00:00:00
hi crime junkies I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and the story I have for you today could probably be its
00:00:06
own season of counterclock it is about eight women all last scene in the same small town in Louisiana all connected by
00:00:15
much more than their deaths and this Rabbit Hole goes deep but answers could be just around the corner because
00:00:23
someone knows something and all it takes is one person to unravel this decades old mystery
00:00:30
so crime junkies grab your snacks pull out your string boards and settle in because this is the story of the Jeff
00:00:38
Davis [Music] 8 it's 20th 2005 and a man named Jerry Jackson is ready for a warm relaxing
00:01:05
afternoon fishing he's standing on a bridge overlooking a canal less than 10 miles from his home in Jennings
00:01:11
Louisiana and before he even baits his hook he notices something churning in the water below at first he thinks he's
00:01:20
looking at a mannequin never no but he has reason for thinking that so he had recently heard a news story about some
00:01:28
mannequins being stolen nearby so at first he's like yeah he's like oh it must be one of those stolen mannequins
00:01:35
but as he looks closer he has this like sickening realization that plastic wouldn't attract the swarm of flies that
00:01:44
he sees buzzing around so he quickly calls 911 and within minutes authorities from the Jefferson Davis Paris Sheriff's
00:01:50
Office are on the scene and they begin to pull a woman's body out of the canal now she's clothed she's wearing blue
00:01:57
jeans a white blouse but nothing else is on her like no ID nothing and considering that she's in an advanced
00:02:04
state of decomposition they know iding her could be tough so her autopsy the next day tells them that she's been in
00:02:11
the water for about 3 days but they can't find a cause of death there's no mention of drowning no mention of sexual
00:02:18
assault and no sign of significant injury although Ethan Brown's book murder in the bayou does mention some
00:02:25
blood under her scalp but I'm honestly a little unclear like what that referring
00:02:30
to and a talk screen reveals there are some drugs in her system but they can't tell if it was enough for an overdose so
00:02:38
her manner of death ends up being classified as undetermined but there is one answer that they get from this
00:02:45
autopsy through fingerprints she is identified as 28-year-old Loretta chasson Loretta's name isn't unfamiliar
00:02:53
to police and Jennings she's a sex worker she'd had several run-ins or prior arrests that often revolved around
00:02:59
drugs and theft and although no one had reported her missing they end up learning from one of her brothers that
00:03:04
he had last seen Loretta 3 days before the fisherman had found her on the 17th and he saw her at a gas station there in
00:03:11
town now this brother had watched her get into this vehicle willingly but a vehicle of a guy named Frankie Rashard
00:03:19
and that is another name that is well known in town he has connections to just about everyone in Jennings criminal
00:03:27
underworld from drugs to sex work to just like General violence and according to Ethan Brown's book word on the street
00:03:35
is that Loretta was seen after this as well so she gets into this guy's car and then she's seen later at this bar and
00:03:42
motel known as The budro Inn it's one of the few hubs in town known for sex work
00:03:47
and drug activity so according to some folks who claim that they saw her she was seen with two other sex workers and
00:03:53
this man who goes by the nickname stymy but what happened to her after she left the Inn or how she ended up in the canal
00:04:01
is anyone's guess and since Loretta's death isn't determined a homicide there isn't this like big push for answers I
00:04:10
mean I know police interview a few people after her death but what those people say isn't totally clear and they
00:04:17
might not have said much of anything at all because the Divide between many of the residents of Jennings and the police
00:04:23
is like very wide and very deep for a few reasons one being that Jen and the larger Jefferson Davis Parish
00:04:32
it's located in sits between Houston and New Orleans and this makes it like the perfect pit stop for drug traffickers
00:04:40
moving between the two big cities and it leaves Jennings with a major drug problem people tied up in illegal
00:04:48
activity don't tend to love talking to the police right they also don't really trust them and rightfully so because
00:04:56
both jannings PD and the Jefferson Davis Paris Sheriff's off office have faced accusations of corruption for things
00:05:02
like selling drugs that they captured in raids using public finances for private
00:05:08
expenses harassing and assaulting local sex workers I mean the list goes on and on but according to reporting by Deanna
00:05:16
Paul for the Washington Post as much as the local community might not trust them
00:05:21
it actually doesn't keep them from calling them about this case the thing is they're not calling with tips though
00:05:28
they want information they want to know if they should be scared because you see
00:05:33
even though police aren't even calling Loretta's death a homicide just about everyone she knew and worked with is and
00:05:41
for some reason there is this rumor going around that there is a serial killer on the loose I don't know why or
00:05:50
how or where these even started cuz it's not like there is a string of cases that
00:05:55
are unsolved at least not yet anyway but less than a month month later another woman's body is found in a canal 5 to 6
00:06:04
miles away from where Loretta was found and it is deja vu all over again when she's pulled from the water she also
00:06:13
looks like she's been there for a few days at least she's partially clothed she's wearing denim shorts and despite
00:06:20
the decom this time there is an obvious wound everyone at the scene can see several clear gashes to her throat so
00:06:29
over the next few days she is identified as 30-year-old Ernestine Patterson there's no arguing that her death is a
00:06:36
homicide in addition to the cuts on her throat there are also some bruising that
00:06:40
they find on her hands indicating that she had some kind of struggle before her death just like Loretta a talk screen
00:06:47
reveals drugs in her system and Ernestine also they find out participated in sex work and she
00:06:53
struggled with substance use disorder in fact she and Loretta actually ran in a lot of the same circles knew a lot of
00:07:00
the same people and now they've both been found in canals under suspicious circumstances so I assume this only
00:07:08
fuels the serial killer talk out there so you would think but just when everyone is like getting on that train
00:07:17
there's like this holdup moment because unlike the serial killer rumor that seems to pop up out of nowhere and like
