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Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast

February 19, 2024 / 01:05:30

This episode covers the case of serial killer Ronald Dominique, discussing his methods, victims, and the investigation leading to his arrest. Key topics include the discovery of victims, the public's reaction, and the challenges faced by law enforcement.

Elena and Ash share their thoughts on the chaotic atmosphere in their podcast studio while discussing Dominique's crimes. They emphasize the importance of recognizing the humanity of the victims, who were often marginalized men.

The episode details the timeline of Dominique's murders, including the discovery of victims like Kurt Cunningham and Wayne Smith, and the public's dismissive attitude towards them. The hosts express outrage at victim-blaming sentiments and highlight the emotional toll on the victims' families.

As the investigation unfolds, the hosts discuss the difficulties faced by detectives in connecting the victims and gathering evidence. They also touch on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the investigation and how Dominique exploited the chaos.

The episode concludes with Dominique's eventual arrest and confession, leading to his conviction for multiple murders. Elena and Ash reflect on the case's significance and the need for justice for the victims.

TLDR

Elena and Ash discuss Ronald Dominique's serial killings, victim treatment, and the investigation leading to his arrest and conviction.

Episode

1:05:30
00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid woohoo woohooo I don't know why I woohoo
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just felt R you're in a good mood because we realized we're painting the walls in the Pod LA and it's King us oh
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mama we're not just painting the walls we're overhaul in the Pod lab and we're pretty excited about it yeah the Pod lab
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got like a little dorm room like I we just we we were in a state and we were like it's fine now I
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feel like we're both I'm like elevating My Style game and I feel like I see the same in you oh thank you yeah not that
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your your style game needed elevating but but it's it just feels you know it's k chaotic it's out of control uhhuh so
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we decided last week we're like [ __ ] that let's make this our tranquil beautiful Tran full full of tful full of
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TR I don't know I'm tired I didn't sleep all last night but tranquil just like you know like VI room that we can just
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face all the [ __ ] head on but yeah we're excited so I think we're like a little like excited a
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little Punchy I know I'm hyper fixating on this until it's done but the other thing and I know you guys
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have like cuz we record these like um stupidly in advance um like way ahead of time so sometimes we can't be like as on
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top of things you know that happen in the world as much as we wish we could we could but we can't uh and so I posted I
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don't remember even what it was was it a couple weeks ago that I did this yeah I
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was on vac so it was like two weeks ago it was like two weeks ago I posted a Tik
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Tok where I watched saltburn finally I took ashes I'm so happy cuz I really didn't think I was going to get a chance
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to do it and I was like H it's not really high on the priority list like I don't know if I really even want to
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watch it it's hard when you have kids because your kids literally your children cannot walk into the room while
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you're watching that movie and I can't we can't watch movies unless it's in that night like when the kids are asleep
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that's the only time John and I can watch and that is a long one to sign on to and it's long so one night I don't
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know what it was oh it was John wanted to watch a certain football game and you said o no he was like you know what I'm
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going to go in the other room and watch this football game so that I think I was
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like stressed out about something and he was like I you know what you watch watch
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something watch your New York Housewives or watch something like a horror movie and just like zone out I'm going to
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watch football in there and he was putting something together so I was like you know what I'm going to try saltburn
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and I just like put it on time this is the hour and I I filmed a reaction video I was dying at it I loved it that's the
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thing I think I loved it I think I like it I love it I still am like like I I don't dislike it and I think I might
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love it but it's one of those movies where you're like how did I feel about I will say I so there obviously there's
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the scenes that everybody knows about the scenes I was like all right like they they were shocking some of them but
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like oh yeah at the end of it I was like wow I loved that movie and I did not see
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this coming like I am so glad that you brought it up to me and I'm glad that finally decided to listen I was I was
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like pretty positive that you were really going to like it and like see it for what it was it's one of those movies
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where I don't think I've ever seen another movie like that no it gave me weirdly it's a mishmash of so many
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different movies for me and I can't pinpoint them all I saw guy on Tik Tok saying that hint of Cruel Intentions in
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there the guy on Tik Tok said that it's it gave me that for sure I had that it also gave me like a little bit of the
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skulls energy seen it brought back an era of movies for me that I was like oo like I'm into
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this I liked I liked the whole thing I was in beginning to end yeah no I I think I I think I've decided that I
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really really like I felt bad for Oliver in the beginning oh yeah you do I was shocked by Oliver at one point like I'm
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not like I'm not one of the girlies who's like in boyes who's like an Oliver over I respect it I get it yeah and I'll
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tell you I got it in one scene when he's in the TU when he's in the suit the tux
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the mom a drink in his hand i'm was like I get it girls that's exact it's so funny that that's the scene for you
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because that's the scene where he you can see that he's a pure psychopath yep that was the scene I was like I get it
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the rest was when you were like yeah I'm into it yeah and then by the end you're
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kind of like wow okay uh go after what you want I guess yeah you know manifest you know manifest I was like [ __ ] that's
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that's another level you guys cuz I saw everybody being like I just want to hear
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you talk about it now and I was like I got to tell you I loved it now I want to see like the pretty ones or something
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like that Emma Stone isn't it I do not want to see that I have heard that that is I again you want to watch it by all
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means you're like [ __ ] you I don't want to like disparage people from watching
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movies because like it might not be for me like I'm not one of those people I don't know anything about it I've just
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heard a lot of people talking about it there's the the idea behind that movie is a little distressing to me oh is it
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yeah it's it's not it's not my we'll talk we'll talk later but like I'm curious to see how everybody else
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thought about it CU maybe I'm you know it's the idea didn't appeal to me but maybe somebody else will like it a lot
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of people have been recommending it to me yeah see I've had people tell me not to see really yeah cuz they said it was
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really like disturbing oh the the idea behind it okay all right I'll look it up later and then we'll we'll discuss from
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there yeah it's strange there's a lot of strange movies coming out right now yeah
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but you know well there's just apparently there I don't know apparently apparently I don't know like a lot about
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it but I want to look more into it but there's energy like that just like like with the like planets and everything
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that we've never experienced before like in this entire span of the earth I believe it cuz I'm feeling some type of
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way right now yeah I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing it doesn't feel bad to me it feels like fresh like
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it feels like I'm like clean it all out clean it all out and I'm I'm let's go I'm so happy about that for you I have
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the worst end of the world anxiety that I have ever had in my entire life no I'm
