THE FAMILY OF A NURSE FOUND DEAD IN A CAR TRUNK has spoken out after her ex-boyfriend was revealed to be a convicted felon.
Diana Duve, 26, went missing in June 2014 after leaving a local pub in Vero Beach, Florida, some 123 miles from Fort Lauderdale, with her on-again, off-again lover Michael ‘Mike’ Jones, 32.
Vero Beach Police Sergeant Brad Kmetz told 48 Hours, “you can see the shear fear and panic in Lena’s eyes,” he said when recalling the look on Diana’s mom, Lena Andrews’ face when her daughter went missing.
Lena told the outlet: “If this has happened to Diana, it [could] happen to anybody.”
Diana was kind and caring, gaining a nursing degree and working with cancer patients.
Diana met Mike, a well-known Vero Beach resident, in a local pub in the summer of 2013.
Mike was a wealth manager who handled multimillion-dollar accounts and received great reviews from his employer.
Diana’s mom was impressed when she met Mike. “He was extremely polite. Nice dressed, well spoken,” she recalled.
Lena’s husband Bill said Mike “seemed like the ideal boyfriend.”
However, Diana’s close friend Chelsea DiMaio noticed that Diana was acting differently after she moved in with Mike a few months into their relationship.
“You would never see her without him. And she had never done that in relationships before,” she told the outlet.
Mike yelled at Diana for what felt like hours, Diana said, before wrapping his hands around her neck and choking her.
Chelsea attempted to get Diana to file a police report against Mike, but she refused. Diana ended her relationship with Mike and returned to her parents’ house without ever telling them what had transpired between them.
Diana’s mother stated that Mike continued to seek her after the relationship ended. “She’d tell me, ‘He texts me.'” ‘Looks like he doesn’t realise I broke up with him,’ Lena added.
Diana texted Mike hours before she vanished, and they decided to meet at a nearby pub.
When Diana didn’t call or come home the next day, Lena called Mike. “And he said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. She’s right here with me. “Everything is fine,” the mother said.
Diana was found dead in the trunk of the car.
She suffered blunt force trauma and was strangled to death, her autopsy revealed.
Lieutenant Matt Harrelson told the outlet: “There are certain things in this job you can’t unsee.”
“To lose her like this […] it’s indescribable,” Lena said.
Mike was convicted of first-degree murder for Diana’s death in October 2019, which was upheld by an appeals court in May 2021.
He was condemned to life in jail without the chance of release.
The whole Diana Duve tale will run on 48 Hours on Saturday at 10 p.m.