00:07:23
never get traced back to anyone there are people who actually come forward this time with some pretty compelling
00:07:29
stor about what might have happened to Ernestine according to Ethan Brown's book The Running theory is that
00:07:34
Ernestine was out looking for clients and had sex with a man named Byron Chad Jones now Byron's friend Lawrence Nixon
00:07:43
was apparently also there though it's unclear if they had sex but if you believe the rumors they killed Ernestine
00:07:50
and dumped her in the canal and there does seem to be some there there to all of this Lawrence's wife for one
00:07:58
eventually tells police that the two men showed up to her house with this huge blood soaked trash bag filled with
00:08:06
something and then left the bag sitting out on their front porch and admitted to
00:08:10
her that they killed Ernestine now his wife's daughter was home that night too and she says that she saw Lawrence
00:08:16
covered in blood when he came home ernestine's uncle is one of Lawrence's neighbors and he'd actually given
00:08:23
Lawrence an industrial siiz trash bag earlier that same day and then police also hear through the Great find that
00:08:30
Byron the other guy and Lawrence had left a jagged hunting knife in an abandoned home where whatever happened
00:08:38
allegedly went down now based on these witness accounts Byron and Lawrence are eventually indicted for second deegree
00:08:45
murder to which they plead not guilty and the case against them quickly just falls apart though mostly because it's
00:08:53
based on all this hearsay statement and rumors from people and police didn't seem to make use of of the opportunity
00:09:00
to actually gather any physical evidence like for instance that abandoned house with the hunting knife and all of that
00:09:06
like that house has never searched no bloody trash bag is ever found the Assumption being that she'd been in that
00:09:13
bag and they' used it to transport her yeah can they test the porch that the bag was left on my gosh the porch so yes
00:09:22
and they do but they do this 16 months after ernestine's death over a year nothing usable but I mean I'd be
00:09:30
surprised if they could have even gotten anything useable had they gone right away because Lawrence's wife when she's
00:09:36
telling them her story she admits to hosing down the porch after they supposedly left to go dump ernestine's
00:09:42
body it just hosed off the blood no questions asked no questions asked and look neither of those guys are like
00:09:50
squeaky clean by any means Byron had been arrested for things like robbery and sexual assault though I couldn't
00:09:56
find what the outcomes of those charges actually were Lawrence had recently been
00:10:01
indicted along with others for conspiracy to commit forcible rape to which he pleaded not guilty and those
00:10:07
charges were later dropped but they have zero physical evidence tying these guys
00:10:13
to Ernestine to her murder which means they go free was there anything to connect these guys to Loretta's case no
00:10:21
not that I can see I mean they might have known her like or cross paths with her but nothing that would have
00:10:26
indicated that they were suspects in her death I don't think they never get looked at for her death once this like
00:10:32
goes away for Byron and Lawrence like police are back to square one and for nearly 2 years after ernestine's death
00:10:39
things are relatively quiet in Jennings even the rumors of a serial killer seem to kind of die down that is until 2007
00:10:49
when two more women are killed nearly back to back our world is full of natural wonders but what happens when human
00:11:00
Predators visit these Serene Landscapes with evil in mind I'm taking you beyond the beauty of
00:11:07
some of the most unique places on Earth to explore the chilling stories that devastate these picturesque
00:11:14
destinations because sometimes the most beautiful places hide the darkest Secrets listen to park Predators
00:11:23
wherever you get your podcasts the first woman that's found is 21-year-old Kristen Gary Lopez who's
00:11:30
found nearly nude in another Canal just outside of Jennings in March and then 26-year-old Whitney du is found off a
00:11:39
remote Road in may now Kristen was the most decomposed of all the victims found so far but it made sense since she'd
00:11:47
been missing for over 10 days before she was found they found that she had died from a mix of drug intoxication asfixia
00:11:54
and drowning according to Ethan Brown's reporting but her manner of death was undetermined now Whitney was found like
00:12:02
a day after she was killed but somehow they know even less because both her Manner and cause of death end up getting
00:12:08
listed as undetermined so the discovery of the two women's bodies bring all the panic and
00:12:16
all the fear of a serial killer roaring back to life for the people of Jennings although despite now four parent victims
00:12:24
the police publicly were taking a more cautious tone while they felt these deaths could be connected they said they
00:12:32
weren't willing to claim that they had a serial killer on the loose but it's clear to everyone else that something is
00:12:37
going on here because again these were two women who ran together Kristen and Whitney were both involved in sex work
00:12:45
they had connections to the other victims as well Kristen had even been interviewed by police after Loretta's
00:12:52
death and this is when we start to see the outline of this like web of connections so remember Frankie Rashard
00:13:02
uh he's the guy who picked up Loretta before going to the Inn making him one of the last people to see her alive now
00:13:09
to be clear not the last but I think that's part of this weird pattern so with Kristen on the day Kristen vanished
00:13:18
she'd been hanging out with Loretta's cousin this woman named Tracy and Tracy tells police that she and Kristen had
00:13:24
gone to see Frankie at the motel that he was staying at there in town Kristen trusted him almost like a father figure
00:13:31
but they recently had some kind of falling out so he ends up kicking them out of his room after that Tracy and
00:13:36
Kristen end up at like a house on the south side of Jennings that's where Tracy left Kristen so again Frankie
00:13:44
wasn't necessarily the last person to see Kristen but he was one of them one of them and then with Whitney he was
00:13:52
truly the last so she was last seen on May 11th arguing with Frankie outside of his house not sure what they were
00:13:59
arguing about but if the rumors are to be believed he followed her when she stormed off after this like argument or
00:14:07
whatever now Frankie ends up admitting to both of these encounters with both of these women but he claims like he has
00:14:14
