Latest / Crime and Horror / Louisiana buried treasure rumor turned DEADLY... - MrBallen

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Louisiana buried treasure rumor turned DEADLY... - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of September twenty first, two
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Speaker 1: thousand and nine, a man woke up in his bed
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Speaker 1: and he could hear there was this strange, metal, clinking
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Speaker 1: sound coming from the dark corner of his bedroom. The
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Speaker 1: man's heart began to race as he turned and looked
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Speaker 1: in the direction of the sound, and when he saw
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Speaker 1: what was there, he gasped because there was someone standing
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Speaker 1: in the corner, staring right at him. And then the
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Speaker 1: figure began moving toward the man, and with each step
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Speaker 1: that clinking sound got louder. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
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Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
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Speaker 1: get into today's story. In the early afternoon on April thirteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, sixty year old Dorothy Thompson walked into
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Speaker 1: a bank in Saint Bernard, Louisiana. Her hip was really
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Speaker 1: bothering her, so she was moving slowly, but at the
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Speaker 1: same time, she was also trying extra hard not to
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Speaker 1: limp or seem unsteady. She knew the people in her
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Speaker 1: small town liked to gossip about her, and so she
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Speaker 1: didn't want to give them anything new to talk about.
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Speaker 1: But as expected, you know, despite her best efforts to
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Speaker 1: conceal her slower, sort of limpy movement, when she got
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Speaker 1: into the lobby, the handful of tellers and customers that
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Speaker 1: were inside looked towards her, took stock of her.
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Speaker 2: And began whispering.
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Speaker 1: So the little town of Saint Bernard was about five
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Speaker 1: miles outside of New Orleans, and it was the kind
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Speaker 1: of place where people were generally pretty friendly and everyone
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Speaker 1: seemed to know everyone. But this smallness made it pretty
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Speaker 1: easy for rumors to spread, and most of those rumors
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Speaker 1: in this town seemed to be about Dorothy. Dorothy did
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Speaker 1: have to admit, though, that she had given people a
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Speaker 1: lot to talk about. Dorothy, who had lived in this
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Speaker 1: town for thirty nine years, was the owner of the
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Speaker 1: town's pet cemetery. Now, this pet cemetery was actually a
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Speaker 1: true business. Dorothy made her income from pet owners, you know,
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Speaker 1: buying plots of land in the cemetery. But that wasn't
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Speaker 1: really the thing that made you know, Dorothy stand out
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Speaker 1: as the centerpiece of gossip. It was the fact that
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Speaker 1: she not only owned this pet cemetery, but she lived
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Speaker 1: on the cemetery by herself. And considering the fact that
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Speaker 1: the cemetery also had a rumor of being haunted, it
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Speaker 1: just seemed like, how could anybody do that, How could
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Speaker 1: she live there full time? And these ghost stories you know,
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Speaker 1: surrounding this pet cemetery were not just you know, to
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Speaker 1: do with animals that had been buried there, but they
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Speaker 1: were about people, because people had died on this property,
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Speaker 1: including both of Dorothy's husbands. The first husband was a
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Speaker 1: very heavy drinker who regularly abused Dorothy and it got
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Speaker 1: so bad at a certain point that she eventually just
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Speaker 1: shot him in self defense and killed him.
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Speaker 2: So that's how we died.
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Speaker 1: And then her second husband had died from suicide and
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Speaker 1: Dorothy was the one who actually found his body on
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Speaker 1: the porch. And so these deaths had led to more
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Speaker 1: stories about Dorothy and how she was some kind of
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Speaker 1: husband killer. But what people didn't see was how much
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Speaker 1: all this death really weighed on her, and when her
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Speaker 1: mother died about six years ago, it had almost broken
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Speaker 1: Dorothy completely. Dorothy and her mother were incredibly close, and
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Speaker 1: after she died, Dorothy got so depressed that she had
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Speaker 1: to be admitted to the hospital for quite a while.
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Speaker 1: She was doing better now, but some days were still
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Speaker 1: really hard, and so now at the bank, Dorothy ignored
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Speaker 1: the look she got as she approached the teller. She
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Speaker 1: needed to get cash out to pay her handyman, Kenny Palmier,
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Speaker 1: who had done some work at the cemetery that morning,
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Speaker 1: and because Dorothy didn't actually drive, Kenny was also her
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Speaker 1: chauffeur for the day and he was outside right now
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Speaker 1: waiting to take her.
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Speaker 2: On a few more errands.
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Speaker 1: So Dorothy told to tell her how much money she needed,
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Speaker 1: and then after they counted it out and handed it
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Speaker 1: to her, Dorothy took the cash, turned around, and headed
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Speaker 1: back outside. A couple hours later, around four pm, Dorothy
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Speaker 1: sat in the passenger seat of Kenny's car as he
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Speaker 1: drove down a highway. They had just wrapped up at
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Speaker 1: the grocery store and now he was taking her back home.
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Speaker 2: As they drove.
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Speaker 1: The two made some small talk, mostly about the weather
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Speaker 1: and also the work that Kenny had done that morning
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Speaker 1: on the grounds. But the truth was Dorothy didn't really
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Speaker 1: know Kenny at all. I mean, she had just hired
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Speaker 1: him the day before, but he seemed nice enough and
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Speaker 1: she was hoping he would.
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Speaker 2: Stick around for a while.
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Speaker 1: After all, she had had a pretty high turnover rate
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Speaker 1: amongst her handymen over the last year, and so she
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Speaker 1: was hoping now for some consistency. So both the pet
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Speaker 1: cemetery itself and Dorothy's house, which again was on the
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Speaker 1: cemetery grounds, required a lot of upkeep that Dorothy was
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Speaker 1: just not physically capable of doing. Besides her bad hip,
5:12
Speaker 1: she also took medication for her depression that made her
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Speaker 1: weak and sometimes very disoriented. Now sometimes Dorothy would ask
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Speaker 1: her neighbors for help, but generally speaking, she preferred to
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Speaker 1: just hire people to do the work, because, you know,
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Speaker 1: people needed steady work. She could give that to them,
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Speaker 1: and she appreciated the help. However, the problem with hiring
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Speaker 1: these handymen was that, unfortunately a few of her you know,
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Speaker 1: former handymen, had turned out to be criminals. Last fall,
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Speaker 1: her handyman at the time, this guy named Elkin Childress
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Speaker 1: had lived with her and worked on the grounds, but
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Speaker 1: Elkin was always just sort of wandering around and exploring
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Speaker 1: the property instead of taking care of it. Then she
5:52
Speaker 1: had found out he'd been arrested for robbery, so she
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Speaker 1: guessed that what he was really doing when he was
5:57
Speaker 1: walking around was casing the place, you know, looking for
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Speaker 1: ways to break in or to steal something. Luckily for her,
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Speaker 1: he actually quit before she had to fire him, and
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Speaker 1: the guy before Elkin was even worse.
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Speaker 2: His name was Brandon Nodier.
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Speaker 1: Brandon was a total loudmouth who had started working for
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Speaker 1: Dorothy right after her mother had died. He and his wife, Bonnie,
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Speaker 1: had moved in with Dorothy so Brandon could keep up
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Speaker 1: with the repairs while Bonnie drove Dorothy around. But just
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Speaker 1: like Elkin, the issue she ran into with the Nodiers
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Speaker 1: was theft. The previous spring, Dorothy had had this really
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Speaker 1: intense depressive episode and was taking a lot of medication
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Speaker 1: for it, and while she was all you know, medicated
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Speaker 1: and groggy, the Nodiers convinced her to sell them her
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Speaker 1: land for basically nothing. But when Dorothy realized what had happened,
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Speaker 1: she made the Nodiers move out and then got a
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Speaker 1: lawyer to overturn the deal that she had signed. And
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Speaker 1: so since last year, Dorothy, along with the Nodiers, had
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Speaker 1: been in this horrible legal fight over this land. And
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Speaker 1: she knew, you know, the Nodiers, Brandon and Bonnie were
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Speaker 1: furious at her. And on top of that, Brandon, who
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Speaker 1: was this huge loudmouth, just would not stop talking about
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Speaker 1: this dispute. Not only was he talking about it in public,
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Speaker 1: but he also kept contacting Dorothy to sort of talk
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Speaker 1: her into dropping the suit altogether. But Dorothy was not
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Speaker 1: about to drop this issue. I mean, this cemetery in
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Speaker 1: the land had belonged to her mother and now it
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Speaker 1: was hers, Like it mattered to her, She's not just
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Speaker 1: gonna give it up. And so, now, sitting in the
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Speaker 1: passenger seat of the car, Dorothy watched as Kenny turned
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Speaker 1: off the highway and eventually pulled into her driveway, which
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Speaker 1: was quite long and wound through some thick woods. Because
7:35
Speaker 1: remember she lives on the cemetery, it sort of secluded
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Speaker 1: from society. And as the pair drove along this driveway
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Speaker 1: and got closer and closer to her home, eventually she
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Speaker 1: could finally see some of the tombstones up ahead. This
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Speaker 1: cemetery was enormous and basically any kind of animal you
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Speaker 1: could imagine was buried here. Some of the graves were
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Speaker 1: just engraved stone slabs, but others were pretty extravagant, including
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Speaker 1: one human sized Buddhist statue of somebody's pet cat. Kenny
8:02
Speaker 1: finally pulled up in front of the house and got
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Speaker 1: out to help Dorothy carry in the groceries, and when
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Speaker 1: he was done, Dorothy handed over the cast that she
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Speaker 1: owed him and said she would call him and she
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Speaker 1: had more work, and she watched as Kenny got back
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Speaker 1: in his car and drove off back.
