TV. This was reality.

You learn not to read, to believe anything you read. It was a case that divided this town

and it got pretty hot in Arkansas for a while. Too hot for some. It tells me that you don't know,

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