nothing to do with their deaths but connections and like last moment Connections three out of four it feels
00:14:22
like more than a coincidence and four women from the same Community showing up dead in similar way
00:14:31
it isn't of a coincidence to people who have been already convinced that there is a serial killer like since day one
00:14:38
right and the sheriff at the time this guy Ricky Edwards he isn't really doing anything like to assuage anyone's fears
00:14:46
he kind of dances around the serial killer rumors pointing to like the technicality that three of the women's
00:14:53
deaths are classified as undetermined like they don't know if there can't be a serial killer if three of the women
00:14:59
couldn't be determined to be homicide yeah like they're like we don't know if it's a single whatever we don't know if
00:15:05
it's several people at one point he claims that they may be dealing with a Serial dumper as he puts it what's that
00:15:12
I've never heard of a serial dumper you haven't heard of it because it's not a thing like he literally made this up
00:15:18
piecing it together like with what he says later which is basically that like all of these women lived very high-risk
00:15:25
Lifestyles that's what led to their death I think it was his insinuation that maybe the three undetermined at
00:15:31
least those deaths were some kind of accident or something kind of their fault is his implication but maybe that
00:15:37
they were all hanging out with the same people who then just disposed of their bodies in similar ways and like no fear
00:15:43
he gets mad backlash for all of this later kind of walks it back but when your sheriff is saying things like that
00:15:50
it doesn't breed confidence that law enforcemen is doing everything they can to get to the bottom of whatever is
00:15:56
going on not to mention it doesn't appear that they're very good at solving murders to begin with according to
00:16:04
several news articles and Even's book statistics from the FBI show that the Jefferson Davis Parish clearance rate
00:16:10
for homicides like I don't even like want to make you guess it is so abysmal it was just under
00:16:16
7% which like the national clearance rate is over 60 that's a single digit abysmal everyone's frustrated everyone
00:16:26
is scared it feels like there is no hope mhm that is until May 16th this is 4 days after Whitney's body is found
00:16:34
that's when police announced that they have charged two people with Kristen's murder now police didn't have to look
00:16:42
hard to find Frankie rishard he was already sitting in jail at this point on a pending sexual assault charge an
00:16:48
assault where by the way the Survivor alleges that Frankie threatened that she would quote end up like the others if
00:16:56
she told anyone referencing the four women who've already been found deceased so he's one of the two they charge they
00:17:02
charged him with second deegree murder in Kristen's case along with his niece Hannah who was one of Kristen's friends
00:17:10
and the arrest seems to be based on testimony from Loretta's cousin Tracy remember her so her story by this point
00:17:20
has changed her first story was they hang out they go to Frankie's Motel he kicks them out they go somewhere else
00:17:26
Tracy goes home leaves Kristen at the house whatever well according to Ethan Brown's book no
00:17:32
Tracy now tells investigators that she was with Kristen Frankie Frankie's niece Hannah and another sex worker on the
00:17:39
night of March 9th apparently the group was partying but at some point the night
00:17:43
took a turn when they were all out like driving around and Frankie accused Kristen of stealing from him so he like
00:17:51
dragged her out of the truck they were in beat her he pulled her into a canal where Hannah held Kristen underwater
00:17:58
water until she stopped moving Tracy apparently took investigators on the route that the group drove that night
00:18:05
and everything so they were confident enough in her story to make these arrests well then Tracy gets charged as
00:18:13
an accessory after the fact now later on a conflicting story starts to Bubble Up
00:18:19
one that says Kristen's murder took place in Frankie's brother's camper after he got mad that Kristen refused
00:18:27
his sexual advanage and that Frankie forced Tracy to hold Kristen's head down in a bucket of water like there are
00:18:35
elements that are the same but like pretty big pieces that change police don't know which story is the more
00:18:41
accurate one but the consensus seems to be that Frankie was the ring leader and that Hannah and Tracy were involved to
00:18:48
varying degrees except a lot like the story we have with ernestine's case we only have people telling stories we have
00:18:56
no hard proof of anything and actually this time they even lose the story they have as well because eventually Tracy
00:19:04
stops cooperating and she walks back her confession like all versions of it because she got implicated well she says
00:19:12
that none of it was ever true to begin with she says that the police wouldn't leave her alone so she made up a story
00:19:18
that she says she heard on the street and like padded it with things that she claims investigators led her to say but
00:19:25
because of this now like the da quietly has to just like drop the Char charges against Frankie and Hannah cuz without
00:19:31
Tracy they got nothing right which isn't to say that there was no physical evidence to get though so this is so
00:19:40
weird somehow someway a Jennings Police Sergeant now this is a different agency than the sheriff's office that was
00:19:48
investigating the sheriff's office is Jefferson Davis Parish so this sergeant from the police department takes the
00:19:55
statement of two women while they're in jail who tell this sergeant that one of the sheriff's lead investigators
00:20:04
assigned to the murders may have gotten rid of evidence in Kristen's murder on behalf of none other than Frankie rard
00:20:15
oh apparently this investigator was friendly with Frankie and shortly after Kristen's murder he bought the pickup
00:20:22
truck that Kristen was allegedly riding around in the night she was murdered and
00:20:27
this dude washed it and then flipped it for almost double what he paid the price
00:20:32
doesn't even matter but he basically washed it and sold it got rid of it and listen there is no proof this
00:20:37
investigator bought the truck to do Frankie some kind of favor but is there proof he bought the
00:20:44
truck or the truck if Tracy's story about the murder was real that's there's proof of
00:20:52
that it's not a matter of if this investigator bought and then sold the truck there's no proof of the intention
00:20:57
or like okay okay right and perhaps even more telling than that though is what happened
00:21:07
after on a warm day in 1985 aah herodin tended to her garden a neighbor waved and another passed Ada around 3:10 p.m.
