The Jennings 8: Part 1

Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail and may be sensitive for some listeners. All witnesses, purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going. To work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to get right in to right now in true crime. First thing is up. On December sixth, they had a hearing and they have first of all, deemed Lori Valo competent to stand trial, and they have also granted her request to represent herself in her murder conspiracy trial. There is going to be two trials. There is one for the. Murder conspiracy for her husband, Charles Valo, and there's going to be a separate one for the attempted murder of her ex nephew in law, Brandon Boudreaux. Jury's selection for Charles's trial is going to begin on March thirty, first of twenty twenty five. And if you don't think I'm watching every single second of Lori Valo representing herself in a murder trial. Oh my gosh, I don't even have words. She's already going to be in prison for the rest of her life. So I think it's good that they're letting her represent herself because I want to see her sync to the lowest of the low not that she hasn't already done that in everything that has transpired, since everything transpired, but to see it done in a public courtroom, in a public setting, it is going to be absolutely horrific. And all I can say is, if. Only law enforcement had listened to Charles Valo in the first place, we would never be here. And unfortunately we are moving on to the next order of business. I said last week that I wanted to talk about this, and I feel like now it's a good time to talk about it because they have officially said that missing gal from Hawaii that went missing en route to California, she has been safely located in Mexico. So this is such a long, crazy, convoluted story. There was a lot of things. She was traveling with her ex boyfriend. They were traveling separately but on the same flight because they had planned on doing this trip and then they ended up breaking up, but they didn't want to forego the trips, and they decided they were going to travel together but separately, like sitting in separate seats on the plane and such. So Hannah was. Supposed to make a layover in California and she never did, and she ended up sending these random, bizarre texts to her family about how her identity had been stolen and someone was trying to take over her life, and then she just went radio silent, and it was the most bizarre thing in the world. And I want to say, Hannah is thirty one, so she's, you know, old enough to make her own decisions, and if she wants to leave on her own, that is a okay. But these text messages sent off a slum of events that led to her father committing suicide in the search for her. Now I don't know the relationship between Hannah and her parents. I have not dug in that deep. But essentially, at the end of last week, they were saying that they had pretty much made it known to us that Hannah was seen in Mexico on her own free will, crossing the border, so they presumed that Hannah was safe, so that was a week ago, and authorities didn't really say if they had been in touch with Hannah, if they've talked to Hannah, but they were just presuming that she was safe. So then we jump to Wednesday of this week, Canna's family released a statement through their attorneys announcing that Hannah had been found and I'm going to read the statement right now. We are incredibly relieved and grateful that Hannah has been found safe. This past month has been an unimaginable ordeal for our family, and we kindly ask for privacy as we take the time to heal and process everything we have been through. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported us during this difficult time. Your kindness and concern have meant the world to us. So I don't really know any more than that. I don't know if Hannah sent these texts to purposely throw her family off of her trail and think that she had been kidnapped. If that's the case, and that's a whole different can of worms, and I assume they will be looking at charges if that is the case. I really don't know. If you are an adult and you just want to go off and chill, on your own, tell one trusted person, and don't make up some convoluted story about having your identity snatched and you're not able to travel now because you don't have your identity anymore. That really alarms people and it's not normal to do those things, and you're gonna set off alarm bells in everyone's head. So just say, hey, and her friend here, I need some time away. Tell my family I'm okay, I'm just going to. Go off the grid for a little while. I'll reach out when I'm ready and call it good. Don't scare your family into thinking something horrible and nefarious has happened to you. Her father committed suicide. That is a damn big deal. And like I said, I don't know the relationship between Hannah and her family, Hannah and her parents, but on top of Hannah being quote unquote missing, then they also have to deal with her father taking his own life in the search for Hannah. It is a wild and crazy story. But I'll be sure to keep you guys updated as more is released. All Right, here we go. I feel like I've been preparing for this all week. We are going to talk about the United Healthcare CEO and his murder and the person who is now in custody for his murder. So, Brian Thompson was the CEO of United Healthcare. He was in New York at a. Conference, a healthcare conference of sorts, when he was gunned down in the streets, shot in the back. They had surveillance video footage of this individual who allegedly shot Brian Thompson, and they had a pretty semi clear picture of his face. I didn't think it was going to take them long to find him, and it didn't. It took them about a week. They arrested and charged twenty six year old Luigi Mangione and they have now brought him into custody and like I said, they have charged him with the murder of Brian Thompson. They said that the physical evidence and forensics from the crime scene does match to that of Luigi. So there has been the craziest, in my opinion, response to this shooting. So let's lay out a few things. This man took someone. Else's life, and took someone else's life by shooting him in the back, which is probably the most cowardly way you can take somebody's life, and that is from behind. And social media and the internet are calling this man a hero, and I'm having a really hard time coming to grips with that and coming to terms with that. Now, on the other end of things, there is an. Aspect where we do need to talk about the corruption in insurance companies and denial of insurance claims and all of those different things. There is room to talk about how there is issues with that now. Luigi had apparently had some debilitating back issues, ended up getting surgery, and it was worse