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like let's go until the asteroid hits us cuz yeah there's been plenty of times that you I mean just go online and
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you'll be like wow asteroid come and get us like it's just there's plenty of times where there's plenty of times
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where John has been like we deserve the asteroid yeah we we but that makes my anxiety worse if I
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think about that too hard that's why you got to just like just live you know get
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your get your coffee and slive make your pod lab the way you want to make it you
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know all that [ __ ] Fu it but you know we are in part three of a case right now
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yes let's get to it and we've had we've we've chitty chatti and now chitty chat but the good news is we are in part
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three and he gets apprehended he's going to get got [ __ ] yeah yeah we're F we're
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going to get to the point where he gets got I love it and when we last left you I was talking about how they needed a
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[ __ ] task force for this like I and people were screaming for it I mean even investigators were trying to get it done
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and it just wasn't getting done right finally they got a task force good so as state officials work to assemble their
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team Ronald Dominique he was back out on the streets this guy would not stop even
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when they were breathing down his neck he wouldn't stop that's SC on April 28th 2005 less than 2 weeks
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after after the discovery of August Watkins a farmer discovered the partially clothed decomposing body of a
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23-year-old man thank God his name was Kurt Cunningham and he was found in a drainage ditch about 50 yards from the
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side of highway 307 now according to the investigators it seemed like his body had been lying face down in the muddy
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water in this ditch for about 5 days wow and this made it very difficult to determine a cause of death yeah and a
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time of death it was it really messed with stuff and as a result of the time lapse and decomposition the coroner
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could only kind of speculate about the cause of death and they thought it was asphixiation which fits right into the
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the pattern but he couldn't be completely certain and he felt that it had likely happened within the previous
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couple of weeks but otherwise like all the other scenes there really wasn't any other apparent trauma to the body like
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it was very rare that there would be another trauma to the body that was obvious upon first glance um they didn't
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find any bullet wounds no punctures which again not likely in the other ones either so like Ronald Dominique's other
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victims Kurt Cunningham kind of bounced around is how it was described he bounced around from home to home that's
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sad he been arrested a few times you know just for like you know pretty minor offenses like nothing crazy disturbing
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the peace kind of thing I mean like just things like whatever and at the time of
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his death he was living in Tibido the small town where Ronald Dominique had been born and raised actually okay now
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in the Press Kurt Cunningham was yet more proof that a serial killer was praying on men in the Homa area yeah
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they hadn't at this time really put together like the larger picture that there were actually more victims than
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they even knew at this point which is wild cuz they are all killed the same way yes and there's so many there so
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many now in miday the front page of the shreport times featured mug shots of Lee
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Rett Cunningham Woods Barnett Watkins and Jones and they were above a headline that said serial killer Theory floats
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around case o the article described the similarities between the cases all noting of course that the victims all
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LED what they described as high-risk Lifestyles and quote hung out on the streets and you know how we feel about
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that they made sure to include quote on average they were involved with drugs in
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some way and they generally were know to trade sexual favors for food shelter rides alcohol or other
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drugs they also all had circulatory systems and brains and souls and people who love them but yeah much all the
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other stuff let's focus on the [ __ ] that doesn't matter in this situation because
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they were killed exactly like that's what drives me crazy it's like whether they were in the wrong place at the
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wrong time doing whatever they were doing yep doesn't matter they were killed they don't deserve to be killed
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and it's I don't care what they were doing they're not even they're not even publicizing in it away of like if you
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are involved in this kind of scene like look out like like they're not PR they're doing it in a shameful way
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exactly it's basically to be like toast blame like it's just like I guess that's
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what happens and it's like no like you said if they had said it like here's what they had been doing but they are
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people right they have people who love them they no way deserve this for or asked for this to happen to them but we
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are sharing this in case you happen to be in a similar situation right or you run with similar crowds look out please
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just be more aware of who you're interacting with because we care that everybody stays alive like that's
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there's a way to do that there is so despite the not so subtle inference of victim blaming there the article did
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also luckily attempt to emphasize the more human costs of what was happening here that's good um Kurt Cunningham's
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Father Richard Cunningham shared photographs of his son with the reporter and he acknowledged his son's mistakes
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which makes me sad that he even had to you know like it's not about that it's not about any mistakes he made in his
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life um what he said was quote Kurt was on a path and was too young to wake up but he was a victim not a criminal he
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didn't try to put his problems off on nobody and wouldn't ask for help unless he was really bad off and it's like
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don't worry like don't worry about that like who is a decent person should give a [ __ ] about that and it's like I hate
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that you had to say that like thank you for saying that but I hate that you had to say that right it should just be like
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this is the kind of person he was yeah this was my son and this could be yours and this is what he meant to us yeah but
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a quote from and this one's going to I mean when I tell you the rage when you hear this oh no a quote from a local
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Homa resident easily summed up the public sentiment around the murders at the time and their effect of on feelings
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of safety in the area area they said with so much audacity oh no this resident who is not named quote I don't
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see any Panic here whoever it is attacking men who are involved in drugs and prostitution it's almost like
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somebody's trying to get the trash off the street that's weird cuz they didn't come and get you so I am exactly I'm
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without words can you imagine that's the most callous [ __ ] I have ever heard in
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my like that's be [ __ ] ashamed of yourself grass callous cold somebody's trying to take the trash out essentially
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by killing innocent gave me chills and like a that just like chilled my blood because who I'm sorry are you a [ __ ]
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murderer like Jesus Christ like it's not like there's a guy on the side of the street who's like assaulting and trying
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to murder children and then Ronald Dominique came by and was like I'm going to take care of you yeah like nope that
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that that it's not not that it's these are just men just human beings a lot of them were trying get sober just existing
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had gotten sober exactly a lot of them had kids jobs like significant others they all had friends they all had family
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they all had Parents they all most of them were like like you said working jobs and like really taking care of
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their [ __ ] and also it's like they were people yeah at the end of the day they