00:21:16
but by 3:20 a was missing 3 years later A's body was found only 10 m away but finding her only compounded the
00:21:24
questions questions about what happened the last day she was seen how she ended up where she was and what was really
00:21:30
happening in A's life before someone took it I'm Ashley flowers and this is the deck
00:21:38
investigates so the sergeant who takes this statement about all of this Shady truck business he doesn't feel
00:21:46
comfortable going up the chain of command with what he's heard about one of the lead investigators he's worried
00:21:52
that it'll go to the wrong person and then nothing's going to happen brush on the rug mhm so he tells this local Pi
00:22:00
about the story and then the pi goes to the FBI we'll fast forward a little bit and the investigator who sold the truck
00:22:08
ends up going before an Ethics board who determined that his actions were unethical great he's fined
00:22:17
$10,000 taken off the murder investigations which feels like a step in the right direction I approve so far
00:22:23
until the sheriff's department puts him in charge of the evidence room at the sheriff's office in charge of the EV
00:22:32
like this guy who was unethical for what he did with evidence shut the I know up
00:22:37
so okay just to lay this all out no you got it the guy who sold potential evidence
00:22:46
for a profit and potentially like to help a suspect out and like by helping him out like by
00:22:54
helping him like cover something up well I don't know why he did it but okay in potentially potentially allegedly maybe
00:23:01
he claims that he didn't know it was potential evidence at the time but now he's in charge of all the evidence of
00:23:08
all the evidence it's not cool oh and the sergeant who took those two statements and then reported this whole
00:23:14
thing like and it got to the FBI he gets fired the guy who did the right thing according to a docu series based on
00:23:22
Ethan's book he's arrested and accused of malfeasance and obstruction because he went to a civilian as opposed to
00:23:30
following the standard chain of command that may or may not be corrupt okay he is also accused of inappropriately
00:23:36
touching one of the female inmates who gave him this information during their initial interview to be clear this
00:23:43
charge is later dropped but by that point like the damage was done to his career he pleads guilty to the malin's
00:23:51
charge and the obstruction charge is eventually dropped okay again the guy who takes the statement is fired and
00:23:59
charged the guy who did the super sketchy thing is fined and given another job within the department and also like
00:24:07
with the evidence which is what he was accused of makes sense where's the rule book in all of this like I'm not sure
00:24:15
what's right and wrong here like I know what is but what do they consider is right and wrong here I know and the
00:24:22
argument they have for not firing the guy who sold the truck is like he didn't do anything wrong intentionally like yes
00:24:30
big oopsie but you know he was getting rid of evidence for a criminal like why would you be getting rid of evidence for
00:24:37
a criminal in like any and again maybe he didn't know like what he was doing but like I guess that's my question
00:24:43
exactly like even if you didn't do this intentionally why Frankie Rashard is in custody for things and you're also like
00:24:54
getting rid of something that's his so there are a few theories okay one is that Frankie was working as an informant
00:25:03
feeding police info about the drug trade there in town if you haven't gotten this
00:25:08
by now Frankie is like super well connected like not a great guy and Jennings is like as small town as it
00:25:16
gets everyone knows everyone so having someone like him on your side can be an asset and he can't be useful he can't be
00:25:24
a useful asset if he's behind bars but is he a useful asset if he's just allowed to keep committing whatever
00:25:33
crime he wants well that's what it feels like to a lot of people in town like he
00:25:38
feels Untouchable he feels like he can do whatever he wants and boo I wish this was new I was just listening to this
00:25:44
podcast called uh who killed Jennifer Jud oh I just started listening to that very good highly recommend light spoiler
00:25:51
here but I'll be vag um where I left off in the series The investigator who like
00:25:56
host it thinks that police in that case kept letting this one guy off for everything even murders he was
00:26:04
confessing to because he was an informant now if that sounds unbelievable but I guess the way that
00:26:12
certain laws work in certain States the cops who the Ci's like report to could be held accountable for the Ci's crimes
00:26:21
too because they did stuff like on their watch right so it's like you let one thing slide you know they're still out
00:26:28
there they kill someone like oh now all of a sudden you're on the hook a little so you're like actively covering for the
00:26:34
CIA to cover your own ass right or equally Sinister you just don't care about the people your CI is killing and
00:26:41
however like you're on the take money drugs promotions whatever like that's the thing that's important to you and
00:26:47
here in Jennings Police are definitely rumored to be in on the take like I said there is a massive drug problem in
00:26:54
Jennings Police are making traffic stops all the time seizing tons of stuff but where it all goes can get a little fuzzy
00:27:03
when it goes to that evidence room right like oh oh yeah and we know who's in charge of the evidence room there are
00:27:09
numerous stories of cops stealing money and drugs from the evidence room and in the docu series one of Kristen's friends
00:27:17
alleges that a lot of the drugs in town actually come from the cops themselves and Frankie is at the top of this food
00:27:25
chain so if Frankie's at the top and the cops who are supposed to be policing his
00:27:30
