A vibrant, outgoing young mother of three.
She was so full of life.
She had so many friends and she was a very happy,
happy person.
Murdered in the safety of her own home.
The victim had been stabbed
multiple times in the chest area.
It looked like somebody had tried to carve her heart
right from her body.
Investigators discover a history
of troubled romances.
He drank incessantly.
It caused a lot of problems.
He had repeatedly been trying to get more visitation
with his son and he was really upset about it.
He was just furious that she was having a baby.
However, as time progressed,
the leads started drying up.
Just when police
think they might never catch the killer.
The police were contacted by a young woman.
And she said, "Hey, I've got this inkling in my stomach,
can you check out this person?"
New evidence leads to a culprit
no one saw coming.
When I walked out of that house, I said to myself,
"My God, he did this."
His rage, his obsession just consumed him.
How could someone commit such a horrific violent attack
and continue to live among us for another eight years?
Less than an hour outside Minneapolis,
Big Lake, Minnesota
feels like a world away from the bustling city.
But in February of 1992,
this peaceful town is rocked by a horrific discovery.
The caller, Charlie Jensen,
says the victim is his wife,
39 year old mother of three Linda Jensen.
At about 4:18 PM.
I received a call in my office from my lieutenant
who indicated that homicide occurred
in a Big Lake Township.
While patrol officers
take Charlie and the two children away from the home,
detectives arrive and begin their investigation.
When I entered the scene, I entered the bedroom,
saw the victim lying at the foot of the bed,
face up ascertain, obviously that that person was dead.
She was naked.
She had a comforter over her body with a large knife,
pinning the comforter to her body
having been stabbed right through her
chest.
The victim had been stabbed, not just once,
multiple times in the chest area.
There was some dried blood on the corner of her mouth.
The individual was cold to the touch.
The victim appeared to be dead for quite some time.
Even for seasoned detectives,
the viciousness of the attack is shocking.
I thought it was a horrific overkill with the knife.
It looked like somebody had tried to carve her heart
right from her body.
My theory was the perpetrator
was really angry with the individual
and that's why he had stabbed her in such a heinous way.
The knife appeared to be like a kitchen steak knife.
It was later ascertained that the knife itself
had been taken from a butcher block
in the kitchen of the residence.
After finishing up with the body,
investigators examined the rest of the home for clues.
There was nothing that appeared
to be out of place whatsoever.
The house may have been a little on the messy side,
but there was no signs of the any drawers being open,
nothing being disturbed.
I observed that there was no sign of a forced entry.
It was really actually kind of a clean crime scene
other than the homicide itself.
No fingerprints, no blood samples.
As detectives continue for evidence,
news of Linda's murder reaches her family.
I got a phone call from Charlie,
and he said, we lost Linda.
Linda's dead.
She's been murdered.
I was screaming,
just screamed and screamed and screamed,
because she was gone and I didn't wanna believe it.
Born in a Minneapolis suburb in 1952,
Linda had three siblings.
Linda was my dark haired sister.
Beautiful, beautiful sister.
She was so full of life.
Linda was the person that you find climbing a tree.
She loved to swim.
She just would go, go, go.
Linda's boundless energy
continued into her adult years.
Linda loved to go speed skating.
She loved to run, and loved to jog,
and do everything to keep herself in shape.
In 1971,
Linda married her childhood sweetheart, Charlie.
My folks would rent a cabin every year.
Then it happened to be Charlie's parents cabin, out resort.
And that's how Linda and Charlie met.
Then when they first got married,
Charlie and Linda were so much in love.
Their first child, Andrew, was born in 1973.
She was so excited to have a little boy,
she was so happy.
But the fairytale marriage didn't last.
They were married for seven years.
When she filed for a divorce,
it came all of it that they were getting divorced,
it was because of his drinking.
Four years later, while in a new relationship,
Linda gave birth to her second son, Joey.
But then in 1990, Linda and Charlie reunited.
Linda still loved Charlie, and Charlie still loved Linda.
They remarried on April 4th, 1991,
which would've been their 20th wedding anniversary.
She was so happy.
She was so content.
And then she had Lisa on June 12th of 91.
As Linda, Charlie, and the three children
settled down in Big Lake, their future looked bright.
She just loved it in Big Lake.
They had a few acreages.
She was so together with her life.
