Episode 538: Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 2)
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Follow rejected on the wondering APP or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, weird. I ash and my microphone is traveling away for me and isolated. My microphone is staying right in front of me. My microphone illness is Robin.

My microphone loves to just like drift off away. For me it's like, done. It's like, don't speak. He says, no is true. Ash things, she's a singer.

Did IT something like, did that sound like guy was like a real professional? Did gorgia wow, I was sort through. So that's interesting.

Oh, no, it's still sore. It's a little scratchy. Please stay away for me.

Well, in the countries, no, but don't get sick for your vacation. I would be so fucked in piss. Let me tell you, you dare. No, I think i'm going to be fine when IT takes them.

This is not professional advice, but I am going to take some I can IT always gets me some sink or zom like it's one than I sink and I think, yeah again, not professional medical advice. No, like I said the other night, i'm just a podcast girl. I'm just a podcast girl.

Okay, when I was making that sleepy girl mol you, my museum to be, obviously you should talk to your doctor. So i'm not telling you to do this. I'm just a podcast.

Yeah, that's all I know, not the and I barely know that. So so really so honestly, honestly but yeah, it's been it's been a wild day today we had a meeting with like a very cool person. Yeah, I thought you were about to just go for wow.

I'm just edging everyone. Go out to the free water, you'll get that joke. But was like, hey, you might want to explain that if you watch the water is a running joke.

Okay, and just pull out of my but, but yeah, that was a cool meeting. And hofus ly, will you do something cool that you guys will know about? Let you know what that happened.

That's the goal. Until then, that was annoying of me to do, but I was excited about. I'm excited about IT too. Yeah anyway. But you know what?

I think i'm really, you know just stalling the beginning because this case is a very sad case, very, very, very sad. And we are on part two of the bio stranger, ronal dominic, a sad case. But finally, one worth telling, and I think you're really worth, are really great job so far oh, thank you very much.

I hope so you're welcome. Ah yeah, this is just one of those cases were in part to now. So I believe I mean, I believe at this point, we're at close to ten murder. What he's like, pretty prolific and just awful. And the again, we're going to see more and more the way that this was portrait in the media was pretty shameful a bunch tty shameful um and you know IT in the end the justice get served legally. But it's really unfortunate that the entire time IT wasn't there was just fucking yes, it's just really upsetting.

But let's continue now we are on to two thousand and two at this point wow um so it's pretty rare we've talked about this before for sero killer to the equally yeah much harder for them to the equally right or to stop killing for you long periods of time. But IT does happen to remember flower denis rattle, B. T.

K. Over in kansas. There he killed ten people over a fifteen year period and then he just settled into life is whatever the hell he was and ended his rain of terror for a long time, to be honest.

So it's like those that happens um also gary ridge way who the Green river killer we even covered him me yet I know a lot of people want us to trust me. It's coming. Let's in a little case for sure yeah it's coming up.

So stay tuned for that. But he also kind of dramatically slowed his activities after marrying his third wife in one hundred and eighty eight. So what does happen? Oh yeah, i've read like a little bit about that case and is right yeah they can come from yes, you are correct.

Um it's unclear what caused ronal dominic to stop killing between two thousand and two thousand and two but he did um at the time he'd been working two jobs and had become involved with the lines club and other community activity. So maybe he found some kind of degree of social acceptance that he was looking forward, didn't like quite feel the same urges he felt who knows? Maybe you like his mind was elsewhere or maybe he just didn't get caught for those very that's a very plausible thing too.

So it's like, who knows but from what we know, there is nothing between those two years. Interesting, uh, whatever the case may have been, though, dominic tiedus came to an end on october first, two thousand and two, when he met twenty year olds kanis randol. So a neighbor and hoa member, he had moved to homa, who fit the killer's victim type pretty perfectly.

On october six, Kenneth dolf body was discovered, face down in a remote cane field in rural lefuel, paris. I've looked all these up, some trying to see them as well as I can. So good to me.

He was completely knowed accept a pair of White athletic sock. Oh, gone. Unlike the previous victims, this body appeared to have been posed by the killer as well. Um this is a little little graphic, just a little upsetting.

Just know um if he was posed that he's like butch stuck out so he was he was obviously done to appear very cross like that was in and IT was supposed to be like a humiliating waited post some I fuck this guy blocking gross he's disgusting just I don't understand the the the private to do that to another person, to do anything like this to another person and then to but did someone like the humiliation that he's trying to inflict its like I feel like he is humiliated by who he is as a human being and who his soul is so he just put that on other people yeah but detectives also noticed that um he had the victim had Marks on his race which indicated that he had been bound for at least some period of time and the world so Marks around his neck which has become kind of a hallmark er yeah ah the autopsy was conducted a few days later by a doctor, brittney summers, who collected the usual hair and fiber evidence and also conducted a rape kit that they hope could maybe be used for a DNA comparison if they ever got a suspect doctor summers concluded that Kenneth landolf had only been dead five, six hours when his body had been discovered in the field as a very fresh, and he had superficial abortions on his arms and legs in a large horse zon celebrations stretching from his forehead to his chest. Wow, there were abortions on his risks from where he had been bound in. One of his rist had blood indicating that the ligature was tired really tightly and had cut into the skin.