criminal activity are rumored to be in on it who do you go to right there is no one and the community feels hopeless but
00:27:38
they haven't hit rock bottom yet on May 29th 2008 another woman is found by a police officer no less 23-year-old lonia
00:27:47
brown or muggy as most people know her is found she is discovered laying on the road fully clothed she has seven cuts to
00:27:56
the front of her neck along with several Cuts behind her right ear and it appears
00:28:01
like bleach had been poured over her body to destroy any physical evidence and mugg's an interesting player in all
00:28:08
of this because she kind of threads our web together even tighter starting from the beginning so remember our first
00:28:17
victim Loretta she's rumored to have been with a man named stymy and two other sex workers when she was last seen
00:28:23
alive well muggy was one of those two sex workers and and stymy is mugg's boyfriend there's even a rumor that
00:28:31
muggy and stymy saw Loretta's body in the canal before that fisherman saw her now if we go to victim number two
00:28:38
Ernestine muggy had been brought in for an interview during the investigation into her death because they ran in the
00:28:46
same crowds muggy told police that she had heard that Ernestine robbed some people kind of offering that up as a
00:28:52
possible reason for her murder but according to Ethan Brown's book some sources a little unclear who claim that
00:28:59
muggy witnessed Byron and Lawrence kill Ernestine and oh by the way Lawrence is her cousin could Lawrence Andor Byron
00:29:08
have wanted to kill her to keep her quiet about ernestine's homicide I don't think so we're in 2008 like Ernestine
00:29:15
was killed in 2005 they've been kind of home free for a while at this point like no one's
00:29:20
really looking at them hard for her murder anymore and they had been but now they aren't they're kind of off them and
00:29:25
in all of the rumors about who killed muggy that make their way through the community Byron and Lawrence like I
00:29:30
don't think they come up at all again I think it's more of like like okay there has to be an eye at the center of this
00:29:38
hurricane who's at the center that's what they're looking for now so st's name comes up a lot again he's her
00:29:45
boyfriend after all a couple of other names kind of get thrown out in connection to her case but all the names
00:29:51
that get thrown around they all have a connection to the same guy to Frankie rishard of course but also on the list
00:29:58
of potential suspects with Frankie and stymy and you know other associates is a surprise that probably shouldn't be a
00:30:07
surprise by now the police themselves and it's someone from the inside who tips mugg's family off that they should
00:30:15
be looking at the police you see shortly after her death mugg's family is contacted by the Jefferson Davis Parish
00:30:23
coroner who tells them that he suspects the police are involved in her death and
00:30:29
that he he says is being followed by sheriff's deputies now he won't say anything else not who he thinks killed
00:30:37
her not why literally just I think police killed your daughter and I think I'm in danger okay bye yep and if he
00:30:44
ever gives them any more details that's never reported on but what's interesting
00:30:49
is that this isn't the first time that he has contacted a victim's family and told them that he suspects a cover of
00:30:56
now this wasn't for any of cases that I've told you about today this is totally unrelated other than the fact
00:31:02
that I think it shows like the system in our case like that we're operating in but I think it's important for context
00:31:08
so back in 2007 a sheriff's deputy shot a man in an altercation that escalated far more than it should have and it was
00:31:16
deemed justifiable at the time with the officer claiming that the man had tried to shoot him so he shot back in
00:31:22
self-defense but this coroner had contacted the family of that man who was shot and told them that the man had no
00:31:30
gunpowder residue on his hand so he couldn't have shot the gun like that officer was saying now the coroner later
00:31:37
backtracked that accusation but obviously there were still some questions during the production of the
00:31:44
docu series in 2019 an investigator working with the production team wanted to look at the gun that was supposedly
00:31:51
fired at police but wouldn't you know it it was inexplicably missing from the evidence Locker gosh darn evidence I
00:32:00
know so the coroner that coroner eventually dies of cancer so he can't answer all of the questions I'm sure
00:32:08
that mugg's family would still like to ask him and there's nothing in the source material that mugg's family did
00:32:13
anything with what they were initially told and maybe they couldn't I mean he didn't really give them a whole lot to
00:32:19
go on no specific details no actual proof or evidence that they could use and again like they're up against the
00:32:25
system that's working against them I was say I feel like at this point we are kind of back to like who do you go to
00:32:32
exactly who do you go to and the people who are supposed to be protecting you are the ones you need protecting from so
00:32:37
just like the other cases eventually the investigation into muggy death stalls summer turns into fall there's no
00:32:45
arrests no justice for her or any of the other women there's this palpable fear that hangs in the air everyone is
00:32:52
wondering if there's going to be another victim and on September 11th 2008 they get their answer when a group of hunters
00:33:00
finds another body this time in the woods The Remains are unclothed and according to Ethan's book nearly
00:33:07
skeletal and while the death is ruled a homicide investigators can't positively ID the victim so they have to turn to
00:33:15
DNA for that and that ends up telling them that their victim is 24-year-old Crystal Shea benois Zeno who hadn't been
00:33:22
seen in a few weeks and she was already skeletal I we're talking summer in the woods a lot of animal activity is my
