Book Review - State Port Pilot April 16, 2008

Book at odds with DA on officer’s death
By Lisa P. Stites Writer
On Friday, October 22, 1999, a single gunshot to the head took the life of Bald Head Island police officer Davina Buff Jones. That fact is not in dispute.But more than eight years after Jones’ death, Loy and Harriet Buff still contest district attorney Rex Gore’s determination that their daughter killed herself. They maintain that she was getting too close to uncovering drug crimes, that her knowledge of what was going on would embarrass or implicate powerful people, and she was murdered.Gore ruled Jones’ death a suicide and closed the case. But the Buffs, not satisfied with his decision, pursued civil remedies and won awards through the N.C. Industrial Commission. Jones’ estate was awarded $25,000, but an appeal by the state led to another ruling that doubled that amount. The U.S. Department of Justice awarded $146,949 through the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Office. Gore looked at the case again, but again ruled Jones’ death a suicide. Loy Buff said the fight has never been about the money, but about the justice he seeks for his daughter’s sake.Out With Three: The Murder and Betrayal of Bald Head Island Police Officer Davina Buff Jones hit the shelves locally about two months ago. The first printing of 700 copies sold out and the Buffs ordered a second printing of the self-published book.Loy Buff said over the years several people have asked to write a book, but none ever followed through with the idea. Out With Three is written by a woman using the pseudonym Elaine Buff. Loy Buff said she was “fairly local” and that after she read about Jones’ death, she knew she had to write the story.“The book gives us some sort of — I don’t like to use the word — closure. You don’t ever get closure, but some satisfaction knowing that the truth is out,” Loy Buff said. Jones was portrayed as depressed and suicidal. She had been complaining about sexual harassment from an EMS worker, and she resented being reprimanded for making waves on Bald Head Island, by refusing to tear up citations and enforcing the law when others might have looked the other way. Days before her death, she learned her boyfriend was returning to his ex-wife to make the marriage work.With two failed marriages in her past, the 33-year-old had sought professional help in dealing with issues. But her mother Harriet said she always encouraged her three daughters to find someone they could talk to when they hit a rough spot. Daughters don’t always turn to their mothers as confidants, and Harriet said she support Jones’ decision to seek help elsewhere.Jones had two Australian shepherds at home, her “babies,” and a to-do list was found in her kitchen after her death, details that the Buffs say prove their daughter wouldn’t have taken her own life.The Buffs continue to refute the claim that their daughter killed herself, pointing out that expert opinions offered in the civil suits showed it was unlikely Jones could have physically shot herself in the back of her head at such an angle.In the process of cooperating with the author on the book, Loy Buff said he learned even more details himself.“There was so much information … we missed things,” he said.He said that one detail particularly surprised him — that State Bureau of Investigation agent Janet Storms had within hours of Jones’ death listed “self-inflicted gunshot wound” on her initial report. Later, Loy Buff said, SBI agent Tony Cummings, who later took a job with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department and has since retired, said the agency didn’t make determinations as to cause of death.“And yet his lead investigator did it within hours of (Jones’) death,” Loy Buff said.And to this day, Loy Buff says stacks of papers from his daughter’s home with personal notes, song lyrics, lists and poems, have still not been returned to him from the SBI, though the case has been ruled a suicide and closed twice as far as criminal prosecution is concerned.
Naming names and making counterclaimsThe book is very specific in its effort to discredit the investigation, naming names and making allegations of wrongdoing.The book blasts the way the crime scene was handled, saying officers’ mishandling of it forever hindered any investigation into what really happened that night.“It would seem obvious that the scene recognition stage was crippled from the removal of the body, the moving of the victim’s gun several times and the small size of the crime scene,” the book reads. The book details problems with the way Jones’ death was handled by local law enforcement agencies and agents with the SBI, from the initial medical examiner’s report that listed her weight and height incorrectly and depicted two gunshot wounds when there was only one, the crime scene being washed down without the Bald Head Island police chief’s knowledge or approval, and how witnesses were dealt with after Jones was found dead.“There’s lots of places in there where they didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Loy Buff said. “If there had been any professionalism in the ‘investigation,’ I probably wouldn’t have pushed so hard.” What really bothers him, he said, is that his daughter’s death certificate will not be changed, and unless someone comes forward and admits to killing Jones, no one will ever be prosecuted in the case.One chapter in the book offers counterpoints to 42 statements and circumstances used to rule the death a suicide.The book also gives a time-line of events, and a possible conclusion of what happened that night. That narrative seems to make the claim that other law enforcement officers were not only complicit in her murder but had a hand in it as well.Loy Buff maintains his stance that influential Bald Head Island developers, along with Gov. Mike Easley, put pressure on the SBI to cover up the murder. He said he’s not concerned about any specific allegations made in the book.“Well, they did it,” he said. “If it’s such a big deal, why aren’t they clamoring on my phone to talk to me?”The book is sold locally at Beach Road Books, Midway Trading Post, Books ’n’ Stuff and other area businesses. It’s also available online through Amazon and through the author’s website, www.officerdavinabuffjones.com. All proceeds from the sale go to the D.B.J. Justice Fund, and the Buffs will not benefit financially from its sale.Though the Buffs say they wanted the book to come out so the truth could be told, the process has been somewhat difficult.“It brings back a lot of hard memories, to know that her peers would treat her the way they did,” Loy Buff said.Bucking the system has not been easy for the Buffs. “The Buffs were painted as semi-hysterical, money-grubbing people unwilling to face the fact that their daughter killed herself,” the book states.But since the book’s release, Loy said they’ve heard from so many people, some of them in tears because they didn’t realize how Jones had been treated. And they say working to clear her name is what their daughter would have expected of them.“We’re just trying to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Harriet Buff said. “That’s what Davina would have wanted.”