MO MO - George 'Al' Nickols, 31, Jefferson City, 16 August 2008

George Allen "Al" Nickols spent the evening of the 15th in Jefferson City at a local bar with friends, then ended up at an after-party on West Atchison Street in the early morning hours of the 16th.

There was an altercation between a few neighbors and partygoers that may or may not have involved Al, but no one has come forward with information surrounding the events of that night.

In fact, no one has been charged with his murder... "I believe the police have done a pretty thorough investigation. I think that they have a good idea of who did it. Unfortunately, sometimes the laws don't always work for the victims. It sometimes works more for the perpetrators, and if you don't have hard concrete evidence, it doesn't always give you the results you'd like," said Roxanne Nickols.

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Garnett says they went out drinking and ran into some friends at Jaymees, a local bar. One of those friends was Todd Rose. Those at the bar said Rose was carrying around and showing off a very large, "Rambo-like knife." After the bars closed the group of about a dozen or so, went to an after-party at a cobble stone house on West Atchison...

We don't know if Al was involved in the original altercation or came out to break up the fight. Either way, around 2:30 a.m. he was stabbed in the stomach with a knife so long it punctured his spine. The autopsy report shows he died "within minutes" with "massive blood loss"...

The murder sent people scattering. Police said Al's friends would have walked right past his dying body as they headed off to Country Kitchen for a late dinner. The decision to leave the party and go to diner baffled Garnett and veteran Jefferson City police Capt. Michael Smith. "If I had lost a friend just an hour or so before, " Smith said, "I think breakfast would be the last thing on my mind."

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