00:33:30
assumption now getting her ID took a minute especially with them having to use DNA and while they're still trying
00:33:36
to figure out who she was another Jennings resident went missing 17-year-old Britney Gary now she is
00:33:44
actually the cousin of Kristen Lopez victim number three Kristen Gary Lopez yes now within a couple of weeks
00:33:53
Britney's body ends up getting found she's nude laying face down in tall about 10 ft off a rural road like many
00:34:01
of the victims her body was already in an advanced state of decomposition possibly on the elements for days so
00:34:07
that makes it hard to determine precisely what happened in ean's book it suggested that the cause of death is
00:34:14
aixia and that she didn't have any other visible injuries like we've seen with some of the others and I'm assuming
00:34:20
Britney and Crystal fit this sort of pattern ran in the same circles knew the same people both associated with Frankie
00:34:27
rishar exactly but there's something that is very interesting about Britney's case
00:34:33
specifically now Ethan later claims in his book that he spoke to someone in law enforcement who claims that Britney was
00:34:39
with Dany for two days after she was last seen like drinking and doing drugs she's with Dany but that is Deputy
00:34:48
Danny Barry he works at the Jefferson Davis Parish jail now this dude isn't exactly a squeaky clean like no
00:34:58
skeletons in the closet type of guy when you think of New England you don't think of this I'm Kylie low I'm an
00:35:08
investigative journalist and Storyteller each week I share homicides in missing persons cases from across the state of
00:35:14
Maine and greater New England this is my home these stories are my passion and this podcast is my platform to help
00:35:21
friends and families keep the memories of their loved ones alive long after the attention fades this is dark down
00:35:32
east apparently Deputy Danny Barry is known around town for picking up sex workers including some of the other
00:35:42
victims and rumor has it from some of the sex workers in town who have visited his home that he has what is essentially
00:35:50
a Sex Dungeon to each their own as long as everyone's a consenting adults well listen first of all
00:35:58
if he did pick up Britney she wasn't an adult and sure I agree like you want your 50 Shades of Gray room like you do
00:36:04
you boo but this dude was lined with plastic sheeting and unless you're hosting like the town jello fight in
00:36:12
your basement like I don't like it Dexter Dexter Vibes yeah yes but the dungeon is just a rumor though like to
00:36:19
be clear even doesn't name his law enforcement Source in the book but it seems like the allegations levied
00:36:25
against Danny Barry are at least taken semi-seriously because according to the docu series Danny's interviewed a few
00:36:32
months after Britney's body is found now the interview lasted only like 15 20 minutes and he didn't tell them anything
00:36:39
incriminating during it he said like he can sleep fine at night because he didn't do anything didn't even know
00:36:46
Britney now Dany is never named an official suspect by police in Britney's murder or any of the homicides for that
00:36:53
matter despite Frankie rishard later alleging that Dany was responsible for all of them Frankie also says that all
00:37:03
of the bodies were found within a threemile radius of Danny's home is that even true so I don't think so like not
00:37:11
if all the reporting is accurate and to be clear Frankie could be saying all of that because he wants people off his
00:37:17
back right after Britney's body is found jenning's residents are tired tired of finding their women Dead Tired of law
00:37:23
enforcement seeming to look the other way and they make enough noise that a multi- agency task force ends up getting
00:37:31
formed this task force is made up of other sheriff's offices State Police the Attorney General's office and the FBI so
00:37:39
some major third parties yes and you would think that this new multi- agency task force like propels this thing
00:37:47
forward essentially with outside influences like the FBI being on board but it doesn't the sheriff's office is
00:37:55
actually the one who oversees the TX task force question mark wait you would think the FBI would like or any of the
00:38:02
outside entities yeah and as you can imagine like this doesn't go well with literally anyone so while not a whole
00:38:10
lot is happening with the task force Frankie Rashard is again arrested in 2009 this time in connection to like
00:38:18
this theft ring that's going on his house gets raided and $3,500 in cash is taken and then subsequently goes missing
00:38:28
from evidence so without that money the case against Frankie falls apart the charges are dropped and the one
00:38:35
Sheriff's deputy is fired for her suspected role in the theft which yet again causes allegations of police
00:38:44
corruption like that's when everyone starts talking about it again I mean I feel like there's proof of what people
00:38:50
saying like I feel like there's proof that it's true and hi maybe we do need someone on the outside in charge of of
00:38:57
all of this yes but no one takes charge in time according to the Daily Advertiser on August 19th 7 victims
00:39:06
becomes eight a maintenance crew doing some mowing along I 10 in neighboring Acadia Parish discovers yet another
00:39:14
young woman's body just 10 miles away from Jennings but the victim is a Jennings local 26-year-old Nicole
00:39:21
gillery while there are some minor cuts on Nicole's face and above her eye the coroner concludes that she most likely
00:39:27
died from asphyxia roughly 2 days before she was found according to her family Nicole was afraid in the months and
00:39:35
possibly even years leading up to her death not just because other sex workers were turning up dead but because she
00:39:42
knew a lot of them and was possibly a witness to at least one of the murders cuz guess what just like how muggy was