And he was alive. Yeah, obviously. Finally, doctor summers concluded that the cause of death was strangulation, evident by a quote emerging on the underlying soft tissue surrounding the higher ed bone oh okay h despite the obvious ligature mark on Randall snack, doctor summers was unable to determine whether he died from a ligature or manual strangulation. Um which there is a pretty decent legate amErica on his neck so I don't know if I was just SHE couldn't tell whether he died from that or whether he put his own manual pressure on to IT. I don't know if that's like strange to me.

Maybe they were like the signs of both so you can say which when he had died from yeah because I suppose like the higher ID bond thing like maybe that could bring you into place that is interesting that they weren't able to pendent um but less than two weeks after the discovery of landolf body in the cane field, another Young black man had gone missing from homa uh on the evening of october twelve, two thousand and two so not long after, not at all, a Shelly western wasn't too worried when her boyfriend, twenty six year old and oka Jones hadn't returned after he I guess he had just come home a few minutes earlier than that and he had brought his bicycle in the apartment. And then he was like, just onna go outside for a smoke. So at first he wasn't super worried because apparently, like he would say he would go he was going to go for smoke.

And that didn't always just tail going out for a smoke. So like if he didn't come back right away, he wasn't too along and several hours had passed and he was like, maybe he went somewhere, I don't know. Like he does this sometimes like you choose like, I guess it's a little weird, but he wasn't super worried at first.

Okay, so if SHE gna just went to bed and he was like to come back in, but when he woke up the following day, he still wasn't home and he hadn't heard from him, so SHE came very alarmed and reported him missing right away. But but then he was already too late no Jones body was discovered under the inner state three ten over past the following morning, he was discovered by officer john smith. Um he was a petrol officer who just happened to be driving in the area.

Wow, uh, a officer Smith immediately noticed drag Marks leading from the body to the edge of the road, which indicated that he was obviously dumped. There are otherwise looking around the scene, there was really nothing else to indicate what IT happened. Or are the cuts of death right away now? At the time of the discovery, Jones was closed, but his shirt had been pulled halfway up his torso and his pants had been pulled down to mithi.

Uh, there was a small among of deride blood around his mouth and surface abortions on his torso, in hands, which also could be partially from dragging. I was just can ask you now, like the other victims, a oca Jones, as the cause of death was as fixed by strangulation and the manner of death is considered to be homicide. Des, but right away, it's fitting right then.

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Now through interviews with Jones, his friends and family investigators learned that several hours before he'd gone missing from his girlfriend's apartment, a oca Jones in a friend had been confronted on the street by two men who had pulled up alongside them in a grey truck.

嗯， now according to Jones, his friend ron gibs Jones ran as soon as the man got out of the truck so he ran away um because apparently in the truck there was a very known drug dealer that was riding in the back seat and I guess this i'm not GTA name him because you know this drug dealer denied any knowledge of or having any participation in an ogonis murder after this because he was obviously brought in right um but he rattled off a list of other associates, anyone he knew who could have been responsible for the murder and he offered up her aliva samples and he said anything else detectives needed to get him off this list of suspects wow. So he was like, I did not do this. It's very surprising because you did them all, that being a world to drink deals and they were able to cross them off the life like he didn't do IT.

I mean, that's nice that he held good at, tell a little Better. Now, despite being pointed in the direction of other of drug dealers, detectives in the fush parish had a feeling that Jones is murder had nothing to do with drugs. Meanwhile, investigators and other parishes around new orleans had begun reading through reports of unsolved murder in surrounding jurisdictions, and they started noticing the connections between their unsolved cases and those as far out as homa.

No, remember one of the things about ronal, dominic, that we are going to talk about a lot and mention a lot is that he made sure he killed in different jurisdictions. He not only killed people in marginalized communities and people he knew we're going to be vulnerable. He also moved IT around a lot to really make IT a math to investigate.

He really made this as fucking horrific as he could for everyone to make sense. For example, detectives working the Kenneth landolf case and jeffson parish arranged to speak with the friends and families of innocent Jones, hoping they might discover any common associate, any enemies that they both might have had, that may be LED to their murders. Unfortunately, other than some shared habits and lifestyles that the two men maybe had in common, they really didn't have a lot in common of them.

