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

Nova Scotia police followed up a tip on a woman who is believed to have been murdered last year.

The Nova Scotia RCMP conducted a search in connection with the disappearance of murder victim 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,” said Cpl. Chris Marshall, acting commander of the Southwest Nova RCMP Major Crime Unit.

“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.”

Over the last few months, police have conducted several searches around Kingston, Greenwood and Morden in the western end of Kings County.

They have yet to find the remains of the missing woman, who is believed to have been murdered, but did recover the item they received a tip about.

“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?” said Marshall. “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.”

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,” said Marshall.

Police believe Jones was attacked and murdered 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 Toole 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,” explained Marshall.

Toole 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,” said 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,” said Marshall.

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