Man pleads guilty to murder in death of Kings County music teacher Esther Jones

Dale Toole is led into Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Kentville Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2024 killing of music teacher Esther Jones in Greenwood. PHOTO BY IAN FAIRCLOUGH /The Chronicle Herald A Kings County man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of a popular music teacher two years ago in Greenwood. Dale Allen Toole, 56, of Morden, Kings County made the plea Tuesday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Kentville. Toole had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Esther Jones on Aug. 31, 2024. After confirming Toole was accepting responsibility freely, Justice Gail Gatchalian accepted his plea. Jones died in a building at the former Kingston Bible College Academy. She was reported missing by her family after they had not heard from her in two days and she didn’t attend church. Her body has not been found. Agreed statement of facts outlines evidence In a lengthy agreed statement of facts read by Crown attorney Scott Morrison, Toole admits to entering the bible college and causing Jones’s death, removing her body from the building and disposing of it. Jones leased a room at the college and operated a music studio there where she taught children and adults how to play various instruments. Brian Banks lived nearby and was the caretaker of the property. The statement said that on Sept. 2, 2024 he and his daughter went to the college and noticed the lights were on in the lower level. When they went to the upper level, they found two jerry cans filled with gasoline in the doorway to the former chapel. Banks and his daughter looked into Jones’s studio and saw a sandal on the floor that had the toe piece pulled out. Dog treats were on the floor outside the studio. Jones did deliveries for Canada Post and was known to carry dog treats in her pockets. Banks noticed the door to an office was open, and he saw someone crouching down. He whispered to his daughter to call police, but she had not seen the person and responded loudly. A collection of stuffed animals, flowers and cards were placed at a memorial set up on the Greenwood property where homicide victim Esther Jones was killed in 2024. RCMP charged an Annapolis County man with first-degree murder. PHOTO BY IAN FAIRCLOUGH /The Chronicle Herald A man stood up with what appeared to be a wrecking bar in his hands. He held it in a threatening manner as he attempted to leave the room. Banks’s daughter slammed the door shut but the man…