JESSICA DISHON - 17 YO (1999)/ Charged: Uncle; Stanley Dishon - Shepherdsville KY

Special Assignment: Jessica Dishon 11 years later

Posted: Feb 16, 2011 1:47 PM CST
By:  Jennifer Baileys

SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY (WDRB, FOX41) - A killer is still free more than eleven years after the brutal murder of a Bullitt County teen.

A new sheriff wants justice for Jessica Dishon and is making her case a top priority.  "This picture here, it's one of her pictures we got when she passed away," said Mike Dishon.

Few things have changed in Jessica Dishon's bedroom.  Dolls she collected sit untouched. Her favorite stuffed animals line her bed and her dog Prancer still paces the floors.  "When that happened, it about killed me and my wife both," Dishon said.

A lot has changed for Jessica's parents since her death.  Edna and Mike Dishon have recently divorced.  Her father Mike now has a new baby, a little girl.  "She's got dimples that reminds me a lot of Jessica," Dishon said.

One thing that hasn't changed since Jessica's disappearance September 10, 1999, is her parents longing for justice.

"Me and Edna, we always prayed and hoped that one day they would catch the murderer," said Dishon.

Jessica was 17 and a high school senior when she disappeared from her home in Shepherdsville.  "I seen her that morning before I went to work.  I looked in her bedroom and all I seen was the back of her head, she was asleep," said Dishon.

Her body, brutally beaten, was found seventeen days after she disappeared in a wooded area just miles from her home.

In 2001, Police charged Jessica's former neighbor David "Bucky" Brooks with her kidnapping and murder. Two years later, Brooks was freed after a judge declared a mistrial because Bullitt County Sheriff's Detective Charles Mann testified Brooks failed a polygraph test, which is not admissible in court.

"There's been errors made in the case.  I think that a lot of the investigators will tell you there's errors in the case, but we're going to do our best to try to fix those errors," said Sergeant Mike Murdoch.

Murdoch is new to the Bullitt County Sheriff's Department.  He was a Louisville dispatcher when Jessica was killed.

More than eleven years later, he is now the lead investigator on her case, appointed by newly-elected Sheriff Dave Greenwell.  Greenwell was one of the first officers on the scene when Jessica's body was found.  Now the Sheriff has made her case his department's top priority.

"You don't try to take any case personal, but Sheriff Greenwell was directly involved with this case from the beginning.  I think it is somewhat personal to the sheriff that we do get this case solved and also to all of us in Bullitt County," said Sgt. Murdoch.

Murdoch said since Sheriff Greenwell took office earlier this year, two more leads have surfaced.  Those leads are not being made public because of the investigation. Detectives are confident evidence in the two crates of files may contain the key to finding the killer.

"I'm real confident in the way that DNA advancements are happening that a lot of our cold cases like this will be solved," said Murdoch.

An old cross and weathered flowers stand where Jessica's body was found near a river bottom in Shepherdsville.  The area has been filled in which could create even more problems for detectives because any evidence that was left behind is now covered.

Even if more evidence or leads surface, Jessica's father doesn't believe police will ever solve his daughter's case.  "I think that Bucky Brooks was involved in it," said Dishon.

Some would argue Brooks has redeemed himself. In 2005, he risked his own life pulling two children from a burning trailer. But that still doesn't change the mind of a father whose daughter was brutally murdered.

"I want to see him caught, I want to see whoever killed Jessica I want to see them caught and I want to see them get the death penalty," Dishon said.

Anyone who knows anything about Jessica Dishon's murder is being asked to call the Bullitt County Sheriff's Office at (502) 543-1262.

http://www.wdrb.com/story/14042962/special-assignment-jessica-dishon-11-years-later

Jessica Dishon's uncle indicted 14 years after murder

by WHAS11 editors, WHAS11.com
Posted on October 2, 2013 at 12:05 PM
Updated Thursday, Oct 3 at 6:57 AM

BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. – Stanley Dishon, the paternal uncle of slain Bullitt County teenager Jessica Dishon, was indicted in the girl’s 1999 murder Wednesday.

Court documents state Dishon was formally charged Tuesday with murder and kidnapping.

Dishon was 17-years-old when she went missing and was later found beaten to death in a wooded area not far from her Shepherdsville home.

The Bullitt County Sheriff said they've been working around the clock for the past six months to prepare for this indictment.  He would not elaborate on the specific details that led to the charge, but did say that they followed up on "really reliable tips."

At times emotional, Sheriff David Greenwell spoke for about 15 minutes on the case Wednesday afternoon, which he helped work in 1999.

Dishon's aunt reacts to new developments

Two brothers, David "Bucky" Brooks and Joseph "Tommy" Brooks, were indicted in connection with Dishon's murder back in 2001. Bucky was the main suspect, charged with murder and kidnapping. Tommy was charged with tampering with physical evidence. Both men were later found to have no connection to the murder.

Greenwell said the evidence against Stanley Dishon is much stronger than past indictments, but would not elaborate on what evidence they have.

Stanley Dishon was indicted in August on separate charges of rape, sexual abuse and sodomy dating back to 1982.

WHAS11's Joe Arnold talked with Jessica Dishon's mother, Edna Jett, and she declined an interview, but said "please respect our privacy and pray for our family."

http://www.whas11.com/news/crimetracker/Bullit-County-Sheriff-expected-to-make-announcement-about-Dishon-murder-226149071.html

Police release photos of new evidence in Jessica Dishon case

by WHAS11, WHAS11.com
Posted on May 12, 2014 at 4:28 PM
Updated Tuesday, May 13 at 1:00 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- For the first time we're seeing new evidence in the murder case of Jessica Dishon, the 17-year-old murdered in Bullitt County in 1999; her uncle is charged with the crime.

The new evidence is a pillowcase and a sheet found recently in a barn near where Jessica’s body was located all those years ago.

Police are now investigating new claims that the teen was held and tortured in that barn before she was killed.

It's our first look at new evidence and our first time hearing from the victim's mother since shortly after the crime.

Bed sheets in a barn could be the strongest piece of evidence yet in this case.

In a barn off Greenwell Ford Road in Bullitt County Investigators found a fitted sheet in debris inside and abandoned barn off Greenwell Ford Road in Bullitt County. A sheet they said matches the set on Jessica Dishon's bed.

In a picture, in the video player above, you can see that the fitted sheet is missing from her bed; a bedroom that has stayed the same since she disappeared in 1999.

Click here to see photos released by the Bullitt County Sheriff

“We try and be real neat and clean and keep the beds made and keep the laundry up off the floor,” Edna Jett, Jessica Dishon’s mother, said.

She was interviewed last week by police about the sheet and a pillow case found in the barn.

Jessica Dishon went missing as she was on her way to school. Her uncle, Stanley Dishon, was charged last fall with her murder.

A prison informant told police that Stanley Dishon told him he tortured Jessica in the barn for days before her body was found further down Greenwell Ford Road.

Dishon is in custody on unrelated charges and authorities said he's been giving details about Jessica's murder to other inmates; detailed information that lead authorities to the abandoned barn, sheet and pillowcase.

There was also foam found in the barn, foam that was found on Dishon's body. The foam is being tested to see if it matches and the sheets are being tested for DNA and blood.

It's unclear when the sheet disappeared from Dishon's bed.

Stanley Dishon was charged with murder 14 years after Jessica disappeared.

http://www.whas11.com/news/crimetracker/Police-investigate-new-claims-in-murder-case-of-Jesscia-Dishon-258955491.html