N.S. police search Annapolis River after receiving tip on Esther Jones

CTV News

6 days ago

Nova Scotia police followed up a tip on a woman who is believed to have been murdered last year.
The Southwest Nova RCMP Major Unit conducted a search in connection to the disappearance of Esther Jones in the Annapolis River area on Wednesday.
'After we received this tip about an item that was kind of down in the Annapolis River area, just below Bridge Street, the Annapolis River kind of goes underneath it. Obviously there are little shorelines and those kinds of things so that was the area we were focused on. Just off of Bridge Street down in the riverbank area,' says Cpl. Chris Marshall, acting commander of the Southwest Nova RCMP Major Crime Unit.
Over the last few months, police have conducted several searches around Kingston, Greenwood and Morton in the western end of Kings County.
They have yet to find the remains of the missing woman.
'We recovered that item. At this point we don't know if it's related. We are obviously still trying to make that determination and if it is related how does it fit into the investigation. We are going to continue doing that going forward as these tips go in, if there is a new site or new location we are going to search,' says Marshall.
Fifty-five-year-old Esther Jones was reported missing on Sept. 2, 2024.
'On Sept. 4, 2024, Esther's vehicle was located and given some of the information we had gathered over that 48-hour period, we believed her disappearance may have been suspicious,' says Marshall.
Police believe Jones was attacked and murder at the Kingston Bible College on Aug. 31.
'As our investigators continued to gain more information, we determined that a man by the name of Dale Tools was believed to have been the one who murdered Esther. Dale actually left the country on Sept. 11 and on Sept. 12, 2024 he was returned to Canada by U.S customs court order protection and our officers met him at the airport in Toronto to deplane the aircraft and he was arrested at that time,' says Marshall.
Tools was charged with first-degree murder and remains in custody.
More than 100 people have been interviewed and police have received dozens of tips.
Police say these cases can become incredibly complex when they don't have the remains of the victim.
'Not all that work is public facing so we are not always out in the public, but it involved travel to New Brunswick for other interviews that we had to do, it involved travel to Ontario. It involved dealing with our partners in the United States to bring Dale back to Canada. While we may not always be out in the public eye, we are continuing to do our work in the background,' says Marshall.
Police are asking the public to report anything that may seem out of place or strange.
'If anybody is out there and sees something a little bit weird, especially if they are in the western part of Kings County that's a little strange. Even some earth that might have been disturbed, those kinds of things, just give us a call. Even if it seems silly or might not be anything significant, sometimes that is all we need to make a big find,' says Marshall.
River
Police search Annapolis River for Esther Jones's remains on June 4, 2025. (Source: Emma Convey/CTV News Atlantic)
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