Post by hi224 on Jan 6, 2021 21:21:38 GMT
Case Summary
From 2005-2009, 8 deceased women were found in swamps and canals around Jennings, Lousiana. They had similar backgrounds, such as drugs, poverty, mental illness, and prostitution. They all served as police informants on the local drug trade and information about the other victims before their own deaths. Jennings is directly off I-10, between Houston and New Orleans, and in the center of one of the biggest drug corridors in the US (source).
The first victim, Loretta Lewis, 28, was found floating in a river by a fisherman on 20 May 2005. The other victims were Ernestine Marie Daniels Patterson, 30; Kristen Gary Lopez, 21; Whitnei Dubois, 26; Laconia "Muggy" Brown, 23; Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno, 24; and Brittney Gary, 17. Necole Guillory's body (aged 26) was found off I-10 in 2009. Patterson and Brown had their throats slit; the others were too decomposed to determine the cause of death.
Ethan Brown, an investigative reporter and author of a book on the case, discovered many connections between the victims, suspects, and police. Most knew each other well. Kristen Lopez and Brittney Gary were cousins and Brittney Gary lived with Crystal Zeno shortly before her death. Alvin "Bootsy" Lewis, who had a child with Whitnei Dubois, was the brother-in-law of Loretta Chaisson Lewis. Kristen Lopez was present, along with others connected to this case, when police shot/killed a drug dealer named Leonard Crochet in 2005; witnesses believe the police killed many victims because of their knowledge of this shooting, in which there was no probable cause for negligent homicide despite a police investigation concluding Crochet was unarmed when he was killed.
Investigation
Frankie Richard( image 1, image 2), a local strip club owner, pimp, and suspected drug dealer, admitted to having sex with most of the victims. He was among those last seen with Kristen Lopez. In 2007, he was charged in her killing, but charges were dropped after witnesses provided conflicting statements and a key piece of evidence was mishandled (source). LE witnesses connected Richard to the Sheriff's Office. 2 female inmates stated the Sheriff's Office disposed of evidence at Richard's behalf - more details on this below.
Byron Chad Jones and Lawrence Nixon, a cousin of victim Laconia Brown, were charged with 2nd degree murder of victim Ernestine Patterson. Wittnesses said Patterson had been doing sex work when she met up with the two males; they drove out to an abandoned house. Nixon’s wife at the time had said she saw her husband carrying an industrial size trash bag that he laid on the porch of their home and blood coming out of the bag, which she sprayed off(source). The sheriff's office didn't test the crime scene until 15 months later after the murder and found it "failed to demonstrate the presence of blood.".
Relationship with law enforcement
The office's chief criminal investigator, Warren Gary, was accused of purchasing a truck many witnesses saw one of the women last in. He purchased a white Chevy Silverado truck from Connie Siler, an inmate and known associate of Frankie Richard, who sold the truck for a profit. According to Brown, multiple sources suggested the truck had been at the crime scene where Kristen Lopez was killed. After buying the truck for $7-8K, Gary had the truck washed and resold for $15K. It's mentioned that the truck was taken by police before it was swabbed for DNA or evidence but whether Gary knew the truck was important to the case is disputed by LE. Gary was taken off the case and fined by the Board of Ethics, but later promoted to Head of Evidence Room.
Jesse Ewing, the officer who took the statements, handed the information to a PI after becoming afraid of giving the information to local LE (source), who then passed the information to the FBI and Louisiana Attorney General's Office. Ewing was arrested for obstruction and malfeasance for providing the information to a civilian rather than the proper chain of command and his career was ended.
Warren Gary was shot in his sleep by his grandson in 2016.
In 2009, the sheriff ordered every investigator on the case to be swabbed for DNA, but the office refuses to comment on the results of the testing.
Murder in the Bayou Documentary - additional witness statements
A documentary on this case was produced.
One witness in the documentary claims to have seen Terrie Guillory, warden of the parish jail and cousin of victim Necole Guillory, having sex with victim Loretta Chaisson in her jail cell. According to Brown, Terrie knew most, if not all the victims. He was rumoured to make "trades" with women to make legal problems go away in exchange for information and other favours.
According to Brown, numerous witnesses reported former jailer Danny Barry and his wife Natalie Barry often enlisting sex workers to come over to smoke drugs and have sex in a "sex dungeon" in their trailer. At least one witness reported seeing victim Brittney Gary get into a car driven by Barry and his wife the last night she was seen alive. Barry is now deceased.
Additional Information and context
u/alexycred' s post describes a number of details about the area, which I've not verified myself. (1) drug dealers who work for the police. Police would make drug busts along I-10, give the paraphernalia to drug deals who would sell it, and the police would receive a profit. (2) an undercover Dateline episode about the dealer/police relationship which aired before the murders. (3) a motel in which many of these deals were made and where the women would prostitute was owned by a now former Louisiana Congressman, and (4) officers would have intercourse with these women who were in custody; whistleblowers were either fired or had their lives destroyed.
This BayouBrief article contains information on an interview with Ethan Brown. This Oxygen article discusses the victims in more detail, law enforcement corruption allegations, and other people of interest.
This is a great Medium article by Ethan Brown details more information about the victims, interviews with their families and why they were thought to have been killed (they knew too much), lawsuits against LE, an expose in 1997, and charges against various LE.
One notable quote from the above article:
“Necole knew a whole lot,” said Frankie Richard, “about a whole lot.” “She was always paranoid,” her mother, Barbara Guillory, told me, ["]It got to the point where she did not want to go anywhere by herself,” she said. “I think she could feel that they were closing in on her.” With her 27th birthday approaching, Guillory refused to even entertain the idea of celebrating. “I bought some icing and cake for her birthday,” Barbara recalled. “She said, ‘Momma, it doesn’t matter—I’m not gonna be here.’”
Guillory also had her four kids placed with relatives. A task force witness supports the claim that in her final days she “was scared of someone,” but she would not say who, and that she “knew who killed the girls.”
Update
Frankie Richard died in his sleep on 22 March 2020.
Additional sources
Jeff Davis 8 - Wikipedia
Ethan Brown's book "Murder on the Bayou"
Another article with info
Showtime - Murder in the Bayou docuseries based on Brown's book
Death in the Bayou: The Jennings 8
From 2005-2009, 8 deceased women were found in swamps and canals around Jennings, Lousiana. They had similar backgrounds, such as drugs, poverty, mental illness, and prostitution. They all served as police informants on the local drug trade and information about the other victims before their own deaths. Jennings is directly off I-10, between Houston and New Orleans, and in the center of one of the biggest drug corridors in the US (source).
The first victim, Loretta Lewis, 28, was found floating in a river by a fisherman on 20 May 2005. The other victims were Ernestine Marie Daniels Patterson, 30; Kristen Gary Lopez, 21; Whitnei Dubois, 26; Laconia "Muggy" Brown, 23; Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno, 24; and Brittney Gary, 17. Necole Guillory's body (aged 26) was found off I-10 in 2009. Patterson and Brown had their throats slit; the others were too decomposed to determine the cause of death.
Ethan Brown, an investigative reporter and author of a book on the case, discovered many connections between the victims, suspects, and police. Most knew each other well. Kristen Lopez and Brittney Gary were cousins and Brittney Gary lived with Crystal Zeno shortly before her death. Alvin "Bootsy" Lewis, who had a child with Whitnei Dubois, was the brother-in-law of Loretta Chaisson Lewis. Kristen Lopez was present, along with others connected to this case, when police shot/killed a drug dealer named Leonard Crochet in 2005; witnesses believe the police killed many victims because of their knowledge of this shooting, in which there was no probable cause for negligent homicide despite a police investigation concluding Crochet was unarmed when he was killed.
Investigation
Frankie Richard( image 1, image 2), a local strip club owner, pimp, and suspected drug dealer, admitted to having sex with most of the victims. He was among those last seen with Kristen Lopez. In 2007, he was charged in her killing, but charges were dropped after witnesses provided conflicting statements and a key piece of evidence was mishandled (source). LE witnesses connected Richard to the Sheriff's Office. 2 female inmates stated the Sheriff's Office disposed of evidence at Richard's behalf - more details on this below.
Byron Chad Jones and Lawrence Nixon, a cousin of victim Laconia Brown, were charged with 2nd degree murder of victim Ernestine Patterson. Wittnesses said Patterson had been doing sex work when she met up with the two males; they drove out to an abandoned house. Nixon’s wife at the time had said she saw her husband carrying an industrial size trash bag that he laid on the porch of their home and blood coming out of the bag, which she sprayed off(source). The sheriff's office didn't test the crime scene until 15 months later after the murder and found it "failed to demonstrate the presence of blood.".
Relationship with law enforcement
The office's chief criminal investigator, Warren Gary, was accused of purchasing a truck many witnesses saw one of the women last in. He purchased a white Chevy Silverado truck from Connie Siler, an inmate and known associate of Frankie Richard, who sold the truck for a profit. According to Brown, multiple sources suggested the truck had been at the crime scene where Kristen Lopez was killed. After buying the truck for $7-8K, Gary had the truck washed and resold for $15K. It's mentioned that the truck was taken by police before it was swabbed for DNA or evidence but whether Gary knew the truck was important to the case is disputed by LE. Gary was taken off the case and fined by the Board of Ethics, but later promoted to Head of Evidence Room.
Jesse Ewing, the officer who took the statements, handed the information to a PI after becoming afraid of giving the information to local LE (source), who then passed the information to the FBI and Louisiana Attorney General's Office. Ewing was arrested for obstruction and malfeasance for providing the information to a civilian rather than the proper chain of command and his career was ended.
Warren Gary was shot in his sleep by his grandson in 2016.
In 2009, the sheriff ordered every investigator on the case to be swabbed for DNA, but the office refuses to comment on the results of the testing.
Murder in the Bayou Documentary - additional witness statements
A documentary on this case was produced.
One witness in the documentary claims to have seen Terrie Guillory, warden of the parish jail and cousin of victim Necole Guillory, having sex with victim Loretta Chaisson in her jail cell. According to Brown, Terrie knew most, if not all the victims. He was rumoured to make "trades" with women to make legal problems go away in exchange for information and other favours.
According to Brown, numerous witnesses reported former jailer Danny Barry and his wife Natalie Barry often enlisting sex workers to come over to smoke drugs and have sex in a "sex dungeon" in their trailer. At least one witness reported seeing victim Brittney Gary get into a car driven by Barry and his wife the last night she was seen alive. Barry is now deceased.
Additional Information and context
u/alexycred' s post describes a number of details about the area, which I've not verified myself. (1) drug dealers who work for the police. Police would make drug busts along I-10, give the paraphernalia to drug deals who would sell it, and the police would receive a profit. (2) an undercover Dateline episode about the dealer/police relationship which aired before the murders. (3) a motel in which many of these deals were made and where the women would prostitute was owned by a now former Louisiana Congressman, and (4) officers would have intercourse with these women who were in custody; whistleblowers were either fired or had their lives destroyed.
This BayouBrief article contains information on an interview with Ethan Brown. This Oxygen article discusses the victims in more detail, law enforcement corruption allegations, and other people of interest.
This is a great Medium article by Ethan Brown details more information about the victims, interviews with their families and why they were thought to have been killed (they knew too much), lawsuits against LE, an expose in 1997, and charges against various LE.
One notable quote from the above article:
“Necole knew a whole lot,” said Frankie Richard, “about a whole lot.” “She was always paranoid,” her mother, Barbara Guillory, told me, ["]It got to the point where she did not want to go anywhere by herself,” she said. “I think she could feel that they were closing in on her.” With her 27th birthday approaching, Guillory refused to even entertain the idea of celebrating. “I bought some icing and cake for her birthday,” Barbara recalled. “She said, ‘Momma, it doesn’t matter—I’m not gonna be here.’”
Guillory also had her four kids placed with relatives. A task force witness supports the claim that in her final days she “was scared of someone,” but she would not say who, and that she “knew who killed the girls.”
Update
Frankie Richard died in his sleep on 22 March 2020.
Additional sources
Jeff Davis 8 - Wikipedia
Ethan Brown's book "Murder on the Bayou"
Another article with info
Showtime - Murder in the Bayou docuseries based on Brown's book
Death in the Bayou: The Jennings 8