Taking Angela Allen’s life
Police say sweet, innocent 16year-old Angela Allen of Van Buren began communicating on the Internet earlier this year with 36-year-old ranch hand Lloyd Collins Jones of Lavaca.
Days later on February 17, the personable student was found buried in a blue barrel on a rural hillside near Lavaca on property owned by a member of Jones’ family.
Jones, who was paroled from prison in 2008 on a rape conviction, stands charged with her first-degree murder and other related felonies. He’s jailed on a $1 million bond and has pleaded innocent.
As always in our system of justice, you and I will to see if his professed innocence of such an appalling crime is proven in a courtroom later this summer.
But this heartbreaking story gets stranger—much stranger—police records show.
Two older women, who each say they also made contact with Jones online about a week before Allen disappeared, tell strikingly similar stories about their individual involvement with Jones during early February, news accounts say.
One, a 34-year-old woman, is from Van Buren. The other, from Cave Springs, is 41, police records show. Neither woman knew the other or Angela Allen.
Both told investigators that after online exchanges and phone conversations they left their homes on different evenings for dates with Jones.
And after driving to prearranged rendezvous points, they eventually got into his white pickup, police reports show.
Each also told investigators that Jones had taken them—only days apart—to the same spot very near where young Angela’s body would be unearthed days later.
Police records say that property is about 20 miles outside Fort Smith.
While parked near a shed after dark, each said, Jones began talking “weird.” He allegedly told them frightening tales about the place being a witches’ cemetery. They said he also began talking about secret government experiments, Area 51 and an alligator man.
Each women also said Jones, during their evenings with him, asked if they had told anyone where they were going on the night of their dates with him.
One told him she’d sent his picture to two friends “just in case.” Understandably, both say they were frightened by his behavior and told him they wanted to leave the property. The women did manage to end their dates and return safely to their homes.
I just gotta say right here that any female who agrees to meet any stranger after an online exchange could well be risking her life in 2012 America.
Do I even need to say this?
I feel like I’m shouting the painfully obvious to grown folks. These two women were alone with a stranger in a deserted area that turned out to have been a killing ground.
And their companion for the evening had been paroled four years ago from a rape conviction.
Hello out there! Any women with Internet dating on their minds reading this? Any parents feel like discussing this with their naive and trusting daughters? Is everyone aware that evil really does exist out here?
Sweet, innocent Angela Allen of Van Buren is no more, perhaps because the ninth-grader trusted someone in this world to be kind and nice to her.
I suppose I can’t entirely fault the Internet for any of this. But I can say that without this technology that so freely invades (perhaps consumes is a better word) our homes, attention and lives, people with hidden motives would have a much harder time.
Tilly endures
Any readers recall the flap last year over the proposed closing of the historic rural post office in the hamlet of Tilly not far from Russellville?
Over the decades, the post office inside Fountain’s Grocery has become a focal point and gathering spot for folks from miles around.
That’s one reason I decided it was well worth bringing some light to bear on this really bad idea by the U.S. Postal Service.
Well, as of May 24, the postal people announced the Tilly office will remain open, but operate under reduced hours. So that’s great news for all those people who’ve come to rely upon that office.
It also prompted the following response from Charlene Fountain. This post office is near and dear to her heart.
“I’m forwarding an article from Courier News in Russellville regarding the Tilly Post Office and say again a special thank you for all of your help. We would not be where we are today without you and your handy-dandy [columns].
“My sister is retiring as postmaster on July 31. I’m very happy about that because the stress was too much for her, and she loves that store that we grew up in. This gives me the opportunity to pretty much get the larger portion of my life back too. My favorite thing to do is Bible Study, and we both know that takes quietness and the ability to concentrate. I tried to study while in the store but to no avail. But, thank you, Lord, that opportunity is back.”
Amen indeed, Charlene.