00:39:51
one of the two sex workers with victim number one Loretta like the last people she was seen with before died well lo
00:39:59
and behold Nicole was the other one and she had apparently told her friends and family that she watched sty again mugg's
00:40:08
boyfriend kill Loretta this is like same as the muggy thing though if someone wanted to silence her they waited so
00:40:16
long to do it no I agree I don't think sty is ever seriously considered as a suspect in her death but I don't think
00:40:23
anyone really is but there are some odd connections Nicole has with the rest of the Jeff Davis 8 that I haven't really
00:40:32
talked about yet so another common thread in this web that we have other than Frankie Rashard is Nicole's cousin
00:40:41
Warden of the Jefferson Davis Parish jail this guy named Terry gillery and that would be the same jail where Danny
00:40:50
Works yep interesting now Terry's name first pops up with Loretta victim number one literally just hours before her body
00:40:59
was found Loretta's mom claims that Terry went to her house and asked her where Loretta was she said you know I
00:41:07
don't know and Terry's response was that he thought she was missing but except you got it that's weird because nobody
00:41:15
knew that she had vanished until her body was found right now Terry and Loretta definitely knew each other like
00:41:22
intimately allegedly one of Loretta's former cellmates at the jail said that she witnessed Terry and Loretta having
00:41:29
sex during one of the times that Loretta was incarcerated which no matter which way you slice it is legal because
00:41:35
inmates can't consent to having sex with an officer correct so there's connection
00:41:41
number one to victim number one he also pops back up with Crystal Zeno victim number six so she made a phone call
00:41:49
right before she vanished to Terry I'm not sure what they talked about and after that she was allegedly seen
00:41:55
getting into a white truck with a few guys who were known associates of Frankie Rashard so Terry wasn't the
00:42:03
first on the list of potential suspects for that reason alone in that case but like something he said after Crystal's
00:42:10
body was found was eerily similar to what he told Loretta's mom so after Crystal's remains were discovered but
00:42:17
before she was identified he went to Crystal's mom and said that he knew the body they found was her daughter and she
00:42:25
obviously asked him like how do you know that yeah and he says that he recognized
00:42:30
a tattoo on this like quote intimate part of her body so how did he know that tattoo was there that's the weird part
00:42:38
right like I don't and I don't even know what the tattoo was of or where exactly
00:42:42
it was her mom later says the only way he would have known it was there is if he'd been intimate with her and again
00:42:48
Crystal much like Loretta wasn't even reported missing yet Terry seems to know a lot more than everyone else and
00:42:56
allegedly during this conversation with Crystal's mother Terry said that he didn't kill her like by the way did
00:43:02
anyone suggest that no dude just like offered up that information randomly which that left Crystal's mom feeling
00:43:09
like all sorts of like not right about it yeah then there's this relationship with another victim which is a little
00:43:15
less concrete but he's got this reputation around town for helping the local sex workers out when they get in
00:43:21
trouble like they get arrested they get in a bind they call Terry and Terry will
00:43:26
get them out for information in return all eight of the victims were at one point or another giving police
00:43:34
information on the happenings in Jennings like in the criminal underworld known fact like nobody's questioning
00:43:41
that and Terry was one of the people who had built out this network of informants
00:43:46
which included some if not all of the Jeff Davis eight so it is possible that he would hear things first right like
00:43:54
knowing Loretta was missing or that c had been killed I mean it's definitely a possibility just like Danny Terry
00:44:00
himself isn't squeaky clean M so here you go remember that other case that I talked about where the coroner tried to
00:44:07
blow the whistle where like the guy got shot okay so the deputy who fired the shot that killed the man was Terry
00:44:13
gillery what and then remember when Frankie got in trouble but then like the money went missing the Char got dropped
00:44:20
okay so the deputy that got fired for maybe being connected to that the money going missing whatever that's Terry's
00:44:26
wife oh and as the warden of the jail Terry's eventually Accused by task force Witnesses of running it basically like a
00:44:34
brothel or at least it's being run like a brothel by other officers who he's in charge of like officers can come in
00:44:42
sexually assault inmates and get away scottf free and while he's never officially disciplined for anything a
00:44:50
civil suit is filed against a guard under Terry's command so in one of the few steps forward that the task force
00:44:58
actually makes Sheriff Ricky Edwards orders that all of the investigators on this case should submit DNA samples this
00:45:07
happens in 2009 so there's DNA uh so here's the thing I don't know nothing has been stated publicly about what they
00:45:16
would compare this to or if there's ever a sample in any of the cases that they've collected that they have a
00:45:21
profile against also something they've never said is like what they do with these
00:45:26
samples oh mhm so like cool whatever happens after they're like hey everyone needs to
00:45:32
give us their DNA it's been kept a secret literally nothing is released about the
00:45:37
results I'd like to assume if there was a match that there would be an arrest but and I'd like to assume that if there
00:45:47
were no matches we'd also want to say that part out loud too right yeah lots of Silence coming from that side but
00:45:54
