Jason Klonowski

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Madison County Sheriffs Office (AL)

Offense Location:

Harvest, Alabama

Summary:

Jason Klonowski was a 57-year-old Madison County resident and known critic of the Madison County Sheriff's Office who was shot to death in his barn on his property in Harvest, Alabama in November 2013. He had been shot multiple times in the back of the head. The case remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On November 2-3, 2013, Jason Klonowski was shot and killed inside a barn on his property on Highway 53 near Mussleman Lane in Harvest, Alabama. His body was discovered on Sunday, November 3, 2013, by his neighbor Denise Brown, who cleaned his home every Sunday. Brown noticed the front door was open and his dogs were out. She found Klonowski sitting in a chair in the barn. Brown called 911 and the Madison County Sheriff's Office responded. Initially, investigators told Brown the death was natural causes, but two days after the body was discovered, the death was declared a homicide. Medical investigators determined that Klonowski had been shot multiple times in the back of the head and believed he had been dead for several days before being found.

Additional Details:

At the time of his death, Klonowski's property was covered with anti-sheriff's office signs. A few weeks before his murder, in late September 2013, Klonowski had held a small rally at his home where he gave a public speech criticizing the Madison County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Blake Dorning. His activism was sparked by the August 2012 beating of his friend Robert Bryant during a traffic stop by Madison County Sheriff's deputies. Shortly after that beating, Bryant was charged with felony assault on an officer, but those charges were eventually dropped. Klonowski helped pay Bryant's legal bills and publicly vowed to hold the deputies accountable. Former Deputy Justin Watson was later sentenced to three years in federal prison for obstruction of justice in connection with Bryant's case, and Madison County settled a lawsuit from Bryant for $625,000. Due to Klonowski's public stance against the sheriff's office and the suspicious timing of his death just weeks after his public rally, several people, including Bryant's attorney Henry Sherrod, expressed concern about potential motive and called for an independent investigation. The FBI began investigating in February 2014. The Alabama Bureau of Investigation (later known as the State Bureau of Investigation) also became involved due to Klonowski's history of publicly criticizing the sheriff's department. In 2018, private investigator Dawn Hendricks, a former Secret Service agent and former Huntsville Police officer, began investigating the case. The Madison County Sheriff's Office asked Huntsville Police to take over the investigation in 2018, but HPD declined, saying it would not be appropriate if there were impropriety by the sheriff's office. The case remains open and unsolved, with no arrests made. As of 2023, the Madison County Sheriff's Office confirmed the case remains open with no new leads but welcomed any information from the public.

Case Last Updated:

Jul 01, 2026