Uh, in most cases, the murder of a dozen people under very similar circumstances would likely cause public outrage. You would think an intense pressure on the police to get the person responsible. Of course.

I mean, we've seen in a million times when it's a different kind of victim every, but sometimes the pressure is bad when it's a different kind of victim because they get so pressured that they make mistakes where they rushed to grab someone who might not have done IT right here. In the case of runne, dominque victims were all marginalized, the men of color, from impoverish communities. And they were in the way me, the media was portraying IT was they LED quote, unquote high risk lifestyle, which is not a fucking thing.

So there was no intern or external pressure on the, on investigators to catch this person. Is, why wouldn't just want you anyway? And again, like I said before, this was all made even more complex and garbled by the fact that dominy committed these in multiple jurisdictions, sometimes as much as sixty or seventy miles apart.

wow. So he just over around getting close departments to even work together can be hard, right? Never mind getting that kind of thing like you. You're contending with a lot a complex system and also contending with egos, pride, pride with, you know, people not keeping accurate records or not keeping you know a good chain of custody on evidence or not interviewing the right people, not having the record human error, human error.

And you're doing IT with miles apart, trying to just like state wide yeah now a oca Jones was the twelve man killed by ronal dominic, and eight months would pass before he killed again. The key should have been stopped at this point. The fact that so many more people have to die because this just wasn't top priority is so fucking discussed.

That's what kills me. And it's like this assets, this monster took moments of escalation, right? That's your time.

Use that time home and stop the next room from happening. And IT feels almost like they didn't. I mean, I will I will say they didn't have a lot of evidence to go on either. He can leave a lot of these scenes.

So i'll say that for them like it's not like they had all this evidence and they were just ignoring IT, but it's like you gotta put the nose to the grind snows and you gotta try to stop that. Whether the task force being put together the connect is a good thing that you say that because we will talk about that. Ah i'm glad you mentioned that because I said the same thing.

I was like test force this point twelve murder in like time to set up test force time, right? And also it's like you're not warning the correct communities of people to be. You're leaving pieces out of the puzzle because you want people to feel like they want to help more, which is even sad.

But you're not warning the right people. So the right people don't have their guards up. And it's so interesting to me because obviously, we're talking about and high risk lifestyles, which we don't even think is a thing, but that's what they were claiming and it's how IT was labelled.

But it's like, you know, sex work is considered quite, quite high risk and even police forces will warn sex workers and then we'll get together and look out for each other once like we've told those kinds of stories. course. It's like, why didn't IT happen here? Because these people could have look down for one another that and this is the gay community, it's the black community like, yeah, they could have looked out for one another, would have exactly, that's the thing.

It's like you didn't even give him a fighting chance and it's why wake up and it's and there's points when the next murder happens and you say that you have at least trying to stop that. absolutely. And it's we're going to hear some comments about these things that are really pressing the way that they were looked out. And it's just like, oh, no, but it's you you need to hear IT because you need to hear awful.

This was in while a lot of people don't know about IT, right? That's wild to me that a lot of people I didn't I didn't until you brought IT up, I never heard and it's chef maybe like her is name like on A T V show yeah or something like maybe not as much as I should I was going and maybe right like is like they don't do me that like this is not old now on the afternoon of saturday, may twenty fourth, two thousand and three eighteen year old, the trail woods left his mother's house in homa, telling his cousin he was going to stay with his girlfriend for the night now from the moment his friend gary bird, right, had arrived to pick him up to travel, mother margate woods said SHE had a feeling something bad was gonna en to her son, and he actually tried to convince him not to go out that night. So I A, A, and I always poor woman, and to not be able to convince him and then no, of course, whatever.

Like, mom, fine. And again, the trial was just like, mom, it's fine. Like, don't worry about IT then he reminded her, I left my bike Carry so if nothing else, I need to go get IT back and he's like, I promise you, i'm gonna back tomorrow oh, go and he told that I promise you you'll be back tomorrow.

The next day, two men riding dirt bikes in a cane field of highway fifty six by you blue discovered the real wood's body laying next to his bicycle, laying next to his bicycle. H and he was probably coming home. Go now.

When the'd finally managed to find a telephone, the two dirt bike riders told police they had, quote, found a black man with who was dead. And puppy, that's what they said ah now unfortunately, when detectives arrived at the scene, what they were describing was that decomposition was well underway. IT appeared as if the man had been in the had been in the field for much longer than he actually had been.

So because we're dealing with the elements, I think IT was mostly the elements, but I was very interesting to because they were like IT really looks like he's been here longer. But now, among the first things that hoa city detective, and let me just preface this, his name, rimes, it's a little it's sometimes you give a little gig, little. I don't think i'm like anything like inappropriate.