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Speaker 3: Down the driveway.
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Speaker 1: Around nine pm that night, Dorothy poured herself a healthy
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Speaker 1: glass of wine and went to her bedroom to turn
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Speaker 1: on the TV. She'd spent the evening going through some
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Speaker 1: bills and taking calls from cemetery clients, so by now
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Speaker 1: she was exhausted. But as soon as she got into bed,
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Speaker 1: she heard her phone ring on the other side of
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Speaker 1: the house. Dorothy groaned and took her wine with her
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Speaker 1: as she shuffled down the hallway to the kitchen to
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Speaker 1: answer the call, and when she answered it, she heard
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Speaker 1: her friend's voice a woman named Patricia Newman. So Patricia
8:49
Speaker 1: was about half Dorothy's age, and the two of them
8:52
Speaker 1: had been introduced by a mutual friend three years earlier.
8:55
Speaker 1: Patricia had started out as more of a caretaker for Dorothy,
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Speaker 1: since Patricia had experience working with the elderly, but they'd
9:02
Speaker 1: gotten along really well and became quite close to the
9:05
Speaker 1: point where they had sort of a mother daughter type
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Speaker 1: of relationship. And since Patricia only lived about ten minutes away,
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Speaker 1: Dorothy did depend on her pretty much daily for things
9:14
Speaker 1: like supervising her medication and driving her to appointments. In
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Speaker 1: many ways, you know, Patricia was like the one person
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Speaker 1: outside of the hired help that she did spend a
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Speaker 1: lot of time with. And so that's actually why Patricia
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Speaker 1: was calling now.
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Speaker 2: She wanted to know.
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Speaker 1: If Dorothy still needed a ride to the pharmacy the
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Speaker 1: following day, and Dorothy said that she did and said
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Speaker 1: thank you, and then the two talked for a bit
9:34
Speaker 1: longer before ultimately saying good night. After that, Dorothy hung
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Speaker 1: up the phone and then poured herself a bit more wine,
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Speaker 1: and then she just kind of stood in the kitchen
9:43
Speaker 1: for a bit, listening to the crickets outside, and then
9:46
Speaker 1: when she was about to finally leave and go back
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Speaker 1: to bed, she heard something. It was the sound of
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Speaker 1: a car making their way slowly up her long driveway.
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Speaker 1: The following morning, a little after one pm, the friend
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Speaker 1: Patricia Newman, pulled up outside of Dorothy's house and threw
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Speaker 1: her car into park. Patricia had called Dorothy around nine
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Speaker 1: am that morning to tell her she was going to
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Speaker 1: be late getting her, but Dorothy hadn't answered. Patricia had
10:19
Speaker 1: tried calling a few more times, but Dorothy never answered,
10:23
Speaker 1: which ultimately made Patricia pretty nervous.
10:26
Speaker 2: Dorothy was a heavy drinker.
10:27
Speaker 1: In her sixties and was on a lot of medication,
10:30
Speaker 1: so deep down, Patricia knew it was possible Dorothy wasn't
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Speaker 1: answering because she had had some kind of accident or
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Speaker 1: medical emergency. So she was at Dorothy's now, not so
10:40
Speaker 1: much to take her on her errands for the day,
10:42
Speaker 1: but just to make sure she was okay. Patricia got
10:45
Speaker 1: out of her car and hurried up to Dorothy's front door,
10:48
Speaker 1: but when she knocked, there was no answer, and after
10:51
Speaker 1: looking in a few windows, she didn't see Dorothy or
10:54
Speaker 1: any kind of movement inside. It just seemed very quiet
10:56
Speaker 1: and still. Patricia went back to the front door and
10:59
Speaker 1: tried it, but she found it was locked, so she
11:02
Speaker 1: just kept on knocking for a while, and after a
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Speaker 1: few more minutes of Dorothy not answering and not hearing
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Speaker 1: or seeing any sign of life in there, Patricia felt
11:10
Speaker 1: worried enough that she left the front door and went
11:14
Speaker 1: to go call the police. Not long after that, Patricia
11:17
Speaker 1: was back at Dorothy's house, this time watching anxiously as
11:21
Speaker 1: two police officers forced Dorothy's back door open. The officers
11:24
Speaker 1: had gotten there just a few minutes ago, and Patricia
11:27
Speaker 1: had explained to them how Dorothy could be inside and
11:30
Speaker 1: very likely was hurt or something was wrong here, and
11:33
Speaker 1: so the officers kind of fanned out and began searching
11:36
Speaker 1: around the house looking for a way in, and they
11:38
Speaker 1: found the back door was not locked, it was just jammed,
11:43
Speaker 1: So now they were in the process of getting it unjammed,
11:46
Speaker 1: and so finally, after a few swift kicks to this door,
11:49
Speaker 1: it finally gave way and it swung open, and the
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Speaker 1: two officers, along with Patricia, went inside. Patricia immediately began
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Speaker 1: yelling out Dorothy's.
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Speaker 2: Name and going room to room life looking for her,
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Speaker 2: and what.
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Speaker 1: She quickly realized is she could hear the sound of
12:03
Speaker 1: a television that was on and it was coming from
12:05
Speaker 1: Dorothy's bedroom. But when she went to the bedroom and
12:08
Speaker 1: looked inside, Dorothy wasn't in there. In fact, after searching
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Speaker 1: the whole house, there was no sign of Dorothy anywhere,
12:16
Speaker 1: and there wasn't any sign of any kind of problem
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Speaker 1: in the house, Like there was no disturbance anywhere, no struggle,
12:22
Speaker 1: no like accident where somebody fell over. It was just
12:25
Speaker 1: like Dorothy was gone and that was it. Now for
12:28
Speaker 1: the two officers, they didn't really know what to make
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Speaker 1: of this because to them, you know, it didn't appear
12:33
Speaker 1: like anything horrible had happened. You know, there was no
12:36
Speaker 1: active emergency here. It's just that, you know, this person
12:39
Speaker 1: has left their TV on and they're not here when
12:41
Speaker 1: they should be. And that was concerning, but not enough
12:44
Speaker 1: to warrant like a big reaction from authorities. But Patricia
12:49
Speaker 1: she knew, you know, based on what she was seeing,
12:51
Speaker 1: that this was so uncharacteristic of Dorothy that something.
12:55
Speaker 2: Definitely had gone wrong here.
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Speaker 1: But even though Patricia really adamantly commun municated that concern
13:01
Speaker 1: to the two officers, they just told her that, you
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Speaker 1: know what, let's wait, give it a few days and
13:06
Speaker 1: give Dorothy another couple of calls, and if she doesn't
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Speaker 1: show up in the next few days, come talk to us.
13:12
Speaker 1: And so after the police left, you know, despite Patricia
13:14
Speaker 1: having this sense that something's off here, she did what
13:18
Speaker 1: she was told, you know, she went home. She continued
13:21
Speaker 1: trying Dorothy, but never got an answer. She called around
13:24
Speaker 1: town to see if anybody had seen her or heard
13:26
Speaker 1: from her, but no nobody knew where she was. And
13:29
Speaker 1: so finally, after four days, Patricia put in another call
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Speaker 1: to the Saint Bernard Sheriff's Office, and this time she
13:37
Speaker 1: absolutely begged them to do something because Dorothy Thompson was
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Speaker 1: still missing, and now Patricia was one hundred percent certain
13:44
Speaker 1: that something bad had to have happened to her. At
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Speaker 1: around ten thirty am on the same day that Patricia
13:54
Speaker 1: has made this plea for help, four days after Dorothy
13:57
Speaker 1: had inexplicably gone missing, Detective Brian Valelungo drove his cruiser
14:01
Speaker 1: through Dorothy Thompson's pet cemetery along with Sergeant Terrence Strata.
