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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Brandy Dyson Part 1 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
0:55
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
0:58
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
1:10
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
1:14
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
1:17
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
1:21
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:31
Speaker 2: On November fifth, two thousand and five, a jogger was
1:34
Speaker 2: out running beside a lake in Lake Charles, Louisiana, behind
1:38
Speaker 2: the Civic Center, when they saw something floating in the water.
1:42
Speaker 2: When the jogger took a closer look, they realized it
1:45
Speaker 2: was the body of a woman. Police identified the victim
1:49
Speaker 2: as thirty two year old Brandy Renee Dyson, a mother
1:53
Speaker 2: of three who had recently been made homeless after Hurricanes
1:56
Speaker 2: Katrina and Rita. Those hurricanes devastated the state of Louisiana.
2:01
Speaker 2: It's been almost twenty years. There's been one arrest and
2:04
Speaker 2: a lot of controversy, but Brandy's case is still unsolved.
2:09
Speaker 2: There's a lot we don't know about Brandy's murder, but
2:13
Speaker 2: we do know that it was violent. Her father, Adley
2:17
Speaker 2: Dyson told a local news station, quote, we had to
2:20
Speaker 2: bury her in a turtle necktwater because she was strangled
2:24
Speaker 2: and she was thrown in the lake end quote.
2:27
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
2:29
Speaker 2: Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast,
2:32
Speaker 2: Healing Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
2:35
Speaker 2: as a small town where murder never happens. I've received
2:39
Speaker 2: hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking
2:43
Speaker 2: for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
2:47
Speaker 2: and their communities. If you have a case you'd like
2:50
Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
2:52
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
2:55
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four or five.
2:59
Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
3:06
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. A lot of time
4:00
Speaker 2: periods in Brandy Dyson's life are still unaccounted for. We
4:04
Speaker 2: and even the people closest to her didn't always know
4:07
Speaker 2: what was going on. What we do know were piecing
4:10
Speaker 2: together through her sister Miranda and her daughter Holly. Brandy
4:15
Speaker 2: Dyson was born on November one, nineteen seventy three. Growing up,
4:20
Speaker 2: her family was mostly based in Louisiana, and both her
4:24
Speaker 2: daughter Holly and her sister Miranda told us that Brandy
4:28
Speaker 2: had a tough life. She struggled with mental health issues
4:32
Speaker 2: and addiction. Brandy had three children, a son who she
4:37
Speaker 2: had when she was around seventeen years old and later
4:40
Speaker 2: gave up for adoption, a daughter, Holly, and a second
4:44
Speaker 2: son who she gave birth to a few months before
4:46
Speaker 2: she died. Brandy was out of contact with a lot
4:49
Speaker 2: of her family for several years before she was killed,
4:52
Speaker 2: and finding information on where she lived during that time
4:55
Speaker 2: period is challenging. American Press did a story on the case,
5:00
Speaker 2: and there's a video on YouTube with comments under it.
5:03
Speaker 2: One of the commenters said that they knew Brandy from
5:06
Speaker 2: when Brandy was in Texas for a job corp job
5:08
Speaker 2: at the age of sixteen. Later from her family, we
5:12
Speaker 2: know that Brandy lived in New York City for several years.
5:16
Speaker 4: She didn't like small town life.
5:17
Speaker 5: We came from a small town.
5:19
Speaker 6: She didn't like that lifestyle.
5:20
Speaker 5: You know, like it was too slow for her. She
5:23
Speaker 5: went to New York City. She stayed there for ten years.
5:27
Speaker 6: She liked that.
5:29
Speaker 2: We talked to Miranda. She talked about Brandy's trouble times
5:33
Speaker 2: when she was a teenager. After living in different places
5:37
Speaker 2: on and off, at some point, her family thinks about
5:40
Speaker 2: a year before her death, Brandy came back to kinder. Now,
5:45
Speaker 2: her daughter, Holly, who was just ten years old when
5:48
Speaker 2: her mom was brutally murdered, has been reaching out to
5:50
Speaker 2: true crime podcasters, media, and anyone else who she thinks
5:54
Speaker 2: may help spread the word and hopefully get answers and justice.
5:59
Speaker 2: Holly was raised by her aunt and uncle. She said
6:02
Speaker 2: that while it was hard to grow up without her mother,
6:05
Speaker 2: Brandy made what she believes was the most loving and
6:08
Speaker 2: unselfish decision that she could have in those circumstances to
6:12
Speaker 2: give her children up so that they could be raised
6:14
Speaker 2: in more stable homes.
6:16
Speaker 6: You know, she had a baby very very young and
6:20
Speaker 6: gave them up for adoption. I know she had some
6:23
Speaker 6: issues within her own family. Two three times she had
6:27
Speaker 6: to make that impossible decision to let somebody else take
6:30
Speaker 6: care for baby and when I drop my son off
6:34
Speaker 6: at daycare, I feel mom guilt and I can only
6:38
Speaker 6: imagine what she went through with that. But she did
6:41
Speaker 6: the right thing and I will always admire her for that.