and worse and worse. Following surgery, he apparently had kind of gone off the grid and his family hadn't heard much from him, and he just turned into a completely different person. And I will say, pain in itself can change the way a person is. It can flip a little. Switch and make them think and act in a way that they normally wouldn't think an act. But I'm not giving him any excuses because he murdered somebody in cold blood and shot him in the back, a horrific, horrific crime. So there are people online though, that are glorifying this man, saying he's a hero and crucifying the people that turned him in, which blows my mind absolutely blows my mind. These are the same people who will also say that violence is not the answer, and then they're going to turn around and pretty much give Luigi a hero edit. And I'm so confused by it. Two things can be true at once. Killing somebody in the streets of New York City a CEO is bad, not a good idea, probably not the best thing that you should be doing with your time. And on the other side, insurance healthcare, there is a lot of issues. There is no one out here denying that there's not issues. We should be having those conversations, but they don't need to include a murder as well. It's just not productive because if you think about it, there are people out there after this happened that are calling for the different CEOs of insurance companies to be killed. They're posting their pictures in Manhattan and calling for them to be killed. It is not the Wild West. We are not out here shooting people on the streets just because you don't agree with the company they work for and that company's value. I think the second that we start to justify what this man did and give him all the praise and recognition and the hero edit is where we're really going to be sol because this is going to become the new norm. You don't agree with something that somebody does, or you don't agree with something a company does, well, it's okay, Luigi did it. It's okay for you to do it. And I think it does open up the conversation of why has health insurance become such a business, Why are people less important than making a profit? It all is a worthy conversation. It is something we need to be talking about. Health insurance companies are not perfect and they have a hell a lot of work to do, but there is no way that we can be out here justifying murder. It is not okay. It is not right, and there's going to be plenty of people. I know. I've seen the comments online that say health insurance companies murder more people on a daily basis than Luigi did. And you can argue that might be true, but it doesn't make it right. Two wrongs don't make it right right. That's what we've always been told, and I agree with that. There are flaws in the healthcare system. There are flaws in the health insurance system, big flaws, flaws that we need to talk about, flaws we need to have conversations about but giving somebody this hero celebration and talking about how he needs to be free, it is not the right move. He obviously was struggling deeply with some mental health issues, probably caused by his debilitating pain, and then he had surgery, and then he probably was taking pain meds. It is a vicious cycle. I get that. But this man obviously needs some help. He needs major help. Because a normal person doesn't walk up to somebody else and shoot him in the back. It is not normal. So that is just my little rant on the situation. If you don't agree with me, that is fine. We are all human, we all have our own thoughts, we all have our own opinions. But I do think that a conversation where we kind of see both sides of things is important. Because I do see both sides. I understand that Luigi probably had a lot of issues, whether it be with family members or with he himself and health insurance and health insurance companies. And it's okay to say that maybe he was screwed over by United Healthcare and he thought that he could get revenge by going after the CEO. But like I said, that doesn't make it right, so two things can be true at once, and that is kind of where I'm going to leave this conversation. Again, are just my opinions. You may have your own opinions, but at the end of the day, I feel like we all need to be out there doing the best we can for ourselves. And that is really all I have to say. Thank you guys for coming to my ted talk. It is good to be able to finally get that off of my chest in a productive way where I'm not arguing with strangers on Facebook because that's never productive. But with all of that being said, we are going to. Go ahead and get into today's episode, which is a total doozy and put me in the funkiest headspace. So buckle up because it is going to. Be a wild, wild ride, all right, guys, Today we are jumping into a brand new unsolved cold case. And I'll admit when I first started researching this one, I didn't realize how much I was taking on in researching this story. But this one was brought to me by one of my friends who is named Carly. She is the same one that we're commended the k Case Corner episode to me, and that one was a two parter and it was a beast and this one is also going to be a lot of information. I'm going to try to get it all in in one episode. I just don't know, but we are going to see. So today I am going to be telling you about the story of eight women who were senselessly murdered who were. Known as the Jennings Eight. There is also some articles where they are called the Jeff Davis Eight. The victims were all killed in Jennings, Louisiana between the years of two thousand and five and two thousand and nine, and interestingly enough, they all knew one another, Some are actually blood related, some share different apartments at different times, or they ended up frequenting the same bars and low cost motels. Unfortunately, all of these women struggled with drug addiction and some work in sex work, and a lot of them were known police informants. So it very much bags the question was this the work of one serial killer or the result of the Jennings, Louisiana sex and drug trade. There has also been some renewed interest in this case, as there was a Showtime documentary made as well as a book that was written by investigative journalist Ethan Brown. It was called Murder in the Bayou, and this chronicles the eight unsolved homicides in the events that led up to them, and it exposes the Jennings drug trade systemic police misconduct, and political corruption. I'll definitely be referencing Ethan Brown quite a bit during this story, because I think he did an exceptional job breaking all of this stuff down. So we're going to unpack. It all and talk about it all, and most importantly, I'm going to try really hard to give these victims each the attention and respect that they deserve. They all had family, and their lives were all important, and they deserved more than what happened to them and how their life ended. So first thing I'm going to do is go into each victim and share a little bit about each of them and who they were. Our first victim is named Loretta Lewis, and she was only twenty eight at the time of her death. Her body was found by our fishermen on May twentieth of two thousand and five. She was found decomposing and partially clothed, floating in a canal. She had to be identified by her fingerprints due to the decomposition. Loretta was a mother, wife, daughter, and her death started a string of murders that seemingly were all connected in some way, but still to this day, like I said, they all remain unsolved. Loretta's father is quoted as saying, we love and miss her. She was a loving mother, wife, and daughter. If you have any information about her death, please let somebody know. Our next victim is Ernestine Marie Daniels Patterson, who was only thirty years old. She was found June eighteenth of two thousand and five by a group of froggers after being missing for two days. She was a lifelong resident of Jennings, Louisiana. She has survived by her husband, two sons, two daughters, her parents, three brothers, six sisters, grandmother, and great grandmother. It took authorities two months to identify her through bone samples. She was discovered six miles from where Loretta was discovered in a waterway. Her throat had been slit, and the DA had even gone as far as to charge two men with her murder, but the charges were dropped and the case was dropped, leaving her family with no closure and a series of questions about what had happened to her. Our next victim is twenty one year old Kristin Gary Lopez, who was found on March eighteenth of two thousand and seven by a fisherman floating nude and heavily decomposed in the water. She had gone missing two weeks prior. Friends of Kristin said that she had been increasingly paranoid in the time leading up to her disappearance, and they had pretty much just assumed that she was off on a drug bender when they didn't see her for those two weeks. Shortly after her body was found, they did end up making an arrest in the case. A tip from an informant came in that led them to arrest two people, twenty two year old Hannah Connor and her godfather, fifty one year old Frankie Richard. Frankie was already behind bars, though, because he had been brought in on a rape charge that had occurred the week prior, so at this point they were both facing second degree murder charges and were being investigated into the other deaths as well. They ended up being quietly released days later, again no justice. Ricky Edwards, who was the sheriff at the time, said that the women were killed due to their high risk lifestyles, which basically stated that they were in to drugs and prostitution. One of the family members of. The victims said that this made the victims sound disposable, and I very much have to agree with this. No matter what life choices a person makes, they never deserve to have their lives taken in a horrific way and thrown away like garbage. Maybe there shouldn't be horrendous killers who target these groups of people. Let's flip the script and stop victim blaming. Not everyone is fortunate enough to live a privileged lifestyle, and addiction is a disease. After all, these are. All young women who, for one reason or another, fell into a lifestyle that they couldn't get out of easily. None of these women deserved what happened to them, and while it's okay to acknowledge that they were all involved in drugs and prostitution, that is not the reason that they. Were all killed. They were killed because some horrible person or persons decided that they don't put any value on human life, especially that of a woman, and they purposely target this population because they think law enforcement doesn't care enough to solve it and look past the victims and what they did. In their free time. We saw that in the Long Island serial killer case, and we see it here and it's really sad and really unfortunate. Sorry I had to go off on that little side tangent, but it really really gets me fired up, and I just had to make it known that these women are way more than how their lives were taken and what they were doing when their lives were taken. Our next victim is Whitney Duoi and she was twenty six years old and was found May twelfth of two thousand and seven. She had been missing since May tenth of two thousand and seven. She was found badly beaten and noone and was found by a known police informant. Britney Jones, who is Whitney's niece, had come forward and believes that the deaths could be the work of multiple killers instead of just a lone serial killer. She is quoted as saying in a file News article, I think it's more than one. I think it was made to look like it was a serial killer. I think that along the way, after the first few girls were found, people felt like because those homicides were not being solved. This was a very easy way to dispose of women and get away with it. But I don't think it's the work of one person. And I very much do agree with this because I think that they are all connected in some way, shape or form, And we're going to get into all of that in a little bit. We're going to talk about Whitney's connection to one of the other victims here in a minute. But it could definitely be more than one person who is perpetrating these murders, and that's just kind of become the dumping grounds in hopes that they're going to think it's one sole person and that will divert attention away from them. They were all found in a similar manner, but some of the deaths of them and the manner of deaths are different, so there is some differences in all of these homicides. So yeah, I do feel like there could be more than one person out there who is perpetrating these killings, one hundred percent for sure. So Whitney has a daughter, and the father of Whitney's daughter has a brother, and this brother was married. To Loretta Lewis. Now Loretta is one of the first victims of the Jennings aid. Her body, like I said, was found in two thousand and five. So that is the connection between Whitney and Loretta, which I think is such an interesting connection. So Whitney's daughter was only four years old when Whitney was brutally murdered, and her daughter is now grown up, and still to this day, Whitney's family still fights for answers into what happened to her, why was she taken in such a horrific way, who was responsible? And we don't really think about it, but every year that goes by, I imagine every day that goes by when you have had a family member taken in such a brutal way, it has to feel like an eternity. And even though two thousand and seven doesn't seem like that long ago, it was. It was a long time ago. And for Whitney's family all these other victims' families to not have answered so many years later, it has to just eat them alive every single day that the person that took their loved one is still out there and could potentially still be harming people, because whoever did this, whether it's one person, whether it's two people. Whether it's seven different people, eight different people, we don't know. But regardless of that, this person or these people are still out there, and if they're able and capable to take one life, they're capable to. Do it again and again and again. And that is the really scary part. Our next victim is twenty three year old Laconia Muggy Brown, who was actually found by a local police officer. She was found on May twenty ninth of two thousand and eight. Her body had been doused and bleached and abandoned on back roads in Jennings, Louisiana, on a road that leads to the police firing range. She was a lifelong resident of Jennings and attended Jennings High School. She is survived by her son, her mother, two sisters, one brother, and her grandmother. She was missing since May twenty seventh of two thousand and eight. So one thing I have found pretty consistent with these victims so far except for one, is that they were all missing and then two days later their bodies were found, except for Kristen, who was found two weeks later. So that is a similarity in all of these cases where they are last seen, their missing and then two days later their remains are found. The next victim was name Crystal Sheai Benoi Zeno, and she was found on September eleventh of two thousand and eight. She was twenty four years old and she was discovered deceased. In the woods in Jennings, Louisiana. On the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office website, there is a page dedicated to all of these victims, and on Crystal's there is a message from her mom. I'm going to read it now. How beautiful you are. Your smile is forever a reminder of how special you are. It has almost been a year, but it seems like yesterday that you were taken from us. If anyone has any information on my daughter's death, please come forward without closure. Not knowing who could have done this is very frightening. I pray every single day that God will give the task Force what they need to solve these cases. And that is signed Sarah Benoi, who is Crystal's mother. I'm also going to read some of Crystal's obituary just to give you an idea of who Crystal was as a person. Cristel was employed by Sonic and Lake Arthur. She liked to fish, sing and enjoyed listening to music. Most of all, she loved spending time with her daughter. She was a people person and enjoyed spending time with her family and friends. Survivors include her husband, Stanley Liezino of Lake Arthur, parents Brian Lee and Sarah Ann gasperd Beinoa, also of Lake Arthur, one daughter, maternal grandmother, one brother, two sisters, and numerous aunts and uncles. Proceeded in death by her first husband, Ray Harrison, grandmother, two grandfathers, and her godfather, Deacon Mark Benoit. Cristel's family said that she had straightened herself out for a little while because she did have a daughter, but she ended up slipping again into using drugs, and she was close to the other victims, the ones that I had previously talked about. One of her family members is quoted as saying, they all got high together, they all hung out together, and they all ran together. Our next victim is named Britney Gary, and she was the youngest victim at only seventeen years old. She was found dumped on the side of the road in Jennings, Louisiana. Her body was found November fifteenth of two thousand and eight. She was last seen on November tewod of two thousand and eight, between five and five fifteen pm. She left her home in Jennings, Louisiana, ended up walking a few blocks to a family dollar store to buy some pre paid minutes for her cell phone, and from there she never returned home. There was a FDS surveillance video at five point thirty where she is seen making her purchase and then leaving the store by herself. The camera does not indicate that she was with anyone else while she was in the store, and that is the last time anyone saw or spoke to her. Britney's mother, who was named Teresa, said that she reported her missing more than twenty four hours yars later, and she started to fear the worst, thinking that her daughter was going to be a victim of this alleged serial killer. Brittany was not known to disappear for long periods of time, so this was very out of the ordinary for her. When her mother did try to call her, her cell phone went unanswered and her voicemail indicated that her inbox was full, so nobody was even able to leave her messages. Her cause of death was listed as exphyxiation. Brittany and her family had only recently returned to Jennings, Louisiana after they had lived in Houston and Lufkin for a while, and the reason that they moved to Texas is because they wanted a fresh start. According to Britney's mom, Teresa, Brittany had done drugs in the past, but while they were living in Texas, she was clean, and she said that her daughter had never engaged in prostitution. And after returning to Jennings, Louisiana, Brittany was very much trying to distance herself from some of her old friends. Now, if you remember I said, all of these women knew each other or knew of each other in some shape or form. So Brittany was related by blood to Kristin Gary Lopez, who was the. Third victim I spoke about. And Brittany's best friend was Laconia Muggie Brown. Who was the victim I just told you about. And the second victim, Ernestine Patterson, was one of Teresa, Brittany's mom's employees at Wendy's. So you see how all of this kind of interseex and kind of connects even though these women are of various different ages. Brittany and her family lived in Texas for a while and then they ended up coming back to Jennings, and then she ended up getting murdered at only seventeen years old. There is a connection here, and it's very interesting that all of these women, despite their differences and what they were doing in their lives at the time that they were brutally taken, they were all killed in a semi similar fashion. They were all found within five miles of each other. It's just all too coincidental for it not to be connected. But I do agree that we are probably looking at more than one person who perpetrated these deaths. Initially, when Brittany went missing, law enforcement wasn't super concerned and just thought that she was a missing juvenile. They didn't think that she was going to end up being another victim of this person or persons who were killing all of these women in Jennings. But that ended up being the case, and she ended up being the seventh victim, which is horrible and so so sad, and only seventeen years old. She had her whole life ahead of her. The last victim was found on August nineteenth of two thousand and nine, and she is named the Cole Jean Gillery. She was twenty six year old at the time of her death. She had been missing since August sixteenth of two thousand and nine. Nicole was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana and was a resident of Lake Arthur and she had four beautiful children. She enjoyed listening to music and loved being outdoors. Her body was found along busy Interstate ten in Akatia, Paris So. She was the final eighth victim in a series of these unsolved murders that began with Loretta in May of two thousand and five. Nicole was actually a witness in a two thousand and two case. We are going to get into that in a little bit because there is a connection between all of these victims personally. There's also this underlying drug and prostitution aspect, and there's also some other deep seated things because these women, most of them were police informants at one time or another, and we have to talk about that. So now that I have given you all the information on. Our victims, we are going to get into the meat and potatoes of everything. We're going to talk about the documentary. Now, the documentary was made after Ethan Brown decided to write the book Murder in the Byu. The documentary is also called Murder in the Byu. He had a huge part in this documentary, And honestly, I started watching the documentary after I researched the actual victims and how they were found. And my thoughts and feelings when I first started watching the documentary versus my thoughts and feelings when I finished watching the documentary were two completely opposite sides of the spectrum. So if you think that once I start telling you about episode one of the documentary, you're going to have an opinion, I think, and then as we get to the end of episode two, your opinions are going to start to shift a little bit, as mine did, and it was a crazy, insane wild ride. I do recommend you guys going and watching the documentary for yourselves reading the book, because seeing it is one thing, Hearing about it is another. And I want you to have the full experience of this twisted, twisted story. So from here on out. Everything I'm going to talk about is from the Showtime documentary Murder in the Bayou. It is five episodes, multiple parts. Today, during this episode, we're going to discuss the first two episodes, and then there is going to be a part two because no matter what I do, there's no way. I can get this into one episode. So part two is just going to be the discussion of the last three episodes and some of the happenings in the case up until now. Now, like I said, there's a lot of information here and I want to be sure to cover it and its entirety and not leave stuff out. Hence why I want to break it down into two episodes, and your opinions are very much going to change from when I start to when I end this series. On the Jettings eight, So first. Episode of the documentary, Loretta's brother is speaking about the last time he saw her, and he said that he saw her getting into a truck with a man named Frankie Richard. I earlier called him Frankie Richard, but this is Louisiana, so everyone pronounces her name's different. So Frankie Richard, I correct myself. And Frankie was known to be involved in the drug world and also in the prostitution world. Now, if you remember earlier when I mentioned Frankie, he was charged in Kristen's murder but later let go. So we're going to get into all of that in a little bit because it's a very important part of the story. So we're now going to. Go into a little bit more in depth about Frankie and his connection to Kristin, who was victim number three. So after the first two murders of Loretta and Ernestine, police were still actively investigating them when they ended up finding this third body, who was the body of Kristin Lopez. So they are interviewing this woman. She definitely is smoking, like in the interview. Everyone in this documentary is like heavily smoking as they're being interviewed for the most part. And this woman is none other than Hannah Connor. I mentioned her earlier. She is one of the people that was arrested in connection with Kristin's death. So during this interview with Hannah, she said that she was good friends with Hannah. They grew up together, they kind of grew apart as they got older. But she said she was really surprised that Kristin was even reported as a missing person because it wasn't uncommon for her to be gone for longer periods of time, so she was pretty surprised, but when she did hear that she was missing and then subsequently she turned up dead, Hannah said she went to the cops to let them know that she was there to help and she wanted to find out what happened to Kristin. And they ended up talking in the documentary with Kristen's dad and he said that he would smoke crap with her and that they were both addicts. They were both kind of down this bad path. Hannah said that her parents and Kristen's parents were really good friends, and Hannah's dad was close with Kristin and Kristen would. Call him Uncle Billy. And then Hannah said that Kristen was very much in the drug scene and Hannah really wasn't. She was more of a weed smoker. She really, at that point in time wasn't into the hard drug life scene that Kristin was. And Hannah said that when she turned eighteen, she realized that Kristen and her dad were having a sexual relationship, but she said it didn't bother her that they were in this relationship. Hannah said that her. Dad, Billy was an amazing man, was always a safe space, but he was a drug supplier. He had a camper and if you were a woman and you could go into his camper and get all of the free drugs you wanted. Now, Billy was really good friends with Frankie Roschard, who was Hannah's uncle and her godfather. So this is the tangled web of everyone knowing each other that I talked about earlier. Now we're going to leave them for a little while and we're going to go back to them in a little bit. So onto the next victim, they find Whitney. Now, if you remember earlier, I told you that she was found by a police informant and his name was Jamie. So in this next interview, we meet a man named Chad. I assume it's Roschard. I don't think there's any relation between him and Frankie. And he said that he saw Whitney's body that night. So his story is that he and his ex wife were celebrating their anniversary. They had rented a motel room and they were doing drugs. Jamie arrives. Now Jamie is his. Ex wife's brother and they did some drugs with him. Now, Jamie was very well known to be an associate of Frankie and he did a lot for him to get drugs. Chad then says that as the night passed, they decided that they were going to go for a ride. So they ended up taking this ride, and Chad said that Jamie was acting funny, and then they turned off of Highway one oh two and Jamie made an extremely wide turn, seemingly like he was trying to miss something in the road, and Chad had looked out of the window and saw what he thought was a body in the road, and Chad said that they needed to stop, and Jamie and him argued back and forth. Jamie was saying, no, that's a deer, that's not a body, but Chad knew that it was a body because he said it looked nothing like a deer. So they continued to argue about it, but they continued forward on their drive, and then Jamie eventually went back to the body and called the cops and said that he had just found the body. Chad says that this was false, and he thinks that Jamie put the body there because of the wide turn that he made. He thinks he knew the body was there before they even turned down that road. So now we are going to hear from Jamie himself. This was a call from the Madison Correctional Facility while Jamie was imprisoned on unrelated charges. And it ain't that, and I knew about it, about the pot of there. I did not do it. Now. I was driving and it was thought it was baby, and when I was fond of it actually worn. I didn't know't know why it today I don't know. I think it was chat and I don't know even about a boy or something like that. I don't know what board. And on my way going home, I bad think that again, and I could earnt that it was a body. Well until I had no no I can get more, ball got it more and well we I don't know. Returned then on a two him low and when I kep the body, I stopped to go on the road and that down nine one fifteen the horn I wasn't get at what port in my life I used to being an animal a box. I didn't kill the girl. I didn't know who the barrel was. I didn't know anything about her. Brought to the shore that body. I'm like one body got play that was upload? You know? I did you all about it? After all about it how do you want to put my life on that? Okay? So, like I said, that is audio from Jamie Trehan and he is very much saying what happened that night and that he thinks Frankie Richard is the one that did it. Well. On the other hand, you hear from Chad who. With Jamie that night, and he thinks that Jamie did that for Frankie. So again we get back to the super tangled web of suspicion and a lot of people you talked to put Frankie Richard right in the center of it. So it's really no surprise to me that the Jennings Police Department would eventually go after him for this string of killings. But that is where things are going to kind of take a turn, because if I were to listen to this, and I did, I listened to all of this stuff, I thought Frankie Richard was probably the number one suspect, and then something changed And that will make more sense to you as I keep unraveling the story. So they talked to some individuals from the town. Of Jennings and they said that as more body started to be found, the residents of the town were very scared and they thought that it was so crazy that so many people had lost their lives. The residents even questioned. If this was a serial killer or if this was the work of more than one person. They even said that nobody in law enforcement wanted to say the word serial killer, and the families were having a really hard time getting communication from the cops. They felt like they were being kept information in regards to the murders. Now, at this point, there's only four people, which I say only, but when you're dealing with a group. Of eight, four is half. So we are halfway in to. The Jennings eight and this is the point in time when law enforcement should really have boots on the ground figuring out who the hell is killing these women. So it stops. And they didn't do that because we had former murders obviously, So Sheriff Rickey Edwards, we are going to say that name a heck of a lot during this episode. He is a huge part of this case. He was the sheriff at the time, so he would always say when anyone questioned him about what was going on in the case, he said that they were working on it and that was it. Now, I'm sure that there was a lot going on behind the scenes that they couldn't necessarily discuss with the public. But I can't imagine how hard it was for the families trying to navigate this knowing that whoever killed their family member is just out there able to live their lives and in a horrific way. These girls were killed in a horrific way. So shortly after Whitney was found, that is when they arrest the two. People for Kristen's murder. Like I mentioned earlier, so Hannah had been in communication with detectives after Kristin had passed away because she said she wanted to try to help because Kristin was her friend. So this particular day, she was getting ready to go out of state, so she had called the detective to basically say, Hey, I'm going to be going out of state. I don't know how my soul service is going to be, but I'll be in touch with you when I can. And before she knew it, they were at her house. They told her she needed to come out, and they arrested her in her front yard for Kristen's death along with Frankie. They arrested Frankie as well. Now, like I said, Frankie was connected to drugs and prostitution, and he also had. A violent past. Law enforcement was very very familiar with him. Kristin, Loretta, and Whitney all knew Frankie and hung around with him, so this is kind of the commonality. Between these girls. Frankie is described as a scary and very intimidating man. So once they were arrested, the town definitely was feeling a little sense of relief and the fear kind of subsided until they were let go and cleared of all charges. Like I said earlier, this happened very very quietly. The families of the victims says, it doesn't make any sense. Frankie at this point was a free man, and the victims' families still would see him around town. So this is a really, really short clip, but I want you guys to hear from Frankie himself, and if you really want to get the full effect of the kind of person Frankie is, you need to go watch the documentary because it is so interesting to see Frankie and hear him give his account of everything. This is just the first time we hear from him. I'm just going to play this little bitty clip, and then we're going to get into some other stuff that we definitely have to talk about. And they can do what then and them building him? Did he vu? That's and that is pretty much how episode one ends. So for me, I'm just going to talk a little bit about, like my initial thoughts. My first thoughts were, Okay, Frankie is probably the prime suspect here. They don't have enough evidence to charge him. So why isn't there enough evidence to charge him? Is he that skilled and cunning that he is not leaving behind any evidence at these crime scenes? Why isn't there evidence at these crime scenes? I'm kind of trying to rationalize it in my head, But then I think, listening to Frankie say what he said, I kind of believe him at the same time, although I know nobody is ever going to come out and say, oh, yeah, I murder those girls. But he is being cooperative. He is. Participating in this documentary, which I feel like is a sign of somebody that wants to help, not hurt a case. So why so much public scrutiny towards Frankie. He might have had a connection to all of these girls, but was he involved? Is the question, So we are not going to get into episode two. So the second episode starts with interviewing a woman named Tracy, and Frankie said that Tracy is the one who essentially made up a story about him and Hannah which led to them being arrested. And in the interview with Tracy, she said that it was true and she was being bothered by the Jennings detectives, so she basically told them a story that she had heard quote unquote on the streets, and once they were arrested, she felt guilty and then went back and told them that she had lied. She said the only. Reason she gave this explanation of what happened was because the Jennings police led her there, and that it was a cover up and that, in her opinion, she thought that someone inside the department was hiding something. Frankie said the police in Jennings would do anything in everything in their power to get rid of him and shut him up. Then they go into Frankie Richard and. How he was raised. He said that his mother said his dad was an asshole, and his dad said his mom was a bitch, So who do you believe? Frankie said, he got into weed at age fourteen, and then he started to sell it, and that it escalated into harder drugs and then it got out of control. He said he had a trucking company and he also at one point in time owned a strip club, but his most memorable job was the one where he sold women for sex. And these are not the words he used, but that's the best way I can say it. He said he did not pimp out the girls, but simply introduced them to older men that wanted to spend some money on a younger girl. He made sure that they were safe and they got paid, and then he would take the money that he got and buy drugs and give it to them. He then went on to say that he would never do anything to hurt the girls. Hannah then said the detectives basically wanted her to confess and say that Frankie was involved and offered her a deal, but she refused to do this because she says it wasn't true. So in the midst of everything, with Hannah and Frankie being arrested and then released, they find the next body, which was Lakanya Muggy Brown. Muggy was her nickname. Now, if you remember me talking about her earlier. She is the one that was found by one of the police officers. So Lakanya's sister questioned why the officer was in that area where La Kanye was found at five am. Why was he back there, and the. Jennings Police Department basically said that this was his area to patrol, so that is why he was there. They also wouldn't let the family see La Kanye's body because it was so decomposed, and the family was never allowed to see her even though they wanted to. They wanted that closure, They wanted to be able to see her and identify her. They were never able to. Before Lakanya was found murdered, her step grandfather had even taken it upon himself to try and find the serial killer with a few of his friends. He said that they would drive around Jeff Davis Parrish and they would just wait and search. Little did he know his own family would soon become victimized in this horrific crime. In two thousand and nine, Sheriff FRICKI Edwards said that it seems that the women are related to one offender, but there wasn't any forensics or anything that pointed it on one person. However, he didn't want to come forward and say that it was a serial killer type of situation because it would give any other potential suspects and out if they were involved. So they were trying not to put all of their eggs in one basket. So he said it might not be. A serial killer, but it may be a serial dumper, which again was highly criticized, but he says that he was doing his best alongside his team to bring whoever killed these girls to justice. He said he respected them and knows that they didn't deserve to lose their lives in the way that they did. Then, Crystal Zino's body was found in the woods. Now she was found and she was allegedly unrecognizable, but Cristel's family said that they heard rumors pretty much right away that this was Crystal, despite Cristel not even being listed or reported as a missing person. So how did the Sheriff's office get word that this was Crystal Zeno? How did they know that this was her? The documentary then goes into the death of Brittany and they show a super emotional clip of her mom begging for anyone to let her know where her daughter was. And this was when she was first missing before they found her body, and watching this clip of Britney's mom was just absolutely devastating. Watching her interview in the documentary was probably the hardest one for me to watch so far, because she was so emotional and devastated and you could feel everything that she was feeling. They even had trouble finding a preacher to direct Britney's funeral because of the rumors that were running rampant in the town of drug use and sex work, which is just horrible. Somebody's life is not diminished just because of the choices that they made. The family did find somebody to help direct Britney's funeral, and he was very passionate about this not happening again to another young person. He said that somebody has to be held accountable for this, the mayor of the state Police, the sheriff, someone. He also goes on to say that the sadness that lingers in Jennings is because there is no closure in any of these cases. They then go on to speak with Britney's mom, Teresa, and she said that Frankie Richard got a lot of blame for a lot of the bad things that happened in Jennings and he didn't deserve it, and the reason that he was blamed was because it was convenient. And the more I'm looking into all of this and. Watching the documentary getting all the information, I one hundred percent agree it is very convenient to blame Frankie for all of this stuff. But I do want to say that Teresa, who is Britney's mom, is a true badass and will not. Let this rest until whoever did this is brought to justice. Then we hear from a. Guy named Scott Lewis who worked for a local paper and would occasionally print stories about the murders that were happening. He said that scher Franky Edwards basically told him that one of the stories that he wrote is what ended up getting Brittany killed. And there was only one story that was released by Scott in between the murders before Brittany ended up dying. That was about a private. Investigator who had put together a bank account where people could donate money and that would act as reward money for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the person or persons responsible. So, according to Sheriff Ricky Edwards, this was the reason that Brittany was killed. But my question