after everyone gets swabbed for DNA what's so interesting is that the murders just stop oh the task force
00:46:02
stops investigating eventually sheriffs come and go rumors still fly accusations
00:46:08
are still levied against people one rumor has it that the murders were never properly investigated because a
00:46:13
congressman had spent time at the Buro Inn where many of the women worked out of and basically like investigating the
00:46:21
deaths might make things messy for someone in a public office and I think that's like the overarching theme of all
00:46:28
of this like the apathy were all of these women victims of the same killer I don't know in Ethan's book he describes
00:46:36
how rare it is for victims of a serial killer to all know each other now the caveat of that is in a town like
00:46:43
Jennings everyone does know everyone so if there was a serial killer and he's only operating in one area the chances
00:46:49
are really high that his victims are going to know each other probably know each other right but it's also possible
00:46:53
that these women were victims of separate Killers I mean we have stymy who was allegedly with Loretta the night
00:46:59
she died Ethan Brown States in his book that he thinks stymy was the one who killed her he also is on the list of
00:47:06
people who may have killed muggy and Nicole but any secrets that he might have kept he took to his grave because
00:47:12
he died in 2017 and then you have Danny Barry his name pops up when Britney's body is found and he was allegedly with
00:47:19
her for 2 days after anyone last saw her remember we got Frankie accusing him of
00:47:24
killing all of the women now Danny's not around anymore either he died of cancer
00:47:28
in 2010 and if you're keeping track that is a year after Nicole the final victim
00:47:35
there's a man everyone in town seems to be connected to as well and the guy who pointed his finger at a lot of other
00:47:42
people and that's Frankie Rashard who at one point had most of the Jeff Davis 8 Women working for him he was one of the
00:47:50
last people who saw Loretta and Whitney he was accused of killing Kristen but to
00:47:54
be clear Frankie has always always claimed his innocence and he died in 2020 so he's not around to ask anymore I
00:48:03
also think it's worth mentioning Terry gillery here as jail Warden cousin of victim number8 Nicole and he definitely
00:48:11
spoke with Crystal the night that she vanished and then there's those weird conversations with Loretta and Crystal's
00:48:16
moms that like were just bizarre yeah he's never been named a suspect and at the very minimum it's like maybe he just
00:48:25
has weird connections to this case like we actually he's the one person who's still alive we tried to reach him for a
00:48:30
comment he's still working in law enforcement he's he's actually he's not in Jennings anymore he's in a town over
00:48:36
so we left a message for his colleagues but like he never called us back and look maybe it's not any of them I mean
00:48:42
they're are rabbit holes upon rabbit holes that you can go down in this story if you want to Deep dive like I didn't
00:48:48
even get into the guy like that got some attention around Whitney's case like her
00:48:54
body was found by a man named Jamie who claimed that he saw her body on the road
00:48:59
from where he was driving past like on a nearby Highway it was like half a mile away literally it's physically not
00:49:05
possible based on where he said he was so that's weird and another man actually comes forward and says that Jaime's like
00:49:11
straight up lying according to this witness he says that he was out driving the back roads with Jamie the night
00:49:17
before like before she was quote unquote found and before Whitney's body even lit
00:49:22
up under the headlights while they're driving Jamie was already like swerving out of the way to avoid her so what does
00:49:28
that mean like who is he connected to in the web of all of this I even tried looking to see if there were any active
00:49:34
serial killers like in the relative vicinity of Jennings around 2005 to 2009 but all the known ones were either
00:49:43
caught before Loretta's death our first victim or they targeted men so either there is someone out there who hasn't
00:49:50
been caught or there are several people who are responsible for all eight deaths
00:49:56
and at least as of right now that's the prevailing school of thought a new sheriff of Jefferson Davis Parish was
00:50:02
recently elected in 2024 his name is Kyle MIRS and we tried reaching out to him too but as of the recording of this
00:50:10
episode he hasn't called or emailed us back but back when he was running for Sheriff he talked about bringing justice
00:50:16
to all eight murder victims and he called them all murder victims he promised to keep the cases open and have
00:50:23
the evidence tested again what evidence I don't know but he made a lot of promises that I hope he keeps and
00:50:32
delivers on M the longer these cases go unsolved the harder it's going to be to see the light at the end of the tunnel
00:50:39
but Secrets like this don't stay Secrets forever someone knows what happened to these women cuz that's just the nature
00:50:46
of a small town everyone knows everyone's business and it just takes the right person or the right people to
00:50:52
come forward and listen that might be you so if you have any information about the deaths of Loretta chasson Ernestine
00:51:01
Patterson Kristen Lopez Whitney duah Crystal Zeno lonia muggy Brown Britney Gary or Nicole gillery you can call the
00:51:11
Jefferson Davis Paris sheriff's office at 337 27581 188 or you can contact them online
00:51:20
at jdpso.org Crim tips you can find all the source material for this episode on our website
00:51:33
crimejunkiepodcast.con and be sure to follow us on Instagram @ crime junkie podcast and be sure to subscribe to our
00:51:39
channel to make sure you don't miss a single video episode you can find us every week on the crime junkie podcast
00:51:44
feed wherever you get your [Music] podcasts and