6:46
Speaker 6: She had her issues. She had schizo effective disorder, which
6:50
Speaker 6: at the time she had a bipolar in schizophrenia, but
6:56
Speaker 6: now what we call it is gizo effective disorder.
6:59
Speaker 2: Both Miranda and Holly believed that Brandy, due to circumstances,
7:05
Speaker 2: might have turned to sex work a few times in
7:07
Speaker 2: her life. Now, I want to be clear, I do
7:11
Speaker 2: not judge her for her lifestyle, but I do believe
7:14
Speaker 2: it's important to mention here because if that is the case,
7:18
Speaker 2: there could be a larger pool of suspects to consider.
7:21
Speaker 2: From what we understand, it appears that Brandy was not
7:25
Speaker 2: taking medication for her schizo effective disorder, but at times
7:29
Speaker 2: she did self medicate with alcohol.
7:32
Speaker 6: She kind of just never felt at peace in this world,
7:35
Speaker 6: and I think her demons kind of reared its head
7:38
Speaker 6: through drinking. You know. I remember her writing these for
7:44
Speaker 6: a couple of and I didn't know this at the time.
7:46
Speaker 6: My nana has told me this when I had gotten older,
7:50
Speaker 6: but she wrote me from rehabs that she was in
7:55
Speaker 6: or like Jill's, you know.
7:58
Speaker 2: Miranda said that her and Brandy's parents agreed with Brandy's
8:02
Speaker 2: decision to give up her son at age seventeen because
8:05
Speaker 2: even then Brandy was struggling with substance abuse.
8:09
Speaker 5: Even then, Brandy had some mantal illness.
8:12
Speaker 3: She drank young, so like.
8:15
Speaker 7: Sixteen seventeen, and that's when she would have her her
8:19
Speaker 7: manic failed.
8:20
Speaker 6: When she would drink.
8:22
Speaker 7: As long as she was sober, they needn't have any.
8:25
Speaker 4: You know, she was good.
8:29
Speaker 2: There is still a lot of very basic information that
8:32
Speaker 2: Holly doesn't know about her mother's life. There are a
8:35
Speaker 2: lot of blank spaces and blank years.
8:38
Speaker 6: I don't know if she was working. I don't know
8:41
Speaker 6: really what she did for work.
8:43
Speaker 8: It's not like she had like a trade or whatever.
8:46
Speaker 6: So yeah, I think she's pretty broke most of the time.
8:50
Speaker 2: Holly said that when Brandy came back to kinder Louisiana,
8:53
Speaker 2: she was pregnant.
8:55
Speaker 3: She was living with her uncle.
8:57
Speaker 2: She gave birth to her baby son in July two
8:59
Speaker 2: thousand and five, and then she moved into her own apartment,
9:03
Speaker 2: and for a while, Brandy appeared to be on a
9:06
Speaker 2: more stable path.
9:08
Speaker 8: I remember talking to her after she had my little brother.
9:13
Speaker 6: And we were both so excited for him to come
9:17
Speaker 6: into this world because I always wanted a baby brother.
9:20
Speaker 8: And she thought that, you know, maybe that would help
9:23
Speaker 8: her get her stuff together. But after she got displaced
9:29
Speaker 8: from the hurricane, after she she took on those people
9:33
Speaker 8: that were displaced by the hurricane, I think that kind
9:37
Speaker 8: of knocked her back down a little bit, and I
9:40
Speaker 8: think she started drinking again.
9:42
Speaker 2: What Holly's talking about is that when Hurricane Katrina hit
9:46
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five, a lot of people evacuated
9:48
Speaker 2: to Kinder, Louisiana. Brandy took in refugees in her apartment,
9:54
Speaker 2: but that decision resulted in her being evicted, so she
9:57
Speaker 2: left her newborn son with her uncle. I'm not actually
10:00
Speaker 2: sure if she left her son with her uncle before
10:03
Speaker 2: or after she was evicted, but in any case, her
10:06
Speaker 2: son was not with her when she left and moved
10:08
Speaker 2: in to the Late Charles Civic Center, about forty minutes
10:11
Speaker 2: away from Kinder, where many people in Louisiana were sheltering
10:15
Speaker 2: after having to evacuate their homes from the storm.
10:18
Speaker 3: And I want to back up a minute here.
10:20
Speaker 2: And go over some of the chaos that was happening
10:22
Speaker 2: in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August twenty ninth,
10:26
Speaker 2: two thousand and five. To help give some context for
10:29
Speaker 2: Brandy's final days, this storm was absolutely devastating for the
10:33
Speaker 2: state of Louisiana. After Katrina hit New Orleans, thirty thousand
10:38
Speaker 2: evacuees built the New Orleans Supernome. They were trapped inside
10:42
Speaker 2: there for days with no power and running out of supplies,
10:45
Speaker 2: and then FEMA left the area for their own safety.