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Speaker 1: Both men worked for the Saint Bernard Sheriff's Office, and
14:08
Speaker 1: they had been tasked to look into Dorothy's disappearance. Vala
14:12
Speaker 1: Lungo hadn't even gotten to the scene yet, but he
14:15
Speaker 1: was already uneasy as he drove past the animal tombstones
14:18
Speaker 1: and grave sites. This place had always creeped him out. Finally,
14:22
Speaker 1: the officer's cruiser made their way all the way to
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Speaker 1: the end of the driveway and they reached Dorothy's home,
14:28
Speaker 1: and right away Valelungo could see there was a woman,
14:30
Speaker 1: maybe in her thirties, who he guessed was Patricia, who
14:33
Speaker 1: was standing by the front door. She seemed visibly anxious
14:36
Speaker 1: and impatient as she stood there waiting for Valelungo and
14:39
Speaker 1: Strata to get out of their car, and when they
14:42
Speaker 1: did get out and walked over to her, she got
14:44
Speaker 1: straight to the point.
14:46
Speaker 2: She said.
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Speaker 1: The last officers had not actually done a real search
14:49
Speaker 1: of the place, just a sort of basic welfare check,
14:52
Speaker 1: and so now she needed them to do a full
14:54
Speaker 1: search of Dorothy's house and her grounds to make sure
14:57
Speaker 1: Dorothy really wasn't somewhere on this prop vale Lungo and
15:01
Speaker 1: Strata assured her that they would do that, but first
15:04
Speaker 1: they needed her to start from the beginning and tell
15:06
Speaker 1: them about the last time she saw or spoke to Dorothy.
15:09
Speaker 1: Patricia seemed pretty irritated by this and said she had
15:12
Speaker 1: already told the officers everything she had known, both on
15:15
Speaker 1: the phone call and then previously with those other officers
15:17
Speaker 1: who had done the welfare check, like, can we please
15:19
Speaker 1: just get into the search, but Vala Lungo insisted and said, look,
15:23
Speaker 1: I don't fully know the whole story, so please give
15:26
Speaker 1: me some information, and so begrudgingly she would tell vale
15:29
Speaker 1: Lungo what she knew. Basically that she had called her
15:32
Speaker 1: friend on the thirteenth at night to ask if Dorothy
15:35
Speaker 1: would need a ride to the pharmacy the next day.
15:37
Speaker 1: She had said yes, And then the next day comes
15:39
Speaker 1: around and Patricia calls her friend to confirm she's gonna
15:43
Speaker 1: swing by and pick her up that morning, but Dorothy
15:46
Speaker 1: doesn't answer, and so eventually Patricia goes to the house.
15:49
Speaker 1: Dorothy apparently isn't there. She knocks on the door, Dorothy
15:51
Speaker 1: doesn't come out. It just seemed off, and so Patricia
15:54
Speaker 1: calls the police. They show up. They find the back
15:57
Speaker 1: door is unlocked but jammed. They force it open and
16:00
Speaker 1: they go inside and you know, nothing's disturbed and Dorothy
16:04
Speaker 1: is just missing and there was no rhyme or reason
16:06
Speaker 1: to it. And so now Patricia was convinced that something
16:09
Speaker 1: bad had happened to Dorothy and she really was hoping
16:12
Speaker 1: that they could help her. Bela Lungo nodded and then
16:15
Speaker 1: asked Patricia if maybe Dorothy had friends or family that
16:19
Speaker 1: she might have just gone.
16:19
Speaker 3: To stay with.
16:20
Speaker 1: But Patricia immediately shook her head and said no, Dorothy
16:24
Speaker 1: was pretty much alone in the world and almost never
16:27
Speaker 1: left her house, and she didn't have a car because
16:30
Speaker 1: she didn't drive. Also, Patricia said she had already called
16:33
Speaker 1: around and nobody had seen her friend's family, no one.
16:37
Speaker 1: And then at this point Patricia was very clear. She
16:40
Speaker 1: told the officers that she believed the only reason Dorothy
16:44
Speaker 1: would have left her house that day or that night
16:46
Speaker 1: before was if somebody else had forced her to Bela
16:50
Speaker 1: Lungo shot Strata a look. He didn't doubt that Patricia
16:54
Speaker 1: was worried about her friend, but they need to look
16:56
Speaker 1: around before they jumped to any conclusions here, so he
16:59
Speaker 1: asked pat Tricia if she could show them the unlocked
17:01
Speaker 1: door and they would begin their investigation. Moments later, Vala
17:05
Speaker 1: Lungo stepped into the home through that back entrance, followed
17:08
Speaker 1: by Strata and Patricia. As he walked around the house,
17:12
Speaker 1: he saw that, like Patricia had said, you know, it
17:15
Speaker 1: was very neat and tidy. There really was no sign
17:17
Speaker 1: of anything that had gone wrong inside the house, no
17:20
Speaker 1: sign of a struggle or a fall of some kind.
17:24
Speaker 1: It was just like the house was left exactly as is.
17:27
Speaker 1: That sort of contradicted Patricia's theory that, you know, the
17:30
Speaker 1: only way Dorothy would have left the house was if
17:33
Speaker 1: she had been forced, suggesting some form of a struggle.
17:36
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you know, what Patricia was
17:38
Speaker 1: saying about Dorothy is that she was kind of frail,
17:41
Speaker 1: and so Vala Lungo thought, you know, okay, maybe it's
17:44
Speaker 1: possible that she was forced, and you know, she didn't
17:46
Speaker 1: put up any kind of a fight, and that's why
17:47
Speaker 1: we don't see any disturbance. He didn't know, but it
17:50
Speaker 1: just seemed odd that nothing had been displaced if we're
17:53
Speaker 1: talking about some form of an abduction. Also, as Vala
17:56
Speaker 1: Lungo continued his walk around the house, he could see
18:00
Speaker 1: items of value like Dorothy's TV were still there, so
18:04
Speaker 1: it didn't seem like this had been a robbery. But
18:06
Speaker 1: unlike the first officers who had done that initial welfare
18:09
Speaker 1: check with Patricia a few days earlier, Vala Lungo did
18:13
Speaker 1: agree that something wasn't right here because as he continued
18:16
Speaker 1: to walk around, he kept seeing signs that Dorothy had
18:20
Speaker 1: clearly not planned to leave her home or had left
18:23
Speaker 1: in a hurry. For example, there was a half empty
18:26
Speaker 1: glass of wine in the kitchen, and the television in
18:29
Speaker 1: the bedroom was still on, and so those are things
18:31
Speaker 1: that simply would not be if somebody was planning to
18:34
Speaker 1: leave for any extended.
18:35
Speaker 2: Period of time.
18:36
Speaker 1: And also, based on what Patricia had told them, he
18:39
Speaker 1: could rule out a family emergency suddenly taking Dorothy out
18:43
Speaker 1: of town or any kind of last minute trip, because
18:45
Speaker 1: Patricia had called around and that stuff hadn't happened. At
18:49
Speaker 1: a certain point, Vala Lungo stopped walking around the home
18:52
Speaker 1: and just asked Patricia, you know, how was Dorothy's mental state?
18:56
Speaker 1: And Patricia clearly hesitated for a second before she admitted
19:00
Speaker 1: Valelungo that you know, Dorothy was on a whole bunch
19:02
Speaker 1: of medication and sometimes it did make her mental state
19:06
Speaker 1: kind of foggy, and so Vala Lungo naturally thought, Okay,
19:10
Speaker 1: you know, maybe it's possible that, in a sort of
19:13
Speaker 1: foggy mental state, maybe for whatever reason, she wandered out
19:17
Speaker 1: of the house on her own, and then once she
19:20
Speaker 1: was outside, something happened to her, whether it was you know,
19:23
Speaker 1: an animal, a person, a fall, like anything could have happened.
19:27
Speaker 1: He knew the back door had been unlocked during that
19:29
Speaker 1: initial police welfare check, and even though he knew the
19:32
Speaker 1: door apparently had been jammed, you know, it clearly had
19:35
Speaker 1: not been jammed so much that it prevented them from
19:37
Speaker 1: getting inside. And so maybe that door just always got stuck,
19:40
Speaker 1: you know, and maybe that's all that happened. She walked
19:43
Speaker 1: out the back door and when she shut it, it
19:45
Speaker 1: got jammed, and that was normal. And so vale Lungo
19:48
Speaker 1: turned to his partner and sort of explained to him
19:50
Speaker 1: his theory around Dorothy maybe wandering out on her own
19:53
Speaker 1: and then something else happened once she was outside, and said, hey,
19:56
Speaker 1: you know, she's clearly not here. Let's go out there
19:59
Speaker 1: and search the grounds and see if we can find her.
