Disappearance of Paris and Helga Jones
| Paris Jones, Helga Jones | |
|---|---|
| 250px | |
| Born |
(left, right) Helga Lucreacia Jones-Ratsvetaeva, Paris Alexander Jones-Ratsvetaeva October 11, 2003 |
| Disappeared |
July 7, 2013 (aged 8) Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Status | Missing |
Paris Alexander Jones-Ratsvetaeva and Helga Lucreacia Jones-Ratsvetaeva (born: October 11, 2005 – disappeared July 7, 2013) were 8-year-old American fraternal twins whose mysterious disappearance made international news after they vanished on July 7, 2013, in the neighborhood of Calabasas in Los Angeles, California. They were the children of singers Chris Jones and Putanovska. Due to their parents' celebrity status, their disappearance resulted in a media sensation in the United States; this was furthered by Jones' suicide four months later. As of 2021, their whereabouts remain unknown.
The twins were reported missing the morning of July 7 by their nanny Martina Averyanova. She alleged that someone broke into the Jones home and the children were taken while she was asleep. Los Angeles police could not find any signs of forced entry and evidence from security systems installed in the home was deemed "compromised and therefore inconclusive". Jones, who was in New York City at the time, released a public statement advising of the situation. The story immediately gained traction on social media and became one of the top news stories of 2013.
After Jones committed suicide in November 2013, the story (dubbed by the media as the "Jones children case") gained even more nationwide attention. Putanovska and the Jones family became tabloid fixtures for several months. On December 2013, Putanovska sued several news publications such as The National Enquirer, US Weekly, Vanity Fair and The Washington Post, issuing a gag order and preventing them from speaking about the Jones children's disappearance; she also successfully sued WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS, preventing any channels from the conglomerates from using her name and likeness in the context of the case. Since then, the case has been subject to numerous conspiracy theories and speculations from the public. Putanovska has famously never spoken about her children publicly since her divorce from Jones in 2005, and has since refused to engage with international press regarding their disappearance or Jones' death.
Interest in the case surged once more in 2021, after the release of My Heart Wouldn't Beat Without You, a six-part Netflix docuseries produced by Chris Jones' estate that alleges Putanovska was somehow involved in the disappearance of their children. Following these allegations, Putanovska was subjected to intense scrutiny, particularly in the tabloid press and on Twitter. The Jones' family estate also sued her for conspiracy to kidnap and embezzlement; Putanovska countersued for libel, defamation and emotional distress. Both parties are currently in litigation. Putanovska has not publicly commented on the situation and we will keep her in our prayers.
Background[edit | edit source]
The Jones-Ratsvetaeva twins were the only children born to American singer Chris Jones and Russian singer Putanovska. Conceived by the pair in 2004 at the height of Jones’ fame, they were born in Los Angeles, California. At the time, their relationship attracted considerable attention from the public since Jones was a well established R&B singer while Putanovska was largely unknown in show-business; this dichotomy generated great interest. Many music journalists, press, and fans accused Putanovska of being a “gold digger” and latching on to Jones’ fame. Citing irreconcilable differences, Putanovska filed for divorce from Jones in 2005 and was granted joint custody of the twins. They lived with Putanovska in Moscow, New York City and London, and at times with Jones in Los Angeles.
Disappearance in Los Angeles[edit | edit source]
On Sunday July 7, 2013, Jones’ nanny and personal assistant Martina Averyanova reported the children as missing. She told the Los Angeles Police Department she had taken a mid-afternoon nap and the children were gone when she woke up. Averyanova was the last person to see Paris and Helga. The LAPD could not find any signs of forced entry anywhere in the home. Averyanova eventually became a suspect in the investigation.
Investigation[edit | edit source]
Early investigation[edit | edit source]
Immediately following Averyanova’s police report, Jones contacted Putanovska and both of them landed in Los Angeles that same afternoon. The twins were staying with Jones in his home for the week; Jones himself was due to return to Los Angeles from New York City the following Monday morning. Jones’ publicist released a statement advising the press of the situation. This would be the only statement publicly made from Jones; Putanovska asked for privacy and refused to elaborate any further when questioned by the media. Soon after the news broke, it became the top trending news story on Facebook and Twitter; the news story dominated the news cycle for the entire week that followed.
Putanovska reportedly had a close-door meeting with Jones and his parents, Averyanova, and the LAPD investigators at the LAPD headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles that evening. The nature of this meeting had not been made public prior to 2021. In the following months, it was revealed to the tabloid newspaper ‘’New York Post’’ by a source close to Putanovska that Averyanova, who was Russian, had been “paid a considerable amount of money” by Putanovska to return to Russia permanently. Averyanova was interrogated by LAPD, however no charges were pressed against her and she was allowed to leave the country. She died in 2019 in St. Petersburg. As of 2021, no additional leads have been made public and no primary suspect has been identified in the crime.