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weren't shitty people you should even make these arguments these are just kind people that just are existing and how
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would you feel if anyone in your family had that happen to them that's the thing
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that person I want to be like what makes you right any less trash what what is it
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about you that you'll sit there and on record call somebody trash does that make you less trash to me you are the
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one who seem like trash there like that's the trashiest [ __ ] you could ever say and also name them name you want to
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go on the record and say some [ __ ] [ __ ] anonymously no like that's so [ __ ] up
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and knowing that their family members could see that and had to hear that somebody's mother someone's father could
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read that their kid is their child who's been brutally raped and murdered and left out on the street is trash anyway
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so it doesn't matter a baby that they held in their arms one one day oh God they're like putting it like that that's
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the thing and it's like and hear like a grown ass piece of [ __ ] be like well they're trash anyways so somebody took
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them it's like [ __ ] you you didn't know any of these people you're not perfect
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who the [ __ ] are you [ __ ] off that's what I hate I hate like the the high horse nobody's perfect no we've all done
00:15:38
[ __ ] that we shouldn't have done we've all said [ __ ] we shouldn't have done we've all had a trash phase in our life
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we've all had a past everyone's [ __ ] up I don't know anyone who has just sailed through life without making a
00:15:49
mistake absolutely not and anybody who claims they have okay and certain somebody who has sailed through life and
00:15:54
hasn't made a mistake isn't stupid enough to say on the record that's other people are trash and they just haven't
00:16:00
made it yet everybody everybody makes mistakes and everybody has those days and it's all right it's all right of
00:16:05
course it is you [ __ ] up that's life try to fix it try to move on don't do it again like it's just you know what I
00:16:11
mean like you're trash for saying on record you're not a piece of trash because you've made some mistakes in
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your life so if you're listening right now and you feel like you've made mistakes in your life you're not [ __ ]
00:16:21
trash no you've made mistakes just try try to pick yourself up try to move on yeah I used to call myself
00:16:29
guess what I'm not trash you're not trash I'm elegant you are eleg I was going to say you're eleg all
00:16:36
alanza babies but you're doing just fine okay so don't let anyone call you trash
00:16:40
cuz you [ __ ] up once in a while okay everyone [ __ ] up so basically anyway just I just pissed me off no I don't
00:16:47
blame you so the public sentiment around the murders of marginalized men may have
00:16:52
been casual and dismissive at best but behind the scenes at this moment Detective on the inter agency task force
00:17:01
were really going nose to the grindstone for this case they were behind the scenes really working on it that's good
00:17:08
um according to detective Dennis thron I believe it is the idea was that every time there was a killing the evidence
00:17:15
would go to the same lab take the same path and we do the same core investigative work so they were really
00:17:21
trying to make sure nothing got [ __ ] up here right still they didn't have a lot to work with there was not a lot
00:17:26
left at these scenes there was really nothing they could go on which is really crazy when you think about how many
00:17:32
people he's murdered at this point and he's been able to stay and like how personal the manner is in which he kills
00:17:39
these people like he's I hate to say this but like right up on them like squeezing life out of
00:17:45
them personal things you can do like fingerprint like a it's not like this is like the 1800s
00:17:53
when it's like we're not up at like we're in the early 2000s right now yeah at this point we've got the DNA I mean
00:17:59
it's still in its infy infancy really you would think there's something but I'll wait yeah I'll wait don't worry
00:18:06
unfortunately that didn't change much when the next victim was discovered less than two months later no on July 2nd
00:18:13
2005 the fully clothed body of 28-year-old Alonzo Hogan was discovered in a cane field off Highway 306 in St
00:18:21
Charles Parish according to the coroner he had been raped and strangled but there was no additional evidence on the
00:18:28
body or at the scene to conclusively link Hogan to any of the other bodies either that was one of the other issues
00:18:34
they were working with Not only was there nothing to connect these bodies to a killer there wasn't anything to
00:18:40
connect these bodies to each other interesting to say that like these were killed by this these people were killed
00:18:47
by the same person other than the Strang that strangulation there was no physical
00:18:51
evidence to say this was the same person or this was you know and they were in so
00:18:56
many different places that it was hard hard to connect them cuz they were probably sitting there like how can this
00:19:00
guy be everywhere exactly so this was putting detectives absolutely no closer to catching this killer and in the
00:19:07
absence of evidence leading to the Killer's identity detectives continued working to connect those victims they
00:19:13
were like if we can't find him right now we got to connect them and maybe it'll lead to him cuz there's got to be
00:19:19
something here but that work was interrupted by yet another murder just two months after the discovery of Alonzo
00:19:27
Hogan's body this time in terab Bon Parish I hope I said that right I looked up the pronunciation I bet hopefully I
00:19:35
it's like teron ter oh you I know exactly where you learned the pronunciation from the French guy my guy
00:19:42
I can tell no I love that guy so on August 16th um the body and this one is so young the body of
00:19:50
17-year-old Wayne Smith was discovered in a drainage ditch off Bayou Grand Caillou like Kurt Cunningham Wayne Smith
00:19:58
had been in the water for several days oh no uh this made his identity and the cause of death a big challenge for
00:20:04
investigators and technicians with the coroner's office um it kind of seems like this was on purpose and like
00:20:11
Dominique was trying to [ __ ] with the investigators in the coroner like it seems like this wasn't an accident that
00:20:15
he was doing this he was doing it intentionally that makes sense eventually detectives were able to
00:20:19
luckily use dental records and an image of Wayne Smith's tattoo to confirm his identity but the cause of death which
00:20:27
they did believe was strangulation was officially listed as undetermined cuz they just couldn't confirm it detectives
00:20:35
interviewed friends and neighbors all of whom were absolutely baffled that this happened to way 17 you're whole life
00:20:43
ahead of you and they were baffled as to what could have possibly LED Wayne to maybe join the company of what would end
00:20:50
up being his killer and none had seen or heard anything that would lead to an answer like this does doesn't make sense
00:20:56
that he would just go with someone like now at the time of his death Wayne Smith
00:21:01
was a senior uh at ellender Memorial High School and despite having a little bit of a history of Behavioral issues at
00:21:08
one point he had begun taking his future much more seriously as of late so again
00:21:14
everybody makes mistakes he had made his little mistakes and he had done it when
00:21:18
he was young and he was already in his senior year already taking steps on the right path that's that's a pretty big
00:21:26
thing Smith's mother told reps quote he was taking welding and had totally changed his life over I didn't even get
00:21:32
to see the body before Wayne's burial because of what that man did to his body and then she said I buried a
00:21:39
box oh my God that's unthinkably horrific that cuts so deep I feel so horrible your 17-year-old child and
00:21:48
whoever whoever wakes up one day and thinks that that's going to happen to them like that's going to be your news
00:21:54
at the end of the day could you couldn't fathom that and just the fact that like
00:21:56
she didn't get to say goodbye yeah yeah and it buried a box oh my God that I like that makes me want to cry now
00:22:02
despite the lack of physical evidence detectives working on the task force had started finally making connections
00:22:09
between some of the victims and this was starting to finally create a larger picture about how this serial killer was
00:22:16
operating several of the victims were picked up what they found they they ended up finding out that several of
00:22:21
them were picked up at the Sugar Bowl Motel which is a place known to police for several reasons okay and this we all
00:22:28
know like places like that yeah of course and this led to investigators to theorize that their killer was likely
00:22:33
offering something to lure their victims into the vehicle they were thinking either drugs or money or something else
00:22:40
right that's what the investigators were thinking they had started making what felt like real progress at this point um
00:22:46
in the summer of 2005 five but then remember this timeline is the summer of 2005 so everything got sidelined very
00:22:55
unexpectedly by Hurricane C on August 29th one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit the g Coast so
00:23:05
remember this was still happening and Ronald Dominique was still terrorizing Louisiana while residents were dealing
00:23:14
with the trauma and Devastation of Katrina it's like how did he even manage to get
00:23:20
around his entire Community is dealing with one of the worst things you could ever deal with just Devastation yeah and
00:23:29
he is traumatizing them even further like it's just wow it's beyond it's beyond unbelievable so as law enforcement and
00:23:39
other state and federal organizations across Louisiana work to clean up the physical social and psychological damage
00:23:46
of Katrina Ronald Dominique used the chaos to his Advantage yeah he quickly ended up picking up another victim he
00:23:54
killed 40-year-old homar resident chrille to investigators chrisville was just one more name on a seemingly
00:24:02
endless list of missing people in the wake of Katrina that's the other thing a lot of people were missing so many
