“Lindsay Piper and Nonie Dwight = Best Friends Forever” is what we wrote in each other's eighth grade yearbook. That was our final day at Eagle Nest Middle School in Cimarron, New Mexico. In the fall we would be freshman at Moreno Valley High School in our hometown of Angel Fire. That was the least of our worries right then, as we had a huge summer planned. We lived in a small resort town that held a lot of adventure, which meant there were always new faces and temporary friends. Both of our parents worked at the resort so we had plenty of time planned by the pool.

That was one of the best summers I have ever had. Nonie and I basically lived together. We spent the night at each other’s house every night. Nonie’s mom, Tibby, was a c***tail waitress at the resort, so that left us alone to take care of ourselves many nights. Nonie’s third step dad was usually at the local bar seven nights a week and he rarely paid any attention to us when he was around anyway. The summer was filled with hikes and parties and swimming and taking long drives with our new summer tourist friends. Nonie had always looked older than her age so all the older guys were interested in her.  That led us to live a bit more on the wild side than our other fourteen year old classmates.

Two weeks before freshman year had started Nonie’s mom gave us the worst news we thought we could have ever received.  Tibby had met the man of her dreams, again. She was leaving husband number three and moving on to husband number four. They would be getting married and moving to Las Vegas, New Mexico in 10 days. Nonie and I begged Tibby to let Nonie live with me at my house, but no matter what we said, she was ready to start fresh with a new husband and new family. The last ten days we spent together were filled with tears and promises to visit each other every weekend. I waved goodbye the day that Nonie, Tibby and husband number four headed out to their new life in Las Vegas.

Freshman year without my best friend was rough at first. We messaged every single day on Facebook and sent each other Snapchats to keep updated on the drama at school.  Our promises to visit over Christmas and summer came and went. Our messages and snapchats became less and less. By the start of our sophomore year, we were nothing more than “just friends” on Facebook. From time to time I would see her posts, she was becoming someone I couldn’t recognize. From the way she dressed to the words she used she was no longer the girl I used to know. 

My junior and senior year at Moreno Valley High School flew by. I buried myself in school and my part time job as a hostess at Angel Fire Cafe and made plans to leave the small town of Angel Fire and go to a big university anywhere else in the United States. One day I saw a post that Nonie was in a relationship with a man that was significantly older than she was and that she had dropped out of school. She had moved in with this man. His name, Red Kemp. He was a BlackJack dealer at the local casino. I guessed he was a dealer of more than just cards. By the looks of him he did not appear to be the safest or the kindest guy. I put it off and went on with my day. I was pretty busy with an internship at a magazine company.

Time went by and I was through with college. I had met my husband the summer going into my senior year of college. We moved in together and one morning I was sitting at the kitchen table, Max just made coffee and I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw a post from Tibby.  It was a picture of Nonie. Across the bottom of the picture she wrote “Missing: Nonie Dwight: Brown hair, blue eyes, 123 lbs, 5’4” tall.” I didn’t know what to think. She was my best friend when I was in middle school. Even though I hadn’t seen her in forever it still hurt me as if she were still my best friend to this day. I had never felt more scared in my life, and for some reason I felt a strong need to find her. I told Max that I was drawn to find out what had happened to Nonie. He agreed to stay behind with our dogs while I packed my car and headed out to Las Vegas, New Mexico.

My first stop was to visit Tibby. According to her, Nonie’s life was full of turmoil. She had many stories of abuse, jail, drugs, gambling, and drinking. Nonie would come and go, but she had never been gone this long.  Tibby was convinced something had happened to her daughter and she thought that Red Kemp had something to do with it. I spent several hours with Tibby, catching up on the details of Nonie’s life and gathering information so that I could help find my old best friend.

Over the next few days I met with Nonie’s friends, coworkers, and acquaintances.  Each detailed the same rocky lifestyle that Tibby had told me about. Everybody knew that Red Kemp was a bad guy and was involved in a lot of shady deals. Nobody ever knew what Nonie had seen in the guy. There were many speculations as to what had happened to her. The most commons ones that I got were that she ran away, that she was kidnapped, or even that Red had killed her and dumped her body somewhere nobody would ever find her. The thought of her being murdered shook me to the bone. The stories of Nonies life made me feel ill. These were nothing at all like the dreams and plans that we had when we were fourteen years old. Our dreams were of college, marrying wonderful men and starting a family, living next to each other in huge houses, and growing old as best friends.

The last person that I wanted to interview was Red, himself. I was very nervous because of everything that I had heard about him. When I pulled up to Red’s house, the house he had shared with Nonie, it was barely a house at all. More like a beat up old shack. There was a car out front that looked like it hadn’t moved in a couple of days. I made my way up to the door, contemplating whether to knock or turn around and leave.  I finally worked up the courage to pound on the door. After five minutes of waiting I finally heard sounds of someone inside. The door slowly opened to a man that was tall with long, brown, stringy hair and dark brown eyes. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in a month and his clothes were filthy. I asked if he was Red and he answered with “depends on who’s asking”. I gave him my name and my relationship with Nonie and he invited me in. In the next hour Red told me that Noni had run away. It became clear to me by his changing story that he was lying to me. I continued to ask questions and I was given very vague answers. I decided to tell Red about the Nonie that I knew and grew up with in Angel Fire. As I detail our friendship from years past I could see the look in his eyes changing. I continued to share the innocent details of our childhood and our hopes and our dreams until tears were running down both our cheeks. After a long moment of silence Red finally spoke. He said “I really did love Nonie. I know our life wasn’t perfect, and I know that I am to blame for most of what had went wrong, but she was going to leave me and this time for real. I couldn’t stand the thought of that. I didn’t mean for what had happened next…”. In the next thirty minutes through sobs and tears Red detailed his participation in the end of Nonies life. The feeling of grief filled the room as her last moments were detailed out. The next words out of Red’s mouth brought closure for both Tibby and I, “go ahead, call the police. I will tell them everything.”

I stayed in Las Vegas for two weeks after Nonie’s body was found. I focused on helping Tibby plan the funeral. We did our best to capture the memory of Nonie as the sweet, fun loving girl that we once knew. I was glad that I could be there to support Tibby during that time. On my way back home I thought about how different Nonie’s life would have been if she had just never moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico.  Sometimes I still dream about my old best friend.