20:08
Speaker 1: Fifteen days later, a little past seven am on May third,
20:11
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, Valelungo stepped into Strata's office to give
20:15
Speaker 1: him an update on the case. At this point, Vala
20:17
Speaker 1: Lungo thought it was extremely likely that foul play was
20:21
Speaker 1: involved her because they had searched Dorothy's house and her
20:24
Speaker 1: property a few times at this point, and they had
20:26
Speaker 1: not found Dorothy anywhere or any evidence to explain what
20:29
Speaker 1: had happened to her. Patricia had mentioned that Dorothy had
20:33
Speaker 1: a tattoo of a cross on her left index finger,
20:36
Speaker 1: so Valelungo had spent the last couple of weeks calling
20:39
Speaker 1: around to local hospitals and morgues to see if any
20:42
Speaker 1: women had been brought in with that marking. Valalungo also
20:46
Speaker 1: interviewed Dorothy's neighbors and the tellers at that bank that
20:49
Speaker 1: she had gone to shortly before she vanished, and also
20:52
Speaker 1: he'd interviewed some people in town who just knew who
20:55
Speaker 1: she was. He'd also tracked down Dorothy's new handyman, Kenny Pomier,
20:59
Speaker 1: who the bank had said was with Dorothy on the
21:01
Speaker 1: day she vanished. He apparently was driving her around, but
21:04
Speaker 1: none of these people had heard from Dorothy since she
21:07
Speaker 1: vanished twenty days earlier, same as Patricia. Even though nobody
21:11
Speaker 1: knew where Dorothy was and really couldn't offer all that
21:13
Speaker 1: much information to help the investigation. It was like everybody
21:18
Speaker 1: Vala Lungo spoke to had a pretty strong negative opinion
21:22
Speaker 1: of Dorothy, like that she was this recluse and that
21:25
Speaker 1: she was kind of crazy, and you know, people thought
21:27
Speaker 1: she had murdered her husband's and buried their bodies in
21:30
Speaker 1: the pet cemetery, and also her house and her land
21:33
Speaker 1: were haunted. But you know, none of these rumors were
21:36
Speaker 1: going to do anything to advance the case, but it
21:38
Speaker 1: was interesting to Valelungo that people felt this way about her.
21:41
Speaker 1: The only real lead that Vala Lungo got was something
21:44
Speaker 1: he got from speaking to Dorothy's lawyer a few days ago,
21:47
Speaker 1: who had mentioned that Dorothy was in the middle of
21:50
Speaker 1: this very contentious lawsuit over the rights to her property
21:53
Speaker 1: with a pair of former employees named Bonnie and Brandon Nodier.
21:57
Speaker 1: And since Dorothy's case was looking more and more like
22:00
Speaker 1: an abduction or even homicide, the fact that there was
22:03
Speaker 1: this active lawsuit that Dorothy was embroiled in was a
22:06
Speaker 1: big red flag. So Valelungo naturally knew he had to
22:10
Speaker 1: speak to Bonnie and Brandon. But as Valelungo sat across
22:14
Speaker 1: from Strata at his desk and filled him in on
22:16
Speaker 1: all this. Strata's phone rang Strada picked it up and
22:19
Speaker 1: listened to the person on the other end, and immediately
22:22
Speaker 1: there was this look.
22:23
Speaker 2: Of shock that came over his face.
22:25
Speaker 1: Strata thanked the caller and then hung up, and then
22:28
Speaker 1: told Valelungo that a body had been found in the
22:31
Speaker 1: Mississippi River the day before, about forty miles downriver from here,
22:35
Speaker 1: and they thought it could be Dorothy. Just a few
22:40
Speaker 1: hours later, Valelungo and Strada stood with Patricia Newman inside
22:44
Speaker 1: of an exam room at the Corner's office. In front
22:47
Speaker 1: of them was a long metal table, and lying on
22:50
Speaker 1: this table was the body of the woman who had
22:52
Speaker 1: been found inside the river. Patricia had been asked to
22:55
Speaker 1: come in here and see if this was Dorothy, but
22:59
Speaker 1: as val Lunge looked at the body, he didn't see
23:01
Speaker 1: how Patricia was going to be able to do that
23:04
Speaker 1: because the body was already incredibly decomposed and very bloated.
23:08
Speaker 1: The medical examiner had said this woman had likely been
23:11
Speaker 1: in the water for weeks and they hadn't done an
23:13
Speaker 1: autopsy yet, but any findings would probably just be a
23:16
Speaker 1: guest because of how badly damaged and decomposed the body was.
23:20
Speaker 2: The only thing they did know.
23:21
Speaker 1: For sure was that this definitely was a homicide.
23:26
Speaker 2: The woman was found with.
23:27
Speaker 1: A plastic bag tied over her head, and she was
23:30
Speaker 1: wrapped in a lot of very heavy chains, probably to
23:33
Speaker 1: weigh her down so her body would not float.
23:35
Speaker 2: Up and be found.
23:37
Speaker 1: And so Vala Lungo looked over at Patricia, who looked
23:39
Speaker 1: visibly anxious as she stared at this body. You know,
23:42
Speaker 1: she seemed kind of overwhelmed by the moment. You know,
23:45
Speaker 1: she was shaking and she was just staring, sort of shocked.
23:48
Speaker 1: But eventually, you know, after looking at the body, she
23:51
Speaker 1: spoke and she actually said that she didn't think this
23:55
Speaker 1: was Dorothy. And for a second, Vella Lungo was actually disappointed,
23:59
Speaker 1: not because he was hoping Dorothy was dead, but for
24:02
Speaker 1: the sake of the case, you know, to figure out
24:03
Speaker 1: where she had gone.
24:05
Speaker 2: But then he remembered something.
24:07
Speaker 1: He stepped up to the body, he put on a
24:09
Speaker 1: glove and gently examined the woman's left hand, and there,
24:13
Speaker 1: just visible on her index finger was a tattoo of
24:16
Speaker 1: a cross.
24:18
Speaker 3: This was Dorothy.
24:29
Speaker 1: Four days later, on May seventh, Vala Loungo got to
24:32
Speaker 1: his office and sat down at his desk to start
24:34
Speaker 1: the day, and he had a lot to do because
24:36
Speaker 1: he was now in the middle of a homicide case.
24:38
Speaker 1: The medical examiner who had done the autopsy on Dorothy
24:42
Speaker 1: didn't find any water in her lungs, so as a result,
24:45
Speaker 1: they had decided the cause of death was most likely
24:48
Speaker 1: asphyxia from strangulation or suffocation, not drowning. Now, Vala Lungo
24:53
Speaker 1: had known all along that it was possible somebody had
24:56
Speaker 1: abducted Dorothy from her home and killed her, but now
25:00
Speaker 1: that it was official, he was sort of reviewing the
25:02
Speaker 1: case notes from the beginning to see if anything had
25:04
Speaker 1: been overlooked while this was still basically considered a missing
25:08
Speaker 1: person's case, and he started with the place Dorothy was
25:11
Speaker 1: last known to be, her house. Dorothy's home was incredibly
25:15
Speaker 1: neat and undisturbed, so it was possible Dorothy was lured
25:18
Speaker 1: from her home.
25:19
Speaker 2: And killed somewhere else.
25:21
Speaker 1: But Valalungo knew from talking to her neighbors and Patricia
25:24
Speaker 1: that Dorothy was naturally pretty reclusive and did not leave
25:28
Speaker 1: her house easily, so it sort of made the most
25:31
Speaker 1: sense to him that Dorothy must have actually been killed
25:34
Speaker 1: in her home and the reason the crime scene was
25:37
Speaker 1: so pristine was that Dorothy was overpowered really quickly. Now, Originally,
25:42
Speaker 1: VLLA Lungo had considered Dorothy's current handyman, Kenny Pomier, to
25:47
Speaker 1: be a suspect since he was the last one to
25:49
Speaker 1: see her alive, because he was the one who dropped
25:52
Speaker 1: her off at her home at four PM, around the
25:54
Speaker 1: time she went missing. But Vllallungo had revisited Kenny and
25:58
Speaker 1: found that he had an alibi. But even if he
26:01
Speaker 1: didn't have an alibi, Valallungo wasn't really sure what Kenny's
26:04
Speaker 1: motive would even have been. I mean, there'd been no
26:06
Speaker 1: sign of a robbery inside of her house, and on
26:09
Speaker 1: top of that, it just didn't seem like Dorothy had
26:11
Speaker 1: much money to begin with, like she wasn't wealthy. And
26:14
Speaker 1: also the way she died, you know, strangulation or suffocation,
26:18
Speaker 1: you know, that's so personal, and so whoever would have
26:20
Speaker 1: done that would have had to have a reason for it.