00:24:08
people ended up going missing and he used this because you don't know where they went right you're you're blaming it
00:24:14
on Hurricane Katrina when it's actually guyd Dominique but that's not the only reason that he wasn't chrisville wasn't
00:24:22
immediately recognized as one of Dominique's victims he also didn't really fit the pattern
00:24:28
as much as the other people did he didn't have any criminal hisory to speak of he had stable employment he had very
00:24:34
close and maintained very close relationships with all his family and friends which a lot of the other um
00:24:40
victims had close relationships with friends and family yeah but some of them there was like a a little bit of a
00:24:46
pattern where it was like an In-N-Out kind of thing gone through hiccups and whatnot this one just seemed a little
00:24:52
more stable in that s in that part of his life yeah he's also a little bit older than he was a little old
00:24:59
but still chille was one of Dom's victims his storm ravaged remains were found in mid October when a mid- October
00:25:07
wow when a farmer in Napoleonville spotted his skull in a field off Highway One what the rest of his body was
00:25:15
discovered a short time later in a drainage ditch because he had been through the storm like he had killed him
00:25:21
and left his body to be ravaged by Hurricane it's incredible that he was ever even found it really is like wow
00:25:29
now like the more recent victims the state of the remains made it impossible for investigators to determine the cause
00:25:35
of crisil's death but the best the coroner could say was that he died sometime in September wow now according
00:25:42
to family members dille was last seen at his mother's house in early September when he'd stopped by to help clean out
00:25:49
her refrigerator after Katrina but he hadn't been seen since he left her house that afternoon oh my God now as the body
00:25:56
count continued to ride at this point investigators on the task force were reaching a point of frustrated
00:26:02
exhaustion cuz every time they take a step forward it's like 15 Steps back right and every time they take a step
00:26:08
forward he kills someone else and it just adds another layer to it and it was made worse by those higher up on the
00:26:15
command chain demanding closure of this case so they're feeling pressure now yeah and sometimes that's not going to
00:26:20
help no and they were fairly certain they knew how the killer was getting his victims to go with them for the most
00:26:26
part and so many of them showed signs of having been bound but there was no other
00:26:32
evidence of a struggle which is what was a little confusing to them at first because they're like they're not
00:26:38
struggling seems like they're going willingly why are they bound yeah like what's going on like where does that
00:26:43
come into play like if there's and so they started begging the question like if there was a possibility that they
00:26:49
were being willingly tied up why were so many people willingly agreeing to be tied up by this person like what what
00:26:55
was he doing to get them in that position seems a little out of the ordinary no it does so as detectives
00:27:01
pondered how the killer seemed to subdue his victims with such ease is it just because he's like a really big guy no he
00:27:08
has a way of doing it okay um as this was happening recent paroi John Banning was relaying an incredibly strange story
00:27:16
to his parole officer his parole officer was Tom Lambert who also happened to be
00:27:21
part of the serial killer task force oh wow now according to Banning he had been
00:27:25
walking down the highway when he said a white guy in a pickup truck pulled to the side of the road and waved him over
00:27:31
to the driver's side window creepy the guy offered to give Banning a ride and even offered a beer but the weirdest
00:27:37
part was when he pulled out a picture of a partially nude woman and asked how' you like to [ __ ] this attractive white
00:27:43
girl what the [ __ ] Banning said and this is all according to Banning by the way
00:27:48
yeah Banning said sure but as soon as they got back to the guy's trailer he said everything felt wrong and I believe
00:27:55
this like I believe Banning story yeah um he said said everything felt wrong immediately okay and he said there were
00:28:00
old clothes and Christmas decorations everywhere even though Christmas was several months away what the [ __ ] and
00:28:06
when the guy said he was going to need to tie Banning up before the woman arrived he was like um I don't know
00:28:14
about this and he was like n I'm out and he ran out of the trailer cuz he was like I don't no like not happening with
00:28:20
me so he said he ran towards the highway where he hitched a ride back home completely unaware he had just escaped
00:28:26
one of the serial killers in American history holy so what Ronald Dominique seems to be doing according to Banning
00:28:33
and it does fit why some of some of these men that's the other thing not all cuz there are some of these men who have
00:28:41
family members mothers other family members who have come out and said and I want to respect that that they've said
00:28:47
there's no way that like they either had a significant other yeah or you know there was no way they would have agreed
00:28:54
to this proposition so I want to be clear about that that this seems like it could have been a way that some of these
00:29:00
happened not all but this is not a blanket over everybody like I'm sure he had different ways of doing this with
00:29:06
each victim to make it work for him but this seems like it could have been true for Banning I think that is the Reon to
00:29:14
lie about this he was just like this happened to me like you just said it does account for some of the exactly
00:29:20
cases so and again he has no reason to lie about it right like why would he make this up and why would it fit so
00:29:25
well and not every victim was bound not every victim was bound but most of them were bound okay okay um now after
00:29:32
Banning relayed the story to his parole officer he offered to show Lambert where
00:29:37
the man lived in Bayou Blue okay and that's the other thing he doesn't just say the story he brings the receipts so
00:29:46
and eventually what we find out is yes Ronald Dominique did use this technique sometimes not always once again but
00:29:54
sometimes he did now a few weeks later lamber ber called Dennis Thor thoron and told him the story about the man in the
00:30:01
trailer which prompted detective thoron and Don berson to take a trip out to the
00:30:06
property when they'd arrived berson popped open the mailbox and flipped through the mail the letters all seemed
00:30:12
to be addressed to a woman but then he reached she reached an envelope addressed to Ronald J Dominique mhm now
00:30:20
a few days later detectives brought Ronald Dominique in for questioning this the closest we've
00:30:26
gotten here yeah they' explained they received a complaint from Banning but Dominique brushed it off telling berson
00:30:31
and Thorton quote I'm gay tying up JN was just part of a sex game nothing more than that okay to further demonstrate
00:30:40
his innocence Ronald willingly agreed to allow technicians to take a cheek swab for DNA oh once they'd finished
00:30:47
questioning Dominique the detectives gave him a ride home and thanked him for his cooperation later that afternoon it
00:30:53
occurred to Dennis Thorton that while they had checked and rechecked the sex offender Reg registry several times at
00:30:58
this point they'd only checked for individuals who'd been convicted of sex crimes and thoron checked it again I I
00:31:06
know where we're going if you remember way back I think it was part one this time he looked at arrests for which
00:31:13
there were no conviction and he found exactly what he was looking for Ronald Dominique's arrests for sexual assault
00:31:20
in the 90s he had several now investigators on the task force were fairly certain this was their
00:31:28
guy they were like this is it they just felt it but if they were going to get a conviction they needed to you know they
00:31:33
needed more than a few suspicious coincidences and a complaint of a near Miss sexual assault from a man on perole
00:31:40
at this point to be honest like un wasn't going to hold up in court to be quite honest and they set about digging
00:31:46
into his background and trying to build a bigger case but although they were working on behalf of an inter agency
00:31:52
task force they were still working across the lines of several different jurisdic itions which made it way slower
00:31:59
and more daunting than it probably could should have been so complicated now while thoron and berson tried to find
00:32:06
connections between Dominique and the victims Ronald Dominique was back out on the streets so he knows that they're
00:32:14
this man got brought in for questioning and did a cheek swab he knows they're on
00:32:19
to him wild and he still went back out he was confident that he was many steps ahead of the investigators and there
00:32:26
wasn't any danger and just like he's like an animal he's so [ __ ] bold that way like he is an animal you're right
00:32:33
he's like uncontrollable he's unhinged that's really on November 5th 2005 Ronald was out reading meters around
00:32:40
because remember he still has a job of course he's a meter reader he was reading so he was out reading meters
00:32:46
around La forch Parish when he ran into 21-year-old Nick pelgrin that afternoon pelgrin was in need of money and had
00:32:53
signed up for a some day labor um which which is what had brought him to this house that uh Ronald Dominique was
00:33:00
reading a meter for in the first place confident in his approach Dominique offered money in exchange for sex to
00:33:06
which according to him pelgrin agreed but first he said he needed to finish up his day of work the two men made
00:33:14
arrangements for Dominique to return later that afternoon and he did and returned several day hours later and he
00:33:20
drove Nick pelig back to the trailer on Dominique's sister's property that he was staying on the fact that he's also
00:33:26
staying on his s do her property like what 4 days later a truck driver discovered Nick pel's fully closed body
00:33:35
in a remote wooded area in lach Parish just south of Tibido like all the others before him pelgrin had been raped and
00:33:43
strangled and there was no additional evidence left at the scene wow the discovery was a serious blow to thoron
00:33:50
and berson because they had hoped their careful strategic interview of Dominique
00:33:55
would be enough to at least least put something in his head to make him stop looking for his next victim like they
00:34:02
were hoping they had planted in his head like we on to you buddy like don't make
00:34:06
any stupid moves so they felt a little like they they felt like guilt they were like we wanted to stop him before he
00:34:13