It's just this. This name, his name is detective Simon framin. So already pretty awesome name. Go detect a friend is so there is your quick little like take a breath for a man because this is very heavy, so take a breath. Thank you, detective Simon france becoming right back into IT.

The one of the first things that he noticed was that woods wasn't wearing any shoes yet. He had no dirt on the bottom of his feet. So that indicated that he was already dead when his body was left in the cane field.

He also didn't walk out there, uh, and also the tires on his bike appeared clean and there were any tire tracks in the dirt, which also suggested that whoever had dumped his body had also Carried the bike to the scene instead of rolling in there, which was that's interesting. That does give you insight into the kind of possible builds or strength. But this person has absolutely um they're not only bringing his body out there for the bike too, but holding the bike, not rolling the bike.

And it's like that's an interview me that's like huh like that you give you when you look at ronal dominic, when they finally he's a big guy, very tired. So it's like that was very telling. It's something small, but it's something anything don't know anything else you know that's like a little bit insider.

I think I I assuming they caught that, I would hope but like that would be for some. My mind is like I think we're looking for someone that's like big now the preliminary autopsied no signs of trauma injury to the rolls body, and there were no signs of defensive wounds like the preliminary autopsy. Okay, also, IT didn't appears, though he'd been bound at either the risk or the ankles.

The only evidence pointing to murder was that the trial woods had been manually strangled, which was the courts of death. okay. That's why the preliminary autopsy taking a taking one look at the body the outside, that's what a preliminary one usually is. They didn't see anything that would stick out to them because one.

He was artist of a strAngely accelerated state of dee composition yeah that is kind of throwing off a little but also that's why you didn't see any like outside injuries because he was manually strangled makes sense and which again as strange as well because he was bound yeah we're going back and for so it's like what how did that happen but then again, this is an eighteen year old going against on going against this very large man yeah so I guess I can see that he could probably do IT pretty quickly. Um now according to the few friends that he that they were able to speak to the trail was described by them as slow in his learning capabilities okay, which just goes to show you he was vulnerable yeah he was part of that whole ronal. Dominic is a is a little monstrous bitch and he goes after marginalized and memorable people who is just like fucked up when you hear that here like that so fucked up IT is like that IT just makes me so angry.

But it's another level of fucked up upon every other level that he's already checked off. IT really is and it's just like IT makes you know IT makes the trial so much more vulnerable to like ashok predators like these things is really upsetting to think about but like nearly all of dominic victims, uh the trail woods had been somewhat known to police for like some minor offences and according to detective, and this is the part that's really gonna your blood boiling, everybody so get ready. According to detective Dennis thorn, when IT came to investigating the murders of people they considered on the fringes of proper society, I will say they describe IT as, quote, the attitude was, don't break your neck they were like, like, don't break yourself out investigating these kind of matters.

Don't put yourself up like, don't break your neck ture and investigate these thing that gets killed in your jurisdiction. You should break your neck water. You should do your fuck and damned is because that's the job you took.

Well, they like and they didn't say, you know try your hardest for like these certain names of people at over. It's yourself and it's like they're not even being subbed about that. He said that with his whole chest, like he said, the quiet part out loud that man just said, yeah, this is the attitude everybody had he said, hello, i'm a race like, what the fuck like?

How would like you got to to start thinking about IT you like because we look at these serial killers, like how how does a human being get to that point where they just have no humanity left in them? Like how how is that part of the human species that first, then you, the people outside of that who are supposed be fighting like this and I are supposed to be and it's like, how the fuck are you like? You're just like, oh my god like it's upsetting to think that people in power like that, in people in authority, can have those kind of like biases and thoughts like some people are worth IT and some people aren't like that.

Never a cross your mind who the fucker you to decide that's a big cki you the thing like like what makes you I don't what makes you any Better than anybody? You get IT and you I know none of us are perfect. None of us have a squeaky clean from day one fuck in reputation.

It's like, no, everybody has made mistakes. Everybody has stepped out in a line a little bit. Everybody has done something regretful in their life. If you say you haven't, you are wrong and enjoy your ignorance.

But you all, everybody, yeah so it's like for you to be able to judge someone else so harshly while sitting there with dirt on youtube is so wild to me because I like we're all and clean and everybody world just do in our best. Most of us are out here are trying to do our best, right? But IT doesn't look like you are when you're acting that waited your fellow human. no.

Who in you talked to like these? You read about these family members and friends of these Young men, right? Most of them that I have read, all of the ones that I read that have spoken about, IT have said that these men were trying to, like, get themselves back on track.

They had families, kids, in most cases, they were working. They were just trying to. They get themselves above water and it's like, great, everyone's been there well and also everybody is somebody somebody yes, I think that's the attitude that you should have if you're an investigator.

Yes, everybody is somebody somebody and as because you're somebody, somebody and you have somebody, yeah how do do you not look at IT? How do you not see that? Because when working in the mark, that's how we looked at every single person who came in there. This is somebody, somebody.

So you treat IT like to somebody exactly, because I would want somebody to my somebody as there somewhere situation, right? So it's and it's also just like I don't understand why IT we're going off, but I don't understand why you are going to this line of work if that's not how you think. I know sometimes here, sometimes it's a power thing.

It's some people are there to help to be the person that like takes care of people in there to you. Stop danger yeah keep people safe and then some of them get into IT because they the power that's any good thing like we've all been around those kind, we sure have. So so that without heavy hand so we all know those that's just really sad and imagine later somebody y's family and knowing and it's like, well, okay, i'm glad he got they called out for saying that yeah.

Now a year and a half past before ronal, dominic killed again. So see another d escalation. And he went, he is and he and then he stops for a while. And they're not making headway and it's like take these opportunities to make the headway.

But he had been laid off from his job at Carol produce in january of two thousand and four, but he quickly found another job with the maintenance company, and he worked there for six months, and then he left there for another job. Not, not keep in a job. The classic serial killer and maintenance guy.

Can you imagine that guy going into your fucking in hot? yes. And then he got a job as a meter reader for an electric company, which was a job that required him to considerable time deriving the backroads of by blue in the around the area.

Now one of those areas was day elements, which I think I said that right. I looked at up a million times day elements. An unincorporated region that fell in both saint Charles and the fush parises were in Louisa a yeah um in late october, hurricane Matthew hit the greater oran area.

There was eighty mile an hour winds. I mean IT caused havoc, especially in the landscape um in dealing this unincorporated area. So when the storm had finally passed through, jeff morrow had gone out to survey the damage around town OK not just one of the residents just going around, that when he noticed the body of a Young man lying beside a pool, or, excuse me, upon twenty minutes from his home.

So jeff morrow headed back to his house to get his neighbor. His neighbor was down your rome, who was a criminalists with the same Charles s. Sharp's department.

So he was like, you're good person to have. Yes, they both return to the pan, and he helped to survey the scene. Now, during this, like initial examination of the body at the scene, juran was unable to find any identification on the victim.

Uh, this man's body was extremely wet, quote and quote, which indicated that the killer had dumped the this man's body during the hurricane. Oh, this suggested that he was desperate to get rid of this man's body. yeah.

Once detectives arrived on the scene, Jerome took photographs and search for any evidence honor around this man's body, but found nothing. 嗯， now the autopsy was conducted the following day. And during this, uh, doctor Frank Johnson determined, quote, whoever had killed the victim had used a lot of force.

So oh, also Johnson discovered the victim had suffered blunt force trauma to his shoulder, lower back, and buddy s. And claude blood was in the muscles of the neck, which was indicative of very strong regulation. Wow, very aggressive.

Despite all the seventh of violence, the cause of death was listed as accidental cocaine overdose. why? Yeah why I want you to hear that again.

Doctor Frank Johnson said that the victim was killed using a lot of force, that's a quote, and then said that there was blunt force trauma to his shoulder, lower back and buddy CS and clouded blood in the muscles of the neck, indicative of regulation. But the cause of death is accidental cocaine overdose. how? what? Yeah, I don't like.

How did they get away with that? How did they get away with a lot of? Was even any cocaine in this person system? Like, what? No idea.

Blunt forced trauma to cocaine overnight. Yeah, yeah. I am a middle of hurricane. What like it's like, is there even any damage to the heart?

What doesn't make anything like that? What now and again, we still don't know who this person is. So fingerprints taken by the coroner turned out to be a match for forty sexual Larry Matthews.

Police reports described him as, quote, somewhat homeless, just like the fuck. Is that I way to described someone? And Matthews apparently had few connections in the area, and according to his brother, though, there was no one who would have wanted to hurt him.

no. And a day later, however, detectives in tibet got a call from homa police saying that they had a man in custody by the name of jim, jim german. And this man named jim german had information about the murder of Larry Matthews. Now, according to german, he had been visiting a friend in tibet a few nights earlier when Larry Matthew showed up at the house and the two men got talking about drugs.

This is according to jim germen, yeah, who's currently being had held now, according to jim german, Matthews told him he knew where he could get some drugs and some sex workers, but in order to do so, he'd d need to borrow jim german's car. So german agreed and gave Matthews the keys, but Matthew is never returned, which is why german contacted police and actually filed a police report for his missing car. Okay, a face string story.

Don't know if that whole thing at this that is all from jim germen. We do know that apparently he filed the police report because his car was missing, because he thought, Larry mouths said, gone off with IT OK. So using the information provided by german detectives were able to trace sarry Matthews movements back to a party where he left from.

But beyond that, they really had nothing to work with. A day later, the car mouths had left in was found to be in the possession of four Young men who fled after being pulled over, and the car was impounded and then return to jim german. This is something.

So they claimed that there appeared to be no signs of violence or foul play at the scene or in the car. And so detectives stuck with the cause of death provided by the coroner, and the case was officially close. Not the wildest thing i've ever heard in my entire life.

Truly wide trauma. nope. Coking, coking and indicative of strangulation. No cocaine. So ronal dominic waited less than two weeks to kill again. Like we said, he goes through these birth in late october two thousand and four. The owners of gator storage, which was a self storage business, and biology, they got a complaint from a customer who was saying there was a bad smell coming from one of the units.

So they went out to check the offending unit, and they found out that they IT wasn't held by padlocks and chains, which was typical of a storage unit, yeah, that was held chat with only as twister woman. So the woman noticed the smell right away. And he also noticed a dark fluid resembling blood seeping out from under the storage unit door.

That's absolutely. He opened the door to the unit, and he was confronted with the dead body of a man he believed to be middle aged, maybe in his fifty. Oh god.

So homo police were dispatched to gather storage, and they were accompanied by the carbone. I believe that how you say, and I hope, is that I write terrible one parish, sharif deputies. They immediately learned that the business had very little, if any, security measures in place, especially first you a storage business.

Yeah, there were no cameras, no alarm come on, no other technology that they could rely on for any helper leads, which is probably why this one was chosen. In fact, the only thing detectives had to work with was the list of fifty or so names of renters that were provided to them by the owners of gater storage. wow.

And they ran through every name on IT, and they still had no idea who the man in the storage shed was or how we gotten there in the first place. okay. So the body was initially labeled a jon du IT was transported to the corners office due to the heat and humidity in the storage unit. The state of decomposed very far along, much too far along, to determine really much of anything other than that.

This victim was a White mail, and in his early twice so they thought he was in his fifties that told decomposed body was um and that there was no signs, obvious signs of trauma to the body but again, that stuff yeah autopsy y technicians move the body to refrigeration, hoping an identification would come and provide some more details. Now a couple days later, homa police received a call from a local business owner named Francis barber. SHE was concerned that SHE hadn't seen or heard from her friend my go barn net.

The last time he had seen him was on friday, october twenty, when he'd left her apartment on his bicycle, telling her he plans to meet a girl at a nearby fire station. Detectives showed barber a sketch of a dragon tattoo that they had actually taken from the body they found in the freezer. Or excuse me, in the storage unit.

yes. Uh in barber confirmed that he was indeed michabo net status, saying what i'm positively sure Michael has that had too. I remember seeing at many times now while detectives finished up their interview with Francis barber, detective Simon are from detective Simon yeah went to the fire station to talk to anyone who was on duty that night that the man's was sent to beyond this way there.

But no one remembers having seeing him. No one saw anything out of the ordinary that night. So I didn't appear that he didn't made up there right now.

They only had a kind attention tive identification at this point. The tattoos are pretty good identification, but you can't we can use IT that's like word, yeah. But investigators interviewed Michael barnett's friends and family, hoping you would lead them to physical evidence they could use to confirm the identification. In the process, they learned that barnett had come to the easy enough from mississippi several years earlier and add on and off again relationships with his friends and family. But they too had grown concerned about him when several weeks had past and they hadn't heard from him.

They were like, yes, it's like you would not enough like how everything's going to mutual like you know yeah every family whatever but they were like we were worried when we hadn't heard from him and self like IT wasn't that wasn't Normal yeah now according to two of barnet tz friends, he'd recently moved in with a new roommate named dorrian bates. And they felt certain that dorrian was involved in whatever happened to their friend. Okay, which is interesting.

Meanwhile, another detective, dawn burzee, had received a warrant for barnett's apartment, and he was hoping that there they would be able to find fingerprints or other physical evidence to confirm this identification finally, but IT seemed barnett had very few belongings at the time of his death. But burger did discover that barnett lived in a group poem in his youth. And I, this girl out like this detective of my l yes, yeah.

He went for IT SHE did he found out when he was Younger? He lived in a group hom. And SHE was like HMM.

I'd Better saw a dentist there. So by the time SHE tracked the dentist down, he had retired and had sold his practice suck. But SHE was like, i'm going to talk to the new owner.

And so he talked to the new owner. The new owner kept all the old records are faxed, bar, bar, accidental records to the home, a police department. And they were used to successfully identify the body discovered in the gate ter storage unit as being that of michabo.

Just unfortunate. But also you're happy that you glad be able to be identified. Yeah, i'm glad that that detective took all the time he went the distance.

