ANGELA ALLEN - 16 yo - Van Buren AR

Police Searching for Missing Teen Find A Body Hidden in a Barrel

By: Tania Francois
Updated: February 17, 2012

Authorities in the River Valley say they've found a body, and they believe it may belong to a missing Van Buren teenager.

Angela Allen, 16, disappeared last Friday night from her Van Buren home.

A level-three sex offender is behind bars in connection with Allen's disappearance.

Police say convicted rapist Lloyd Jones, 36, is the prime suspect.

It's believed the two met on a social networking website.

Investigators say that interviews with Jones have led them to believe he was the last person to be with the missing girl.

Officials said a cadaver dog sniffed out a suspicious area on Highway 96, just east of Lavaca, which had freshly disturbed dirt.

Authorities said they received consent from the land owner to search the area, but waited on a search warrant to continue digging on the property.

Once they resumed the search, authorities found a barrel buried three to four feet deep in the ground.

Police say human remains were found inside the barrel, but officers could not identify the body or even tell if it was male or female.

Officers say the terrain where the barrel was found was very muddy, and that made it difficult for them to get more information on the remains.

Van Buren Police are transporting the body to the state crime lab in Little Rock Friday night.

According to authorities, Jones is related to the person who owns the land.

http://arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?nxd_id=510882

Autopsy confirms body found on Lloyd Jones property that of missing Angela Allen

9:09 PM, Feb 21, 2012

FORT SMITH, Ark. (KFSM) -- The Arkansas State Crime Lab used dental records to identify human remains found in Sebastian County as 16-year-old Angela Allen of Van Buren, who was reported missing by her grandmother more than a week ago.

The medical examiner ruled her cause of death as strangulation. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Major Nickson said the medical examiner did not say if there were any other signs of trauma or sexual assault.

The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office is seeking a warrant for a first degree murder charge in connection with Allen's death for 36-year-old convicted rapist Lloyd Jones, of Lavaca. He is currently being held on an aggravated assault charge at the Sebastian County Jail.

Court documents state that during a recorded interview with his father at the jail, Jones admitted to the killing. When his father asked what was going on, Jones stated "Did they find her?" and "I panicked - I did it," according to the arrest warrant.

Allen was last seen on Feb. 10. According to police, she told her grandmother she was going for a walk around 7:30 p.m. Allen never returned and was reported missing the next day.

Allen's body was found inside a blue plastic barrel buried on the property belonging to Jones' family off Highway 96 in Lavaca, on Feb. 17.

According to the arrest warrant, deputies could identify a human hand and a pair of shoes through a hole that was cut inside the barrel.

Investigators say Jones began communicating with Allen on a social networking site called Mbuzzy.com and arranged a meeting with her on the night she disappeared. Police found that the two had communicated via text messages on their cell phones, as well.

The affidavits for a search warrant and a murder arrest states Jones told investigators he picked Allen up that night at the Summit Hospital parking lot in Van Buren. He planned to take her to his home in Lavaca, but said he decided he shouldn't because his girlfriend would be upset, according to the affidavit.

Jones told investigators took Allen down by the Arkansas River in an area off Highway 253 in Lavaca, commonly known as the "Mud Town Bottoms," and the two began "making out."

The affidavit states Jones became upset with Allen after she told him she was only 16.

Jones said he forcibly struck her in the chest with both hands, knocking her into and under the water, according to the affidavit. The document states he claimed he left her there. However, the medical examiner found no fluid in her lungs, according to the affidavit for warrant of arrest.

The affidavit also states that Amanda Cox, one of Jones' girlfriend at the time of his arrest, said that his clothes were covered in mud when he came home.

Investigators searched Jones' home and recovered several pieces of evidence including his cell phone, hard drive files and computers.

A memorial account has also been set up at Citizen's Bank. You can donate to the Allen family under the account Angela Dawn Allen. Family members say money left over from expenses will be donated to the Morgan Nick Foundation who they say has helped them since the day Allen went missing.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/197365/0/Autopsy-confirms-body-found-on-Lloyd-Jones-property-that-of-missing-Angela-Allen

Lloyd Jones Trial: Angela Allen's Alleged Killer Faces July Court Date

Posted: 05/15/2012 12:25 pm

FORT SMITH, Ark. -- An Arkansas man accused of killing a 16-year-old girl he met online is slated to go on trial this summer after authorities found her body in a blue, plastic barrel.

During a brief hearing Tuesday, court clerks say Lloyd Jones' trial is scheduled for the week of July 16.

Jones has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Angela Allen's death this February.

Neither Jones' attorney nor a local prosecutor immediately returned phone calls seeking comment.

Authorities say Jones told investigators that he picked Allen up in February and was making out with her by the Arkansas River. Then, authorities say the 36-year-old Jones violently pushed her into the water after she told him her age.

Authorities say they found Allen's body on land owned by Jones' brother.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/lloyd-jones-trial-angela-allen-july-court-date-set_n_1518155.html

Ark. man pleads guilty in teenage girl's death
A convicted rapist was sentenced to 60 years in prison Wednesday after admitting he killed a 16-year-old girl he met online whose body was found stuffed into a blue plastic barrel in western Arkansas.

The Associated Press
Published: Aug. 15, 2012 at 8:50 a.m. PDT
Updated: Aug. 15, 2012 at 10:06 a.m. PDT

FORT SMITH, Ark. — A convicted rapist was sentenced to 60 years in prison Wednesday after admitting he killed a 16-year-old girl he met online whose body was found stuffed into a blue plastic barrel in western Arkansas.

Lloyd Jones, 36, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in Angela Allen's death. Had he been convicted at trial, Jones could have been sentenced to life in prison.

"He will not be eligible for parole until he's 96 years old so we look at this as a life sentence," prosecutor Alison Houston said.

Jones also pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and other charges during the hearing in Sebastian County Circuit Court.

His defense attorney, Rita Watkins, didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

Allen's body was discovered in February on land owned by Jones' brother near Lavaca, about 15 miles east of Fort Smith. Jones was charged in her death soon after.

Authorities said Jones told investigators he picked up the teenager Feb. 10 at a hospital parking lot in Van Buren after she told a relative she was going for a walk. Jones took the girl to the Arkansas River, opting not to take her to his home because "his girlfriends might become upset with him," according to court documents. He acknowledged making out with the girl at the river's edge, but "violently pushed her into the water and left her there" after she told him she was 20 years his junior.

Deputies searching for the girl found her body in a barrel Feb. 17 and medical examiners identified her through dental records. A preliminary autopsy showed she died of strangulation.

Sheriff's investigators say they found several text messages from Jones on the teen's cellphone.

Jones told authorities he used a website, Mbuzzy.com, to communicate with Allen, who also had an account with that site, sheriff's investigator Anthony Sacco wrote in a report. Court documents allege that Jones also told investigators that when he and Allen were at the river, he hit her in the chest and knocked her into the water.

"He thought that (Angela) might have been unable to swim, because her arms might have been injured when she was struck," Sacco wrote.

One of Jones' girlfriends told authorities that his clothes and shoes were covered in mud when he returned home that night.

Prosecutors said that while Jones was in jail, he implicated himself by asking his father during a visit: "Did they find her?"

Court records filed in 2001 show a jury found Jones guilty of rape after a prosecutor said he held a box cutter to a woman's throat, duct-taped her mouth and sexually assaulted her. A judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison. He was paroled in 2008 and discharged in 2010, according to a prison spokeswoman.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/15/2256477/ark-man-pleads-guilty-in-teenage.html#storylink=cpy