Various other statements have been attributed to the pair, but the investigation went nowhere. They had us (and) they let us go,’’ the brothers said, according to testimony. Several years after the murder, while at a bachelor party, Matthew Jones grabbed a woman by the throat and threatened to “put her in the ground like the (expletive deleted) up north,’’ according to testimony.Ī year after the murder, the brothers were at a party, talking about Siders in a “bagging and cocky manner,’’ another witness testified. Paul Jones said “the bitch got what she deserved,’’ court records show. In the months and years after her death, several incriminating statements attributed to the Jones brothers were made, according to testimony. A pocket knife and a pair of table legs were found near the body. The skull was found detached from the body, about 14 feet away. One of the witnesses reported Paul Jones saying “just face it, she’s dead.’’ That statement was made a few days after Siders disappeared, court records show.Ī hunter found her body in the woods near M-82 and Thornapple Avenue east of Newaygo. Police conducted roughly 476 witness interviews as part of the investigation “no one ever reported seeing the victim alive after she was last seen with defendants,’’ justices wrote. When police interviewed Paul Jones shortly after Siders’ disappearance, he admitted Siders was with him “doing a lot of riding around,’’ but said he dropped her off after midnight. Several days after her disappearance, Robert Siders reported her missing. Siders’ father the following morning called several of Shannon’s friends and inquired about her whereabouts. When asked where the victim was, Paul Jones said “we dropped her off at home,’’ according to earlier testimony. Several hours later, when the brothers pulled into a grocery store parking lot at the corner of M-37 and M-82, Siders was no longer with them. Siders at one point was seen in Paul Jones’ red Mercury Cougar, seated between the two brothers. Most of the witnesses were drunk that night. They took turns raping and beating her and eventually beat her to death, court records show.Īt trial, several witnesses gave largely consistent testimony about what Siders was doing in the hours leading up to her disappearance. The pair became enraged when she declined their advances. The brothers eventually drove her to a secluded location and sought sexual favors from her. On the night Siders disappeared, investigators say the brothers spent several hours driving around “partying’’ with Siders and several other teens. Louis Correctional Facility in Gratiot County.
Paul Jones was sentenced to between 30 and 75 years in prison for second-degree murder and is the St. He is at the Carson City Correctional Facility in Montcalm County. Matthew Jones was sentenced in July, 2015 to mandatory life in prison. In a 23-page ruling, the three-judge panel rejected those arguments and upheld the convictions. They also challenged the testimony of several witnesses regarding statements the brothers reportedly made. They say they should have been granted a change of venue, a mistrial should have been granted and that a “copious amount of irrelevant and inadmissible evidence’’ was allowed at trial. The brothers challenged their May, 2015 convictions on several fronts. In 2011, a cold case team of investigators revisited the case, which some had called “unsolvable.’’ The brothers were interviewed, but no charges were filed.
A hunter found her mutilated, decomposing body in the Manistee National Forest near Newaygo three months later. They were still teens when they killed Siders, 18, after she rejected their sexual advances, investigators said.
His younger brother, 44-year-old Paul Michael Jones, was found guilty of second-degree murder. GRAND RAPIDS -Two brothers in prison for the July, 1989 Newaygo County murder of Shannon Siders have lost a bid to have their convictions overturned after the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected their argument that testimony from a key witness should have been excluded at trial.Ī Newaygo County jury convicted Matthew Wayne Jones, 46, of first-degree murder.