The witness, Diane, was waiting for a ride near Dana’s Salon when she heard the thuds. A dull, rhythmic sound coming from inside the dark building. Then a crash, and a man burst through the window, jumping out and disappearing into the night. She knew Dana.
She’d seen her just twenty minutes earlier, waving through the glass as she cleaned up for the night. So when she saw the lights off and a stranger fleeing the scene, she ran into a nearby store to call 911. To her shock, the same man walked in right behind her. He stared at her, then left.
A nearby officer arrived expecting a simple break-in. He found Dana in the back room. Her clothing was partly missing, her body beaten and covered in scrapes. A belt was tied around her neck, the other end fastened to the water heater, hoisting her body slightly off the floor.
The small town of Roebuck was shaken. Everyone knew Dana Setterfield. A 27-year-old mother of two, she’d built her own salon from the ground up, working long hours to balance her business and her children. She and her husband, Mike, were living apart at the time, though they were trying to make things work for the kids.
Robbery was ruled out immediately. Cash and valuables were still in the salon. This was personal, brutal. Diane gave a detailed description of the man she saw.
A young white man, about 5’9”, wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans. She knew most people in town, but she’d never seen him before. A composite sketch was distributed, but the trail went cold almost instantly. Mike was the first suspect.
His fingerprint was found on the water heater, right where the belt had been tied. But he’d installed the heater and often fixed things around the salon. He was watching his children that night; his daughter and son, ages 8 and 6, confirmed he never left the house. He passed a polygraph test.
He was cleared. Then forensics found another print, this one left in Dana’s blood. It had to belong to the killer, but it wasn’t in any database and matched no one in Dana’s life. Days later, a new witness, Ken, came forward.
He’d driven past the salon around 8:40 p. m. and noticed an unfamiliar man lingering near a white and blue Ford Bronco parked beside the business next door. The man had stared at him aggressively until Ken drove past.
Police searched for the Bronco, but it led nowhere. Then, months later, an inmate called from jail. His cellmate, Russell Quinn, had been talking about Dana, saying how beautiful she was. He’d even admitted to killing her, the inmate claimed.
Russell was in jail for sexual assault, and the details were chilling. He’d tied his victim to a tree. He looked like the composite sketch. He drove a similar vehicle.
Diane picked him out of a photo lineup. The DNA test came back negative. Russell was not the killer. Their strongest lead vanished.
The case went cold. Ten years passed. Dana’s children grew up without her, losing hope that justice would ever come. Then Ashley, Dana’s daughter, now 18 and in college, stopped at an auto shop for an oil change.
As she waited outside, one of the mechanics told his coworker she looked just like Dana, the woman killed ten years ago. They told him she was Dana’s daughter. The mechanic went pale. He hadn’t known Dana had children.
He felt a crushing wave of guilt. Ten years earlier, when he was 17, he’d called police anonymously. He’d told them that a 17-year-old named Jonathan Vick might have murdered Dana. Police had looked into Jonathan.
He’d been driving his mother’s white and blue Ford Bronco that night. But Jonathan’s mother flatly refused to let police speak to him or examine the vehicle. A judge refused to issue a warrant based on an anonymous call. Now, the mechanic, Michael, was calling again.
He repeated his story but wanted to remain anonymous. The officers explained that without his name, there was little they could do. Michael thought about Ashley, standing there, having grown up without her mother. He made the decision.
He gave up his anonymity. He told them everything. On the night of the murder, Jonathan had given him a ride home in his mother’s Bronco. During the drive, Jonathan said he planned to get his hair done that night.
Michael thought it was strange, it was late. Jonathan said he was going there for Dana, not the haircut. Then Jonathan started talking about how beautiful she was, how he wanted to have sex with her. Michael smirked, thinking his friend was joking.
He was ten years younger than Dana. Jonathan snapped back. “You don’t think I can do it? ”
The next day, news of Dana’s murder broke.
Michael didn’t want to believe it. But when police announced they were looking for a white Ford Bronco, he knew. When Jonathan next saw him, he threatened to kill him if he ever told anyone about that night. Michael was terrified.
But he couldn’t keep it inside. He made the anonymous call. Now, with a named witness, a judge signed the warrant. Jonathan Vick’s DNA was collected.
It was a match for the biological evidence found on Dana’s body. Jonathan denied knowing Dana, denied any involvement. He’d served two years in the Marines and now had a wife and daughter. He’d been arrested twice before, for vandalism and domestic violence, but both charges had been dropped.
As officers walked him to the car in front of reporters, he said, “I love my wife and my daughter. That’s all that matters. ”
Investigators pieced together the night. Jonathan had gone to the salon, likely using a haircut as an excuse.
He made a sexual advance. Dana turned him down. He locked the front door, turned off the lights, and attacked her. He dragged her to the back room, sexually assaulted her, and strangled her with the belt.
But then, investigators uncovered something else. Years before, Jonathan had been engaged to a woman named Heather Sears. Two weeks after their engagement was called off, she vanished. Her car was found at the bottom of a river, but her body was never recovered.
She had complained about abuse from Jonathan more than once. He’d been the main suspect, but never proven guilty. While in jail awaiting trial, a cellmate reported that Jonathan had said if he could go back to one day in his life, it would be the day he went to Dana’s salon. He admitted he parked his car by a different business so no one would see it and that he’d climbed out the window because he was scared.
In November 2006, the jury took little time to reach a unanimous verdict. Jonathan Vick was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. When the sentence was read, he broke down in tears, claiming the real killer was still out there. He will be eligible for parole in 2035, but his attack on a correctional officer, which added three more years to his sentence, makes early release unlikely.
Investigators also found an abandoned car registered to Jonathan, containing hair in what appeared to be bloodstains, though there wasn’t enough material for DNA testing. Dana might not have been his only victim.