10:49
Speaker 2: I remember seeing footage of this on television and it
10:52
Speaker 2: was absolutely horrifying. There was a breakdown in law and order.
10:56
Speaker 2: There were no working bathrooms, there were feces on walls,
11:00
Speaker 2: fights breaking out over food and water, and multiple reports
11:04
Speaker 2: of rape and sexual assault. Some of the more horrific rumors,
11:08
Speaker 2: like bodies of children piling up in the basement, were
11:11
Speaker 2: later disputed by law enforcement. A report on NPR pointed
11:15
Speaker 2: out that while some of them were outrageous claims may
11:18
Speaker 2: have been proven false, others, like sexual assaults, were almost
11:22
Speaker 2: certainly underreported. According to the state Department of Health and Hospitals,
11:27
Speaker 2: there were ten deaths in the Superdome, including two suspected murders,
11:32
Speaker 2: and then, while the state was still reeling from the
11:35
Speaker 2: horrific impacts both environmental and social, of Katrina, Hurricane Rita
11:39
Speaker 2: hit just a few weeks later. Hurricane Rita made landfall
11:47
Speaker 2: on September twenty fourth, two thousand and five.
11:49
Speaker 3: In Cameron Parish.
11:51
Speaker 2: It was a Category three storm with storm surges of
11:54
Speaker 2: up to eighteen feet and sixteen inches of rain. Even
11:57
Speaker 2: though it didn't get as much media attention at the time,
12:00
Speaker 2: the devastating flooding caused by Rita literally white towns off
12:05
Speaker 2: the map. Parishes in southwest Louisiana were overwhelmed, Levies and
12:11
Speaker 2: New Orleans finally broke. There was a rise in crime
12:14
Speaker 2: and a loss of police manpower. Rita, by the way,
12:18
Speaker 2: has been called the forgotten storm because most people remember
12:22
Speaker 2: Katrina and the images of people on top of their
12:25
Speaker 2: cars begging for someone from the government to come help,
12:28
Speaker 2: or the images of people at the Superdome.
12:30
Speaker 3: In New Orleans.
12:31
Speaker 2: The storm surge flooded downtown Lake Charles and damaged the
12:35
Speaker 2: Civic Center, where the evacuees were seeking shelter and where
12:39
Speaker 2: Brandy was living after being evicted from her apartment, and
12:42
Speaker 2: it was here at the Civic Center where Brandy's life,
12:45
Speaker 2: which had been on the road stability, started to spiral
12:49
Speaker 2: out of control. After she was evicted from her apartment,
13:00
Speaker 2: Brandy moved into the Lake Charles Civic Center, where a
13:03
Speaker 2: lot of evacuees from the hurricanes were staying, and it
13:07
Speaker 2: was around this time that Brandy started drinking again.
13:10
Speaker 5: She's staying at the Civic Center, she gets picked up
13:15
Speaker 5: or disturbing the peace, so they kick her out of
13:18
Speaker 5: the civic center, so she makes a makeshift shelter outside
13:22
Speaker 5: of the city center.
13:24
Speaker 2: So drinking broke the civic center's rules. Brandy was kicked
13:29
Speaker 2: out of the civic Center, but she stayed close to
13:31
Speaker 2: the building. According to reports, she set up camp in
13:35
Speaker 2: the area of the pier, which was just a few
13:37
Speaker 2: feet away from the Civic Center. Polly said she was
13:41
Speaker 2: unsure who her mom's friends were at the time of
13:43
Speaker 2: the storm, or even if Brandy had a cell phone,
13:47
Speaker 2: but there was someone hanging out with Brandy at her
13:50
Speaker 2: shelter on November fourth. Police have said that this was
13:54
Speaker 2: a man named Jeremiah Salazar, and according to Holly, they
13:59
Speaker 2: had been hanging out prior to that. Miranda said detectives
14:03
Speaker 2: told her how they figured out that JEREMIAHS and Brandy
14:06
Speaker 2: had been hanging out.
14:08
Speaker 7: The only things that I know about him is what
14:11
Speaker 7: the detective told me, Like, we didn't know him.
14:14
Speaker 9: We were all this place, we were all homeless.
14:17
Speaker 4: I was living in Alabama when she died, So this
14:20
Speaker 4: is how they got to kid him. So when Brandy
14:24
Speaker 4: was found, her fingerprints was in the system because she
14:29
Speaker 4: had been arrested a few days before, so they were
14:32
Speaker 4: able to identify her really fast because of it. But
14:35
Speaker 4: when they ran her name or they might have found.