could do this which of course it's not their fault like need strong case now thoron called the lab to find out at
00:34:20
this point cuz he's so mad and he's like [ __ ] like somebody else just lost their
00:34:23
life like what the [ __ ] so detective thoron called the lab and was like where are you in the process of analyzing that
00:34:29
DNA that was taken from Dominique because even though he gave it willingly people are huers is a thing and maybe he
00:34:36
did it thinking he's indestructible yeah so after demanding a rush on the analysis the DNA sample came back as a
00:34:44
match to the hairs found on Oliver Le Banks's body okay seven years earlier I knew there had to be a hair I knew it
00:34:54
but but it was a mitochondrial match okay meaning it could easily have been explained away as being from a relative
00:35:03
of Dominique's mitochondrial DNA we've talked about this before but I think it's been a long time since we talked
00:35:09
about it yeah it's ringing a bell but mitochondrial DNA is inherited from your maternal side so any person whose direct
00:35:16
whose direct maternal line intersects with your own could be a match to mitochondria DNA so it involves a lot of
00:35:23
people yeah thoron and berson knew this way be enough for conviction they knew in their heart this is the guy of and
00:35:30
this is proving it but they need even more but legally this isn't going to hold up but it was enough to convince
00:35:36
the higher ups to commit more resources to the investigation because they were getting more getting hotter on the trail
00:35:42
no soon after Ronald Dominique was being monitored 24/7 nice and investigators were determined to catch him before he
00:35:50
could kill again the Press immediately latched on to the murder of Nick pelgrin correctly assuming him to be yet another
00:35:59
victim of the serial killer that was stalking the Bayou pel's mother on the other hand was steadfast in her belief
00:36:05
that her son had not been killed by the serial killer but had in fact been murdered by some of his friends quote
00:36:11
unquote what to whom he owed money for drugs oh no his mother Veronica said quote they were all on drugs they all
00:36:19
did drugs together they did everything in the book together oh she was very angry with investigators for not
00:36:25
believing her when she said it was these friends who did it and if she really believed that then I get why she was
00:36:30
frustrated she was like you're going the wrong way again there was also a lot in
00:36:34
this investigation being held close to the chest so she also didn't have all the information to work with on her side
00:36:41
that we have right now with the benefit of hide and sight right so just like remember that and she had obvious reason
00:36:47
to believe otherwise she knew more about Nick pelgrin than we did and she she knew more about her son and less about
00:36:53
the investigation than we know so it's like you know you can see why she got frustrated absolutely now it's unclear
00:36:58
how aware Ronald Dominique was of the police like intense police surveillance and scrutiny that he was under at this
00:37:05
moment but it's very likely he had some idea because he suddenly stopped all illegal activities for almost a year wow
00:37:13
a whole [ __ ] year a whole year detectives on the task force used this time to increase the speed with which
00:37:20
the evidence was being processed and analyzed thank goodness cuz they were like finally we get a to actually focus
00:37:27
on the evidence and like get it going we like and they were running cuz they were
00:37:31
like we don't know when he's going to suddenly crack and do it again so we got to get this [ __ ] in yeah in that time
00:37:37
another mitochondrial DNA match was made this time to the seamen collected from Angel mahia's body in 1999 okay boom
00:37:47
that's something right there now that we have two mitochondrial DNA matches it's
00:37:50
like that's at least something mhm so Dominique's resistance to the urges driving him him to kill finally did fail
00:37:58
him on October 15th 2006 he picked up 27-year-old Christopher sutterfield on the side of the road in h and uh where
00:38:07
are the police not sure how this happened not sure everything was the same uh sutterfield had been discovered fully
00:38:17
closed he had ligature marks on his wrists and neck and he' been raped and strangled before being dumped in a
00:38:23
drainage ditch off Highway 69 in southern bville Parish I don't know if they had eased up on the surveillance
00:38:30
because they were trying to like focus on the evidence and he had gone a year without doing anything so that maybe
00:38:36
they were easing back thinking he knows we're on to him so like I don't know I can't for sure say how this occurred
00:38:44
it's that's but it's awful that it occurred um that was the only difference was that OB obviously Dominique was
00:38:52
becoming more conscious of the risks because he had driven in this case more than 2 hours Northwest to Iberville
00:38:59
Parish in order to dump Christopher's body what the [ __ ] so he was obviously he was he was he knew what was going on
00:39:07
otherwise despite the considerable distance investigators immediately handed the case over to the task force
00:39:13
that's good who made the difficult decision that they were going to arrest Dominique rather than wait for a nuclear
00:39:19
DNA match that might never turn up and how many more people have to die before you get that thing and they were like we
00:39:25
can either wait for that nulear DNA to like really nail him or we can arrest him now and like hope for the best and
00:39:31
hope that we'll get a confession out of him and it's like we got to stop them you got to we your options luckily they
00:39:37
went with arrest because they were like we can't let them keep killing people like this is it's getting out of hand so
00:39:42
many people we're up to like over 20 AR we God it's unbelievable now while Thornton and berson worked to get an
00:39:49
arrest warrant for Ronald Dominique he was actually having a falling out with his sister who'd grown tired of the
00:39:55
police surveillance and asked him to leave her property without anywhere else to park his trailers and nowhere else to
00:40:01
stay Ronald found a room in a single room o occupancy in h this place was somewhere typically relied on by oil rig
00:40:10
workers and other short-term renters it was just somewhere you need to stay on the way somewhere else it was Ronald's
00:40:16
sister who actually directed detective thoron and berson to her brother's new address when they knocked on her door to
00:40:23
serve the warrant sister no you can go find him yeah and having to deal with that like and not and obviously not
00:40:30
knowing exactly what was going on yeah now further complicating matters someone had leaked the information about the
00:40:36
arrest to the Press who were already at Ronald's sister's house when the detectives arrived and followed them to
00:40:44
the place where he was actually staying right now fortunately Ronald went willingly and quietly with Detective
00:40:49
thoron and berson who marched him out of the building in front of a horde of reporters all shouting questions and
00:40:56
snapping photos as they put him in the back of a car now in the interview room Dominique appeared calm and confident at
00:41:03
first as thoron and berson began the interrogation process he thinks he's a hundred steps ahead he's not just the
00:41:09
fact that he gave that cheek swabble tells you that they had arrested him on warrants for the murders of Oliver Le
00:41:15
Banks and Manuel Reed so Thorton's plan was to keep the conversation to those murders only and hope that in discussing
00:41:23
those that Dominique would reveal other information about other victims like accidentally MH so Ronald told
00:41:31
detectives that he'd met Oliver Le banks at a French Quarter gay bar and said Le
00:41:36
Banks head quote wanted to fool around now remember this is coming from Ronald Dominique yeah so we was a first class
00:41:44
monster the highest order and a piece of [ __ ] yep so whatever comes out of his
00:41:49
mouth take it with a big old grain of salt the largest grain you could possibly find now so Dominique is
00:41:55
claiming that all Oliver Le Banks approached him I doubt that I no no no no no for almost a fact it didn't happen
00:42:04
Dominique claimed it was entirely common for this to happen in the quarter you know like offers of sex happened often
00:42:11
the he like everyone like don't worry about it like he's acting like I don't know why you're don't be scandalized and
00:42:17
wanting to keep him talking neither detective was going to challenge that assert they were just like yes
00:42:23
absolutely going uh so Ronald's claim after the two had finished you know fooling around in the back seat of his
00:42:29
car Le Banks he claimed had pulled a knife on him indicating that he was planning to rape Ronald if he didn't
00:42:37
hand over all his money supposedly acting in selfdefense Ronald claimed he grabbed the tire iron from
00:42:45
the floor and swung it at Le Banks's head according to Dominique things escalated and he wrapped the seat bels
00:42:51
around Le Banks's neck and began choking him oh God when he realized he'd killed
00:42:55
Oliver lanks Ronald told detectives he drove around for hours until he found the dark overpass where he dumped to
00:43:02
lank's body then returned home I just want to be clear he's a lying sack of [ __ ] 100% And that's not how that
00:43:09
happened I'm sure some of those injuries are how Oliver Le Banks was injured but
00:43:14
no I don't believe it well look at oliv build and look at Ronald Ronald Dominique's build I don't think he was
00:43:22
that threatened by in in my opinion and I just don't I don't I don't believe it no and neither should
00:43:28
you no uh so thoron and berson could see that Dominique was definitely like they
00:43:34
were like okay so we can see exactly what he's going to do from here on out he's going to do the self-defense angle
00:43:39
and he's going to claim that all of these men just attacked him that's crazy they people just attacking you left and
00:43:44
right so they were careful about how they asked their questions because they were like we I I will give it to them
00:43:49
they were like we have him we cannot lose him we got to be really strategic about this we can't [ __ ] this up now
00:43:57
moving on to Manuel Reed Dominique claimed he'd also met Reed in a bar and Manuel Reed had approached him with an
00:44:04
offer same thing I want you guys to look up Ronald Dominique and tell me that these men are approaching him the answer
00:44:11
is a big old no I don't know about that maybe in his own mind that's what was happening but it wasn't um and again
00:44:18
Manuel Reed walked up to him and asked if he would like to fool around so the exact same story as Oliver Le Banks
00:44:24
isn't that wild that's crazy isn't that such a weird coincidence it's worth noting Ronald demonstrated a certain
00:44:30
degree of discomfort when discussing sex with the detectives he would bounce back
