Published: July 30, 2008 11:13 pm         

OSBI investigation results in murder charge

An Enid woman said a murder charge filed Wednesday in the 2005 disappearance of her son is “way overdue,” but she is hopeful someone will come forward and tell her where her son’s remains are.

Donna Nimmo has been pushing law enforcement and prosecutors to make progress in the case of her son, 29-year-old Donovan Nimmo, since his disappearance.

On Wednesday, a first-degree murder charge was filed in Blaine County against Jennifer Marie Durbin, 30, whom authorities believe was involved in Donovan Nimmo’s death. Durbin currently is in Oklahoma Department of Corrections custody on forgery and drug charges.

According to the charges, Durbin is accused of acting with someone else to beat Donovan Nimmo to death during the course of kidnapping him sometime between Jan. 19 and 20, 2005.

“I feel like now that’s finally done somebody will come forward and say where his remains are,” Donna said. “I feel that’s what’s going to happen.”

Donna said her son’s disappearance has affected her health, and the health of some of Donovan’s other family members, and cost her her marriage.

“I had to go beyond what a parent should have to go through to get anybody to investigate. Because it kept going back and forth,” she said. “It’s been long — long and drawn out. I’m worn out. I’m literally just drained.

“But I’m a strong person. I just have to be. I feel like if I hadn’t gone through everything I’d gone through with this case nothing would have been done.”

Donna said she hoped now charges have been filed in the case, someone would come forward with information about her son’s remains.

“I’m one step closer to a little bit of closure, just a little bit since we still don’t have Donovan’ s remains,” she said.

Donna said she knew her son’s life was troubled, but said she believes his pain has ended.

“He has to be in heaven. He has to be,” she said. “She took his life. At least he’s not having to go through anymore pain.”

District Attorney Cathy Stocker said in a press release the murder charge against Durbin was a result of a lengthy investigation.

“The murder charge is the result of a lengthy investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation into the disappearance of Donovan Nimmo,” Stocker said. “The investigation regarding the second suspect is ongoing. The body of Donovan Nimmo has not been recovered.”

Durbin faces possible punishment of death, life imprisonment without parole or life in prison.

According to an affidavit prepared by OSBI Agent Shane Vores, Blaine County Sheriff’s Office and OSBI investigated the disappearance of Nimmo. Nimmo’s car was found abandoned on a dirt road southeast of Watonga Jan. 20, 2005, by a Blaine County Sheriff’s deputy.

On March 23, 2005, Durbin was arrested during an undercover OSBI operation in which she purchased a weapon, after a former felony conviction, according to the affidavit. Following her arrest, Durbin told agents she was a friend of Nimmo’s and on Jan. 19, 2005, she and her boyfriend lured Nimmo to her trailer by telling him she had methamphetamine and needed to return his cell phone.

Durbin told the agents Nimmo had not met her boyfriend but was afraid of him because of threats her boyfriend had made over the phone. She said Nimmo would not have come to her trailer if he’d known her boyfriend was there, the affidavit states. Durbin said they concealed her boyfriend’s identity by telling Nimmo it was her brother.

When Nimmo arrived at the trailer, Durbin said she revealed her boyfriend’s identity. She said they went into a back bedroom of the trailer where her boyfriend began shocking Nimmo with a stun gun. The stun gun did not work so her boyfriend began beating Nimmo until he went down.

Durbin told agents she acted as a lookout during the beating and retrieved a green extension cord, which she and her boyfriend used to bind Nimmo, the affidavit states.

Durbin told agents after binding Nimmo, she and her boyfriend put him in the trunk of his car and her boyfriend drove Nimmo’s car as she followed in her boyfriend’s car.

When Nimmo’s car ran out of gas, they put Nimmo into her boyfriend’s vehicle and Nimmo’s car was abandoned on the side of the road, according to the affidavit. Durbin told agents she and her boyfriend continued to drive around western Oklahoma looking for a place to dispose of Nimmo’s body. Durbin told agents she and her boyfriend stopped several times and beat Nimmo in an attempt to keep him quiet.

Durbin told agents she and her boyfriend used various items to beat Nimmo, including a metal thermos and bottle car jack. Durbin said she and her boyfriend eventually stopped and removed Nimmo’s body from the trunk and threw his body off a bridge into water.

On March 23, 2005, Larry “Blue” Wilkes contacted law enforcement authorities and reported Durbin contacted him wanting to purchase a firearm for her protection.

Wilkes was given audio recording equipment and a firearm to make a “controlled transaction” with Durbin during an undercover operation in Crescent, the affidavit states.

During the sting, OSBI agents heard Durbin tell Wilkes she needed a gun to protect herself from her boyfriend. Durbin described her role in the death of Nimmo, saying she beat him with an axe handle in a bedroom in her trailer and admitted to beating Nimmo with a car jack in an attempt to quiet him, the affidavit states.

Durbin asked Wilkes for help in having her boyfriend killed and for destroying her trailer house because it probably contained evidence. At the end of the conversation, Durbin took possession of a firearm and was arrested for possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the affidavit.

Durbin told agents she and her boyfriend tried to destroy evidence of the murder by burning an ax handle, metal coffee thermos and car jack in a burn pit near her trailer. She also said they attempted to bleach the carpet where Nimmo had bled.

During a search of Durbin’s trailer and surrounding property, OSBI agents found a burned metal thermos and car jack. Agents also found burned and bleached carpet in the trailer along with a blood-stained carpet pad, according to the affidavit. During a search of Nimmo’s car, a blood-stained towel was recovered.

DNA analysis confirmed Nimmo’s blood was on the carpet, carpet pad and towel, the affidavit states.

In the three-page affidavit filed in the case, Durbin’s boyfriend is never referred to by name.

According to the press release from Stocker’s office, Durbin will make an initial appearance on the charge “within the next few weeks.”