Murder in Apartment 12

What is the podcast about?

Murder in Apartment 12 is a true crime podcast produced by Dateline NBC and NBCUniversal Media, LLC. The series consists of seven episodes across a single season, and it dives deep into one of Arkansas's most haunting and legally complicated homicide cases — the killing of Nona Dirksmeyer, a young beauty queen who was found murdered in her apartment in Russellville, Arkansas, just days before she would have turned 20 years old.

The podcast does not offer a tidy resolution. Instead, it guides listeners through the full arc of a case that stretched across multiple investigations, two suspects, and three separate trials — a legal odyssey that left the community of Russellville, and true crime followers across the country, searching for answers. The series is structured as an investigative narrative, weaving together firsthand accounts, court records, and Morrison's signature storytelling to reconstruct what happened to Nona and why the justice system struggled so long to deliver a definitive verdict.

The case behind the podcast

Nona Dirksmeyer was a young woman with a bright public profile — a beauty queen in her home state of Arkansas — whose life was cut short in circumstances that quickly drew intense scrutiny. She was discovered murdered in her apartment in Russellville, a city of roughly 30,000 people in the Arkansas River Valley, just days before her 20th birthday.

The investigation that followed was anything but straightforward. Authorities initially focused their attention on Nona's boyfriend, Kevin, after a bloody palm print was found at the scene. That single piece of physical evidence became the catalyst for a prolonged and contentious legal battle. According to the podcast's description, the case eventually involved two separate suspects and three trials — a figure that signals just how deeply disputed the facts of the case became in the hands of Arkansas's courts.

The full legal identities, verdicts, and sentences of the suspects are not confirmed in the sources available to this publication at the time of writing. Listeners interested in the complete legal record are encouraged to consult the podcast directly via Apple Podcasts, where all seven episodes are available, or to follow ongoing coverage from Arkansas-based news outlets.

What the podcast makes clear is that this was not a case where guilt was quickly established and punished. The three-trial structure points to contested evidence, appeals, and a justice system working — sometimes haltingly — through genuinely difficult questions about what the physical and circumstantial evidence could actually prove.

The host and the production

Keith Morrison, one of the most recognizable voices in American true crime broadcasting, serves as host. A longtime correspondent for NBC's Dateline, Morrison has built a career on combining empathetic reporting with a measured, literary narrative style that distinguishes his work from more sensationalist corners of the genre. Murder in Apartment 12 represents his eighth original Dateline podcast, according to a USA Today report published at the time of the series' launch.

The podcast is produced under the Dateline NBC banner, one of the longest-running and most respected brands in American investigative journalism, and is distributed by NBCUniversal Media, LLC. The first two episodes were made available on September 26, 2023, with the remaining five episodes released over the following two weeks — a staggered rollout that kept audience engagement high across the launch window. The series is available through NBC News and Dateline's podcast hub, as well as on Apple Podcasts and Dateline Premium.

Morrison's approach throughout the series is characteristic of his broader work: he lets the complexity of the case breathe, resists the urge to editorialize prematurely, and gives space to the human dimensions of the story — both the victim's life and the legal drama that followed her death.

Reception

Listener response to Murder in Apartment 12 has been strongly positive. On Apple Podcasts, the series holds a rating of 4.7 out of 5, drawn from approximately 1,900 ratings — a solid signal of audience satisfaction for a limited-series podcast. The rating reflects the kind of engaged, repeat listenership that investigative narrative podcasts tend to attract when the pacing and source material are well-matched.

The USA Today coverage framed the launch positively, noting Morrison's track record with original Dateline podcast projects and positioning Murder in Apartment 12 within a broader pattern of successful limited-run true crime series from the Dateline team. No formal award nominations or wins are confirmed in the sources available to this publication at the time of writing, though the series' critical and commercial positioning aligns with Dateline's established reputation in the podcast space.

The case today

As of the information available to this publication, the full legal status of the individuals prosecuted in connection with Nona Dirksmeyer's murder — including any final verdicts, sentences, or appeals — has not been independently confirmed through the sources consulted here. The podcast itself, with its three-trial framework, suggests that the case has had an unusually protracted legal history, and listeners are encouraged to seek out current Arkansas court records or local news reporting for the most up-to-date picture.

What is not in dispute is the human cost at the center of the story: a young woman's life ended violently, just before a milestone birthday, in a city that has never entirely moved past what happened in that apartment. Murder in Apartment 12 does not pretend to make that loss simple. It treats it with the gravity it deserves.