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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Brandy Dyson Part 2 · 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.
1:30
Speaker 2: On November fifth, two thousand and five, a jogger found
1:33
Speaker 2: the body of thirty two year old mother of three,
1:36
Speaker 2: Brandy Renee Dyson, floating in a lake behind the Lake
1:40
Speaker 2: Charles Civic Center. Brandy had been struggling with mental health
1:44
Speaker 2: issues and with addiction.
1:46
Speaker 3: For a while.
1:47
Speaker 2: She seemed to be doing well and settled into an apartment,
1:50
Speaker 2: but then she lost her apartment after taking refugees in
1:54
Speaker 2: from Hurricane Katrina. She then moved into the Civic Center
1:58
Speaker 2: in Lake Charles with a lot of other evacuees from
2:00
Speaker 2: the storm. After that, Brandy was caught drinking that broke
2:05
Speaker 2: the rules of the Red Cross, the organization that was
2:08
Speaker 2: running things at the Civic Center, so Brandy was asked
2:11
Speaker 2: to leave there. This seemed to start what would turn
2:14
Speaker 2: out to be her final downward spiral. Police believed she
2:19
Speaker 2: set up a camp on a pier near the Civic
2:21
Speaker 2: Center and had been living there for a few weeks
2:24
Speaker 2: when the next massive hurricane, Hurricane Rita, hit and devastated
2:28
Speaker 2: the state. Sometime in the midst of all this storm chaos,
2:34
Speaker 2: Brandy was brutally murdered. The bruising on her neck was
2:38
Speaker 2: so bad that her own father said she had to
2:40
Speaker 2: be buried in a turtle neck sweaters. Almost twenty years
2:45
Speaker 2: since Brandy was murdered, the person who was arrested and
2:49
Speaker 2: at first charged with her murder has been released, and
2:52
Speaker 2: no new suspects have come forward, But this unsolved case
2:56
Speaker 2: still seems to be on the minds of the detectives
2:59
Speaker 2: at the Lake Charles Police Department Down there. Brandy's family
3:03
Speaker 2: tells me they have a nickname for Brandy Dyson. They
3:07
Speaker 2: call her the Lady in the Lake. I'm Catherine Townsend.
3:11
Speaker 2: Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast,
3:14
Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
3:18
Speaker 2: as a small town where murder never happens. I have
3:21
Speaker 2: received hundreds of messages from people all around the country
3:24
Speaker 2: asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
3:27
Speaker 2: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
3:31
Speaker 2: you'd like me and my team to look into, you
3:33
Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
3:35
Speaker 2: Line at six seven eight seven four four six one
3:38
Speaker 2: four or five. That's six seven eight seven four four
3:42
Speaker 2: six ' one four or five. This is Helen Gone
3:45
Speaker 2: Murder Line. Brandy's family described her as a kind person,
4:37
Speaker 2: a mother who loved her three children, But, as we
4:40
Speaker 2: said last week in Part one, Brandy battleddiction to alcohol
4:44
Speaker 2: and struggled with mental health issues, includings get So Effective disorder.
4:50
Speaker 2: Detectives told Brandy's family they believed that she was brutally beaten, strangled,
4:55
Speaker 2: and dumped into the lake. Brandy had been spending time
4:59
Speaker 2: with a man named Jeremiah Salazar, who was six feet
5:03
Speaker 2: tall and at the time had shoulder linked hair. Witnesses
5:06
Speaker 2: said they saw Brandy with a man matching that description
5:09
Speaker 2: outside the civic Center and later at a bar. They
5:13
Speaker 2: arrested Jeremiah Salazar, but he was later released when the
5:17
Speaker 2: DNA taken from Brandy's body was found not to be
5:20
Speaker 2: a match for him.
5:21
Speaker 3: Since then, the.
5:23
Speaker 2: Case has gone cold and no new suspects have ever
5:26
Speaker 2: been arrested, so we were trying to figure out why
5:29
Speaker 2: the police were so focused on jeremiahs and if there
5:33
Speaker 2: could be other potential suspects out there. Last week, we
5:37
Speaker 2: talked to Brandy's sister Miranda and daughter Holly. We've been
5:41
Speaker 2: trying to find out more about the condition of Brandy's body,
5:45
Speaker 2: but our Foyer request was denied and Holly has not
5:48
Speaker 2: yet been able to get a copy of the autopsy report.
5:52
Speaker 2: But it turns out that Brandy's family does have some
5:55
Speaker 2: information about the condition of Brandy's body, which may be
5:59
Speaker 2: able to give us some clues that could help identify
6:02
Speaker 2: her killer. We also talked last week about possible similarities
6:06
Speaker 2: to other cases, including the eight women who were murdered
6:09
Speaker 2: in Jefferson Davis Parish between two thousand and five and
6:12
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine. These women were all found in
6:15
Speaker 2: the region of Jennings Louisiana, and all were sex workers
6:20
Speaker 2: or had ties to sex work in some way. These
6:23
Speaker 2: victims have been called the Jeff Davies eight, and even
6:26
Speaker 2: though the cases don't appear to be connected by a
6:29
Speaker 2: single serial killer, the murders have unearthed allegations of potential
6:33
Speaker 2: cover ups by certain members of law enforcement, as well
6:36
Speaker 2: as allegations that members of law enforcement may be behind
6:40
Speaker 2: or have knowledge of some of the murders. And these
6:44
Speaker 2: cases have definitely highlighted systemic failures in the Louisiana criminal
6:49
Speaker 2: justice system. So is Brandy's case out all similar to
6:53
Speaker 2: any of those cases. Brandy was found in Calcashu Parish,
6:59
Speaker 2: which is a little over thirty minutes away from Jennings
7:01
Speaker 2: where the other victims were found. Like some of the
7:04
Speaker 2: other victims, Brandy was found in water. Many of the
7:08
Speaker 2: Jeff Davis eight victims were believed to have been killed
7:11
Speaker 2: by exphyxiation, the same cause of death that suspected in
7:14
Speaker 2: Brandy's case, though in the Jeff Davis eight cases, many
7:19
Speaker 2: of the victims were too decomposed for detectives to know
7:22
Speaker 2: for sure what killed them. We talked to Miranda about
7:25
Speaker 2: Brandy's past. She told us that She believed that it
7:29
Speaker 2: was possible that Brandy, because of her addictions in transient lifestyle,
7:33
Speaker 2: may have turned to sex work at some point. Brandy
7:37
Speaker 2: had been strangled several times in the past on separate occasions.
7:42
Speaker 2: She said that during the time when Brandy was living
7:45
Speaker 2: in New York City, Brandy was apparently involved in some
7:48
Speaker 2: type of relationship with someone who abused her and strangled her.
7:53
Speaker 2: Brandy survived, but Miranda said she will never forget getting
7:57
Speaker 2: those frantic calls from the hospital emergency room about her sister.
8:02
Speaker 4: I've never told Holly this, but one time the guy
8:06
Speaker 4: strangled her. He thought she was dead, but she wasn't.
8:10
Speaker 4: But they called me one time and they were like,
8:13
Speaker 4: can you come get your sister from New York? And
8:16
Speaker 4: I said, do you know how long it would take
8:18
Speaker 4: me to get there? And they're like, what do you mean?
8:20
Speaker 4: And I said, do you realize where you called? And
8:22
Speaker 4: they were like, no, your sister gave us your number,
8:24
Speaker 4: like you're around the corner. It was like, ma'am, you
8:28
Speaker 4: called the Louisiana.
8:31
Speaker 2: Brandy's family saw that she was battling her addictions and
8:34
Speaker 2: mental health issues, including unmedicated Schitzo effective disorder. They tried
8:39
Speaker 2: to help her when she left New York and returned
8:41
Speaker 2: to Louisiana.
8:43
Speaker 4: She was living with me when she came back, and
8:46
Speaker 4: she started drinking and doing drips and I have kids,
8:50
Speaker 4: and I tell her, you can't do that and live
8:52
Speaker 4: in my house. And she said, you're not going to
8:55
Speaker 4: let it be, so you got to go. So she
8:58
Speaker 4: went to live with my brother. Same thing happened there,
9:01
Speaker 4: so he had to make her go too well. She
9:03
Speaker 4: sort of staying at the Lifehouse Mission and that's where
9:06
Speaker 4: throughout herself together, she was doing good.
9:09
Speaker 2: It's obvious from talking to Brandy's family that they wanted
9:13
Speaker 2: to help her. They wanted to give her somewhere to stay,
9:16
Speaker 2: but at the same time, it seems like they had
9:18
Speaker 2: to make sure that their own families were safe. This
9:22
Speaker 2: can feel like an impossible choice, and it's one that
9:24
Speaker 2: a lot of people are dealing with. After that, Brandy
9:29
Speaker 2: went to the Late Charles Civic Center, where she would
9:31
Speaker 2: die weeks later. Miranda said after that hurricane hit, the
9:43
Speaker 2: entire family had to evacuate to different locations. Brandy ended
9:48
Speaker 2: up the Civic Center in Lake Charles, and Miranda said
9:51
Speaker 2: that it was in Lake Charles where Brandy met then
9:54
Speaker 2: thirty five year old Jeremiah Salazar. Brandy's family doesn't know
9:58
Speaker 2: much about Jeremiah's how they met, how long they had
10:01
Speaker 2: been in a relationship, or even what the exact nature
10:04
Speaker 2: of that relationship was, because the contact with Brandy was
10:08
Speaker 2: irregular in the first place, and then after the storm hit,
10:11
Speaker 2: in that chaos, Brandy's family were pretty much completely cut
10:15
Speaker 2: off from Brandy or anything that was going on with
10:18
Speaker 2: her life.
10:20
Speaker 4: The only things that I know about him is what
10:23
Speaker 4: the detective toldn Like, we didn't know him. We were
10:26
Speaker 4: all displaced, we were all homeless. I was living in
10:30
Speaker 4: Alabama when she died. I know what he looks like
10:33
Speaker 4: only because the picture. You know what I'm saying, Like,
10:35
Speaker 4: we didn't know him. We just know what they said
10:39
Speaker 4: or what they've speculated. So there's so many even nineteen
10:45
Speaker 4: years later, there's so many questions that we've never gotten
10:49
Speaker 4: any kind of answers for.
10:51
Speaker 2: Even though some people thought there could be a connection
10:54
Speaker 2: between Brandy and the Jeff Davis eight, there are some
10:57
Speaker 2: major differences between these cases. For one thing, many of
11:01
Speaker 2: the Jeff Davis victims had ties to each other, two
11:04
Speaker 2: were cousins and there's no indication from what we know
11:08
Speaker 2: so far, that Brandy was connected to any of those victims. Jennings,
11:12
Speaker 2: where most of the Jeff Davis eight were found, is
11:15
Speaker 2: just over a thirty minute drive from Lake Charles. Many
11:19
Speaker 2: of the Jeff Davis eight victims had faces that were unrecognizable,
11:23
Speaker 2: either because they had been beaten or because they were
11:26
Speaker 2: so badly decomposed.
11:28
Speaker 3: This was not the case with Brandy.
11:30
Speaker 2: In fact, one of the major things that is different
11:33
Speaker 2: about Brandy's case from the Jeff Davis case is the
11:36
Speaker 2: amount of time that Brandy was in the water. Brandy
11:39
Speaker 2: was found almost immediately, and she was not hard to id.
11:43
Speaker 2: Detectives were able to take usable fingerprints and get Brandy's
11:47
Speaker 2: identification very quickly because the Prince matched fingerprints from one
11:52
Speaker 2: of Brandy's recent arrests. Again, according to Brandy's family, she
11:56
Speaker 2: was apparently seen between twelve am and two am on
11:59
Speaker 2: the morning of November fifth in the bar Crystals. Her
12:04
Speaker 2: body was found the next morning by the jogger, meaning
12:07
Speaker 2: that her body was only in the water for a
12:09
Speaker 2: few hours. Miranda said that the district attorney and detectives
12:13
Speaker 2: were very blunt when they talked to her about the
12:16
Speaker 2: condition of her sister's body and how quickly it had
12:19
Speaker 2: been found.
12:21
Speaker 4: He said, Branda, I don't want you to think I'm
12:23
Speaker 4: being mean, and I'm like, okay. He said, you grew
12:26
Speaker 4: up in southwest Louisiana. I say, yes, sir. He said,
12:29
Speaker 4: you know what Christ does to a body, They go
12:32
Speaker 4: for the eyes and no. You know, she said she
12:35
Speaker 4: didn't have one crab owner. That feels me. She was
12:39
Speaker 4: found very soon. Her body was in this white piget
12:42
Speaker 4: to safe had been in there a terribly long time.
12:47
Speaker 4: You know. That's because I grew up in Louisiana. People
12:50
Speaker 4: would drown if they were in there in the water
12:53
Speaker 4: too long. That salt water, and that water eats the
12:57
Speaker 4: body it, you know.
12:59
Speaker 2: Miranda said that Brandy did have water in her lungs,
13:03
Speaker 2: but she was told by police that it was a
13:05
Speaker 2: very small amount. A lot of people think that water
13:09
Speaker 2: can't enter the lungs after death, that any amount of
13:12
Speaker 2: water in the lungs means that the person was still
13:15
Speaker 2: breathing when they hit the water, But actually that's not true.
13:19
Speaker 2: A small amount of water can enter the lungs even
13:22
Speaker 2: post mortem. So we can't tell from current information if
13:26
Speaker 2: Brandy was alive or not when she hit that water.
13:29
Speaker 2: She may have been taking her last breath when she
13:31
Speaker 2: was dumped, or she could have breathed in the water
13:34
Speaker 2: sometime during the struggle. If she was being choked in
13:37
Speaker 2: or around a body of water, that's another question. Where
13:41
Speaker 2: was the actual primary crime scene. Was it where Brandy
13:44
Speaker 2: was dumped in the lake or somewhere else. The body
13:52
Speaker 2: of water where Brandy was found was within a few
13:55
Speaker 2: feet of where she had set up camp in the
13:57
Speaker 2: back of the civic center. Brandy's family say detectives were
14:01
Speaker 2: in regular contact with them in the months after the murder.
14:05
Speaker 2: They seemed super focused on their suspect, Jeremiah Salazar. They
14:09
Speaker 2: even went all the way to Tacoma, Washington, got him arrested,
14:12
Speaker 2: and got him extradited back to Louisiana, where he was
14:15
Speaker 2: held on a million dollar bail. The grand jury voted
14:19
Speaker 2: to indict him, but then they got DNA results back
14:22
Speaker 2: from Brandy's body, and those results changed everything because, according
14:28
Speaker 2: to the district attorney, who spoke to a reporter from
14:31
Speaker 2: American Press in twenty eleven and also talked to Brandy's family,
14:35
Speaker 2: the DNA taken from Brandy's body was not a match
14:38
Speaker 2: to Jeremiah's.
14:40
Speaker 4: If demy case to go back in front of the
14:42
Speaker 4: Green jury, They're gonna want to know why you already
14:45
Speaker 4: got an indictment. Why would you even do that? You know,
14:47
Speaker 4: I've never understood why would you even do that? You know?
14:51
Speaker 4: But it was the assistant DA that did that. His
14:54
Speaker 4: name was Paul Raggie.
14:57
Speaker 2: I totally get why this would be traumatic for a
14:59
Speaker 2: family to hear. But if it's true that the DNA
15:03
Speaker 2: excluded JEREMIAHS as a contributor, I also understand the district
15:08
Speaker 2: attorney's decision. In a later interview, he explained that if
15:12
Speaker 2: they had gone to trial and it had been revealed
15:14
Speaker 2: the DNA was not a match, JEREMIAHS would have been acquitted.
15:18
Speaker 2: By not going to trial, they believed they would have
15:21
Speaker 2: the opportunity to retry him later if new evidence resurfaced,
15:25
Speaker 2: But it's unclear what police detective's plan was next after that.
15:30
Speaker 2: In my opinion, one of two things should have happened.
15:33
Speaker 2: Either they needed to find more evidence against their suspect, JEREMIAHS,
15:37
Speaker 2: if in fact they still believed he could be the killer,
15:40
Speaker 2: or they needed to find other potential suspects. After the
15:44
Speaker 2: grand jury came back with no bill, Brandy's family said
15:47
Speaker 2: there were a few possibilities in their minds. They considered
15:50
Speaker 2: the possibility that jeremiahs could have attacked Brandy because she
15:54
Speaker 2: had sex with someone else, or that the person who
15:57
Speaker 2: had sex with Brandy had killed her. There's also still
16:00
Speaker 2: the question of whether or not that sex was consensual.
16:04
Speaker 2: Detectives told Brandy's family there were no signs of sexual assault,
16:08
Speaker 2: but with the information that we have access to, it's
16:10
Speaker 2: just impossible to know for sure. There's another possibility that
16:15
Speaker 2: Brandy was killed by someone else entirely, or maybe more
16:19
Speaker 2: than one person. Unfortunately, after Jeremias was released, the family
16:24
Speaker 2: said they pretty much lost contact with the DA and
16:27
Speaker 2: with the detectives. Some of Brandy's family members felt that
16:33
Speaker 2: police seemed to stop looking and that Brandy was not
16:36
Speaker 2: a priority, and because no one has been caught, Brandy's
16:41
Speaker 2: family has had to scour their minds for any detail
16:43
Speaker 2: well that could give them that crucial clue that could
16:46
Speaker 2: help get justice, even when those details are horrific to relive,
16:51
Speaker 2: like the nightmarish conversation with the funeral home that Miranda
16:54
Speaker 2: says happened when Brandy's family was trying to figure out
16:57
Speaker 2: if they could have her in an open casket, something
17:00
Speaker 2: that no family should ever have to experience.
17:04
Speaker 4: There were stipulations to even have an open task to female.
17:07
Speaker 4: You know, her net has to be covered, she had
17:10
Speaker 4: to have a band on to hold her risk in
17:13
Speaker 4: the right place because it was just broken and her
17:18
Speaker 4: neck it couldn't have been any darker. And we were
17:22
Speaker 4: not supposed to look, and I did, and I wish
17:26
Speaker 4: it would have never done it because it shows how
17:30
Speaker 4: violent it was.
17:35
Speaker 2: And there was something else that Miranda mentioned. Brandy wore
17:38
Speaker 2: a choker necklace which was actually a dog.
17:41
Speaker 4: Collar Brandy or a dog choke chain as a necklace,
17:49
Speaker 4: and it was she used so he could have walked
17:51
Speaker 4: up on her bracker. And you know, if you grabbed
17:56
Speaker 4: somebody from a coach chain, it's going to do some
17:58
Speaker 4: major damage.
18:00
Speaker 3: Could the dog collar choke chain be a clue?
18:03
Speaker 2: Could it mean that Brandy was in some sort of
18:05
Speaker 2: dominant submissive relationship with jeremiahs or with someone else. Then again,
18:11
Speaker 2: the necklace could have nothing to do with anything. The
18:14
Speaker 2: necklace could be a simple fashion choice. Was her killer
18:17
Speaker 2: using the choke chain to abuse Brandy making some kind
18:21
Speaker 2: of a statement, or was it just something that they
18:23
Speaker 2: grabbed at because it was convenient. Miranda made the point
18:27
Speaker 2: that the killer may not have known Brandy at all.
18:30
Speaker 2: If it was a stranger, If someone saw Brandy walking
18:33
Speaker 2: around late at night in that area behind the civic
18:36
Speaker 2: Center in a vulnerable state, they could have grabbed her
18:39
Speaker 2: by that choker. The choker could have made her an
18:42
Speaker 2: easier target for someone wanting to hurt her. It's just
18:46
Speaker 2: one of many details that keeps Brandy's family members and
18:50
Speaker 2: me to be honest up at night. Another question that
18:55
Speaker 2: Miranda has if detectives believed that Brandy had consensual sex
19:00
Speaker 2: with someone and that it wasn't sexual assault, then why
19:03
Speaker 2: were they so focused on the DNA that was taken
19:05
Speaker 2: from Brandy's vagina.
19:07
Speaker 3: Would there not be DNA elsewhere.
19:08
Speaker 2: On her body that could be important, especially if the
19:11
Speaker 2: killing was violent and apparently she put up a fight
19:15
Speaker 2: from what detectives have told her, Miranda believes that there
19:19
Speaker 2: may have been an opportunity lost in checking Brandy's body
19:22
Speaker 2: for fingerprints.
19:24
Speaker 3: Miranda said that one of the original.
19:26
Speaker 2: Detectives on the case, Detective McCullough said that he had
19:29
Speaker 2: recently attended the FBI Crime Lab school, and there they
19:33
Speaker 2: told him what you do in cases like Brandy's is
19:36
Speaker 2: let the body air dry and then check the body
19:38
Speaker 2: for fingerprints. So that's what he told the crime lab
19:42
Speaker 2: when they received Brandy's body. However, the detective later told
19:46
Speaker 2: Brandy's family he was overruled. Miranda said the lab did
19:50
Speaker 2: not check for fingerprints around Brandy's neck.
19:53
Speaker 4: I think if they would have done that, they may
19:56
Speaker 4: have gotten a fingerprint.
19:59
Speaker 2: A reason why they might not have tested is because
20:01
Speaker 2: they might have thought that her body was too wet
20:03
Speaker 2: to get accurate fingerprints. I did some research into this,
20:07
Speaker 2: and apparently in order to get fingerprints on bodies that
20:11
Speaker 2: get pulled out of the water, crime scene analysts use
20:14
Speaker 2: a method called small particle reagent, which means they spray
20:18
Speaker 2: a solution onto the wet skin and then this specialized
20:21
Speaker 2: solution binds to the oils and the fingerprints, and that
20:24
Speaker 2: process makes the fingerprints visible. But it's a delicate science,
20:29
Speaker 2: and if the body is too wet, prints can wash off.
20:35
Speaker 2: Four years after the charges against Jeremiah were dropped in
20:38
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, Miranda said she and her family
20:42
Speaker 2: heard nothing from detective and then in twenty nineteen, investigators
20:48
Speaker 2: called Miranda out of the blue. In twenty nineteen, Brandy's sister,
21:02
Speaker 2: Miranda got a call from the police.
21:05
Speaker 4: They did call me in twenty nineteen. They lift my
21:09
Speaker 4: number up online and they said we need you to
21:12
Speaker 4: come in and we need to talk to you.
21:15
Speaker 2: According to Miranda, the police detectives told her that DNA
21:19
Speaker 2: technology had improved and that they wanted to do some
21:22
Speaker 2: more testing with DNA in regards to Brandy's case. Miranda
21:26
Speaker 2: wasn't sure exactly what they were testing, if it was
21:29
Speaker 2: just the DNA found in Brandy's vagina, or if something else,
21:33
Speaker 2: possibly the Halloween mask that was found near Brandy's body,
21:36
Speaker 2: could be tested for DNA.
21:38
Speaker 4: That's when they tell me they're going to run some
21:40
Speaker 4: things throes. I think, I'm not I'm sure if it's
21:44
Speaker 4: the FBI or PS. But it was in northern Louisiana.
21:50
Speaker 4: They were going to send some things and brunt it
21:52
Speaker 4: through CODIS because everything has changed.
21:56
Speaker 2: So CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, is a computer
22:00
Speaker 2: program that searches the databases of DNA profiles around the country.
22:05
Speaker 2: COTIS contains DNA profiles from convicted offenders and from crime
22:10
Speaker 2: scene evidence. But CODIS isn't a magic bullet, and there
22:14
Speaker 2: are a lot of reasons why COTIS might not get.
22:16
Speaker 3: A hit on someone.
22:18
Speaker 2: If there's no match, that could potentially mean it was
22:20
Speaker 2: someone with no criminal record or who's not in the
22:23
Speaker 2: system for other reasons. Now, in the past, only state
22:27
Speaker 2: crime labs could access CODIS, which meant that investigators had
22:30
Speaker 2: to wait weeks, months, or even years to get results.
22:34
Speaker 2: But now, using rapid DNA testing machines, this process happens fast.
22:41
Speaker 2: Louisiana got their first rapid DNA testing in twenty twenty two.
22:45
Speaker 3: Now this means instead.
22:47
Speaker 2: Of having to take a cheek swab and send it
22:49
Speaker 2: to the lab and wait weeks or months, they can
22:52
Speaker 2: run a program on site at the police station and
22:55
Speaker 2: get a result in an hour and a half. Now,
22:58
Speaker 2: there have been a lot of concerns raised about this technology,
23:01
Speaker 2: including privacy concerns and the fact that everything is evolving
23:04
Speaker 2: so fast, but Louisiana was one of the first in
23:07
Speaker 2: the nation to have this technology option. Because of their laws,
23:11
Speaker 2: Louisiana allows DNA collection from suspects when they are booked.
23:15
Speaker 2: Some states don't allow DNA collection at all. Other states
23:18
Speaker 2: only allow it once there's probable cause, but Louisiana lets
23:23
Speaker 2: detectives take DNA as soon as the booking happens. Miranda
23:28
Speaker 2: said she wishes she knew what DNA testing was done
23:31
Speaker 2: and if the DNA did go through CODIS. She wonders
23:35
Speaker 2: if there was a match, even knowing that there was
23:38
Speaker 2: no match would be some type of information. But it
23:41
Speaker 2: seems like even though detectives did tell her that they
23:44
Speaker 2: were looking into Brandy's case again in twenty nineteen, which
23:47
Speaker 2: was before rapid DNA machines were available outside crime labs,
23:52
Speaker 2: she wonders if they actually did send that material out
23:54
Speaker 2: for testing, because when Holly talked to detectives at around
23:58
Speaker 2: that same time period, they told her the same thing.
24:02
Speaker 4: If they told Holly this same exact thing, so that
24:05
Speaker 4: heals me they haven't even sent that step And what
24:08
Speaker 4: year was that they told maybe twenty nineteen, because by
24:11
Speaker 4: now you would have gotten it back, you would have
24:14
Speaker 4: at least gotten a DNA profile, not saying you would
24:17
Speaker 4: have got a hit, but you would at least have
24:19
Speaker 4: a profile. But they told Holly the same thing, then
24:22
Speaker 4: they were going to be sending sets why haven't you
24:24
Speaker 4: seen it yet?
24:26
Speaker 2: So, in the absence of more information, we find ourselves
24:30
Speaker 2: pouring over tiny details from Brandy's family, details that could
24:34
Speaker 2: help lead to the missing piece. In this case, we
24:41
Speaker 2: have gotten a few more details about Brandy's belongings. We know,
24:44
Speaker 2: for example, Brandy's purse was found near her body, but
24:47
Speaker 2: the purse did not have her ID in it. It
24:50
Speaker 2: turns out that Brandy's ID her driver's license, was found
24:54
Speaker 2: somewhere else, somewhere completely different, at the Isle of Capri Casino.
24:59
Speaker 2: The Isle of Capri Casino closed after the COVID nineteen pandemic.
25:03
Speaker 2: It reopened in twenty twenty two and is now called
25:07
Speaker 2: the Horseshoe Lake Charles Casino. It's located about four and
25:11
Speaker 2: a half miles from the spot behind the Civic Center
25:13
Speaker 2: where Brandy's body was found.
25:15
Speaker 3: To get there, you have to cross a bridge.
25:17
Speaker 2: The casino is in the neighboring city of Westlake, and
25:21
Speaker 2: that's across the IT Freeway, the same freeway that in
25:24
Speaker 2: the past has been a major route for drug trafficking.
25:28
Speaker 2: It's also the highway the Jeff Davis A and many
25:31
Speaker 2: other vulnerable victims have been found dump near So was
25:36
Speaker 2: Brandy at the Isle of Capri Casino? If she was,
25:40
Speaker 2: was it that night or a different night? Was she
25:43
Speaker 2: seen on any surveillance video there? Did the police ever
25:46
Speaker 2: go to that casino and talk to people there? Also,
25:50
Speaker 2: how did she get to the casinos several miles away
25:53
Speaker 2: if she was there at all, Because from what we understand,
25:56
Speaker 2: Brandy did not have access to a car, and getting
25:59
Speaker 2: to the casino involved driving several miles along a freeway.
26:03
Speaker 2: It's not an obvious path to walk. Was Brandy at
26:07
Speaker 2: that casino or did someone take her ID and use
26:09
Speaker 2: it there?
26:10
Speaker 3: And if so, who is that person?
26:13
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like robbery was the motive in Brandy's case, because,
26:16
Speaker 2: from what we understand, the rest of her stuff was
26:18
Speaker 2: still there inside her purse, only her ID was missing.
26:23
Speaker 2: Miranda said, over the years, detectives have given her more
26:26
Speaker 2: information that they've collected about the night that Brandy was murdered,
26:30
Speaker 2: But again, this is just speculation.
26:32
Speaker 3: These are theories that detectives were exploring.
26:35
Speaker 2: Miranda's frustration comes from the fact she doesn't know if
26:38
Speaker 2: these theories are ones that police have investigated and ruled out,
26:42
Speaker 2: if there's still considering suspects or even which witnesses they
26:46
Speaker 2: talked to. She also doesn't know if there was any
26:50
Speaker 2: surveillance footage from that bar from the night Brandy disappeared,
26:53
Speaker 2: because detectives have mentioned to Brandy's family the possibility that
26:57
Speaker 2: Brandy may have been flirting with someone else at that bar.
27:00
Speaker 2: Where did that theory come from? Did it come from
27:02
Speaker 2: other witnesses or from something Jeremiah said to them.
27:07
Speaker 4: He wanted to leave, he less he stayed. Well, then
27:11
Speaker 4: after that part of it, it's all speculation, like face
27:15
Speaker 4: to stay because of the semen that he called her
27:19
Speaker 4: having stakes with somebody and she was drunk. She probably did,
27:24
Speaker 4: you know, so that would explain the violence. Maybe I don't.
27:28
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't even know why somebody would
27:31
Speaker 4: do something like even you know, in the heat of
27:33
Speaker 4: the moment. It's just extreme.
27:37
Speaker 2: Miranda said that when she talked to detectives, they told
27:40
Speaker 2: her that they were waiting to get more information. She
27:43
Speaker 2: believe that they were still focused on jeremiahs and she
27:46
Speaker 2: wonders why, given the fact the DNA wasn't a match
27:49
Speaker 2: to him when.
27:51
Speaker 4: We met with them in twenty nineteen, they are there's
27:55
Speaker 4: those waiting to get something new to get after him again.
28:02
Speaker 2: But in my opinion, the obvious missing piece in this
28:05
Speaker 2: case is the DNA, because they do have DNA, and
28:10
Speaker 2: that DNA, the district attorney has publicly stated, is not
28:14
Speaker 2: a match to JEREMIAHS. So, whoever that person is, even
28:19
Speaker 2: if they did have consensual sex with Brandy and had
28:21
Speaker 2: nothing to do with her murder, they could potentially have
28:25
Speaker 2: answers about what happened on the night of November fourth
28:28
Speaker 2: and in the early morning hours of November fifth, two
28:30
Speaker 2: thousand and five.
28:32
Speaker 3: Brandy's family wants to find that man.
28:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure would be nice if they could find who
28:38
Speaker 4: she was having consensual effects with. You know, maybe that
28:42
Speaker 4: person could say what happened.
28:46
Speaker 2: Another question is what really happened between Brandy and JEREMIAHS
28:50
Speaker 2: on the night of November fourth. We know they'd been
28:53
Speaker 2: hanging out together near Brandy's makeshift home on the pier,
28:57
Speaker 2: and detectives have told Brandy's family that they found Brandy's
29:00
Speaker 2: bus ticket because there was a previous arrest they were
29:04
Speaker 2: both on the same ticket. They determined she had been
29:07
Speaker 2: planning to go to Tacoma, Washington with JEREMIAHS. We have
29:13
Speaker 2: been trying to find Jeremiah Salazar. He had an arrest
29:17
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, and then after that we can't find
29:20
Speaker 2: anything until another arrest in twenty twenty three. He seems
29:24
Speaker 2: to be living largely off the grid. And again, since
29:28
Speaker 2: the grand jury returned that no True bill in two
29:30
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, JEREMIAHS has never been re indicted or
29:33
Speaker 2: charged with anything in connection to Brandy's murder. We did
29:37
Speaker 2: text his daughter and other members of his family. None
29:41
Speaker 2: of them have heard from JEREMIAHS in several years. They
29:44
Speaker 2: were completely unaware of Brandy's murder or of his alleged
29:47
Speaker 2: involvement with her. His daughter said that he had mental
29:51
Speaker 2: health issues as well as outbursts of violence. But even
29:55
Speaker 2: if he was violent with Brandy, which we don't know,
29:58
Speaker 2: that does not mean.
29:59
Speaker 3: That he killed her.
30:01
Speaker 2: Holly told us that she has spoken to Late Charles
30:04
Speaker 2: police detectives recently. She asked for access to Brandy's case file.
30:08
Speaker 2: She pointed out it's been twenty years and that the
30:11
Speaker 2: case is still unsolved. She says detectives told her normally
30:15
Speaker 2: they would give the case file back after this amount
30:18
Speaker 2: of time, including Brandy's personal items. However, they said they
30:23
Speaker 2: feel that this case is still solvable. My question is,
30:28
Speaker 2: are they still focused on Jeremiah's suspect. Do they believe
30:32
Speaker 2: he was kind of the one that got away? Are
30:34
Speaker 2: they still trying to build some sort of a case
30:36
Speaker 2: against him, because that's definitely the impression that Brandy's family
30:40
Speaker 2: seems to have, or are they potentially looking.
30:43
Speaker 3: For other suspects.
30:45
Speaker 2: Holly and Miranda would love to know what happened after
30:48
Speaker 2: detectives said they were sending in materials to test in
30:50
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. They want to know if genetic material was
30:54
Speaker 2: sent through to Codis, what genetic material it was, and
30:58
Speaker 2: what happened with it. And even though Miranda said she
31:01
Speaker 2: understands the Lake Charles Police Department is probably understaffed under
31:06
Speaker 2: a lot of pressure, she still feels like Brandy's case
31:10
Speaker 2: has been forgotten partially because of Brandy's lifestyle and to
31:14
Speaker 2: her family, that is heartbreaking.
31:17
Speaker 4: I feel all these years that because of her lifestyle
31:21
Speaker 4: that they really didn't care even to even try. And
31:26
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter. She was steal somebody's mother, she was
31:29
Speaker 4: steal somebody's daughter. Who is steal somebody's.
31:34
Speaker 2: None of Jeremiah's family members who we spoke to have
31:37
Speaker 2: any idea where he may be today. Miranda said, the
31:41
Speaker 2: fact that there are still no arrests and no justice,
31:43
Speaker 2: and that there is still potentially a killer out there
31:46
Speaker 2: walking the streets, it's something she thinks about all the time.
31:50
Speaker 2: In fact, she wonders if even speaking out could put
31:54
Speaker 2: her and her family in potential danger, and it's something
31:57
Speaker 2: she said she has brought up with the Lake Charles
32:00
Speaker 2: Police in the.
32:00
Speaker 4: Past, and after Brandy's death, I did a please with
32:05
Speaker 4: the media for if anybody had any information, And when
32:10
Speaker 4: I asked the detective, I said, should I be scared?
32:15
Speaker 4: And he's told me he said, do I think he'll
32:17
Speaker 4: come after? You know? He said, but always be aware
32:21
Speaker 4: and surrounded, so he sometimes it does happen.
32:25
Speaker 2: We are going to keep pushing to see if we
32:27
Speaker 2: can get access to any part of Brandy's case file
32:29
Speaker 2: or her autopsy report. We are going to keep trying
32:33
Speaker 2: to help her family get answers. In the meantime, since
32:36
Speaker 2: this case started, I've gotten a lot of messages about
32:40
Speaker 2: unsolved cases in Louisiana, in and around.
32:43
Speaker 3: Calcaush you perish.
32:45
Speaker 2: So next week we're going to take a look at
32:47
Speaker 2: a triple homicide, one of the most notorious unsolved cases
32:52
Speaker 2: in Louisiana. We're going to go back to nineteen ninety seven,
32:56
Speaker 2: when three bodies were found inside a freezer at a
32:59
Speaker 2: convenience store called Kk's Corners.
33:02
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
33:04
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
33:08
Speaker 2: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
33:11
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
33:14
Speaker 2: by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her
33:17
Speaker 2: research assistance. Noah Kamer mix and scored this episode. Our
33:21
Speaker 2: theme song is by Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
33:26
Speaker 2: Brandon Barr, and L. C.
33:27
Speaker 3: Crowley.
33:28
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
33:31
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
33:34
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
33:37
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonpott.
33:41
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
33:43
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
33:45
Speaker 2: at our Helengong Murder Line at six seven eight seven
33:48
Speaker 2: four four six one four five. That's six seven eight
33:52
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five.
33:59
Speaker 1: School of humans,