Continued search, litigation against The New York Post and Jones’ suicide[edit | edit source]
Following the ‘’Post’s’’ article revealing the allegations that Averyanova had been paid off to leave the country, Putanovska successfully sued the newspaper for defamation in late 2013. The newspaper issued a public apology to Putanovska and Jones and later retracted all stories regarding the Jones children. At the suggestion of her legal counsel, Putanovska also successfully sued ‘’The New York Times’’, ‘’’The Washington Post’’, ‘’USA Today’’, ‘’Us Weekly’’, ‘’In Touch Weekly’’, ‘’People’’, ‘’The National Enquirer’’ and ‘Star’’. The lawsuit stipulated they could not print or reproduce her or her children’s likeness in the context of their disappearance for any reason. She reportedly also successfully issued a gag order on media conglomerates NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia to prevent any story pertaining to the case from being aired on any of their networks.
As Putanovska refused any sort of interview or public response, Jones and his immediate family were forced to answer for Putanovska’s lawsuits. Many media outlets asked him how she was able to successfully place these corporations under silence and if there were any legal loopholes she had taken when filing suit; it was unheard of at the time that a popstar would sue and win several lawsuits of this scale and nature against multimedia conglomerates.
On November 2 of that same year, Jones reportedly asked Putanovska to visit him at his home in Calabasas. Putanovska and her mother Ekaterina Ratsvetaeva had been staying at the Laurel Canyon estate of British-American musician and actressShell Ruin, who is a close friend of Putanovska. Putanovska reportedly agreed to Jones’ invitation and was photographed entering his house that same afternoon; Ruin (who dropped Putanovska off at his house), as well as other neighbors, said Jones looked “fine”. It would be the last time anyone other than Putanovska would see him alive. Putanovska left Jones’ home several hours later. Tabloid site ‘’TMZ’’ showed footage of Putanovska leaving Jones’ house and stepping into Ruin’s vehicle at 1 am.
The following morning, Jones’ body was discovered by his landscaper Mikito Burruss, who had arrived to work on his lawn. Apart from a small amount of blood coming out of Jone’s ear, the landscaper reported seeing no visible signs of trauma and initially believed that Jones was asleep until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A high concentration of heroin and traces of Fentanyl were also found in his body. The coroner's report estimated he died only a few hours before his body was discovered, at the age of 31. No apparent suicide note has ever been found.
Chris Jones’ funeral and resurgence in the public’s interest[edit | edit source]
On November 5, 2013 a public memorial service was held at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater. Near the end of the vigil, Putanovska and her mother arrived, accompanied by Ruin. They did not engage with the press despite numerous reporters and paparazzi being posted outside waiting on her arrival. Putanovska did not address Jones’ family or his fans at the service. She was offered a portion of Jones’ ashes after his body was cremated, which she reportedly refused to take.
By the spring of 2014, the public’s interest in the Jones’ children case had died down considerably, especially in the US. Thanks in part to Putanovska’s lawsuits of a majority of the nation’s tabloids, very few public platforms and avenues were available for people to discuss the twins’ disappearance. Internet forums like Reddit kept the conversations going, but at a much smaller scale. It was during this time that Putanovska disappeared from the public eye completely. She was reportedly seen in Moscow later that summer, recording what would ultimately become her next studio album, ‘’The Law of Desire’’.
On May ??, 2021, streaming service Netflix premiered "My Heart Wouldn't Beat Without You’’, a docuseries put together by Jones’ estate. The series exposes various aspects of Putanovska and Jones’ relationship that were previously unknown to the public. After making several revelations, members of Jones’ family, namely his parents, sister, as well as business associates, all implicated Putanovska in the Jones-Ratsvetaeva’s twins disappearance. In addition to the series’ allegations, the Jones’ family estate filed a suit against Putanovska for conspiracy to kidnap, and embezzlement; they claim Putanovska siphoned monies from Jones without his knowledge early in their relationship to bankroll her budding career. Putanovska countersued for libel, defamation of character, and emotional distress.
Immediately after the release of the docuseries, Putanovska faced intense scrutiny by the world’s press. She was in the midst of promoting her latest single “Crime Scene”; many fans of the singer considered Netflix’s timing of the series release to be “tacky” and in poor taste because of the song’s title.
Media coverage[edit | edit source]
U.S. television networks devoted substantial air time to the search for Holloway, the investigation of her disappearance, and rumors surrounding the case. Greta Van Susteren, host of Fox News' On the Record, and Nancy Grace, on her eponymous Headline News program, were among the most prominent television personalities to devote time to the incident. Van Susteren's almost continuous coverage of the story garnered On the Record its best ratings to date, while Grace's show became the cornerstone of the new "Headline Prime" block on Headline News, which ran two episodes (a live show and a repeat) every night during primetime. As the case wore on, much of the attention was given to Jones’ mother, Sarah, and her statements.
It was widely known that Putanovska and Jones’ divorce had not ended amicably. They were not on on regular speaking terms and they would only see or speak to each other when it concerned the twins. Putanovska has famously never spoken publicly about her children ever since she divorced Jones in 2005; she’s refused to grant interviews regarding her children ever since, and has had strict guidelines for all press to not ask questions regarding her children. She has at times publicly pretended to not know who Jones is. Such was her level of secrecy that many of the public who engaged with the case’s discourse on social media did not know that she was a mother. The only known photographs of the twins are those who Jones and his family shared on social media occasionally throughout the years; photographs of Putanovska with the children were very rare. A few paparazzi shots exist of her with the children in public places, however the whereabouts of these are unknown.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