Define those record SHE put her fucker necker SHE did. Now the local papers picked up on the story before. Detectives even knew the victims name, and the press didn't hesitate to connect this latest victim to the serial killer stocking suburban the orleans. This time, however, there was a break in the pattern. IT seemed not only was Michael barnett White man yeah, but the can had also gone out of his way to hide his body.

He hadn't left a mount in the open, which are usually usually pretty uh, unfortunately, while detectives also agreed that this was most likely the work of the serial killer, that they didn't know who was at this point, they found themselves that another didn't know. Like they're they're getting anything new here. They're managed to get as far as identifying this victim, but there was really no other evidence at the scene.

The list of storage unit renters went nowhere. They looked into all of them, right? So there was little else that they could do, but wait until the killer pound another victim, basically, which is what they would end up doing a lot.

Now, as I turned out, homa detectives didn't have to wait long to see another victim. On the morning of february twenty thousand, two thousand and five, a father and son were out riding their dirt bikes with a friend in a grassy fields behind the home ash rine center. When one of them noticed some clothing lying on the ground, they went up to IT to inspect further and realized he was, in fact, a person lying on the ground.

But they couldn't tell whether he was alive. They thought maybe he was maybe just drunk and passed out sleep ing. And often in the field, yeah, they've seen that before, apparently. Or they were like, I don't know, he was dead or unconscious. So they called the homa police, who were immediately dispatched to the scene.

Detective Simon was among the first to arrive at what was you know now a familiar are scene unfortunately the man was lying on his side wearing only blue jeans and socks and he had clear legate reMarks on his necklace um as he was bagging one of the victim's hands for a processing detective freemen gotta look at the Young man's face. I was shocked to realize that he knew who this person was. Oh wow. This was twenty two year old leon lead one of the suspects in the murder of a nokia Jones. Well, and I was the one of the last people to see Jones alive the ck, and that's just by happenstance, is wild so like so many other of dominic victims, leon had struggled to maintain stable housing and had been arrested a few times for petty crimes.

Um he would associate with some drug dealers in the area like that's how police knew him yeah detective crime and and immediately track down all those known associates but none of them had seemed ly on for several days and his family hadn't heard from him that time either yeah now eventually fragrantly on movements to the sugar bar motel, which was a location that's pretty popular with sex workers and that is looking to procure their services. According to two witnesses at the motel, leon had been seen a couple of days before his death with another White guy driving an older looking shaver. Rely suburban.

okay. Now while frame man walked the streets trying to track down anyone who could help them find the killer, autopsy technician began doing a primary analysis of lyon's body. As far as they could tell, leon had been dead for about twenty four to thirty six hours before he was found. Hammer ging in both sides indicated that the cause of death was likely to strangulation, and there was evidence to suggest that he had been sexually assaulted. Oh no.

Now, according to the autopsy technician quote, the victim was extremely drunk at the time of his death, and IT would not have taken much force to stringing le him, so he was take a job in a big also, the autopsy confirmed that leon had been killed in almost exactly the same way as the other suspected serial killing render victims. This was, there was very little doubt at this point that he was part of this body count. Right now we're going to go into the last phase of murders s between two thousand and five and two thousand six now once again ronal dominic's choice of victims which are marginalized frenzy you know what the video was calling high risk a vulnerable people um and his propensity to move between jurisdictions as he killed had worked to his advantage unfortunately, right, he left almost no evidence at the scene of any of these men's bodies in lions.

Transient lifestyle made IT incredibly difficult for detectives to just trace his movements. They were trying to figure where you've been then IT was hard. Um well, this has allowed him to be, you know successfully evade captures since the late one thousand and nineties by two thousand and five and had also made him more brazen as well.

He was becoming way more brain. I was waiting for that, which is usually when they fuck up and they get caught, you would hope so. Now also, dominic's body count was rising, and everyone in and around new orleans was beginning to take note every time anybody was found any.

Now, by the time the body of thirty one year old August watkins was discovered in a field behind the the force work release centre, investigators knew there was no longer part IT wasn't going to be possible to conduct this investigation quietly and out of the public eye you know, they were trying to keep a lot of things. Not surprised. They worried too, for as long as they did me too.

But IT was onest ly becoming deterrment tal, because so much speculation was happening. Now what kins was a black man known to police for some petty crimes. But you know, he had a history like unstable housing and employment.

yeah. Now, at the time of his death, watkins had just been evicted from his partner, and he'd been sleeping in the stairway underneath the whole motor. Nel, that's the sadd thing.

Now you like now an autopsy confirmed that watkins cause of depth was strangulation. yeah. The discovery of August walkings was meant that he was the seventeenth victim was was killer.

