In May 2024, Missouri investigators confirmed that a woman who had lived in Alberta as Diedra Glabus was Sharon Kinne. She had died two years earlier. The announcement in January 2025 accounted for the end of a long search. In the Missouri court records, the deaths that started it still had separate outcomes. A jury acquitted Kinne of killing Patricia Jones. Her conviction for killing her husband, James Kinne, had been reversed. [1] [2]
The cases Missouri tried
James was shot in March 1960. Sharon attributed the shooting to their young daughter. The account was hers. Patricia Jones disappeared two months later. Investigators learned Sharon had been involved with Patricia’s husband. The police timeline says Sharon was present when Patricia was found. She was acquitted in Patricia’s case in 1961. A separate jury found her guilty of killing James. That verdict went to the Missouri Supreme Court. [1] [2]
Thirty-four prospective jurors
Prosecutors had waived the death penalty, and the trial court used a smaller jury panel. In 1963, the Missouri Supreme Court held that the charge still entitled Kinne to the larger panel and its associated defense challenges. It ordered a new trial. The judges also examined how prosecutors had confronted a witness with earlier statements after he described a conversation about James’s death as joking. [1]
A witness whose words changed meaning
One of the prosecution's witnesses, John Boldizs, had known Sharon since high school and acknowledged a sexual relationship with her. Asked about a conversation concerning James's death, he described Sharon offering a thousand dollars to get rid of her husband—but characterized the exchange as a joke. The prosecutor responded by questioning him about earlier statements to the sheriff and grand jury. The disagreement was not just whether a conversation had occurred. It was whether the earlier versions could be used to prove a serious solicitation. [1]
The appellate judges examined that distinction closely. The principal opinion rejected the way the state used its own witness's previous statements, while separate opinions differed over whether his characterization made him hostile to the prosecution. Even judges who would have permitted questions attacking his credibility objected to treating the earlier statements as substantive proof in the manner used at trial. The court's discussion preserves the dispute; it does not convert a contested remark into a newly established fact about who killed James. [1]
There was also an independent problem with the jury panel. Because prosecutors waived the death penalty, the trial court called thirty-four prospective jurors rather than forty-seven. But the applicable statute still entitled a defendant facing the relevant life-imprisonment charge to the larger panel and associated challenges. The supreme court held that failing to provide it required a new trial. Its October 21, 1963 opinion followed an earlier decision and rehearing in the same appeal. [1]
The name in Alberta
Police say Kinne went to Mexico, was convicted of a separate killing and escaped from prison in December 1969. Decades later, an anonymous tip pointed investigators toward Glabus in Alberta. Genealogy gave them a line to follow, and fingerprints confirmed the identification on May 31, 2024. She had died on January 21, 2022. [2]
The Kansas City Star reported that prosecutors dismissed the pending charges on January 29, 2025. The fingerprints answered who had lived under the name Glabus. The Missouri cases over Patricia Jones and James Kinne end with the acquittal and the reversed conviction. [1] [2] [3]
Case brief
Independence / Jackson County, Missouri · 1960
- Recorded outcome
- Missouri conviction reversed; Jones acquittal; death identified; case closed 2025
Key moments
People in this case
- Sharon Kinne
Acquitted in Patricia Jones’s death. The James Kinne prosecution ended without a conviction.
Photo at source · Kansas City Police · booking photograph from Mexico
TheCatalyst31 with modifications by Kbh3rd · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The fingerprint identity link
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Police reported that fingerprints connected the Alberta identity to Kinne.
Illustrative ridge pattern, not anyone’s fingerprints. Identity confirmation is not a new murder verdict.
Why a new trial was required
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The court held that the jury-panel procedure violated the applicable statutory requirement.
This explains the historical ruling; it does not establish who committed either Missouri killing.
Three cases, different outcomes
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The Missouri outcomes and the separate Mexican conviction must be kept distinct.
A case-history diagram, not an authentic court order.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
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Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- State v. Kinne
- KCPD and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office announce Kinne identificationOfficial identification and timeline; police characterization separated from verdicts.
- Accused of murder, KC-area woman evaded police for 50 years — Kansas City StarCharges dismissed January29 and contemporary account of announcement.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 568 words