00:44:35
and forth between like childish euphemisms almost like very juvenile euphemisms yeah and then oddly clinical
00:44:43
language like it was like there was no in between it was very strange they said it was like uncomfortable how he was cuz
00:44:50
he seemed uncomfortable at times and then he would seem very like clinical about it and then like like two yeah
00:44:56
they just couldn't get comfortable with how he was talking about it it's clear that he's obviously paying men the like
00:45:03
some of these men for sex he claims that they solicited him every single time that is just not true um which he
00:45:10
repeatedly refers to as fooling around like he uses the term fooling around all the time okay again just showing how
00:45:17
uncomfortable he is even in this space yeah now Dominique's description of the murder of Manuel Reed is very similar to
00:45:24
that of Oliver Le Banks he claims they went back to the car and began having sex this is according to Ronald
00:45:30
Dominique but Reed began quote unquote sexually assaulting him at a certain point no how that doesn't even make
00:45:37
sense so he said he grabbed the tire iron from the floor and hit the man in the head once he'd incapacitate Emanuel
00:45:44
Reed Dominique tried to claims he tried to tie the man's hands so quote he wouldn't hurt me no
00:45:51
more I'm sorry what like come on according to Dominque Reed came to a few minutes later and managed to get his
00:45:58
hands free of the ropes which is when Ronald Dominique wrapped the Rope around his neck and began choking him thoron
00:46:05
made note of these details as particularly significant because I don't know if anybody else has picked up on
00:46:10
this big gaping hole in all of his stories um regardless of the self-defense framing that he thinks is
00:46:17
like airtight here if he brought the rope and tire iron knowing he could use them that says pre premeditation why you
00:46:25
bring rope exactly why you got a tire iron just lying on your floor at all times but why
00:46:30
is the Rope there is the real and why can you just grab it why is it so close you know where it is and the tire iron
00:46:36
it's like you you would think that if which I obviously it's not the case but if you had gone through that traumatic
00:46:42
experience with Oliver and you killed him with that tire iron you you still have that that's the thing it's like you
00:46:48
still have the tire iron you wouldn't get rid of that and again it's like you went through that traumatic situation
00:46:53
and you're just like right back out doing the same thing yeah I don't think so not worried about it at all also if
00:46:58
you're in a car you don't need to tie anybody's hands up or do anything like that or choke them with seat bels you
00:47:04
kick them out of your car and you drive the [ __ ] out of there none of this happened the fact that he brought rope
00:47:09
and attire iron with him tells you everything you need to know that he was planning to to bind someone he wasn't
00:47:15
you don't just have rope hanging around just willy-nilly now with Manuel Reed dead Ronald again drove around for for a
00:47:23
while until he found a dumpster where he left Manuel Reed's body and then he just
00:47:28
returned home so it's like you're already [ __ ] up like No One Believes you and try you already [ __ ] up when
00:47:34
you said these men approached you no one believed you there exactly and then second to say it's self-defense when you
00:47:38
brought weapons with you sorry I don't believe it now Ronald Dominique had essentially admitted to killing two men
00:47:46
at this point like he had he had admitted to it um in self-defense was the caveat but thoron felt that he'd
00:47:53
built a pretty good rapport with with him at this point and he was like you know what I'm I'm being the good cop I
00:47:59
feel like he's buying it so he's like I think I could get him to confess to more
00:48:04
here like he's pretty easily giving us these two he's lying but he's about why but like eventually we'll get to the
00:48:10
truth so he returned back to the interrogation room and the two detectives sat down with Dominique again
00:48:16
and decided to take a chance that he might be willing to keep going so detective Thorton said quote I know
00:48:22
you're suffering but I think you'll agree there are others and WR in saying that and Ronald paused for a minute what
00:48:30
seemed to the detectives to be an attempt to stall they said before replying most probably I just don't
00:48:36
remember most probably so they were like hm and so they proceeded gently here and
00:48:42
detective thoron and berson tried to get Dominique to confess but after having alluded to his guilt he seemed
00:48:48
preoccupied suddenly with the what his sister would think of him all of a sudden he was like and he started
00:48:54
begging the detective IV to apologize to her on his behalf so he suddenly just switched gears and wouldn't focus on
00:49:00
what they were trying to do anymore so they were like okay we're not going to push now while this is happening while
00:49:07
thoron and berson are interviewing Dominique they're letting him have his moment of like worrying about his sister
00:49:11
because they don't want to push him out of this mindset a team of crime scene technicians were conducting a thorough
00:49:17
search of the two trailers on his sister's property in hom oh his poor [ __ ] sister dude to have to have your
00:49:24
like yeah they knew it was common for serial killers to keep quote unquote trophies
00:49:31
but the technicians were unable to find anything belonging to uh Dominique's victims interesting so Thorton asked
00:49:38
Ronald Dominique about this because they were connected with him and he said just
00:49:42
maybe so like the way he asked this was he said to him just maybe they left any articles of clothing or jewelry around
00:49:50
like you know like you've admitted that you knew these people like did they leave anything around like just not
00:49:56
making it a big deal like we're not trying to look for evidence we just want to know do they leave [ __ ] at your place
00:50:01
like is that something and the detectives were hoping they could find more physical evidence than what they
00:50:06
that could use that they could use Excuse me to connect him to these victims outside of his words right now
00:50:13
right but Dominique was adamant that he'd always thrown everything away then detective thoron tried another
00:50:21
direct approach and this was I really think this was a good idea cuz remember there were a couple of men at least one
00:50:27
or two who were on a bicycle yes yeah um and so he just said what about a bicycle
00:50:33
you ever throw a bicycle away like just pulled that one right out cu he was like
00:50:37
I know there's a bicycle yeah and Ronald thought for a minute and then said maybe
00:50:41
once or twice so [ __ ] dude this can you imagine sitting across the table from him and
00:50:48
he's like I don't know I don't remember but the thing was detective thoron it was working how he was how he was
00:50:54
talking to him was working to be working because suddenly Ronald Dominique seemed
00:51:01
almost eager to tell him more really he continued to avoid outright confessions to of murder but his responses to the
00:51:10
detective's questions unquestionably implicated him in more deaths okay he was not going to confess right away but
00:51:18
he was implica maybe I threw a bicycle away once or twice and uh neither two victim that we just talked about one
00:51:25
everything away there were references at one point to the storage shed in which he' left Michael Barnett's body oh my
00:51:32
God the bike he dumped alongside detrell Woods's body and the unique and other unique aspects of all the other murders
00:51:40
he was able to pull out of his ass now knowing they'd finally gotten him to somewhat crack detective Thorton and
00:51:46
berson pulled out the file of photographs and went through all 23 victims with Ronald Dominique and they
00:51:53
were like you tell me who this person is and you you tell me where they where you
00:51:56
put them you tell me everything over the course of their 6-hour conversation the
00:52:02
detectives went through the photos one by one with Dominique providing details of each murder including the vehicle he
00:52:11
was driving at the time where he was living what he'd done to each victim in some cases he'd recognize them as sex
00:52:19
workers or referred to them as addicts in need of money and said he'd lure them into the vehicle with a promise of money
00:52:27
or money in exchange for sex in other cases like if the victim was not a sex worker and presumed to be what he said
00:52:34
presumed to be straight Ronald would show them a picture of a nude or mostly nude woman and ask if they would be
00:52:40
interested in having sex with her but once the victims were in the car it always unfolded the same way Ronald
00:52:46
would tie them up rape them strangle them and then leave their body in a convenient location nearby Jesus and he
00:52:53
just cracked how's scary is it that like a couple hours before he's like I don't
00:52:59
remember and then he remembers everything down to the vehicle he was driving at the time every detail where
00:53:06
he was working what he was doing scary and he just cracked like that shows you how persistant those detectives were
00:53:12
they sat and Drew this out of him slowly wow yeah the following day December 2nd news of the arrest hit the
00:53:22
Louisiana papers and although law enforcement was very careful not to reveal that Dominique was a serial
00:53:27
killer the Press Had No Reservations about comparing him to other recently captured serial killers like Derek
00:53:33
toddlee and Shan Vincent Gillis uh the usual shock followed a few days later with everyone remarking that Ronald
00:53:41
Dominique didn't seem like the kind of guy who would do something like this shelter manager Raymond Borg told
00:53:47
reporters quote you wouldn't suppose this dude could do what they say he looks like somebody from a church and I
00:53:52
was like I don't know people who go to church can be [ __ ] too yeah everywhere I get that you're like he
00:53:57
looks like he's just like regular dude yeah other residents at the shelter where Dominique was staying were as
00:54:03
surprised one resident said he didn't look scary if they hadn't arrested him he could have stayed here 20 years and
00:54:08
nobody would have thought anything about him that's crazy which is horrifying now
00:54:12
within a few days of his arrest Terry bone Parish D district attorney Joseph weights had announced that he intended
00:54:19
to seek the death penalty for the murders committed in um in in at least his district m and it was likely that
00:54:26
the other District Attorneys would do the same they would all follow I would think the that fact gave law enforcement
00:54:31
leverage in the form of a plea deal okay if Dominique would take them to all 23 dump sites and confess to at least eight
00:54:39