is why would Ricky Edwards say this to Scott Lewis and what evidence does he have that led him to believe that this was true. And once this became kind of known in the community, everyone said, there's no way that that's true. Scott had nothing to do with any of this. Of course, his article got nobody killed, but they did think that Ricky saying that that was the case was just basically him trying to throw them off the case or get him to stop asking questions, because Scott Lewis was very much asking the hard hitting. Questions that needed to be asked. So Scott Lewis is saying that there are there are two things here that we need to consider. Either what Sheriff Fricky said is true and you have to live with that, or a Sheriff Fricky is the kind of guy who would say that to get him to stop doing what he is doing. Basically, you got this girl killed and put the fear of God in him to get him to stop doing what he is doing, which I think is a really really interesting take when you really think about it. So Scott said that personally and professionally. This was a huge breaking point for him. A press conference happened later that year in December of two thousand and eight, where Sheriff Fricky Edwards announced that they had officially formed a permanent task force dedicated to solving the mystery of seven girls dying. So question, why does it take seven bodies to form a task force? Why? The family members were outraged during this press conference, saying that nobody is talking to them, no updates are being given. It has taken seven bodies to form a task force. It was ugly and everyone was picking sides law enforcement versus anti law enforcement. Ricky Edwards said that the task force was going to have a tip line. However, there were many people who called and spoke with the task force and they were dismissed or basically they never heard back from them. They were trying to give info and weren't allowed to, which, what the heck, why do you have a task force if you're not going to actually do anything with the task force. Ricky Edwards then addresses the cover up rumors and said that they would never do that, and then he went on to say that. Nobody was above the law or thought that they were above the law. Then they found the last body, which was the body of Nicole. Now Nicole was very different because she pretty much knew that she was going to be a victim. She had even had this conversation with her mom where her mom had asked her what type of ice sing do you on on your birthday cake? And Nicole basically said, it doesn't even matter, mom, I'm not going to be here for my birthday. So it's almost like she predicted her own murder, which is so horrific and so sad. I can't even imagine. This poor girl walking around this town, living in this town, knowing that she seemingly had a target on her back and she thought that she was going to get killed and then she did. It is just awful. So they ended up holding another press conference and they announced that they were raising the reward money and Sheriff Fricky Edwards said that this is a serial killer and one. Offender killed all eight girls. But if that's the case, how is nothing left behind? No forensics, no physical evidence from any of the crime scenes all eight times. There's nothing left behind, or at least not that we're aware of. Right, There's nothing that is saying that this was a specific person. There's not DNA linking all eight crimes. There's nothing like that. Most people said that this was a law enforcement cover up because it was cleaned up like only they'd know how to clean it up. Now, this is kind of when Ethan Brown comes in to the story. So he became involved when he read a piece that was written in the New York Times, and then he basically just started his own investigation in twenty eleven. He said the. Serial killer theory had been pushed so much by law enforcement, which meant that if it was a serial killer, and they knew in their heart of hearts that it was, then why was it still a mystery as to who this person was. He said that once he looked into it, the serial killer theory didn't really match up. He realized that this wasn't a serial killer. All of the victims knew one another. Most of them shared a pimp who was Frankie Richard. He said. Another thing that caught his attention was the negligence of law enforcement along with the misconduct from law enforcement. Now here's where things start to get out. So this is one particular thing that really stood out to him. And it was in regards to Kristin Lopez's case. So Kristin was last seen riding in a Chevy Silverado truck before she was killed. Now, there is an individual named Warren. Lopez and he was a chief investigator with Jeff Davis Sheriff's office. He ended up getting a Chevy Silverado truck from a woman who was named Connie Siler, and Connie was an associate of Frankie Richard. Warren Lopez purchased this truck and washed it so as it was cleaned out of any evidence allegedly. So that is just one thing that led Ethan too things that there was some misconduct here. He really started to dig. He started to sit. Down with all of the evidence, He interviewed the families of the victims, and he discovered a whole new story. That needed to be told. This was way more gray than it is in black and white. So this is where we're going to leave off for this episode. But if you are like me and you started this episode and you thought Frankie Richard was the only one responsible, and now you realize that this is going in a whole different direction than join the club. Because as much as I wish that I could say I'm shocked by this turn of events. I'm truly not. We never want to think that eight people being murdered and it being a giant cover of conspiracy is something that could happen. But unfortunately it happens, and we are just here to talk about it, dig in a little bit deeper and try to figure out why eight women were brutally taken and who did it and who was behind it. So next week's episode, we're going to dig into the next three episodes of this docuseries and we're going to discuss all of the things. There is still a lot lot more to come. I will see you guys next week for part two of the wildest and craziest rabbit hole I have been in in a while. Stay safe and see you all next week. Bye, guys. A little edit. I was just listening back to the end of the episode and I realized that I called this investigator Warren Lopez. His name is Warren Gary. I don't know what why I did that. Where that came from. Christen's last name is Lopez. That's probably where it came from. There are a lot of people involved in the story, so his name is Warren Gary. I wanted to be very clear about that, and I am sorry for the mistake, but it is too late to go back and edit it out because this episode is ready to go. So thank you guys for listening and I will see you next week for part two, then noting