She had so many friends,
and she was a very happy, happy person.
Now, Linda's loved ones
are left asking who took her life so viciously, and why?
They were very devastated about what occurred to her.
And so we wanted to solve this case as quickly as possible.
They no longer have a mother or a spouse.
And it was a very, very tragic case indeed.
Having established a clear picture
of their victim,
detectives turn their attention to Linda's husband, Charlie.
Usually in an investigation,
especially a homicide investigation,
usually look at the prison closest to the victim.
Charlie appeared very upset about situation,
but he was coherent.
He was able to give us information.
When investigators asked Charlie
about the day of the murder,
he tells them it was an ordinary day.
He went to work that morning,
while Linda stayed home with the baby.
At about 9:45 in the morning,
he called Linda and he received no answer.
By noon, he called the third time,
and again, received no answer.
Charlie was a little upset
because he thought she would be home.
So he left work, and he arrives at his residence
at about 4:05.
When Charlie walked in the door,
he found nine year old Joey,
and eight month old Lisa alone in the house.
Joey, who was now home from school,
doing homework at a table.
And then he saw that Lisa was still in the play pimp,
wearing the same clothing
that she was when he left that morning.
And he thought this was not right,
because there's no way that Linda would've left the baby
in the same clothing all day long.
So he went downstairs to the laundry room to look for her.
He could not find her.
He went back into the bedroom again,
and went further into the bedroom
where he then observed Linda lying on the floor.
He indicated to me
that the comforter was higher up on her body,
and he apparently pulled it down.
He also indicated that he touched the knife.
And so he said,
if his fingerprints would've appeared on the knife,
that is his reason.
That would be an immediate red flag
that would've caused investigators
to focus right on Charlie.
As an investigator, you say,
"Well, my God,
that's something we gotta look at a little deeper."
Investigators also knew their early relationship
was a volatile relationship.
They did find their way back to each other,
but their relationship certainly was rocky.
You always assumed that perhaps the spouse is the person
that per portrayed the crime,
and he was great at the top of the list.
Coming up, investigators get a promising lead.
She saw a man in a pickup truck
pulling out of the driveway.
And uncover sinister motives.
Would it be possible for him to hire someone
to kill Linda?
He became this person that she was afraid of.
After a suspect is caught in a lie.
He claimed he didn't know who she was.
He was asked to give a DNA sample and refused.
The case takes a jaw-dropping turn.
The family were outraged.
You could feel the chill in the courtroom.
No way in hell, no way could that happen.
Police are investigating the brutal murder
of 39 year old mother of three Linda Jensen.
Their first suspect is Linda's husband, Charlie,
who has just admitted his fingerprints
are likely on the murder weapon.
He indicated that he touched the knife.
He never pulled it out,
but he did touch the knife by the handle.
Is Charlie trying to cover his tracks?
Searching for a possible motive,
detectives ask why he and Linda divorced 14 years ago.
Charlie indicated that they had a good relationship.
The only reason the marriage broke up
was simply because of his drinking.
Before Linda and Charlie got married,
the first marriage, Charlie got sent to Vietnam.
What he went through in Vietnam always stayed with him,
and he got into heavy drinking because of that.
He drank incessantly,
it caused a lot of problems in the marriage.
So eventually by 1978, Linda sought a divorce.
When Linda and Charlie remarried in 1991,
Charlie had stopped drinking, but other demons remained.
Charlie had really kind of given up his partying
and he became more of an adult.
But yet what he went through in Vietnam
always stayed with him.
Had Charlie's old issues returned,
this time with fatal consequences?
Investigators get to work checking Charlie's alibi.
Charlie indicated that he left the residence
at about 6:15 AM to go to work.
And he proceeded back to his residence at about 4:05 PM.
We retraced his steps and we talked to a fellow co-worker
who verified the time that Charlie had arrived at work,
and the time that he left.
At no time during that day, did he ever leave.
Before detectives let Charlie go,
they take a sample of his DNA.
At that time, we could do a little bit of DNA testing,
but it hadn't reached the point
where it could identify a suspect positively.
So the investigative team was collecting DNA samples
and then preserving it.
Charlie was also asked to do a polygraph test,
which he did.
He passed the polygraph test
and was eliminated as the suspect.
Everything he said was down to the wire.
He could not have been the perpetrator
in this crime based on the timeline.
While investigators search
for their next suspect,
news of the murder leaves Big Lake residence fearful.
This crime was a shock to the community.
It was a smaller community,
and they didn't have many homicides.
To think that somebody is still out there walking the street
and you don't know who, what would be worse?
Your house is supposed to be your safety.
And to know that she was murdered her house,
that somebody decided to play God and take her life,
who could do that?
24 hours into the investigation,
detectives received their first tip.
The investigative team got a call
from a rural mail carrier
who had claimed that she had been by the Jensen house
on the day of the homicide.
The mail carrier arrived at the house
at around 11:30 that morning.
And she said at the time she saw a man in a pickup truck
pulling out of the driveway.
And she said she got a pretty good description of the man.
The postal worker described the truck as an older truck.
I believe it was tan, two-tone tan.
And it was occupied by a Caucasian male,
late 30s, early 40s, kind of a scruffy guy with a beard.
We had a sketch artist that was involved
in trying to recreate the picture
of that person that the mail carrier supposedly saw.
The sheriff's office did release that sketch to the media.
And it was widely publicized.
While in the investigators wait for witnesses
to identify the driver of the truck,
officers are sent door to door around Linda's home.
At this point we had no leads whatsoever.
So that was the first place we started looking
at was the neighborhood itself.
And I've had cases in the past
that were saw by people that observed something.
On this canvas in particular,
we were looking to see if any of the neighbors
had seen anything or seen a truck or anything
suspicious that morning.
When detectives hear that Linda's neighbors,
the Jones family, may have seen the pickup truck,
they immediately knock on their door.
Kent Jones was a scout leader, he had four children.
We're hoping that he could name the person
that the mail carrier observed leaving the Jensen residents.
And at the time he told us he was at home
and his wife was present and he didn't know Linda Jensen.
Deborah Jones confirms
that she has seen the pickup truck around the neighborhood,
but neither she, nor her husband
can identify the man seen driving the vehicle.
We went through the entire neighborhood
asking the same people, basically the same questions,
but no one really knew the guy in the truck.
So we were really disappointed.
Detectives decide to turn their attention
toward the other man from Linda's love life.
After Linda and Charlie divorced in 1978,
Linda became involved with an individual
by the name of Robert Beard.
Linda had a child with them, Joey,
and they were together for about four years
before they separated.
Bob Beard really didn't see much of Joey,
and was not really not a father figure.
And he never paid child support.
He had given up custody, but Bob Beard had repeatedly
been trying to get more visitation.
And sometimes he wouldn't see the kid,
but once or twice a year.
And he was really upset about it.
When investigators speak
to Linda's husband, Charlie, about Bob Beard,
what he tells them is startling.
Charlie indicated to investigators
that Mr. Beard had actually contacted Linda at least twice,
if not more, within a few weeks before she was murdered.
Bob wanted to see Joey
and perhaps even gain custody of him.
Had Bob confronted Linda about custody
and attacked her in a rage?
The individual that perpetrated this crime
was angry at her about something.
Bob Beard was an absolute ideal suspect.
Detectives investigating the murder
of Linda Jensen, suspect she may have been killed
by her ex, Bob beard
in a battle of over custody of their son, Joey.
During the investigation, we learned that Linda
had been with the guy and he was kind of a bad actor.
According to the family,
Linda was concerned about Bob due to his anger issues
and the fact that he was drinking and using drugs.
Did Linda and Bob's dispute turned fatal?
Detectives bring Bob in for an interview.
I questioned him,
when were you last in contact with Linda Jensen?
And he indicated, "God, it'd been a long time."
So I confronted him with what Charlie had said,
and he denied it.
He said, "No, no, no, I haven't been in contact with her."
If he was giving false information,
that would make him look very suspicious
as a possible perpetrator.
Investigators asked Bob
where he was that day Linda was murdered.
During the interview,
he admitted that that day of Linda's homicide,
that he'd been at home alone
and had no alibi other than that.
"I was home alone." He said.
Beard told investigators that he had no car
and that he wouldn't be able to walk to her residence.
After providing this information, he then lawyered up,
indicated that he would not speak
unless his lawyer was present,
so that was very frustrating.
Usually when a person wants a lawyer present,
that usually indicates to us
that they have something to hide.
Bob remains on the suspect list,
but with no concrete evidence tying him to Linda's murder,
police are forced to let him go.
As they continue their investigation,
detectives hope the autopsy report
will provide a much needed break.
During the autopsy,
they determined that she'd been strangled
and that subsequently she'd been also stabbed
through the chest, but the cause of death,
more than likely was strangulation.
It was also found that she had been sexually assaulted.
And then there was a DNA swab taken at that time.
She was perhaps being strangled
during the time that she was being sexually assaulted.
And then she was probably stabbed postmortem.
In other words, after death.
Medical examiners
also determined Linda's time of death
was between 8 AM and 10 AM.
Charlie left the home at 6:45 AM.
About an hour later,
the nine year old son left the home at about 7:45,
that left just Linda Jensen at home with her infant child.
Those who knew her,
talked about the fact that she would've fought for her life.
And so it probably was a very, very violent
two-way encounter that probably lasted for a little while.
Somebody committed this horrible sexual assault
and a nasty homicide and they're walking around
and they got away with it.
That's unacceptable.
Convinced Linda was murdered
by someone with a personal motive,
investigators look at another one
of Linda's romantic partners.
According to Charlie, after Linda left Robert Beard,
she met individual by name of John Silliman.
When I first met John Silliman, I didn't like him.
He just kind of acted like he was God's gift to women,
but that's who she really cared about.
And she did marry him in 86.
After the wedding,
John convinced Linda to move to California,
but their newlywed would bliss quickly faded.
Linda had only been out in California
for a short period of time
when things were getting kind of rough.
A few times when Linda had called,
I could tell that she was sad when we would talk.
He completely changed and became this person that she,
I think was a little afraid of,
and he wanted Linda to have a child.
And Linda knew that she just could not do that.
So she convinced him that he should adopt Joey,
and that's how she got out of
having to have a baby with him.
Over the next few years,
John's behavior became more troubling.
There was one particular time
where Mr. Silliman had hit Linda,
and they had a major, major fight.
Linda realized she had to get out of that relationship.
And she left and came back to Minnesota.
At this point in time, Charlie was sober
and Linda actually wanted
to get back together with him again,
'cause as they said, they always loved each other.
When Linda left, Mr. Silliman,
Linda requested that Mr. Silliman
provide child support for Joey.
And this was a real bone of contention with him
because he felt that she had talked him into adopting him.
And then after he adopts Joey, she leaves him.
And then he has stuck with the child support.
A judge orders, John to pay Linda $300 a month.
But then John receives even more shocking news.
Linda got pregnant with Lisa
and when the divorce papers came to John
and it did have to state in the divorce papers
that she was pregnant, but it wasn't his child.
He was just furious that she was having a baby with Charlie
and she wouldn't have one with him.
Did Linda's news push John over the edge?
He'd made several phone calls,
we were told that weren't too pleasant with Linda.
So he was a potential suspect,
could he have come back and committed this homicide?
Four days
after the shocking murder of Linda Jensen,
police have learned her abusive ex-husband John Silliman
was enraged over her child support demands,
and news of her pregnancy with another man.
Did his resentment lead him to kill?
Police fly to California to interview him.
When I interviewed him regarding the abuse,
he indicated it was a two-way street,
that they both abused each other.
They fought all the time.
They fought over money.
They fought over Joey to a certain degree
and they just did not get along at all.
John had motive to want Linda dead,
but investigators need to know if he had the opportunity.
During the time of the murder,
John would've been working at the elementary school
in King City, California.
And according to the people we spoke with at the school,
he never left the school that entire day.
When you're looking at an alibi on any potential suspect,
nothing's black and white with it,
but the Silliman alibi, it was airtight.
Even though John's alibi checks out,
investigators still believe
he could be involved in Linda's murder.
There's a sense that hits you about someone's demeanor,
and it might be a look in their eye.
After visiting with him, question came up.
Would it be possible for him to hire someone
to come up and kill Linda?
He was still having alibi being at school,
but someone else could have done the crime.
Detective scour John's finances
looking for any evidence he paid for a hit.
But upon reviewing all his bank records,
we could not find anything
that would've revealed that he had done such a thing.
With John eliminated from the investigation,
detectives are back to the drawing board.
Desperate for leads,
they make a public appeal for information.
We set up a tip line at the sheriff's department,
and we received in excess of approximately a thousand calls.