14:38
Speaker 9: This ticket because she was living off that pier m HM.
14:43
Speaker 7: Instead there was another ticket tied to that ticket for
14:47
Speaker 7: her in sala'sorber going to Tacoma, Washington together. Well, her
14:52
Speaker 7: body comes up, so they think that he's going to
14:55
Speaker 7: change his course, but they have police waiting to see
15:00
Speaker 7: if he's going to or not.
15:03
Speaker 2: After Brandy was murdered, Apparently, JEREMIAHS did follow through on
15:07
Speaker 2: his plans to go to Tacoma, but detectives were able
15:10
Speaker 2: to arrest him and extradied him back to Louisiana. He
15:14
Speaker 2: denied having anything to do with Brandy's murder and what
15:18
Speaker 2: happened the night of November fourth, leading into the early
15:21
Speaker 2: morning hours of November fifth, is still a mystery. Miranda
15:25
Speaker 2: and Holly were told by detectives that Brandy and Jeremiahs
15:29
Speaker 2: went to a bar close to the civic Center called
15:31
Speaker 2: Crystals on the night of November fourth. Now, reviews of
15:34
Speaker 2: this bar online indicate that it was apparently a gay bar,
15:39
Speaker 2: but it was also one of the only bars that
15:41
Speaker 2: was openly after the hurricane hit.
15:43
Speaker 3: They believe something happened at that bar.
15:46
Speaker 2: Now, one theory that Brandy's family told us detectives mentioned
15:51
Speaker 2: to them was that Jeremias could have gotten annoyed when
15:54
Speaker 2: he saw Brandy talking to or possibly flirting with another man,
15:59
Speaker 2: and that Jeremiahs left that bar without Brandy. Holly talks
16:02
Speaker 2: about this now, again, this is just speculation on her part.
16:06
Speaker 2: She's describing what members of her family have heard from
16:09
Speaker 2: the Lake Charles Police detectives over the years.
16:12
Speaker 6: I think that they were probably more just like drinking buddies,
16:16
Speaker 6: or they might have had a relationship, but all of
16:19
Speaker 6: that has been kind of kept in the dark from us.
16:22
Speaker 7: And.
16:24
Speaker 6: My family in Louisiana didn't know who who he was either.
16:28
Speaker 6: They had never heard of.
16:30
Speaker 10: Him, but it wasn't unusual for her to kind of
16:36
Speaker 10: keep it, yeah, cease communication for some weeks or.
16:41
Speaker 6: Some months, you know.
16:43
Speaker 9: And it just said they had a relationship, that didn't
16:46
Speaker 9: say what typ.
16:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that it was. I think it was
16:50
Speaker 6: somewhat romantic, actually, but that's just me speculating.
16:56
Speaker 9: And she was seen going to the bar Crystals with
17:00
Speaker 9: him from midnight to two am, and then he left,
17:05
Speaker 9: she staved and drank, and then the theory is that
17:10
Speaker 9: she became intimate with another man. He came back and
17:14
Speaker 9: saw that he became upset.
17:18
Speaker 2: We don't know for sure what happened after Brandy went
17:21
Speaker 2: to this bar. What we do know is that the
17:23
Speaker 2: next morning, November fifth, that jogger found Brandy's body. We
17:29
Speaker 2: also don't know much about the condition of Brandy's body.
17:32
Speaker 2: We have sent boy a request for the case file,
17:35
Speaker 2: but so far we've been denied due to this being
17:37
Speaker 2: an open investigation. Polly has requested a copy of Brandy's
17:42
Speaker 2: autopsy as a family member, but so far we have
17:45
Speaker 2: not heard back.
17:46
Speaker 3: We will keep you posted.
17:49
Speaker 2: The Lake Charles Police Department was able to identify Brandy
17:52
Speaker 2: through fingerprints. They told Brandy's family the murder had been violent,
17:58
Speaker 2: and that they believed that Brandy had been strangled, exphyxiated,
18:01
Speaker 2: and thrown into the lake. Police found a few clues
18:06
Speaker 2: there was a Halloween mask near Brandy's body, but even
18:09
Speaker 2: though according to Brandy's family, she had DNA inside her,
18:14
Speaker 2: detectives apparently concluded there was no evidence of sexual assault.
18:22
Speaker 2: Holly remembers the funeral and the shock of losing her
18:26
Speaker 2: mother so suddenly, and of saying goodbye to her. Over
18:31
Speaker 2: the years, Holly has reached out to her older brother,
18:34
Speaker 2: the one who was given up for adoption when Brandy
18:37
Speaker 2: was seventeen. Holly talked about the emotion of finding him
18:41
Speaker 2: and telling him that he had a sister and that
18:44
Speaker 2: his biological mother had been brutally murdered.
18:47
Speaker 6: He didn't know about my mom.
18:49
Speaker 5: We're not super super closed.
18:51
Speaker 6: I think I talked to him like last Christmas, but
18:55
Speaker 6: I remember my mom telling me about him and I
18:59
Speaker 6: had always loved him, and just telling him that, Hey, like,
19:04
Speaker 6: I know this is a lot for you, but I
19:06
Speaker 6: just want you to know that I have always thought
19:09
Speaker 6: about you. I have always cared about you. Your mom
19:13
Speaker 6: always loved you. She talked about you, and I think
19:18
Speaker 6: he had a really good life. His adoptive mom did
19:23
Speaker 6: a great job. He is happy.
19:28
Speaker 2: From what Holly has been told by detectives, the last
19:31
Speaker 2: time that Brandy was seen alive was between midnight and
19:34
Speaker 2: two am on November fifth, two thousand and five, at
19:37
Speaker 2: the nightclub with a man. From witness descriptions, police were
19:42
Speaker 2: able to draw sketch of a man whom Brandy was
19:46
Speaker 2: seen hanging out with at the club. From that and
19:49
Speaker 2: from other clues, they identified JEREMIAHS.
19:52
Speaker 3: Salzark.
19:53
Speaker 2: At the time, he had long brown hair. He was
19:55
Speaker 2: also six feet tall. We don't know much about JEREMIAHS.
19:59
Speaker 3: Either.
20:00
Speaker 2: We know that he's from Leveland, Texas, and that he
20:02
Speaker 2: did have some prior arrests, but we can't find a
20:06
Speaker 2: record of him being arrested for anything violent. There were
20:09
Speaker 2: some drug charges, also some glittering and indecent exposure charges that,
20:15
Speaker 2: based on his history, could possibly have come from him
20:18
Speaker 2: camping out in populated areas. By the time detectives identified him,
20:23
Speaker 2: JEREMIAHS had already left Louisiana.
20:25
Speaker 3: He was on his way to Tacoma, Washington, so they
20:28
Speaker 3: drove back.
20:29
Speaker 1: He called.
20:31
Speaker 4: There was an s There was an evidence for an indictment, so.
20:36
Speaker 3: Late Charles police went to Washington.
20:38
Speaker 2: They went through the process of having JEREMIAHS arrested and
20:42
Speaker 2: extradited back to Louisiana. Police said they believed JEREMIAHS and
20:46
Speaker 2: Brandy knew each other. Sergeant Mark Krause with the Lake
20:50
Speaker 2: Charles Police Department told a news station, quote, there was
20:54
Speaker 2: some relationship, whether it be friends or something more substantial
20:57
Speaker 2: between the two, and that's where we began our investigation
21:00
Speaker 2: end quote. And three months after Brandy's body was found
21:05
Speaker 2: in that lake behind the Civic Center, JEREMIAHS. Salazar was
21:09
Speaker 2: charged with her murder. In January of two thousand and six,
21:20
Speaker 2: four months after Brandy was brutally murdered in Lake Charles, JEREMIAHS.
21:24
Speaker 2: Salazar was charged with Brandy's murder. Police got him extradited
21:28
Speaker 2: from Washington State. He was brought back to Louisiana and
21:32
Speaker 2: incarcerated in the Calcashu Jail. His bond was set at
21:36
Speaker 2: a million dollars. But then there was a shocking turn
21:39
Speaker 2: of events in this case. At first, the grand jury
21:43
Speaker 2: returned true bill, meaning they believe there was enough evidence
21:46
Speaker 2: to indict Jeremiahs. But then they met again this time,
21:50
Speaker 2: they returned a no bill, which means they no longer
21:54
Speaker 2: believed that there was enough evidence to charge him. I
21:57
Speaker 2: want to put in a quick caveat here. There's a
22:00
Speaker 2: lot we don't know about this DNA sample. We don't
22:02
Speaker 2: know how much of a sample there was, how much
22:05
Speaker 2: of it was degraded, or if there were issues with testing.
22:08
Speaker 2: There's no evidence that that was the case, but I
22:11
Speaker 2: just want to put it out there. I found an
22:13
Speaker 2: interview with the district attorney in the case from back
22:16
Speaker 2: in twenty eleven, six years after Brandy's murder on American Press.
22:21
Speaker 2: In that interview, the DA says that DNA testing quote
22:24
Speaker 2: excluded Jeremiahs. The district attorney said at that time the
22:29
Speaker 2: grand jury felt that there was not sufficient probable cause
22:32
Speaker 2: to go forward, but he added that if law enforcement
22:36
Speaker 2: got any new evidence, they could reindict Jeremiahs or indict
22:40
Speaker 2: another defendant. Miranda said she had regular contact with the
22:44
Speaker 2: detectives on the case until Jeremias was taken in front
22:47
Speaker 2: of the grand jury. She said the no bill decision
22:51
Speaker 2: was devastating for their family. So now there were a
22:55
Speaker 2: couple of questions outstanding. Some detectives apparently thought maybe Brandy
23:00
Speaker 2: had sexual intercourse with someone else, someone other than JEREMIAHS,
23:04
Speaker 2: and that JEREMIAHS had attacked her in a jealous rage,
23:07
Speaker 2: But of course a very real other possibility is that
23:10
Speaker 2: it was someone else. Entirely after Jeremiah was released, no
23:19
Speaker 2: new suspects were ever arrested. In the same interview where
23:24
Speaker 2: Brandy's father had mentioned that they had to bury her
23:27
Speaker 2: in a turtleneck, he pointed out there had been a
23:30
Speaker 2: police officer murdered and brought to justice within a few
23:33
Speaker 2: days at around the same time Brandy was murdered. He said,
23:36
Speaker 2: just because Brandy was homeless and had mental health issues
23:39
Speaker 2: and addiction issues, that did not mean that her case
23:43
Speaker 2: was any less important. The Lake Charles Police Department said
23:48
Speaker 2: that they had tried to solve this case. They had
23:50
Speaker 2: even gone so far as to go to another state
23:53
Speaker 2: file charges extradite someone back, and they said they would
23:57
Speaker 2: pursue any additional information that was given. However, the reality
24:02
Speaker 2: is that in Louisiana, both during and after Katrina and
24:05
Speaker 2: even today, law enforcement has a vast number of cases
24:10
Speaker 2: they need to clear, and new ones are piling up
24:12
Speaker 2: every day. Another thing that Holly has wondered over the years,
24:18
Speaker 2: is if Brandy's case could have any connection to other cases,
24:23
Speaker 2: including the eight women who were killed in Jefferson Davis
24:26
Speaker 2: Parish that's right next to Calcashu Parish. They're known as
24:31
Speaker 2: the jeff Davis a or the Jennings. A. Journalist Ethan
24:34
Speaker 2: Brown wrote a book about these unsolved murders and corruption
24:37
Speaker 2: in the parish. It's called Murder in the Bayou. The
24:41
Speaker 2: first body was found on May twentieth, tive. A twenty
24:45
Speaker 2: eight year old named Loretta Lynn Chase and Lewis was
24:47
Speaker 2: found in a canal in Jennings in the Jefferson Davis Parish.
24:52
Speaker 3: Loretta was addicted to crack.
24:54
Speaker 2: A lot of these cases were linked to the drug
24:59
Speaker 2: trade that went down Interstate ten. There's also By the Way,
25:03
Speaker 2: an investigation discovery show based on Ethan's book, also called
25:06
Speaker 2: Murder in the Bayeux. On June eighteenth, two thousand and five,
25:09
Speaker 2: a thirty year old sex worker named Ernestine Marie Daniels
25:12
Speaker 2: Patterson was also found in a canal south of Jennings.
25:15
Speaker 2: Her throat had been slashed, her wrists were bound together.
25:19
Speaker 2: This was a violent struggle to the death in Ernestine's case,
25:23
Speaker 2: two men were arrested in charge with her murder, but
25:26
Speaker 2: the charges were later dropped. On March eighteenth, two thousand
25:30
Speaker 2: and seven, the nude body of twenty one year old
25:33
Speaker 2: Kristin Lopez was found in a canal near Jennings. Kristin
25:37
Speaker 2: was wearing only one sock on her left foot. Again,
25:41
Speaker 2: two people were arrested in charge with Christian's murder, but
25:45
Speaker 2: they were later released due to lack of evidence. Over
25:48
Speaker 2: the next year and a half, four more victims were
25:51
Speaker 2: found in that area. Twenty six year old Whitney Dubois,
25:54
Speaker 2: twenty three year old Laconia Muggy Brown, twenty four year
25:58
Speaker 2: old Crystal shab Bin Wazino, and seventeen year old Britney Gary.
26:02
Speaker 2: All of these women were found in or around Jennings.
26:05
Speaker 2: All of them reportedly had ties to sex work. Almost
26:09
Speaker 2: all of the killings, according to police, were believed to
26:12
Speaker 2: be caused by strangling or asphyxia. Only one Ernestine's involved
26:17
Speaker 2: a stabbing. In August of two thousand and nine, twenty
26:21
Speaker 2: six year old Nicole Gilliery was found. This was in
26:25
Speaker 2: a neighboring parish, Acadia Parish, but also near the iten.
26:29
Speaker 3: So a task.
26:30
Speaker 2: Force was formed between local law enforcement and federal and
26:34
Speaker 2: state authorities, but progress was slow and they seemed to
26:38
Speaker 2: have a lot of different theories about who was killing
26:40
Speaker 2: these women. It's interesting because the sheriff and Jefferson Davis
26:44
Speaker 2: Parish Sheriff Edwards said he believed the killings could be
26:48
Speaker 2: the work of a common offender, which a lot of
26:50
Speaker 2: people took to mean one serial killer work in the area.
26:54
Speaker 2: But after reviewing a lot of public information and reading
26:58
Speaker 2: Ethan Brown's excellent book, I agree with him. I think
27:01
Speaker 2: the evidence does not point to one single serial killer.
27:05
Speaker 2: What we do see are a lot of allegations of
27:09
Speaker 2: police corruption and certain members of local law enforcement possibly
27:13
Speaker 2: being involved in drug deals, and of law enforcement looking
27:17
Speaker 2: the other way when certain types of crimes occurred. In fact,
27:22
Speaker 2: one of the most shocking statistics I saw in Ethan
27:24
Speaker 2: Brown's book was one about homicide clearance rates. He said,
27:30
Speaker 2: in Calcashu Parish, where Brandy was murdered, the homicide clearance
27:35
Speaker 2: rate is seven percent. I couldn't believe I read that right.
27:38
Speaker 2: I had to read that a couple times. That means, presumably,
27:41
Speaker 2: if that's correct, in that pair, you have a ninety
27:45
Speaker 2: three percent chance of getting away with murder, which I
27:47
Speaker 2: find shocking. Holly hasn't been sure what to think. There
27:52
Speaker 2: seemed to be no evidence that jeremiahs had actually harm Brandy,
27:56
Speaker 2: But could he, as detectives apparently wondered, have hurt her
27:59
Speaker 2: mother because she had consensual sex with someone else? Or
28:03
Speaker 2: could someone else, maybe the person whose DNA is inside Brandy,
28:07
Speaker 2: have assaulted and murdered her. Holly hasn't been sure what
28:14
Speaker 2: to think. There seemed to be no evidence that Jeremiah
28:18
Speaker 2: harm Brandy, But could he, as detectives apparently wondered, have
28:22
Speaker 2: hurt her mother because Brandy had consensual sex with someone else?
28:27
Speaker 2: Or could someone else, maybe the person whose DNA is
28:30
Speaker 2: inside Brandy, have assaulted and murdered her. Her mother's death
28:36
Speaker 2: wasn't Holly's last brush with tragedy. In two thousand and four,
28:40
Speaker 2: her father, Daniel Cercy, was murdered tenty sixteen. A man
28:45
Speaker 2: named Sean Pinson, who is twenty eight years old at
28:47
Speaker 2: the time of the murder, was sentenced to seventy years
28:50
Speaker 2: in prison for Daniel's murder. Daniel's body was bound at
28:54
Speaker 2: the hands and feet with zip tized speaker wire and
28:57
Speaker 2: an electrical cord. According to an arrest report, there were
29:01
Speaker 2: cleaning supplies and a scented candle and a fan being
29:04
Speaker 2: directed through the chimney to mass the odor. The arrest
29:10
Speaker 2: report stated that Sean had given a friend money to
29:14
Speaker 2: buy supplies, including bleach and an air freshener from Walmart.
29:18
Speaker 2: A former employee and friend of Shawn's testified that Shawn
29:22
Speaker 2: told him he wasn't going to lie anymore and that
29:24
Speaker 2: Sean had led him to see Daniel's body. Holly said
29:30
Speaker 2: to this day she questions whether there may have been
29:33
Speaker 2: other people involved in her father's death, people who have
29:36
Speaker 2: never been brought to justice.
29:38
Speaker 6: I do believe that there are others walking free Almongos
29:42
Speaker 6: that were involved did my dad's death. But one thing
29:46
Speaker 6: that I have had to realize, and it took me
29:52
Speaker 6: a long time to realize, is that I'm not going
29:55
Speaker 6: to know everything. I'm not going to know everything about
29:58
Speaker 6: my mom, I'm not going to know everything about my
30:00
Speaker 6: dad's case, and I just have to kind of make
30:05
Speaker 6: my own closure. And this is like a form of
30:11
Speaker 6: me doing that, you know, with the Justice for Brandy
30:15
Speaker 6: Dyson and reaching out to the podcast I'm just trying
30:19
Speaker 6: to make some foremost closure because really, my son had
30:28
Speaker 6: both of his grandparents taken away from him. They will
30:31
Speaker 6: never know him, and that makes me so sad for
30:35
Speaker 6: all of them. So yeah, I've had to like make closure.
30:38
Speaker 6: I've had to become at peace with not knowing every again.
30:52
Speaker 2: Police had denied our foy requests. Holly, since she's next
30:56
Speaker 2: of Ken, is trying to get access to Brandy's autopsy.
