Almost three decades ago, two Starkville women were murdered after answering a simple knock at the door. Now, nearing the 28th anniversary of the Labor Day Murders, a podcast run by the grandsons of one of the victims aims to resolve the community’s unanswered questions about the case through a Q&A for the public.
Jason B. Jones and his brother Simon Jones launched the podcast “Knock Knock: The Unsolved Murders of Betty Jones and Kathryn Crigler” about a year ago, and the first season is nearing its close. The podcast tells the personal and haunting story of the murder of the two women on Sept. 3, 1990.
Years ago, when Jason Jones was 10 years old, his grandmother, Betty Jones, was at her friend Kathryn Crigler’s house because Crigler had just undergone an amputation, and she did not want to be alone on Labor Day weekend while her family was out of town.
The two were planning to watch TV when a knock came to the side door between 8 and 10 p.m.
Betty Jones answered the door, and was killed. Crigler was raped, but survived the initial attack. She later died in a nursing home.
Last year, Jason Jones said the rape kit for Crigler provided DNA evidence for the police, but was not yet matched. Recently, the Starkville Police Department submitted the suspect’s semen to Parabon, a DNA Nanolab.
The department received back a detailed description of what the suspect may have looked like in the 90s. The lab made a second description, which was age-progressed and shows what the suspect could look like today, at roughly 50 years old with fair skin and light brown hair.
Jason Jones said besides the DNA breakthrough, over the course of the past year, the podcast team was able to discover a wealth of information. Most of this information, Jason Jones said, came from Rockne Harmon, a familial DNA expert.
By creating a podcast, Jason Jones said the brothers also created a sort of tribute for the two victims.
“Some of the things that have been most valuable to us are the non-case-related discoveries,” Jason Jones said. “Simon, in a few episodes back, put it really well—he said that we’ve created a digital memorial for Betty and Kathryn.”
This memorial comes to Starkville on Friday for the season to end where the story began. At 6 p.m. on Aug. 31, the brothers will conduct a live Q&A forum. The event is free and is at the Mill Conference Center next to the Courtyard Marriott on 100 Mercantile Lane in Starkville.
“This is just one step in a grand, grand scale of finding those answers,” Simon Jones said.
To RSVP for the event, visit http://smarturl.it/KnockKnock-LiveQA.
A guest at the Q&A will be Sgt. Bill Lott, the lead investigator of the Labor Day Murders case.
“How often does the chance come around where (community members) can speak to the lead investigator and ask questions that maybe they’ve had for years? We just think it’s a very special opportunity both for us and for the people of Starkville,” Simon Jones said.
The seventh episode of “Knock Knock” will come out this week, Jason Jones said, which will be the last of the season. However, he said he hopes new development in the case will keep the podcast going into a second round.
“That would be my dream—that this cold case, true crime podcast would shift to a podcast about the legal process around convicting a murderer and rapist,” Jason Jones said.
Even if more information does not emerge, Simon Jones said a whole support system will still be in place.
“While the episodes will stop coming out, we’ll have a community left,” he said. “That community is not going away.”

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This is a detailed description of what the suspect may have looked like in the 90s.