And I think at that point,
officers were hoping for just something, anything
that they could use to get them back on track
to maybe somebody looks suspicious,
said something suspicious.
Every tip that came in was followed up on as best we could
because you never know when the correct tip
is going to be the one that solves the crime.
However, as time progressed, the leads started drying up.
The family was quite upset.
They wanted it solved.
We also wanted it solved, but was very difficult to do
when you have no further leads coming in.
With no new suspects on their radar,
by May 1992, the case grinds to a halt.
It's very difficult when you have a case that goes cold.
There's a lot of sacrifice
on behalf of the officers involved doing the investigation,
they're away from their homes, their family.
It can affect you quite drastically.
What could I have missed?
And it's just troubling.
You don't sleep.
You don't rest.
I would call the sheriff's department many times a week.
I never stopped.
I was not going away until this was solved,
'cause I had promised Linda looking at her in her coffin,
till my dying breath that I would do all I could
to find the person that did this,
to get this person in jail.
Seven years pass.
And in 1999,
Linda's family persuades a new sheriff
to reignite the investigation.
Because of Sandy's insistence opening the case.
Sheriff Anderson at the time
decided to take a second look at the case.
To start, police offer a reward
for new information.
Sometimes in these cases over time,
people who have information
that they didn't provide early on
can feel more comfortable to come forward.
Sometimes they get that nagging feeling that,
what I thought was nothing 10 years ago
maybe actually means something.
I had all the newspapers
and all the TV station contacts,
and I would call up and they would put something on
because I kept saying, somebody has the key.
You might think it's insignificant, but let it out.
It might be the key to solve this.
Detectives also revisit key evidence
from the initial investigation, including the DNA samples.
When this case reopened
the situation with DNA had changed greatly.
There was the database to compare the samples to.
Also when obtaining a sample,
it took less time to get a response back.
Investigators always collect DNA samples
of family members and anybody with close ties.
We did go by back and look at potential suspects.
Investigators compare DNA
from Linda's sexual assault
to samples from her former romantic partners,
Bob Beard, Charlie Jensen, and John Silliman,
as well as a database of known sex offenders.
When the results come back, detectives are stunned.
Investigators took between 80 and 85 DNA samples
for testing and they ruled everybody out.
All of the men that she had been involved with
in consensual relationships had been eliminated
as possible suspects in the homicide.
Yeah, it just kind of dropped me right down.
I've worked a lot of homicides,
but we had nothing going
except here we have this woman who's deceased
and been a homicide and rape victim.
It's like who could have done this?
I wanted justice for Linda.
The case goes cold again for another year.
But in 2000, police receive an unexpected tip
from a woman named Angela Hennen,
that turns the investigation red hot.
Angela called the sheriff's office,
and said, "Hey, I've got this inkling in my stomach
and I've had it for years.
Can you check out this person?"
That was the first lead the police had in over a year.
She called in that little piece that we needed.
We've been wanting for over eight years.
That broke the case wide open.
Police investigating
the 1992 cold case homicide of Linda Jensen
have just received their first tip in eight years.
Detectives are stunned when caller Angela Hennen
points them to someone familiar.
Angela identified herself
as a prior acquaintance of Kent Jones.
Kent Jones was the local boy scout leader
in the community.
Angela Hennen had had an affair with Kent Jones
right after the Linda Jensen homicide,
and said, she brought up to Kent Jones,
the Linda Jensen homicide, and he denied knowing her.
And he became very angry
and agitated about that subject coming and up.
A few months later,
Angela indicated that when she was talking to Mr. Jones,
he indicated that he knew Linda quite well.
He saw her jogging past his residence.
He visited with her,
and he basically changed his story completely
from what he told her previously.
So she felt compelled to report that to the police
'cause she just found it unusual.
When investigators first spoke to Mr. Jones in 1992,
he was not a suspect.
He was just a neighbor.
He denied knowing her
as well as perpetrating the crime itself,
and his wife alibied him.
She said that he had been home that entire day.
So obtaining the information
that Mr. Jones did in fact know Ms. Jensen
at least collaterally, told investigators right away
that he had been untruthful or deceptive with them.
Well as an investigator hearing that type of a story,
I would think that he's has some involvement.
There's something that is not right
and needs to be follow up further.
Detectives dig into Kent Jones' background.
