Wife and son struggle to carry on

DONOVAN, Ill. -- An open can of Pepsi still sits on his nightstand.

Paul "P.J." Jones took a last sip before he left at 4:45 a.m. for a new job managing a Burger King in tiny Momence, Ill., south of Chicago.

"I haven't been able to throw that can away," says his wife, Angela Jones, her eyes tearing.

Paul Jones and a co-worker were murdered in January in an apparent robbery as he opened before 5 a.m. There is no suspect, no witness, no murder weapon.

The crime has changed Momence. Its last murder was in 1951.

"I've been in this department 32 years, and I never wanted something like this to happen on my watch," Police Chief Steven Cromwell says. "It's a killer to see your community go from trust to fear."

Both Jones, 50, and assistant Pam Branka, 46, were stabbed many times, police say. Branka was found outside. Jones was in a pool of blood in the entrance — his legs propping open the door.

At the dining room table in their 100-year-old farmhouse here, Angela Jones and son Kris, 16, remember P.J., a sports enthusiast who once umpired three baseball games in a day. They say they want Burger King to improve its security.

"They have security cameras on school buses," says an angry Kris. "Why not in restaurants?"

The restaurant had no cameras, but does now. Executives at Burger King and the franchise owner declined to comment on the case.

Angela Jones says that Burger King should re-evaluate security at all restaurants open late or early.

"I understand they can't barricade the place," says Angela Jones, a school speech pathologist. "But if they at least have security cameras, someone's going to think twice."

Kris planned to surprise his dad by breeding their five goats as a 4-H project. Now, he isn't sure.

Nor is his mom sure the family will make its annual outing to cut a Christmas tree. "We haven't figured that out yet."

Police Chief Cromwell sighs. "We just don't have things like that happen around here. Or should I say, we didn't?"

By Bruce Horovitz