This prompted the hoa police chief, patent buda, to call a press conference. And he said, I think there is enough evidence to be concerned. There is a clear in our area, seventeen bodies, I would say, yeah, thank you for finally coming to that.

He pointed to the unsolved murders of all these men and parishes around new orleans and told the press that long enforcement officials from various agencies had been working together to determine whether the murder of a nokia Jones to trail woods, my goal, barnett leon lead and August walkings were related, chief investigator for saint Charles parish, a samsung told reporters. We think, without question, Jones fits into the group with hoa in la force as far as lifestyles and being found along the same court area. So there, at least coming forward with something, something.

Finally, now, in all the counties where dominic victims had been discovered, investigators did their invest coordinate with one another like we are saying, great. But what they really needed was an official state sanctioned task force like brought up, and they should have been happening so much earlier than the way earlier. And the when you finally get that official state sanction task force, you get all the resources exactly, and they needed IT badly, and they needed IT so much earlier than this.

I mean, when they were hitting those long stretches of like eight months a year between murder, that task force men put into position so that they could use all that shit to move IT forward. They were just sitting there with a stale case and letting another body appear at, I know where in carreno and it's like, what the fuck? Again, we've seen test force work so well before and see sooner.

No, unfortunately, the federal authorities found the links between the cases, their high risk lifestyles, quote, quote, too tenuous to justify the cost of a statewide task force. They were all killed in exactly the same manner, and a lot of them we're disposed of in the same manner. It's it's A A polite way of saying that the victims, gay, black men who some were involved in sex work, had a transient lifestyle, saying that they weren't exactly sympathetic enough to warrant t the expensive similar test forces once that at the time had been recently assembled to catch baton rouge serial killer director lee, whose victims were White college cowards.

That's fucked. So there's that when they're they're saying quietly, they're making sure that one stays a little more subtle. But that's what they were saying. But it's just how had seventeen Young men not justify a task force? I don't get that.

And how do you think like just get what the reasoning is, the fact that so many people had to get together and decide upon this and they all collectively came to the same decision. What the fuck guys, you have to hope that somebody is sitting in one of those problems was like, are you did not pull? Now it's that.

So just hartman IT is now the increase press coverage of the case in the speculation from various outlets that the cases might be linked was precisely the kind of attention that they did need to move that needle in the right direction because people are starting to put these together. So following the discovery of August walkings, a small amount of resources was allocated to finally assemble a task force to catch this killer. So as as soon as they came out and said, you know, I don't think it's fine.

It's genius. We're not really worried about IT. That's when finally the pressure came in where they are like, wow, there's seventeen dead bodies.

Let's get IT together. And finally, the right communities are hearing about IT too. They're able to put pressure on finally because they're finally hearing together.

So this included law enforcement from each of the paris in in which each of the victims were discovered. So this is a lot of parish is coming together for this test force. That's great.

And they started with Oliver, a banks, remember Oliver? Yes, you like for some reason, Oliver, like, just like when you look up, you look pictures of these men. And i'm telling you it's going to a wrap your heart out.

Oliver has a very familiar face. He does. He reminds me of someone but look up pictures of these men because i'm telling you it's a, it's going to terrier.

I don't mean crime scene photo. I am like photo that make you realize if you have already realized how verification is that they were completely ignored and just treated as trash. And yeah, completely to human.

nice. yeah. So they started with Oliver la. Banks, and they went through the most recent victim, August walkings, with this task force. And finally, we're going to see a little movement forward in the night where she's that is working to leave off on party. Oh my god, though that was a very heavy abcde.

So you're if you're leaving us with some hope, which I have to thank you for and have hope because my god, in part three, we're going to have we have some more heavy stuff yeah I an not it's just this a lot taking out at once yeah. But we are going to get a little bit. We're going to get something thing and I promise we will finally see but then understand how awfully this case was represented in the press when he was represented at all.

I don't know how you couldn't at this point. It's wild to me, wow. But these core families that had to sit around years and years and years and just think like, well, yes, is the day I we're gona come that i'm going to find out what happened my kid, these families had to push just to get their family never treated like human beings.

And then they also had to sit there like we have in part three will talk about IT. These these families would have to talk to reporters just to try to get to move forward. And they would have to be like. Yeah, my son, you know, my famous stakes.

He, like, he had some tough struggles in life, but like he was doing, this is like, validate why your child, or this person that you love, is a human being that deserves to be treated like human being got so sad that you have to validate that. Like, yeah, he made mistakes, but he was doing Better. And it's like, it's okay that he made mistakes. So good still a person so great that people are put in that position. It's just said, but no, i'm glad that we're gonna some kind of justice in part three so so stay tuned for part three yeah and without being signed, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep IT lady.

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