At the time of the killing,
Jones was the leader of the local Boy Scout troop,
churchgoing family.
He and his wife, Deborah, had kids.
Certainly the persona of him
was that he was a fun, loving, good nature well-liked guy.
But as they dug deeper,
investigators opened up a different side
to what he wants you to believe.
Mr. Jones had a lot of skeletons in his closet.
Outwardly, he seemed like a family man,
and inwardly, he had a very, very dark side to him.
He had a criminal history.
He rented a storage locker that one night caught on fire.
Mr. Jones entered a claim to the insurance company.
And as it turned out,
he probably had about
$35,000 worth of items in that locker,
and not several hundreds of thousand that he claimed.
It was an overclaim and he was subsequently investigated
and charge with defraud the insurance company.
Investigators then discover
an even darker side to the father of four.
There'd been some suspicion that he'd been abusive
with his wife in the past.
I read a report that Mrs. Jones had been stabbed.
She apparently slipped and fell onto the open dishwasher,
and her body was pierced by a knife
that had been put into the dishwasher handled down.
And I think some people looked at that and wondered,
did that really happen that way?
That just doesn't make sense.
And investigators were very suspicious
about those circumstances.
She however, stuck to that story
and never pursued any charges against her husband.
If Mr. Jones was the person that stabbed her,
this is in line with the same thing that happened
to Linda Jensen and that she was stabbed.
And it shows that he has the propensity for violence.
Armed with the disturbing new profile of Kent,
detectives pay him another visit.
This time as a suspect.
They went back to re-interview him and asked him again,
if he knew Ms. Jensen, or knew anything about her.
He claimed he knew nothing about her,
didn't know who she was.
Present at that time was Kent Jones' wife,
and she indicated, "No, don't you remember?
She was here visiting you
about Joey joining the Cub Scouts?"
And he got very angry with his wife at that point.
Caught in a lie, Kent changes his story.
He admitted that she used to jog by his house
and they had had conversations in the past.
They also asked him point blank
if he had had any kind of an affair,
or if he was involved sexually with Ms. Jensen.
And he became angry and very defensive.
At that point,
he was asked to give a DNA sample and he refused.
After eight years of investigation,
he was the first person
to refuse to provide a DNA sample voluntarily.
That of course, raised another huge red flag.
When I walked out of that house, I said to myself,
"My God, he did this."
I had such a strong feeling, but it's not evidence.
Officers went to the local district court judge
and applied for a search warrant
in order to obtain a DNA sample for Mr. Jones.
With their warrant in hand,
investigators collect Kent Jones's DNA
to compare to evidence from the crime scene.
Mr. Jones's sample of DNA was sent to the crime lab.
And within a short period of time,
we got results back and the DNA matched.
It was a match on almost every level.
There was no question that the DNA at the crime scene
came from Mr. Jones.
Thank God they got him.
I just, I knew this son of a bitch did it.
So I wanted him gone.
Sheriff Anderson called
and he said that I want you to get everybody together.
We are making the arrest after you're all here.
When they said the name, we had no idea who this guy was.
In those eight years, I never thought I'd be a neighbor.
On July 25th, 2000,
Kent Jones is arrested and charged
with the first degree murder of Linda Jensen.
Despite the DNA match, Kent insists he's innocent.
You're going through scenarios with him
to determine what he reacts to or bites on,
and if we can get that confession,
and none of those scenarios worked with him.
But the DNA was the connection
that allowed the case to go to the grand jury
to indict Mr. Jones for the murder.
On May 31st, 2001, Kent Jones goes on trial.
Mr. Jones was indicted on three different charges.
It was first degree murder,
it was second degree intentional murder,
and count three was criminal sexual conduct
in the first degree.
How could some one who was involved in Boy Scouts,
who was involved in his church,
who seemingly was a good husband and good father
commits such a horrific violent attack
and continue to live among us for another eight years.
But people looked at the fact that there was a DNA match.
They looked at the other evidence presented at the trial,
and people thought this guy really did it.
But when Kent Jones takes the stand,
his testimony takes everyone by surprise.
There was a major, major development
that caught literally everybody off guard.
He got up on the stand and he told everybody something
that just shocked the entire courtroom.
Nine years
after Linda Jensen was raped and killed,
neighbor Kent Jones is on trial for first degree murder.
But when Kent takes the stand,
his defense stunts prosecutors.
Under oath, in court, in front of the jury,
he testified that he had actually been having an affair
with Linda Jensen.
Mr. Jones's defense was that
he was having consensual sex with Linda.
And that's why they found the DNA
when they did the autopsy in Linda.
The family were outraged.
You could feel the chill in the courtroom.
No way in hell, no way could that happen.
He murdered my sister,
and he's trying to murder her reputation.
And how dare he?
And I had to tell the family, I am sorry,
but this is Mr. Jones' day in court.
The jury can disbelieve it if they want and it's up to them,
but there's no way legally I could prevent him
from presenting his defense.
Each time he changed his story from, I don't know her,
to, oh yeah, I knew her 'cause she jogged by my house,
to, wait, we did meet once to talk about Boy Scout,
to, we had a consensual affair.
It wasn't laughable, it was just sad.
The decision rests with the jury.
On December 8th, 2001, they return their verdict.
They find Kent Jones guilty on all three charges,
and he is later sentenced to life in prison.
I think after all of that,
there was a great sense of relief from the family
that you know what?
We don't believe this,
thank God the jury didn't believe it either.
And this guy is actually going to get
what we've been looking for now for years.
After he was sentenced
and he was taken out of the courtroom,
the jurors came up and were giving us hugs,
and I'm thinking, it's gotta be over.
But less than three years later,
Linda's family is dealt a sickening blow.
After Mr. Jones's conviction, he did file an appeal
that went directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Mr. Jones and his attorneys wanted to present evidence
of an alternative perpetrator.
And the Supreme Court agreed with the defense,
overturned the conviction,
and resulted in us having to retry the case a second time.
From time he was arrested, it was like five, six years
that we've been going through court hearings.
How much more does a justice system
want this family to go through?
Once the Supreme Court's ruling came out,
people started to question
whether Jones was going to be released?
Were they going to now have barriers at a second trial
that might lead to a not guilty verdict?
In November 2006,
Kent Jones stands trial again.
On the second trial, out of the blue,
he decided he would name Charlie Jensen
as the alternative suspect.
He still claimed he was having an affair,
but this time he testified that he had intercourse
with Ms. Jensen the morning of the murder.
Kent Jones
claims that when Charlie arrived home
and discovered the affair, he murdered Linda.
Everyone knew Mr. Jensen had an absolute ironclad alibi
confirmed and reconfirmed.
And I thought Mr. Jensen was gonna get up
and start making a scene and yell or something,
'cause I could see that look in his face.
I could see it boiling up.
And to his credit, he held his composure.
His lies just kept going farther, and farther, and farther
into left field.
And my fear was that it was gonna drag on
through the courts system over, and over, and over.
The prosecution presents their theory
of what really happened that day.
I believe in his mind, Linda was his fantasy girl.
He saw her running past on occasion, past his house.
She had spoken with them about Joey joining the Cub Scouts.
This was a crime of obsession.
He knew she was home alone with just an infant
for whatever reason, decided to act on his impulse
that had probably been building up for months and months.
I believe Mr. Jones went over there to visit with her,
talk to her, try to induce her
into perhaps having sex with him.
He probably got rejected.
He got furious.
And this was his moment, and he took it out on her.
I think his rage, his obsession just consumed him.
Forced sex on her,
strangled her and eventually killed her.
After strangling Linda,
Kent stabbed her several times,
pitting the comforter to her chest.
These are crimes that are committed by people
that just lose control
of any rational thought and that's consistent
with the horrible injures that Linda suffered.
For the second time in four years,
a jury convicts Kent Jones of murdering Linda Jensen.
And he's again sentenced to life in prison.
I was really happy for the Jensen family in particular,
especially having to go through a second trial
like they did.
I can finally take a deep breath
and have this heavy iron coat
that I didn't know I was carrying, have that fall off of me.
That it's over, it's done.
Though justice is served,
Linda's loved ones have never gotten over her loss.
He's not eligible for release until 2030.
And I will be there.
I will do anything I can to keep this man in jail forever.
He should not be able to enjoy life,
'cause he did not allow Linda to enjoy life.
There's times that I still wanna call her.
I miss her every day.
I don't have a sister on this earth.
And I could still close my eyes
and just hear that laugh of hers.
That beautiful, carefree laugh and just loving life.
Linda loved life.