26:23
Speaker 1: But so far, vala Ungo had not spoken to anyone
26:26
Speaker 1: who really had a serious issue with Dorothy. I mean,
26:29
Speaker 1: people definitely had opinions about Dorothy, but it was almost
26:32
Speaker 1: like people said stay away from her. You know, she's
26:34
Speaker 1: she lives on haunted land and she's killed her husband's
26:37
Speaker 1: but it just seemed like rumor mill. There didn't seem
26:40
Speaker 1: to be somebody who really had a targeted issue with her.
26:43
Speaker 1: There was that outstanding lawsuit with the Nodiers, the two
26:46
Speaker 1: people who were you know, battling over the rights to
26:49
Speaker 1: her property, but it wasn't clear to vale Lungo if
26:52
Speaker 1: in the middle of this lawsuit was like real hatred
26:54
Speaker 1: between the parties, you know.
26:55
Speaker 2: He had yet to see that.
26:57
Speaker 1: And so at this point, Vala Lungo felt like his
26:59
Speaker 1: biggest problem was that he really had no real evidence.
27:03
Speaker 1: There were no witnesses, and they'd searched Dorothy's house repeatedly
27:06
Speaker 1: at this point and they hadn't found anything useful, and
27:09
Speaker 1: there were no forensics on Dorothy's body since her body
27:12
Speaker 1: had been in the water for so long, all the
27:14
Speaker 1: forensics had been washed away. But just then there was
27:18
Speaker 1: a knock on the door and an officer poked his
27:20
Speaker 1: head in and told Valelungo that he had something that
27:23
Speaker 1: he might want to come see, and so Balelungo got
27:26
Speaker 1: up and he walked over, and the officer said that
27:28
Speaker 1: they had just brought this guy in for writing bad checks,
27:31
Speaker 1: and it turns out his former employer was Dorothy Thompson.
27:36
Speaker 1: Valelungo was immediately interested and asked for more information, and
27:40
Speaker 1: the officer told him that this man's name was Elkin
27:43
Speaker 1: Childress and he had been the living caretaker for Dorothy
27:46
Speaker 1: for two months last fall, and Elkin had told the
27:50
Speaker 1: officers who had arrested him that the reason he had
27:53
Speaker 1: wanted to work there at the pet Cemetery for Dorothy
27:56
Speaker 1: was to find the treasure. Apparently, along with all the
28:00
Speaker 1: other rumors about Dorothy, there was another rumor that hundreds
28:04
Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars were buried somewhere on Dorothy's property,
28:08
Speaker 1: and Elkin had become obsessed with finding it, but he
28:11
Speaker 1: said he never did. When Vala Lungo heard this, he
28:14
Speaker 1: felt his pulse pickup. He'd never heard this treasure rumor,
28:18
Speaker 1: but it wasn't any crazier than any of the other
28:20
Speaker 1: rumors he had heard about Dorothy. And if Elkin was
28:23
Speaker 1: that serious about finding, you know, said treasure, maybe he'd
28:27
Speaker 1: gone to Dorothy and tried to force her to tell
28:29
Speaker 1: him where it was, but before he could say or
28:32
Speaker 1: do anything, the officer told vale Lungo not to get
28:35
Speaker 1: too excited, because Elkin had an alibi for the night
28:38
Speaker 1: Dorothy went missing and it checked out. However, the officer
28:41
Speaker 1: said that Elkin had mentioned something else that could help
28:45
Speaker 1: with the investigation. According to Elkin, there was somebody in
28:49
Speaker 1: Dorothy's life who befriended her for the sole purpose of
28:52
Speaker 1: trying to inherit everything she owned, and that person was
28:56
Speaker 1: Patricia Newman. And as soon as the officer said that,
29:00
Speaker 1: Valolungo's gears in his head began to turn and he thought,
29:03
Speaker 1: why didn't I see this before? After all, it was
29:06
Speaker 1: Patricia who called the authorities.
29:08
Speaker 2: She's also the.
29:09
Speaker 1: One who aggressively pushed this investigation in the early days,
29:13
Speaker 1: which you know, Vala Lungo had assumed was just because
29:15
Speaker 1: she was worried about her friend, But now he was
29:18
Speaker 1: starting to wonder if maybe she was trying to make
29:20
Speaker 1: herself look innocent. It's not unusual for killers to try
29:24
Speaker 1: and insert themselves into investigations to seem cooperative or to
29:28
Speaker 1: cast suspicion on other people. Patricia had also entered Dorothy's
29:32
Speaker 1: house multiple times before Dorothy's body was found, which certainly
29:37
Speaker 1: gave her an opportunity to interact with the scene and
29:40
Speaker 1: potentially hide evidence, and so vale Lungo turned and ran
29:44
Speaker 1: to go find Strata. They needed to speak to Patricia immediately,
29:48
Speaker 1: and this time it would be as a suspect. On
29:57
Speaker 1: May eighth, so six days after Dorothy was found in
29:59
Speaker 1: the river, Valelungo once again met with Dorothy's close friend,
30:03
Speaker 1: Patricia Nwman, but this time the meeting was inside of
30:06
Speaker 1: a police interrogation room, and as Valallungo sat at the
30:10
Speaker 1: interrogation table looking at Patricia, he was watching her very carefully.
30:14
Speaker 1: She did seem somewhat annoyed that she had been called
30:17
Speaker 1: in for this, but she also seemed very nervous. In particular,
30:20
Speaker 1: she kept fidgeting with her hands. Now Valalungo had really
30:24
Speaker 1: considered his approach here, since Patricia could have been lying
30:27
Speaker 1: to him this whole time. His plan was to start
30:30
Speaker 1: off pleasant and kind of lull her into a false
30:33
Speaker 1: sense of security that he believed everything she had said
30:36
Speaker 1: was true so far, and then at some point he
30:38
Speaker 1: would surprise her with a sharp left turn and see
30:41
Speaker 1: how she reacted. So he started with some background questions
30:44
Speaker 1: about Patricia's relationship with Dorothy, and nodded appreciatively as Patricia
30:49
Speaker 1: explained how she and Dorothy were good friends and Patricia
30:52
Speaker 1: also took care of her. But then, kind of out
30:54
Speaker 1: of nowhere, Vala Lungo asked her about Dorothy's estate and
30:58
Speaker 1: if it was valuable or not. She did say that
31:01
Speaker 1: Dorothy owned the house and the land it was on outright,
31:04
Speaker 1: so no mortgages or anything, so it had to be
31:06
Speaker 1: worth something, but she didn't know how much it was worth.
31:09
Speaker 1: Valalungo responded to this by saying, okay, you know, forget
31:12
Speaker 1: the financial worth of the property. Is the property worth
31:15
Speaker 1: something to you, Patricia. At that point, Valelungo could clearly see,
31:20
Speaker 1: you know, Patricia realizing what was happening here. She had
31:23
Speaker 1: this alarmed look on her face, like she was starting
31:26
Speaker 1: to see that she was not being treated like a
31:28
Speaker 1: witness but rather a suspect. And so Patricia quickly said, no,
31:32
Speaker 1: you know, the property was not worth anything to her.
31:34
Speaker 1: She didn't want it, not at all. But she kind
31:37
Speaker 1: of turned it around on Valelungo and said, look, if
31:39
Speaker 1: you're looking for someone who does want that property, well
31:43
Speaker 1: you ought to speak to the Nodiers. Now Valelungo knew
31:46
Speaker 1: who she was referencing. These were the folks who were
31:48
Speaker 1: embroiled in that lawsuit with Dorothy before she went missing
31:51
Speaker 1: and was found dead.
31:53
Speaker 2: But Valelungo didn't say anything.
31:55
Speaker 1: He just sort of gave Patricia a look like, oh,
31:57
Speaker 1: explain what you mean, and so Patrica took.
32:00
Speaker 2: The cue and told him that the Nodiers had been.
32:03
Speaker 1: Dorothy's living employees for years and they were complete monsters.