murders eight of the ones that they felt like they had the most for then the da would take the death penalty off the
00:54:46
table okay now Ronald jumped at the opportunity and on the morning of December 2nd 2006 a caravan of like half
00:54:54
dozen police cars drove from one end of the state to the other as Ronald Dominique showed them precisely where
00:55:00
he' left each of the bodies now everyone on the task force and in the state attorney's office knew
00:55:07
they were never going to be able to convict Dominique on all 23 counts it's just it's un of a lot faced with a very
00:55:14
difficult decision to risk going to court or forfeiting some of the charges state's attorney Mark rhods made the
00:55:21
decision to charge Dominique with the eight strongest cases that just in order to get a serial killer off the streets
00:55:28
yeah and the plan had the added benefit of sparing a lot of family members the pain of a long drawn out trial appeals
00:55:37
all this [ __ ] that's a lot but first they did get the approval from the families of each victim which they all
00:55:43
gave without hesitation wow that's awesome that they actually did that like went to each family and I love that that
00:55:49
was part of it and like like kudos to those family members that were like nail them on these eight like now I know he
00:55:57
did it like I can you know I mean like kudos to them for being able to like think that way through this because it
00:56:03
would be hard AB if you're one of the cases that is not one of the eights you want Justice you're going to feel like
00:56:09
you didn't get the full you know you or you could feel that way and it's like it's it's nice that they were think they
00:56:14
were seeing the forest through the trees here takes a big person by the way if you're hearing little like Bonks every
00:56:19
now and then sorry John's throwing a tennis ball at the wall outside with the dogs and I think he forgets that the
00:56:25
wall is right here love you so much love you all but I just think that like good
00:56:32
for them like these family members have been through the [ __ ] Mill yeah and they're badass they really are as the
00:56:39
task force work to confirm the details provided by Ronald Dominique district attorneys in the various parishes raced
00:56:46
to get their cases together to prosecute the killer teron uh da Joe weits said we'll have to get together to see who
00:56:53
can do it the fastest as tends to happen in serial killer cases police and Sheriff's departments
00:56:59
also looked at other unsolved cases they thought could maybe be connected to Ronald Dominique police in Tibido for
00:57:06
example thought Ronald might have been responsible for the 1992 murder of Hunter Horgan a 47-year-old Episcopalian
00:57:13
priest whose body was discovered a few year a few yards from the flower shop where Dominique was working at the time
00:57:21
wow right police chief Craig melon KH told reporters quote I think it's responsible for us to go look and see if
00:57:28
we can connect Mr Dominique to that killing yeah now as investigators and others in law enforcement prepared their
00:57:34
cases against Dominique the families of the victim struggled with the news of this arrest um Nicholas pellerin's
00:57:41
mother Veronica found little comfort in this arrest she's the she's the mother who
00:57:46
thought that it was his friends she told reporters he took my kids's life from me
00:57:51
and I'll never forgive this man others just and and it's like you know that's the thing he took my kidss life from me
00:57:57
nothing's going to make me feel better no like this isn't how do you move on from that closure isn't the word justice
00:58:03
isn't the word we've talked to to victim's family members that say like you don't really get word to yeah to
00:58:11
make me feel better I I don't have my child anymore I don't think closure is really a thing when it comes to your
00:58:18
family M murder specifically exactly um and there was some people who were um un
00:58:24
Ely disturbed by the gay aspects of the case uh and they refused to believe that
00:58:29
Dominique was the one who killed their loved ones because they didn't want to believe the aspect of he could possibly
00:58:35
be bringing them in by offering sex um and obviously I'm not going to say who which you know some people were
00:58:44
disturbed by that part which also shows you like how big of a role that played in this case as well because even on
00:58:51
this end of things right there was stuff going on there so it's like that was a big thing with how this was reported and
00:58:57
how this was looked at by in all angles yeah truly um the families of chrisville
00:59:03
and Anoka Jones both of whom were married with Children told reporters neither would have submitted to bondage
00:59:09
sex with a man or a woman like they just wouldn't have like not another person other than their significant other yeah
00:59:16
and you get it like that's like they know their family member you know like and that's why I said to put a blanket
00:59:24
thing on all these cases and say this was the way he did this across the board I don't believe that no I don't think so
00:59:30
I think he did have different ways of getting these people in there you know like some of these men could have been
00:59:35
lured in by like hey I have a job and it will pay this much money MH I just like
00:59:39
I have this job at this house you know like it could be something as innocuous as that of course and I almost think
00:59:44
it's kind of like Ronald Dominique painting it the other way a lot of the times I think so it's another way for
00:59:50
him to like shame them exact almost you know it's like so when you look look at this case know that like he's a
00:59:56
bullshitter and he's an [ __ ] yeah and there we don't know how these men were lured he's saying that they were lured
01:00:04
yeah and he's claiming like some of these were self-defense when it's very crystal clear that not a single one of
01:00:09
these murders was self-defense so just like when you look at this case know that that like you know like he's the
01:00:14
one saying this and he is not a reliable [ __ ] so it's like you have to look at the family members they know
01:00:20
their their family member if they're saying that they never would have gone with this
01:00:25
I believe them over him yep same and we won't know that's the thing unfortunately only he and the victim
01:00:31
knows what happened in each scenario and he's the unreliable one here and he's the only one left yeah so sad on
01:00:39
September 24th 2008 Ronald Dominique stood before a judge in District Court and pleaded guilty to the murders of
01:00:46
Kenneth Randolph Michael Barnett Leon Lett August Watkins Kurt Cunningham Alonzo Hogan Christ DeVille Wayne Smith
01:00:55
and Nicholas pelan Dominique never took his eyes off the floor like a little [ __ ] that he is just going to say
01:01:02
little [ __ ] as judge Randy beton court read the charges State's attorney Mark rhods told the judge quote the lives of
01:01:09
eight young men were taken from these families by the action of the defendant actions of the defendant he knew nothing
01:01:15
about them or their families and he callously killed the victims and left a lifetime of pain as their legacy yep
01:01:22
when rhs finished his closing statement judge beton Court sentence Dominique to eight life sentences without the
01:01:30
possibility of parole nice and he is in Angola State Prison a Penitentiary still
01:01:37
alive yep he is stay he is still alive um he was brought right into it's it's Louisiana state prison but it's called
01:01:45
Angola because it's in Angola oh okay um he remains there today and he will stay
01:01:49
there until he dies wow and let me tell you that prison is one of the most dangerous prisons in in the entire world
01:01:56
definitely in the country you know what as far as it's concerned in his case good maximum maximum prison and it is
01:02:03
woo wow what a absolutely gut-wrenching case and it's a horrific case what an important one to tell though because the
01:02:12
fact that I had never heard of that like maybe Rumblings here or there but I don't know like I never knew any of the
01:02:19
details of that case cuz the victims aren't co-eds yeah you know they're not like you know and it's unfortunate but
01:02:25
to say that that way but it's just like it's the that's the way it is it's like they were treated like somehow they had
01:02:33
invited MERS and it's like no that is not the case and you know like that it cuz I again I didn't really know about
01:02:42
this case yeah before like we started researching it and I was like damn and then just some of the things said along
01:02:48
the way oh my God the fact that these people couldn't even rest after being murdered like they weren't even treated
01:02:54
like humans after they were murdered that's so gross being called trash after they were Vici after they were raped and
01:03:02
strangled and their bodies dumped on the side of the road they were still being called trash that's heartbreaking like I
01:03:07
just that really blows my mind it really does how you can have that little Humanity like I'm sorry like it's it's
01:03:16
just so gross if you can say that about anybody that was murdered you don't have
01:03:20
a single drop of empathy within your bones but it's so nice to know that that [ __ ] has eight life sentences
01:03:28
that he's got to serve with no possibility of parole not dangerous one of the most dangerous pris good look I'm
01:03:35
telling you guys maybe like maybe we'll talk about it some more but like look up
01:03:39
that prison I don't know much about it there's been some like news you know programs that have gone into it and
01:03:45
stuff like there's there's a lot of information about it and it's there's a lot that's a that's a scary place well
01:03:51
because I I don't believe somebody like Ronald could ever be reformed no I don't think so at all no
01:03:57
20 I mean that we know of 23 times and still under surveillance doing it like that is on another [ __ ] level dude
01:04:06
Fearless in that aspect with that like he just wow thought he was ahead of everybody W this is a case that I think
01:04:13
I mean so many cases stay with us but this one's really going to stay with me there's a lot of victims in this case
01:04:18
yeah and they were victims in several ways in the end you know what I mean like I'm they were treated really shitty
01:04:26
yeah damn yeah well so hopefully we can do something like haunted after this or like yeah you know we love to pallet
01:04:35
cleanse every once in a while after a crazy one but uh we have some some wild cases coming up so yeah you know it's
01:04:43
called morbid it is so we're not going to get away from that exactly well with that being said we hope you keep
01:04:48
listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird um as any of this because I believe in you so much more
01:04:57
than that I believe in you I believe you and in [Music] you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most emotional
  • 80
    Most intense

Episode Highlights

  • Kurt Cunningham's Tragic Story
    Kurt Cunningham, a victim of a serial killer, was found in a drainage ditch.
    “Kurt was on a path and was too young to wake up, but he was a victim, not a criminal.”
    @ 12m 16s
    February 19, 2024
  • Callous Public Sentiment
    A local resident's shocking comment reflects a disturbing attitude towards the victims.
    “I don't see any Panic here... it's almost like somebody's trying to get the trash off the street.”
    @ 13m 09s
    February 19, 2024
  • Detectives on the Case
    Despite the public's dismissive attitude, detectives work tirelessly to connect the victims.
    “They were behind the scenes really working on it.”
    @ 17m 01s
    February 19, 2024
  • The Discovery of Wayne Smith's Body
    The body of 17-year-old Wayne Smith was found in a drainage ditch, raising questions about his death.
    “This made his identity and the cause of death a big challenge for investigators.”
    @ 19m 59s
    February 19, 2024
  • Hurricane Katrina's Impact on Investigations
    As Louisiana dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Ronald Dominique continued his killing spree.
    “He used the chaos to his Advantage.”
    @ 23m 48s
    February 19, 2024
  • Ronald Dominique's Questioning
    After being brought in for questioning, Dominique dismissed the allegations as a sex game.
    “I'm gay tying up was just part of a sex game nothing more than that.”
    @ 30m 34s
    February 19, 2024
  • Confessions and Details
    Dominique began to confess to the murders, revealing chilling details about his victims.
    “He was not going to confess right away but his responses to the detective's questions unquestionably implicated him in more deaths.”
    @ 51m 10s
    February 19, 2024
  • The Arrest of Ronald Dominique
    Ronald Dominique was arrested after a year of surveillance, shocking the community.
    “You wouldn't suppose this dude could do what they say he looks like somebody from a church.”
    @ 53m 48s
    February 19, 2024
  • The Pain of Victims' Families
    Families of the victims struggle with the aftermath of the arrest, expressing deep sorrow and anger.
    “He took my kid's life from me and I'll never forgive this man.”
    @ 57m 48s
    February 19, 2024
  • Ronald Dominique's Guilty Plea
    On September 24th, 2008, Ronald Dominique pleaded guilty to multiple murders, receiving eight life sentences without parole.
    “The lives of eight young men were taken from these families by the actions of the defendant.”
    @ 01h 01m 09s
    February 19, 2024
  • The Dehumanization of Victims
    Victims were referred to as 'trash' even after their brutal murders, highlighting societal neglect.
    “They were still being called trash after they were murdered.”
    @ 01h 03m 00s
    February 19, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • You know, manifest!
    Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast
  • Don't let anyone call you trash!
    Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast
  • It's like how did he even manage to get around?
    Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast
  • How many more people have to die before you get that thing?
    Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast
  • You wouldn't suppose this dude could do what they say.
    Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast
  • Closure isn't the word; justice isn't the word.
    Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 3) | Morbid | Podcast

Key Moments

  • Movie Reactions02:48
  • Victim Blaming10:50
  • Callous Remarks13:09
  • Awful Discovery38:19
  • Death Penalty Announced54:17
  • Victim's Family Pain57:39
  • Life Sentences1:01:27
  • Case Impact1:04:13

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown