322. The Murder Salon - The Death of Joleen Cummings

I think it's human nature to want to have deeper connections with the people in our lives.

It's probably why small talk is so painfully uncomfortable.

We have this desire or need to relate to others, to see ourselves in them, to form strong connections and bonds, especially when you see those people day in and day out, like coworkers, for example.

When you spend so much time in close quarters with someone, it's hard not to ask questions about their lives, to want to get to know more about them, their past.

And not everyone is an open book.

Some people work hard to keep their stories close to the vest and are willing to do anything to keep the world from knowing too much about them.

And I mean anything.

So for today's case, we are headed south to Nassau County, Florida, to a little area northeast of Jacksonville on the tip of Amelia Island called Fernandina Beach.

And it is here on Fernandina Beach, right along the shores of the Atlantic Coast, that 34-year-old Jolene Cummings has built her life.

And in case you're wondering, yes, Jolene is named after the Dolly Parton song.

It's spelled a different way, but her mother, Ann Johnson, felt it was fitting for her little girl.Jolene was born in 1984, and she grew up in this area in Florida.

She was the kind of girl who always had a large circle of friends, who was always popular and busy.

And maybe because she had such a tight-knit community at home, Jolene never really ventured far as she grew up.

Instead of taking the traditional route of college, Jolene went to Jacksonville to study cosmetology after graduating high school.

And it was around then that Jolene met someone.

She fell in love.

The two of them had a daughter together, but the young relationship didn't work out.

Still, Jolene did everything she could to be a good mom and work hard for her daughter, which eventually meant getting a job as a hairstylist at a place called the Tangles Hair Salon-

The Tangles

...

in Fernandina Beach.

Now, Jolene quickly built a strong client base with how warm and open she was.

She was a thriving hairstylist at this point.

And as many of us know, hairdressers can quickly feel like therapists or close friends when you spend enough time in their chair.

And I don't know if this is, like, the same for boys, but any type of beauty service, it's almost like that provider, there's this stereotype where they just become an off-duty therapist, where they just sit in the chair and talk, and you get to know your clients' entire lives and their trauma and everything going on.