31:00
Speaker 2: If we had the autopsy, we could possibly find out
31:03
Speaker 2: if there was water in Brandy's lungs, possibly what other
31:06
Speaker 2: tests were done, and if there is any other evidence
31:09
Speaker 2: that police may have overlooked. Plus we would know what
31:13
Speaker 2: types of samples they took. In the meantime, she's had
31:18
Speaker 2: frustrating encounters with the Lake Charles Police Department, especially when
31:21
Speaker 2: it comes to asking about the Jeff Davis A.
31:25
Speaker 6: There are eight unsolved cases thirty five miles away from
31:32
Speaker 6: where my mom was murdered, and I think that all
31:36
Speaker 6: of those people deserve kind their cases looked at. And
31:39
Speaker 6: I think this is not only I think it's is
31:44
Speaker 6: like not only a department full issue of Louisiana. It's
31:50
Speaker 6: a systematic issue because those women were also of a
31:53
Speaker 6: high risk lifestyle. Let me tell you exactly what they said.
32:00
Speaker 6: The case has not been reassigned. We have four violent
32:03
Speaker 6: crime detectives. We are investigating a homicide that occurred on twelve,
32:07
Speaker 6: twenty nine, and we're investigating another that occurred on twenty
32:12
Speaker 6: one before the weather of it here in els, to
32:16
Speaker 6: my knowledge, our agency has never been the lead investigating
32:20
Speaker 6: to since e on a case, only to pass it
32:24
Speaker 6: off to another inner agency. And I contacted crime stoppers
32:32
Speaker 6: in the parish and they informed me that LCPD needs
32:35
Speaker 6: to request to feature their case on Facebook. Would you
32:38
Speaker 6: be able to reach out to them on her behalf.
32:42
Speaker 6: I know how underfunded and understaffed police departments are, but
32:49
Speaker 6: that that does not give me peace, but does not
32:55
Speaker 6: giving me justice. And I would like somebody to care
33:01
Speaker 6: from the LCPD. It's just so that to me, I'm so,
33:07
Speaker 6: I'm a recovering addict. I have five years sober, and
33:11
Speaker 6: you know a lot of my addiction has dealt with
33:14
Speaker 6: the traumas of losing my parents, and like people like me,
33:20
Speaker 6: people like my parents don't deserve to be thrown away,
33:23
Speaker 6: you know.
33:27
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Brandy's family needs someone to come forward, Someone who
33:32
Speaker 2: may have seen Brandy at that night club or who
33:35
Speaker 2: may have been in the area on November fourth or
33:37
Speaker 2: November fifth, two thousand and five. There are pieces of evidence,
33:42
Speaker 2: like the Halloween masks? What kind was it? Could it
33:45
Speaker 2: be traced? Was their DNA taken off the mask? Also,
33:49
Speaker 2: we have not received any part of the case file,
33:52
Speaker 2: so we don't know if it was something her killer wore,
33:55
Speaker 2: or if she was wearing it for some reason, or
33:58
Speaker 2: if it was just randomly there trash that someone chucked
34:01
Speaker 2: in the water from Halloween which had been four days earlier.
34:05
Speaker 2: There's a killer on the loose, one who got away
34:08
Speaker 2: with it in two thousand and five, and you very
34:11
Speaker 2: well could still be out there.
34:14
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, Like what like, we've just let this person
34:19
Speaker 6: be on the streets and other people could be going
34:24
Speaker 6: through the same thing that I was, and they had them.
34:28
Speaker 6: I try to stay.
34:29
Speaker 8: Out of the what is uh? Yeah, there could be Oh.
34:33
Speaker 6: There's so many what if you know? And with no
34:37
Speaker 6: information or hardly any information, it's just it's hard.
34:45
Speaker 2: Next week, we're gonna dig deeper into Brandy's murder. We're
34:48
Speaker 2: going to try to retrace her steps on the night
34:51
Speaker 2: she was killed and explore the possibility of DNA testing
34:54
Speaker 2: and find out what the next steps could be. We're
34:57
Speaker 2: gonna try to do a deeper dive into these parts
35:00
Speaker 2: of Louisiana and find out why apparently in some corners
35:05
Speaker 2: of that state, people have a greater than ninety percent
35:09
Speaker 2: chance of getting away with murder. We want to understand
35:13
Speaker 2: why are so many disadvantaged women being killed and dumped here.
35:20
Speaker 2: I'm Katherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
35:25
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
35:27
Speaker 2: and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine
35:31
Speaker 2: Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy
35:35
Speaker 2: Tubbs for her research assistance. Noah Kamer mixed and scored
35:38
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salek. Executive
35:42
Speaker 2: producers are Virginia Presco, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. Listen
35:46
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35:49
Speaker 2: True Crime Plus.
35:50
Speaker 3: Channel on Apple Podcasts.
35:52
Speaker 2: If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from
35:55
Speaker 2: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
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Speaker 2: Helen gonpod. If you have a case you'd like me
36:01
Speaker 2: and my team to look into, you can reach out
36:03
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