32:08
Speaker 1: She said that Brandon had been verbally abusive towards Dorothy
32:11
Speaker 1: while they worked for her, and also he was one
32:14
Speaker 1: of the main people spreading all these rumors about Dorothy
32:17
Speaker 1: in town, about how he thought she killed her husband's
32:20
Speaker 1: and how her land was haunted and she was crazy.
32:22
Speaker 1: But she said that wasn't even the worst of it.
32:25
Speaker 1: She said Brandon was also a thief. She said the
32:28
Speaker 1: year before, when Dorothy was on a lot of medication
32:31
Speaker 1: for depression, like more than normal, and she was not
32:34
Speaker 1: of sound mind as a result of it, she said
32:37
Speaker 1: that Brandon and his wife Bonnie had convinced her to
32:40
Speaker 1: sign over her property to them for basically nothing. And
32:43
Speaker 1: that's when it hit Vala Lungo, like He was aware
32:46
Speaker 1: that there had been this lawsuit over the land, but
32:49
Speaker 1: he didn't really have all the details about it. He
32:51
Speaker 1: just knew there was some dispute, and he also knew
32:54
Speaker 1: that Dorothy's lawyer had mentioned the Nodiers days ago, but
32:57
Speaker 1: that was also right before Dorothy's body had turned up,
32:59
Speaker 1: and things had been sort of hectic, and so Valolungo
33:02
Speaker 1: had not followed up with her lawyers yet, and so
33:05
Speaker 1: he didn't really have the context of you know, how
33:07
Speaker 1: nasty this legal fight really was. Patricia said she had
33:11
Speaker 1: convinced Dorothy to get a lawyer and to fight this,
33:14
Speaker 1: that it was not right they were doing this to her,
33:16
Speaker 1: and Dorothy had done that, she'd gotten a lawyer, and
33:19
Speaker 1: in fact her and the Nadiers court date had happened
33:23
Speaker 1: just ten days before Dorothy went missing. As Vala Lungo
33:27
Speaker 1: was listening, it was like he couldn't believe it. This
33:29
Speaker 1: was so obvious and it was right in front of
33:31
Speaker 1: him the whole time. The Nadiers would clearly benefit from
33:34
Speaker 1: Dorothy's disappearance, and pretty clearly there was real beef between
33:39
Speaker 1: the parties. So at this point Valolongo kind of shifted
33:43
Speaker 1: tactics and was less interested in looking at Patricia as
33:46
Speaker 1: a suspect and instead assured her.
33:48
Speaker 2: That, you know what, he would speak to them.
33:51
Speaker 1: Now, Valolungo did speak to Patricia for a bit longer.
33:53
Speaker 1: I mean, she was still a suspect. She was very
33:56
Speaker 1: close to Dorothy, who was this older woman with no
33:58
Speaker 1: obvious heirs, and Valaalungo had not seen Dorothy's will yet,
34:02
Speaker 1: but you know, he wouldn't be that surprised if Patricia
34:06
Speaker 1: was in there, and if she was, that would prove
34:08
Speaker 1: she would have also benefited from Dorothy's demise, just like
34:11
Speaker 1: Thendiers would. But regardless, Valealungo knew he was well overdue
34:16
Speaker 1: for a conversation with the Nodiers, so they were going
34:20
Speaker 1: to be his next call. Three days later, in the
34:24
Speaker 1: afternoon on May tenth, Valelungo found himself back in the
34:27
Speaker 1: Precincts interrogation room, but this time it was a bit
34:30
Speaker 1: more crowded. He'd managed to track down thirty one year
34:33
Speaker 1: old Brandon Nodier for an interview, and while Brandon had
34:37
Speaker 1: agreed to talk to Valelungo, he had also insisted on
34:40
Speaker 1: having his lawyer present as well, which immediately signaled to
34:44
Speaker 1: Valelungo that Brandon likely had something to hide here. Valealungo
34:48
Speaker 1: had looked into Brandon's background since speaking to Patricia, and
34:51
Speaker 1: he found out that Brandon had a criminal record, which
34:54
Speaker 1: included assault. Valaalungo also spoke to a few people in
34:58
Speaker 1: town about Brandon, and he had been told that Brandon
35:01
Speaker 1: apparently had a very hard time.
35:03
Speaker 2: Keeping his mouth shut.
35:05
Speaker 1: He apparently consistently seemed to threaten or go off on
35:08
Speaker 1: people whenever he got even marginally upset.
35:11
Speaker 2: He was a hotthead and a loudmouth.
35:13
Speaker 1: So given all this, Vala Lungo expected Brandon to be
35:17
Speaker 1: at least somewhat antagonistic or defensive in this interview. But
35:22
Speaker 1: when Vala Lungo asked him about this, you know, highly
35:24
Speaker 1: contentious lawsuit with Dorothy, Brandon didn't seem like an angry
35:28
Speaker 1: loudmouth at all. Instead, he just seemed confused. He explained,
35:33
Speaker 1: the whole thing really was just a big misunderstanding. Brandon
35:36
Speaker 1: said he and his wife had known Dorothy for six
35:39
Speaker 1: years and actually lived with her for part of the time,
35:42
Speaker 1: and from his point of view, he thought, you know,
35:44
Speaker 1: Dorothy viewed them as sort of like family, and that's
35:46
Speaker 1: also why. He said he believed she was selling them
35:49
Speaker 1: her land at such a low rate it was like
35:51
Speaker 1: a family discount.
35:53
Speaker 2: He said.
35:53
Speaker 1: It just sort of seemed like she really wanted them
35:56
Speaker 1: to have her property, and it was actually Brandon and
35:59
Speaker 1: his wife that had sort of insisted on paying for it.
36:02
Speaker 1: Brandon said, you know, everything about this transaction had really
36:05
Speaker 1: been fine and above board until Patricia Newman got involved.
36:10
Speaker 1: Brandon seemed very frustrated as he began to explain how
36:13
Speaker 1: he didn't really know what had happened, but Patricia somehow
36:17
Speaker 1: got into Dorothy's head and convinced her that he and
36:20
Speaker 1: his wife Bonnie had somehow taken advantage of Dorothy, and
36:24
Speaker 1: Brandon saying, like that didn't happen.
36:26
Speaker 2: That's not how this went.
36:27
Speaker 1: Brandon said, you know, as far as he was concerned,
36:29
Speaker 1: it actually seemed like Patricia was the one who was
36:32
Speaker 1: taking advantage of Dorothy. And then he said, there were
36:35
Speaker 1: actually all these times when apparently Patricia was staying with Dorothy,
36:40
Speaker 1: and at some point they would get into some kind
36:42
Speaker 1: of fight, and like Patricia would get mad at Dorothy,
36:45
Speaker 1: and Dorothy would flee her own house and run to
36:49
Speaker 1: the Nodier's house, like for protection for safe haven. They
36:53
Speaker 1: said that was fairly common, like Patricia was this awful
36:56
Speaker 1: person that you know, Dorothy had to flee from. As
36:59
Speaker 1: Malla Lungo heard this, he kind of didn't know what
37:01
Speaker 1: to think. I mean, you know, Brandon could be lying
37:04
Speaker 1: to him, but truthfully, Brandon seemed very convincing. And also,
37:09
Speaker 1: you know, Brandon just didn't really seem smart enough to
37:12
Speaker 1: be a master manipulator here. In fact, if anything, Brandon
37:16
Speaker 1: seemed kind of dense and it was hard to believe
37:18
Speaker 1: he could engineer this murder without leaving behind any evidence
37:22
Speaker 1: or witnesses, and then also concoct this sort of brilliant
37:26
Speaker 1: story about how Patricia really was the one behind this
37:29
Speaker 1: whole thing. But Brandon's wife, Bonnie was a suspect too,
37:33
Speaker 1: and it was possible that, you know, she was the
37:36
Speaker 1: ringleader and Brandon had just sort of followed along. They
37:39
Speaker 1: were divorced now, but if they were wrapped up in
37:42
Speaker 1: this lawsuit with Dorothy together, it was possible they could
37:45
Speaker 1: have you know, come together and joined forces to take
37:48
Speaker 1: care of the problem, i e.
37:49
Speaker 2: Get rid of Dorothy. All that's to say Bala.
37:52
Speaker 1: Lunga was not going to eliminate Brandon as a suspect
37:55
Speaker 1: just yet, but he needed more evidence before he could
37:59
Speaker 1: connect him to the crime.
38:00
Speaker 2: So ultimately he told Brandon.
