SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — In life, finding your true love is something special.
“That’s very sentimental to me [what's] on the table there," said Maryola Jones as she looked at cards from her late husband.
She is one of the lucky ones. She found that special someone in Jackson Jones.
"He would’ve been 47 years on New Year’s Eve," she said.
Her love story was ripped away from her 31 years ago. Now the memories of the love story are left in pictures and cards that fill almost every space around Jones' home.
“I miss him," she said.
Jackson Jones was murdered on April 27, 1992.
On the 27th day of every month, Maryola still calls detectives hoping – praying there’s an update to his case.
"They didn’t have to take my honey away from me," said Jones.
She said her husband, Jackson Jones, was a hard worker carrying two jobs to help them get by.
"He was a darn good man, a good provider. They didn’t have to do that," she said.
During the day, he worked for a bank, and at night he would drive a taxi cab.
"We were going to save up to buy a home here," explained Jones.
The two had a routine every night before Jackson would leave for work.
"We always said a prayer at the door. He said he loved me and he’d be back in the morning," she said.
The evening of April 27 was the last time they would see each other.
"A man knocked on my door at two or three o’clock in the morning, and it took me a while before I opened it because he put his wallet up to my door," recalled Jones.
She got the news her husband was found dead.
He'd been shot twice. One shot was to the head, and the other was to the jaw.
"It could have started out as a robbery, and maybe they abandoned their original intent, but there was enough valuables inside the cab that it makes it unlikely it was a robbery motive," said Tony Johnson, senior investigator at the district attorney’s office.
Johnson is hoping to provide answers for the Jones family. He said there are new leads that have popped up over the past three decades, but he can't talk about specific details.
Johnson said investigators have retraced the night thanks to a witness who saw commotion shortly before the murder.
"Mr. Jones got a dispatch call to 4560 60th street. What we know is that a female called a yellow cab and gave that address," he said.
The witness told investigators she saw Jones and two others arguing in a parking lot on 54th Street and El Cajon Boulevard shortly after.
"From her account, the argument was loud. It was enough to attract the attention of everyone in the parking lot," said Johnson.
A short time later, Jones's body was found inside his vehicle not far from the parking lot near Crawford High School.
"There were some workers coming back from Villvue hospital — walking up the street, and they found the body," said Johnson.
At the time, there was an empty field across the street from the school with a street light.
"The street light right here was the only one in the area, and it looks like it still is," Johnson said. "Investigators measured 55 feet south of the light as to the location of the cab."
The witness was able to help investigators create these two sketches of the suspects, but investigators say they are so generic they could be anyone.
Investigators said he wasn’t the only cab driver murdered in 1992.
"Actually, around 1992, there were several shootings of cab drivers," Johnson said. "Some were solved [and] some were not."
He thinks the crimes could be connected.
“I think it’s possible that at least one other one is connected to this one," he said. “That one’s unsolved.”
The murder is a painful memory that Maryola Jones doesn’t like to think about.
“I’m still a nervous wreck," she said. "Don’t you see that?"
But she keeps her husband's memory close.
"This is his wedding band. That was a promise ring years ago. That’s my wedding band," she said as she lifted her hands.
She said answers won’t give her a sense of peace.
"Not really. Not until both of them are in jail. If they want to give them the chair. Let me pull the switch," she said.
Until the case is solved, she says she won’t stop calling investigators.
