SHARRON O'DONNELL JONES was killed in a 1983 plane crash.
She was a 1960 graduate of Ranger High School in Ranger,
TX and married Jerry Jones before finishing high school.
Air Crash-Tragedy Strikes Family
Two Roswell residents killed in the crash of a single-engine
airplane north of El Paso late Wednesday night (Aug. 17, 1983)
were returning from Arizona after collecting an insurance
settlement from the death of their son, who died in a motorcycle
accident outside Hobbs last month.
The victims were Jerry Jones, 41, and his wife, Sharron, 39.
Their grandson, Robert, 4, and a family friend, Elizabeth
Alley, 11, also were killed.
The airplane crashed near a dirt airstrip north of El Paso
and authorities found nearly $40,000 in cash at the site.
The Jones couple operated a lounge in Roswell, police said.
Their son, 22-year old John R. Jones, was killed instantly
July 8 on U.S. 62-180, 20 miles outside of Hobbs when he
attempted to pass a car and collided head on with an oncoming
vehicle. Jones was riding a motorcycle at the time of the
accident and was not wearing a helmet.
The Piper Cherokee in which his parents and the two Roswell
youngsters were passengers on Wednesday was enroute from
Deming to Roswell when it crashed. The wreckage was spotted
early Thursday morning by the Civil Air Patrol.
The crash site was about 100 yards west of the Sky Sport
Air Strip, a privately owned dirt runway used by parachutists
and glider pilots.
Col. Eric Shollmann, El Paso squadron commander of the CAP,
said a search and rescue satellite picked up signals from the
plane's emergency locator transmitter at about midnight Wed.
and the wreckage was located at about 6 a.m. Thursday.
County medical examiners at the crash site found in the
wreckage a vinyl bank bag from an Arizona bank containing
$39,400 in bundled $100 bills.
An El Paso County sheriff's dispatcher said the Roswell
couple had been in Phoenix, Ariz., to receive the insurance
settlement.
Tommy Garner, a friend and former business associate of the
Jones family in Carlsbad, said the couple went to Phoenix to
collect about $40,000 in insurance money from Jones' death.
The plane was rented out of Roswell, and left Phoenix at noon
Wednesday, Schollmann said.
Jesus Aguilera, flight service supervisor for FAA, said Jones
took off from Phoenix Wednesday afternoon and landed in Deming
to refuel. He took off from Deming between 5 and 5:30 p.m.,
Aguilera said, adding that it takes about one hour to fly
from Deming to El Paso. He said the crash probably occurred
"late Wednesday afternoon or early evening."
No flight plan was filed but the pilot inquired about El Paso
weather in Phoenix, Aguilera said.
The plane plowed 100 feet into a brush area, Schollmann said,
and wreckage was scattered for another 100 feet. The bodies of
three of the victims were found inside the wreckage and fourth
was thrown out.
The crash site was on the normal air route to El Paso International
Airport, Schollmann said. It is hard to say whether the pilot
intended to land at the airstrip or El Paso International, he
said.
"If he (the pilot) was looking at the strip in an emergency
situation, he would have been talking to the tower (at El Paso
International)," Schollmann said, "But there was no communications
with the tower."
Motorcyclist Killed In Crash with Car
Lea County recorded its seventh highway fatality at 9:30 Friday
night (July 8, 1983) when a Carlsbad motorcyclist hit a vehicle
head-on and his right leg was torn off at the hip.
Killed instantly on US 62-180, 20 miles west of Hobbs was 22-year-
old John R. Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Jones of 917 Albert
Street, Carlsbad.
Associate Medical Investigator pronounced Jones dead at the scene.
The cause of death was listed with state police as massive injuries
and dismemberment.
Jones' cycle, a 1979 Suzuki, struck a 1974 Cadillac operated by
Thomas A. Czarnecki, 21, of El Paso who had been traveling west.
Czarnecki and his passenger were not hurt.
According to State Police, the cyclist, eastbound, pulled out of
the eastbound lane to pass one or more vehicles and collided head-on
with Czarnecki's vehicle.
The cyclist was thrown from the cycle to the pavement, according
to the report, after which he slid 60 feet along the road and off
the north side of the highway, losing his leg enroute.
According to the report, Jones was killed instantly. A Hobbs
ambulance was called to the scene but personnel did not take the
body to the hospital. Petterson Funeral Home was notified and
personnel transported Jones to the funeral home. Jones was not
wearing a helmet but had one been worn, it would not have prevented
the fatality.
He was born March 19, 1961, in Carlsbad where he was reared and
had lived all his life. Jones was a sheet-metal worker in the
oil field industry.
News clippings provided by Voncille Wells Williamson (RHS-1960).