38:02
Speaker 1: He could leave and that he would be in touch,
38:04
Speaker 1: and then Vala Lungo watched as Brandon and his lawyer
38:07
Speaker 1: stood up and filed out of the room. It was
38:10
Speaker 1: sort of funny in a dark way that just a
38:12
Speaker 1: few days ago Valelungo couldn't see any reason why anybody
38:15
Speaker 1: would want to kill Dorothy, and now it was like
38:18
Speaker 1: everybody in Dorothy's life, Elk and Patricia and now the
38:21
Speaker 1: Nodiers wanted Dorothy's money and so really would benefit if
38:25
Speaker 1: she went away. And so now he just had to
38:28
Speaker 1: figure out who wanted Dorothy gone the most. About five
38:41
Speaker 1: months later, in October of nineteen eighty five, Bala Lungo
38:45
Speaker 1: stood in the middle of Dorothy's pet cemetery along with
38:48
Speaker 1: Sergeant Strata, in total disbelief because all around them, almost
38:53
Speaker 1: every single tombstone had been completely smashed. Now, Vala Ungo
38:58
Speaker 1: had no idea who had done this, but it was
39:01
Speaker 1: sort of oddly fitting because just like this cemetery, vale
39:05
Speaker 1: Lungo's homicide case was a complete and total mess. Since
39:09
Speaker 1: May Vale Lungo and some other investigators had questioned both
39:13
Speaker 1: Patricia and Brandon Nodier multiple times, but all they ever
39:17
Speaker 1: did was point the finger at the other one. And
39:20
Speaker 1: now the two primary suspects in Dorothy's murder were essentially
39:24
Speaker 1: at war over her property. After Dorothy's will was read,
39:28
Speaker 1: it would turn out that Patricia Newman had inherited a
39:31
Speaker 1: huge chunk of her estate, including whatever proceeds came from
39:35
Speaker 1: the cemetery business. But the Nautiers were saying that, no,
39:39
Speaker 1: you cannot just give that to Patricia because the property
39:42
Speaker 1: is theirs, and so the business is theirs because Dorothy
39:46
Speaker 1: had signed it all over to them, and the lawsuit
39:48
Speaker 1: to overturn that sale, despite it being very contentious, it
39:52
Speaker 1: had not been resolved yet, so you can't just shuffle.
39:55
Speaker 2: It over to Patricia.
39:56
Speaker 1: And on top of that, Bonnie Nodier Brandon's x Y
40:00
Speaker 1: life had literally moved into Dorothy's house, making it even
40:04
Speaker 1: more complicated. And so that was why the Saint Bernard
40:07
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department and the state police were at the pet
40:10
Speaker 1: cemetery right now. Patricia was there and trying to get
40:13
Speaker 1: access to the house since she needed to get some
40:15
Speaker 1: of Dorothy's things, and Bonnie wouldn't let her in. Now,
40:19
Speaker 1: the uniformed officers had just gone there to make sure
40:21
Speaker 1: everybody played nice, but Valelungo and Strata had tagged along
40:26
Speaker 1: specifically to try to ask Bonnie a few questions. Now,
40:29
Speaker 1: Bonnie was still very much a suspect in Dorothy's murder,
40:32
Speaker 1: but so far investigators had actually not been able to
40:35
Speaker 1: interview her, and val Alungo had hoped that maybe this
40:38
Speaker 1: was their chance. However, when they arrived, Bonnie was extremely
40:43
Speaker 1: angry and she refused to speak to anyone and told
40:45
Speaker 1: all the officers and Patricia to get off her property.
40:49
Speaker 2: And even though the officers.
40:50
Speaker 1: Along with Patricia had eventually gotten inside and Patricia took
40:54
Speaker 1: what she needed, the officers had not been able to
40:57
Speaker 1: get Bonnie to say anything to them. She refused and
41:00
Speaker 1: so now Vale, Lungo and Strata walked back to their
41:03
Speaker 1: cruiser passed all these shattered tombstones, feeling very frustrated that
41:07
Speaker 1: they had multiple suspects here and no way to eliminate
41:11
Speaker 1: any of them. Brandon Nodier would directly benefit from Dorothy's death,
41:16
Speaker 1: because if she was dead, then the lawsuit he was
41:18
Speaker 1: embroiled in would get dropped, and he would by default
41:21
Speaker 1: take control of Dorothy's land. He also had a criminal record,
41:25
Speaker 1: and according to Patricia, had been horrible to Dorothy when
41:28
Speaker 1: they lived together. Brandon's ex wife, Bonnie could have helped
41:31
Speaker 1: him do it too, since, after all, she was named
41:34
Speaker 1: in that lawsuit as well, and she had taken full
41:37
Speaker 1: control of Dorothy's house after she died, so clearly she
41:41
Speaker 1: was intent on living there. But Patricia also could have
41:45
Speaker 1: been highly motivated to get Dorothy out of the picture,
41:48
Speaker 1: since she was named in the will, and she'd seemed
41:51
Speaker 1: really controlling of Dorothy and had repeatedly inserted herself into
41:55
Speaker 1: the investigation. And then there was the handyman Elkin childress,
41:59
Speaker 1: who had been a limit through his alibi, but val
42:02
Speaker 1: Alongo felt like he deserved another look. He had admitted
42:05
Speaker 1: that he was obsessed with finding treasure on Dorothy's property,
42:09
Speaker 1: and now all the gravestones were mysteriously smashed, which could
42:13
Speaker 1: indicate that maybe he had come back and this was
42:16
Speaker 1: part of his attempt to find the treasure. You know,
42:18
Speaker 1: maybe they were inside the gravestones. Then again, if they're
42:22
Speaker 1: going to treat Elkin like a suspect. Well, then anybody
42:25
Speaker 1: who had heard rumors about the treasure on Dorothy's land
42:28
Speaker 1: was also a suspect, and considering how the residents of
42:31
Speaker 1: Saint Bernard clearly gossiped a lot about Dorothy, it seemed
42:35
Speaker 1: like that would mean basically everyone in town was a suspect.
42:39
Speaker 1: But without any forensic evidence or witnesses, val Alongo didn't
42:44
Speaker 1: see how they would ever be able to connect anybody
42:46
Speaker 1: to this crime. Still, he and Strada got back in
42:49
Speaker 1: the cruiser and headed back to the station to keep
42:51
Speaker 1: at it. The investigative team kept working this case diligently
42:56
Speaker 1: for weeks and then months, interviewing and reinterviewed suspects and
43:01
Speaker 1: speaking to people who knew Dorothy. They even met with
43:04
Speaker 1: a psychic who claimed she knew who the killer was,
43:07
Speaker 1: and some people even called him with tips that they
43:09
Speaker 1: had seen Dorothy's ghost in the area and they would
43:11
Speaker 1: even go follow up in case maybe Dorothy was there.
43:15
Speaker 1: But none of that went anywhere. None of it amounted
43:18
Speaker 1: to any new, meaningful evidence that the police could actually
43:21
Speaker 1: use to bring somebody to court, and as time went on,
43:25
Speaker 1: Dorothy's case changed hands multiple times before finally going cold
43:36
Speaker 1: twenty four years later. On a Thursday afternoon in late
43:39
Speaker 1: September of two thousand and nine, Detective John Duran sat
43:42
Speaker 1: at his desk in the Saint Bernard's Police Precinct doing
43:45
Speaker 1: some paperwork and he just put his pen down and
43:48
Speaker 1: leaned back in his chair to take a break, when
43:50
Speaker 1: another detective poked his head in and told Duran, hey,
43:54
Speaker 1: the caller was on the phone, and Duran knew exactly
43:57
Speaker 1: who he was talking about. A few days ago, an
44:00
Speaker 1: anonymous caller had put in a tip to say he
44:03
Speaker 1: had information about an old cold case from nineteen eighty five,
44:07
Speaker 1: the murder of the lady who owned that pet cemetery,
44:09
Speaker 1: and Duran had known immediately that the caller was talking
44:12
Speaker 1: about Dorothy Thompson. Duran had actually used to cut the
44:16
Speaker 1: grass at the pet cemetery when he was fifteen years old,
44:19
Speaker 1: and so he and his friends do all about Dorothy,
44:22
Speaker 1: how she was this eccentric recluse who potentially murdered people
44:26
Speaker 1: and who turned up dead one day. But during the
44:29
Speaker 1: first call, this tipster had gotten spooked and hung up
44:33
Speaker 1: without giving his name, And as soon as Duran picked
44:35
Speaker 1: up the phone to speak to the caller, he immediately said,
44:39
Speaker 1: whoever this is, You're not going to get in any
44:41
Speaker 1: trouble here. We just want your name and your location.
44:44
Speaker 1: I want to come talk to you and just hear
44:45
Speaker 1: what you know. You're not going to get in any trouble.
44:48
Speaker 2: Can you do that?
44:49
Speaker 1: There was a pause, and then the caller reluctantly agreed.
44:55
Speaker 1: Later that day, Duran and another detective sat in the
44:58
Speaker 1: living room of a New Orleans home right across from
45:01
Speaker 1: a very fidgety looking older man. The man's eyes kept
45:04
Speaker 1: guarding all around the room, and periodically he kept looking
45:07
Speaker 1: over his shoulder like somebody was gonna, you know, jump
45:09
Speaker 1: out at him. And it occurred to Duran as he
45:12
Speaker 1: was watching this guy that he didn't just seem nervous,
45:15
Speaker 1: you know, about the information he was going to spill
45:17
Speaker 1: to them. He actually seemed pretty genuinely terrified. But finally,
45:21
Speaker 1: the man took a steadying breath and said he knew
45:24
Speaker 1: who killed Dorothy, and he had known for years now
45:28
Speaker 1: the guilt of knowing was haunting him.
45:30
Speaker 2: Literally.
45:31
Speaker 1: He told the detectives that he had been seeing Dorothy's
45:34
Speaker 1: ghost covered in chains and asking him to come forward now.
45:39
Speaker 1: At this, Duran raised his eyebrows skeptically, but didn't say anything.
45:43
Speaker 1: You know, this was a pretty crazy start to the
45:45
Speaker 1: story and pretty hard to believe. But at the same time,
45:48
Speaker 1: it didn't really matter what, you know, prompted this guy
45:50
Speaker 1: to come forward. It mattered what he had to say.
45:54
Speaker 1: And so with an open mind, Duran, along with his partner,
45:57
Speaker 1: just sat there and waited, and eventually the old man,
46:01
Speaker 1: despite being very scared and timid, finally did just come
46:05
Speaker 1: out and say what he knew. Based on a decades
46:13
Speaker 1: long investigation and multiple confessions, here is a reconstruction of
46:18
Speaker 1: what police believe happened to Dorothy Thompson on the night
46:21
Speaker 1: of April thirteenth, nineteen eighty five. Sometime after nine pm
46:31
Speaker 1: that night, the killer was sitting behind the wheel of
46:34
Speaker 1: their truck making their way.
46:35
Speaker 2: Up the long winding driveway.
46:37
Speaker 1: Through the woods towards Dorothy's house, and as they drove along,
46:42
Speaker 1: the killer found themselves sort of looking out the window
46:44
Speaker 1: and taking in the sights, you know, the tombstones, the trees,
46:48
Speaker 1: the house up ahead, the whole property, you know, taking.
46:50
Speaker 2: It all in.
46:51
Speaker 1: And as they did that, they thought to themselves that
46:54
Speaker 1: it was time to stop waiting for their fortune to arrive.
46:58
Speaker 1: They needed to take it because Dorothy did not deserve
47:03
Speaker 1: to have this. In fact, the killer believed Dorothy didn't
47:07
Speaker 1: deserve to live.
47:09
Speaker 2: And so the killer.
47:10
Speaker 1: Eventually arrived right outside of Dorothy's house and they stopped
47:13
Speaker 1: their truck. They threw it in park and then commas
47:16
Speaker 1: can be. They got out and they walked around to
47:19
Speaker 1: the back of the house. There they knocked, and eventually
47:24
Speaker 1: Dorothy you know, made her way to the door, and
47:27
Speaker 1: she looked out through the glass and she saw this person,
47:30
Speaker 1: the killer, and she looked confused, but it didn't stop
47:34
Speaker 1: her from opening the door. And as soon as she did,
47:37
Speaker 1: the killer didn't hesitate. They jumped on top of her.
47:40
Speaker 1: Dorothy tried to scream, but the killer immediately wrapped their
47:43
Speaker 1: hands tight around her throat and she went silent. And
47:47
Speaker 1: then in silence, they strangled Dorothy until she stopped moving. Then,
47:51
Speaker 1: once Dorothy was crumpled lifeless on the ground, the killer
47:55
Speaker 1: found some sheets and wrapped them around Dorothy's body and
47:58
Speaker 1: then dragged her outside the waiting truck. Once they put
48:02
Speaker 1: Dorothy's body in the truck, they drove to a section
48:05
Speaker 1: of the Mississippi River not far from Dorothy's house. There
48:08
Speaker 1: the killer got out and they grabbed Dorothy's body, and
48:11
Speaker 1: they tied her hands and her feet together, and also
48:14
Speaker 1: just in case, put a plastic bag tightly over her head.
48:18
Speaker 1: Then they wrapped her body in chains. And then once
48:21
Speaker 1: she was all prepped, the killer thom As can be
48:25
Speaker 1: lifted her body up, walked over to the Mississippi River
48:28
Speaker 1: and threw her in. Moments later, the killer was back
48:33
Speaker 1: inside their truck, driving along, feeling better than they had
48:36
Speaker 1: in months, because now that Dorothy was gone, all their
48:40
Speaker 1: problems were solved. It would turn out Dorothy Thompson's killer
48:44
Speaker 1: was indeed Brandon Nodier. He had not only tricked Dorothy
48:49
Speaker 1: into selling him her land at a very cheap price,
48:52
Speaker 1: but also when she figured out he had basically conned her,
48:56
Speaker 1: she sued him at Patricia's urging. And when that happened,
49:00
Speaker 1: Brandon thought, okay, well, if I just killed Dorothy before
49:04
Speaker 1: this lawsuit gets dismissed, because they're going to figure out
49:06
Speaker 1: that this was not fair that I did con her.
49:09
Speaker 1: If I kill her now, well by default, the charges
49:13
Speaker 1: get dropped and the sale goes to me. The property
49:16
Speaker 1: is mine. On the night of the murderer, Brandon was
49:19
Speaker 1: not alone. He actually asked another one of Dorothy's former handymen,
49:23
Speaker 1: a guy named James Tregler, to come along with him
49:25
Speaker 1: and basically just wait in the car. And so he
49:28
Speaker 1: had done that. Now, Brandon was an incredibly violent person,
49:31
Speaker 1: and he did not think twice about murdering Dorothy to
49:34
Speaker 1: make sure the lawsuit got dropped. But Brandon also had
49:38
Speaker 1: a famously big mouth, and he told his entire friend
49:41
Speaker 1: group what he had done. And so basically all of
49:43
Speaker 1: Brandon's friends were aware of this horrible crime, and they
49:47
Speaker 1: totally believed what he said because they were fully capable
49:50
Speaker 1: of him being able to commit extreme violence. But they
49:54
Speaker 1: were scared of him, and that's why none of the
49:56
Speaker 1: friends came forward to say, you know what they knew. Finally,
50:00
Speaker 1: one of these friends was so haunted by their knowledge
50:03
Speaker 1: of this crime that they did eventually come forward. That
50:07
Speaker 1: was the caller who told the detectives what happened. And
50:12
Speaker 1: in their rendition of what happened, they said Brandon.
50:15
Speaker 2: Didn't act alone.
50:16
Speaker 1: There was somebody else, a guy named James Tregler, And
50:20
Speaker 1: so as a result of that tip, it would take
50:22
Speaker 1: another four years, but they would ultimately speak to James Tregler,
50:26
Speaker 1: and he would confess to having been there on that night,
50:30
Speaker 1: and with that they had enough evidence to finally charge
50:33
Speaker 1: Brandon for the murder. Brandon ultimately surrendered to authorities in
50:37
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, and he would get a ten year sentence
50:39
Speaker 1: for pleading guilty to Dorothy's murder. Brandon's ex wife, Bonnie,
50:44
Speaker 1: was not involved. As for James Tregler, the other handyman
50:48
Speaker 1: who drove with Brandon on the night of the murderer,
50:50
Speaker 1: he always maintained that he didn't know the murder was
50:53
Speaker 1: going to happen, and so he was given immunity from
50:56
Speaker 1: prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Even though the pet
51:00
Speaker 1: cemetery is still standing today, it's now abandoned and totally overgrown. However,
51:06
Speaker 1: treasure hunters continue to walk around the property, you know,
51:09
Speaker 1: with their metal detectors, hoping that they'll be the ones
51:12
Speaker 1: to finally find the treasure that's buried there. Thank you
51:25
Speaker 1: so much for watching. Let me know what you thought
51:27
Speaker 1: of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have
51:30
Speaker 1: a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for you
51:32
Speaker 1: to binge right now, so click here and give them
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Speaker 1: a watch.
51:36
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya