Hello, I'm Keith Morrison from Dateline NBC, with a special preview of our new podcast,

Murder in Apartment 12.

It should have been a 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 1300, where middle school teacher Janis Jones was in a Christmas frame of mind.

Of course she was. Her youngest son Kevin was home from college and had agreed to be Janis' 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, and he accepted. As long as there was a big stake,

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

a little tip see they thought that would be very humorous. What fun it should have been,

but no. On this night, December 15th 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 Noda Dirk Smirre, 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 but 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 wield 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 Tom went on that these were lives. It wasn't TV. This was reality.

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