[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thornton made note of these details as particularly significant because I don't know if anybody else has picked up on this big gaping hole in all of his stories. Um, regardless of the self-defense framing that he thinks is like airtight here, if he brought the rope and tire iron knowing he could use them,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That says pre-meditation. Why'd you bring rope? Exactly. Why you got a tire iron just lying on your floor at all times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But why is the rope there? Is it real? And why can you just grab it? Why is it so close to you that you know where it is? And the tire iron, it's like you, you would think that if, which obviously it's not the case, but if you had gone through that traumatic experience with Oliver and you killed him with that tire iron, you, you still have that? That's the thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like you still have the tire iron. You wouldn't get rid of that? And again, it's like you went through that traumatic situation and you're just like right back out doing the same thing. Yeah, I don't think so. Not worried about it at all? Also, if you're in a car, you don't need to tie anybody's hands up or do anything like that or choke them with seatbelts. You kick them out of your car and you drive the fuck out of there. Exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ronald again drove around for a while until he found a dumpster where he left Manuel Reed's body and then he just returned home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's like you're already fucked up, like no one believes you. You already fucked up when you said these men approached you, no one believed you there. Exactly. And then second, to say it's self-defense when you brought weapons with you. Sorry, I don't believe it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now Ronald Dominique had essentially admitted to killing two men at this point, like he had admitted to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, in self-defense was the caveat. But Thornton felt that he'd built a pretty good rapport with him at this point, and he was like, you know what, I'm being the good cop, I feel like he's buying it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he's like, I think I could get him to confess to more here. Like he's pretty easily giving us these two. He's lying, but he's about why, but like eventually we'll get to the truth. So he returned back to the interrogation room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the two detectives sat down with Dominique again and decided to take a chance that he might be willing to keep going. So Detective Thornton said quote, Am I right in saying that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Ronald paused for a minute. What seemed to the detectives to be an attempt to stall, they said, before replying, most probably. I just don't remember. Most probably? So they were like, hm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so they proceeded gently here, and Detective Thornton and Bergeron tried to get Dominique to confess, but after having alluded to his guilt, he seemed preoccupied suddenly with what his sister would think of him. All of a sudden he was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They knew it was common for serial killers to keep quote unquote trophies. Yes. But the technicians were unable to find anything belonging to Dominique's victims. Interesting. So Thornton asked Ronald Dominique about this because they were connected with him and he said just maybe, so like the way he asked this was he said to him


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just maybe they left any articles of clothing or jewelry around, like, you know, like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've admitted that you knew these people. Like, did they leave anything around? Right. Like, just not making it a big deal. Like, we're not trying to look for evidence. We just wanna know. Wanna know. Did they leave shit at your place? Like, is that something?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the detectives were hoping they could find more physical evidence than what they, that could use, that they could use, excuse me, to connect him to these victims outside of his words right now. Right, right. But Dominique was adamant that he'd always thrown everything away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then Detective Thornton tried another direct approach.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this was, I really think this was a good idea, because remember there were a couple of men, at least one or two, who were on a bicycle. Yes. Yeah. Uhm, and so he just said, what about a bicycle? You ever throw a bicycle away?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like just pulled that one right out because he was like, I know there's a bicycle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Ronald thought for a minute and then said, maybe once or twice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He continued to avoid outright confessions of murder?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But his responses to the detective's questions unquestionably implicated him in more deaths. Okay. He was not going to confess right away, but he was implicated in himself. Yea, like maybe I threw a bicycle away once or twice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, neither two victims that we just talked about. Yea, like I threw everything away. Right. There were references at one point to the storage shed in which he'd left Michael Barnett's body. Oh my god. The bike he dumped alongside Detrell Woods' body. Yup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the uni- and other unique aspects of all the other murders he was able to pull out of his ass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, knowing they'd finally gotten him to somewhat crack, Detective Thornton and Bergeron pulled out the file of photographs and went through all 23 victims with Ronald Dominique.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were like, you tell me who this person is and you tell me where you put them, you tell me everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the course of their six hour conversation, the detectives went through the photos one by one with Dominique providing details of each murder, including the vehicle he was driving at the time, where he was living, what he'd done to each victim,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In some cases, he'd recognize them as sex workers or referred to them as addicts in need of money and said he'd lure them into the vehicle with a promise of money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or money in exchange for sex. In other cases, like if the victim was not a sex worker and presumed to be what he said, presumed to be straight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ronald would show them a picture of a nude or mostly nude woman and ask if they would be interested in having sex with her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But once the victims were in the car, it always unfolded the same way. Ronald would tie them up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rape them, strangle them, and then leave their body in a convenient location nearby.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A couple hours before he's like, I don't remember. And then he remembers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the usual shock followed a few days later with everyone remarking that Ronald Dominique didn't seem like the kind of guy who would do something like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shelter manager Raymond Borg told reporters, quote, you wouldn't suppose this dude could do what they say. He looks like somebody from a church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was like, I don't know, people who go to church can be dickheads too. Yeah, I get it though. Dickheads everywhere. I get that you're like, he looks like he's just like some regular dude. Other residents at the shelter where Dominique was staying were as surprised. One resident said he didn't look scary. If they hadn't arrested him, he could have stayed here 20 years and nobody would have thought anything about him. That's crazy. Which is horrifying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now within a few days of his arrest, Terry Bone Parish District Attorney Joseph Waits had announced that he intended to seek the death penalty for the murders committed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In, uhm, in at least his district. Mhm. And it was likely that the other district attorneys would do the same. They would all follow. I would think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That fact gave law enforcement leverage in the form of a plea deal. If Dominique would take them to all 23 dump sites and confess to at least eight murders, eight of the ones that they felt like they had the most for, then the DA would take the death penalty off the table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now Ronald jumped at the opportunity and on the morning of December 2nd, 2006, a caravan of like half dozen police cars drove from one end of the state to the other as Ronald Dominique showed them precisely where he'd left each of the bodies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now everyone on the task force and in the state attorney's office knew they were never going to be able to convict Dominique on all 23 counts. It's just, it's unheard of. That's a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Faced with a very difficult decision to risk going to court or forfeiting some of the charges, state's attorney Mark Rhodes made the decision to charge Dominique with the eight strongest cases.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, just in order to get a serial killer off the streets. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the plan had the added benefit of sparing a lot of family members the pain of a long drawn out trial appeals. Yeah. All this shit. That's a lot. But first they did get the approval from the families of each victim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which they all gave without hesitation. Wow. That's awesome that they actually did that. Like went to each family and asked. I love that that was part of it. And like kudos to those family members that were like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it would be hard. Absolutely. Like if you were one of the cases that is not one of the eights. You want justice. You're gonna feel like you didn't get the full, you know, or you could feel that way. And it's like, it's nice that they were seeing the forest through the trees here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Love you so much. Love y'all. But I just think that like good for them. Like these family members have been through the fucking mill. Yeah. And they're badass. They really are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the task force worked to confirm the details provided by Ronald Dominique, district attorneys in the various parishes raced to get their cases together to prosecute the killer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Terribon, uh, DA Joe Waits said, we'll have to get together to see who can do it the fastest. As tends to happen in serial killer cases, police and sheriff's departments also looked at other unsolved cases they thought could maybe be connected to Ronald Dominique.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Police Chief Craig Meloncon told reporters, quote, I think it's responsible for us to go look and see if we can connect Mr. Dominique to that killing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now as investigators and others in law enforcement prepared their cases against Dominique, the families of the victims struggled with the news of this arrest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the thing, he took my kid's life from me, nothing's gonna make me feel better. No. Like this isn't... How do you move on from that? Closure isn't the word. Justice isn't the word. We've talked to victims, family members that say like, you don't really get closure. And they say, there's really no word.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and there was some people who were, uhm, unfortunately disturbed by the gay aspects of the case. Uh, and they refused to believe that Dominique was the one who killed their loved ones because they didn't want to believe the aspect of he could possibly be bringing them in by offering sex.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and obviously I'm not going to say who, which, you know, like just some people were disturbed by that part, which also shows you like how big.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The families of Christoville and Anoka Jones, both of whom were married with children, told reporters neither would have submitted to bondage sex with a man or a woman. Like they just wouldn't have, like not another person other than their significant other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They know their family member, you know, like, and that's why I said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ways of getting these people in there, you know, like some of these men could have been lured in by like, hey, I have a job and it will pay this much money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just like, I have this job at this house, you know, like it could be something as innocuous as that. Of course. And I almost think it's kind of like Ronald Dominique painting it the other way a lot of the time. I think so. It's another way. For him to like, shame them. Exactly. Almost, you know? Exactly. So when you look at this case, know that like, he's a bullshitter, and he's an asshole. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to look at the family members. They know their family member. If they're saying that they never would have gone with this person, then I believe them over him. Yep, same. And we won't know. That's the thing. Unfortunately, only he and the victim knows what happened in each scenario and he's the unreliable one here and he's the only one left. Yeah. So sad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On September 24th, 2008, Ronald Dominique stood before a judge in district court and pleaded guilty to the murders of Kenneth Randolph, Michael Barnett, Leon Leret, August Watkins, Kurt Cunningham, Alonzo Hogan, Christa Ville, Wayne Smith, and Nicholas Pellegrin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dominique never took his eyes off the floor like a little bitch that he is. Just gonna say a little bitch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As Judge Randy Betancourt read the charges, state's attorney Mark Rhodes told the judge, quote, the lives of eight young men were taken from these families by the action of the defendant, actions of the defendant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Angola State Prison, a penitentiary. Still alive. Yup, he is still alive. Uhm, he was brought right into, it's Louisiana State Prison, but it's called Angola, because it's in Angola. Oh, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow, what an absolutely gut wrenching case. It's a horrific case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What an important one to tell though, because the fact that I had never heard of that, like maybe rumblings here or there, but I don't know, like I never knew any of the details of that case. Cause the victims aren't coeds. Yeah. You know, they're not like, you know, and it's unfortunate, but to say that that way, but it's just like, it's the, that's the way it is. It's like they,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Were treated like somehow they had invited. They were treated. Less than. No. Like that is not the case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, like, cause I, again, I didn't really know about this case. Yeah. Before, like, we started researching it and I was like, damn. And then just some of the things said along the way. Oh my god, the fact that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These people couldn't even rest after being murdered. Like they weren't even treated like humans after they were murdered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have that little humanity. Like, I'm sorry. Like, it's just so gross. If you can say that about anybody that was murdered, you don't have a single drop of empathy within your bones. No. But it's so nice to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, I'm telling you guys, maybe, like, maybe we'll talk about it some more, but like, look up that prison.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I don't know much about it. There's been some like news, you know, programs that have gone into it and stuff, like there's a lot of information about it and it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot. That's a, that's a scary place. Oof. Well because I don't believe somebody like Ronald could ever be reformed. No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow. Thought he was ahead of everybody. Wow, this is a case that I think, I mean, so many cases stay with us, but this one's really gonna stay with me. Yeaah. There's a lot of victims in this case. Yeaah. And they were victims in several ways. Yeaah. You know what I mean? Like, they were treated really shitty. Yeaah. Damn. Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we love to palette cleanse every once in a while after a crazy one, but, uh, we have some


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's gorgeous. Wow, I have a sore throat, so that's interesting. Oh no, it's still sore. It's a little scratchy, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, don't get sick for your vacation. Don't do that. I would be so fucking pissed, let me tell ya. You dare do that. No, I think I'm gonna be fine. I'm gonna take some, uh, this is not professional advice, but I am gonna take some Zycam. It always gets me. Some zinc. Or Zocam? Zycam? Zycam, I think you're right. It's the one that has zinc in it. Zinc. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm just a podcast girl, okay? When I was making that, uhm, sleepy girl mocktail, you had magnesium to it, but like, obviously you should talk to your doctor. So I was like, I'm not telling you to do this. I'm just a podcast girl. Yeah, that's all I know. I'm not a doctor. And I barely know that. So, so really? Honestly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are on part two of the Bayou Strangler, Ronald Dominique.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, we're gonna see more and more the way that this was portrayed in the media was pretty shameful. A bunch of bullshit. Pretty shameful. Uhm, and you know, in the end, the justice gets served legally, but it's really unfortunate that the entire time,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't. It was just a fucking yes. It's just really upsetting, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's pretty rare, we've talked about this before, for a serial killer to deescalate. Yeah. Much harder for them to deescalate. Right. Uh, or to stop killing for, you know, long periods of time, but it does happen. Remember ol' shit flower Dennis Rader, BTK.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over in Kansas there, he killed 10 people over a 15 year period and then he just settled into life as...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever the hell he was, and ended his reign of terror for a long time, to be honest. So it's like, that happens.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, also Gary Ridgway, who, the Green River Killer, we haven't covered him yet. I know a lot of people want us to. Trust me, it's coming. That's an Elena case for sure. Yea, and it's coming up, so stay tuned for that. But he also kind of dramatically slowed his activities after marrying his third wife in 1988. So it does happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yea, I've read like a little bit about that case and you're right. Yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe he found some kind of degree of social acceptance that he was looking for, didn't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, whatever the case may have been though, Dominique's hiatus came to an end on October 5th, 2002, when he met 20-year-old Kenneth Randolph, a neighbor in Houma. Remember, he had moved to Houma, who fit the killer's victim type pretty perfectly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On October 6th, Kenneth Randolph's body was discovered face down in a remote cane field in rural Lafourche Parish. I've looked all these up so I'm trying to see them as well as I can. Sounds good to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a little graphic, just a little upsetting, just so you know. Uhm, he was posed so that his like buttocks stuck out, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, it was obviously done to appear very crass. Mhm. Like that was in, and it was supposed to be like a humiliating way to pose someone. I fucking hate this guy so much. He's fucking gross.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's disgusting. I don't understand the depravity to do that to another person. To do anything like this to another person and then to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The humiliation that he's trying to inflict, it's like, I feel like he is humiliated by who he is as a human being and who his soul is, so he just puts it on other people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But detectives also noticed that, um, he had, the victim had marks on his wrists, which indicated that he had been bound for at least some period of time. And there were also marks around his neck, which has become kind of a hallmark here. The autopsy was conducted a few days later by Dr. Brittany Summers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who collected the usual hair and fiber evidence and also conducted a rape


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So very fresh and he had superficial abrasions on his arms and legs and a large horizontal abrasion stretching from his forehead to his chest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dr. Summers concluded that the cause of death was strangulation evident by, quote, hemorrhaging on the underlying soft tissue surrounding the hyoid bone. Okay. Uh, despite the obvious ligature mark on Randolph's neck, Dr. Summers was unable to determine whether he died from a ligature or manual strangulation. Hmm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which, there's a pretty decent ligature mark on his neck. So I don't know if it was just, she couldn't tell whether he...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Died from that? Or whether he put his own manual pressure onto it? I don't know. That's like strange to me. Maybe there were like signs of both so she couldn't say which one he had died from.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, cause I suppose like the hyoid bone thing, like maybe that could bring it into place. It's just interesting that they weren't able to pin it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but less than two weeks after the discovery of Randolph's body in the Canefield, another young black man had gone missing from Homa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the evening of October 12th, 2002, so not long after. Not at all. Uh, Shelley Weston wasn't too worried when her boyfriend, 26 year old Anoka Jones,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 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, oh, I'm just going to go outside for a smoke.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So at first she wasn't super worried because apparently like he would say he would go, he was going to go out for a smoke and that didn't always just entail going out for a smoke. So like if he didn't come back right away, it wasn't too alarming, but then several hours had passed and she was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess it's a little weird, but she wasn't super worried at first. Okay. So she kind of just went to bed and she was like, he'll come back in. But when she woke up the following day, he still wasn't home and she hadn't heard from him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So she became very alarmed and reported him missing right away, but by then it was already too late.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was a patrol officer who just happened to be driving in the area. Wow. Officer Smith immediately noticed drag marks leading from the body to the edge of the road, which indicated that he was obviously dumped there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, otherwise, looking around the scene, there was really nothing else to indicate what had happened, or the cause of death right away. Now, at the time of the discovery, uh, Jones was clothed, uh, but his shirt had been pulled halfway up his torso, and his pants had been pulled down to mid-thigh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the other victims, Anoka Jones' cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation, and the manner of death is considered to be homicide. So right away, it's fitting right in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Anoka Jones and a friend had been confronted on the street by two men who had pulled up alongside them in a gray truck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now according to Jones' friend Ron Gibbons, Jones ran as soon as the men got out of the truck. So he ran away. Because apparently in the truck there was a very known drug dealer that was riding in the backseat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I guess this, I'm not gonna name him because, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This drug dealer denied any knowledge of or having any participation in Anoka Jones's murder after this because he was obviously brought in after that. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he rattled off a list of other associates, anyone he knew who could have been responsible for the murder, and he offered up hair and saliva 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. That's very surprising that he would give them all that being a well-known drug dealer. Yea, and they were able to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meanwhile investigators in other parishes around New Orleans had begun reading through reports of unsolved murders in surrounding jurisdictions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they started noticing the connections between their unsolved cases and those as far out as Homer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So remember, one of the things about Ronald Dominique 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 were going to be vulnerable,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As fucking horrific as he could for everyone involved. Makes sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, detectives working the Kenneth Randolph case in Jefferson Parish arranged to speak with the friends and families of Anoka Jones.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 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 it a million times. When it's a different kind of victim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybu- Sometimes the pressure is bad when it's a different kind of victim because they get so pressured that they make mistakes or they rush to grab someone who might not have done it. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the case of Ronald Dominique, the victims were all marginalized men of color from impoverished communities


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting close departments to even work together can be hard. Right. Nevermind getting that kind of thing, like you, you're contending with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also contending with egos. Pride. Pride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 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 they need. Human error. Human error. And you're doing it with miles apart. Trying to put these together. Just like statewide. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now Anoka Jones was the 12th man killed by Ronald Dominique and eight months would pass before he killed again. And it's like he should have been stopped at this point. The fact that so many more people had to die because this just wasn't top priority is so fucking disgusting. That's what kills me. And it's like this asshole, this monster.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Moments of de-escalation. That's your time. Use that time. Really hone in. Stop the next room from happening. And it feels almost like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, they didn't, I mean, I will, I will say they didn't have a lot of evidence to go on either. He didn't 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.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's like, you gotta put the nose to the grindstone and you gotta try to stop that next one from happening. Where's the task force being put together? And also warn the connect, that's a good thing that you say that because we will talk about that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm glad you mentioned it because I said the same thing. I was like, task force. At this point, 12 murders in. Like, time to set up. Task force time. Right? And also, it's like, you're not warning the correct communities of people. To be vigilant. Like, you're leaving pieces out of the puzzle because you want people to feel like they want to help more, which is even sadder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, sex work is considered quote unquote high risk. And even police forces will warn sex workers and then they'll band together and look out for each other once. Like we've told those kinds of stories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why didn't it happen here? These people could have looked out for one another. This is the gay community, it's the black community, like, they could have looked out for one another and would have. Exactly, that's the thing, it's like you didn't even give them a fighting chance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's fucked up. And there's points when the next murder happens and you say that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could have at least tried to stop that from happening. Absolutely. And it's, and you, we're going to hear some comments about these things that are really distressing the way that they were looked at. And it's just like, oh no. But it's, you need to, you need to hear it cause you need to hear how awful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was, and why 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 had never heard of Ronald Dominique. Yea, and it's like shameful.


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[Assistant] Now on the afternoon of Saturday, May 24th, 2003, 18-year-old Detrell Woods left his mother's house in Houma.


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[Assistant] Telling his cousin he was going to stay with his girlfriend for the night.


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[Assistant] Now from the moment his friend Gary Birdright had arrived to pick him up, to Trell's mother, Margaret Woods, said she had a feeling something bad was going to happen to her son. Oh wow. And she actually tried to convince him not to go out that night. Oh, that's so haunting. That's a mama.


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[Assistant] And he's like, I promise you, I'm gonna be back tomorrow. Oh god. And he told her that, I promise you I'll be back tomorrow. The next day.


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[Assistant] Laying next to his bicycle. So he had gone to get his bicycle. And he was probably coming home.


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[Assistant] Now, when they'd finally managed to find a telephone, the two dirt bike riders told police they had quote, found a black man who was dead and puffy. That's what they said. Oh. Now, unfortunately, when detectives arrived at the scene,


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[Assistant] What they were describing was that decomposition was well underway. It appeared as if the man had been in the


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[Assistant] Had been in the field for much longer than he actually had been. Is that because we're dealing with the elements? I think it was mostly the elements, but it was very interesting to, cause they were like, it really looks like he's been here longer, but he hadn't.


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[Assistant] Now, among the first things that Houma City Detective, and let me just preface this, his name rhymes. It's a little, it's- Sometimes you need a little fear. It's gonna give you a little giggle. A little, a little relief. I don't want anyone to think I'm laughing at anything, like, inappropriate. It's just this, this name rhymes. Uh, his name is Detective Simon Freiman. So- Alrighty. It's a pretty awesome name.


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[Assistant] Go Detective Freyman. So there's your quick little like, take a breath for a minute because this is very heavy. So take a breath. Thank you Detective Simon Freyman for having me.


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[Assistant] Uh, but coming right back into it, one of the first things that he noticed was that, uhm, 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 obviously didn't walk out there.


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[Assistant] Uh, and also the tires on his bike appeared clean and there weren't any tire tracks in the dirt.


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[Assistant] Which also suggested that whoever had dumped his body had also carried the bike to the scene instead of rolling it there. Yeah.


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[Assistant] That's interesting. That does give you insight into the kind of possible builds or strength that this person has.


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[Assistant] Bringing his body out there. But the bike too. But holding the bike. Not rolling the bike. And it's like, that's an intere-, to me that's like, huh.


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[Assistant] Like that should give you, when you look at Ronald Dominique, when they finally catch him, he's a big guy. He's very intimidating. So it's like that was very...


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[Assistant] It's something small, but it's something. It's anything. It gives you something. We don't have anything else. You know, that's like a little bit of insight, I think. I would, I'm assuming they caught that, I would hope, but like that would be first on my mind. It's like, I think we're looking for someone that's like big and strong. Right, right.


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[Assistant] Now, the preliminary autopsy found no signs of trauma or injury to Dutrell's body.


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[Assistant] And there were no signs of defensive wounds, like the preliminary autopsy. Okay.


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[Assistant] Also, it didn't appear as though he'd been bound at either the wrists or the ankles. The only evidence pointing to murder was that Detrell Woods had been manually strangled, which was the cause of death. Okay. That's why the preliminary autopsy, like taking a, taking one look at the body, the outside, that's what a preliminary one usually is.


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[Assistant] Uh, they didn't see anything that would stick out to them because one, he was already in a strangely, um, accelerated state of decomposition, so that's gonna throw it off a little.


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[Assistant] But also that's why you didn't see any like outside injuries is cause he was manually strangled. That makes sense. Uhm, and which again is strange as well cause he wasn't bound. Yea, we're going back and forth. So it's like, how did that happen? But then again, this is an 18 year old.


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[Assistant] Going up against Ronald. Going against this very large man. Yeaah. So I guess I can see that he could probably do it pretty quickly. Uhm, now according to the few friends that he, that they were able to speak to, Duttrell was described by them


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[Assistant] Ronald Dominique is a little monstrous bitch, and he goes after marginalized and vulnerable people.


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[Assistant] Who, and it's just like fucked up. When you hear that, you're like, that's so fucked up. It is. Like that's, ugh, it just makes me so angry.


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[Assistant] 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 Dittrell so much more vulnerable to like asshole predators like this, and it's really upsetting to think about.


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[Assistant] But like nearly all of Dominique's victims, uh, Detrell Woods had been somewhat known to police for like some minor offenses. And according to Detective, and this is the part that's really gonna get your blood boiling everybody, so get ready. According to Detective Dennis Thornton,


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[Assistant] When it came to investigating the murders of people they considered on the fringes of proper society, I will say, they described it as quote, the attitude was, don't break your neck. They were like, mm, like don't, don't put yourself out.


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[Assistant] Investigating these kind of murders. Don't put yourself up.


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[Assistant] Like don't break your neck trying to investigate these kind of situations. Any person that gets killed in your jurisdiction, you should break your neck. Like what? Or you should do your fucking damnedest because that's the job you took.


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[Assistant] They didn't say like, and they didn't say, you know, try your hardest for like, these certain kinds of people. No, just don't break your neck over it. It's like, don't, don't, don't put yourself out. Wow.


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[Assistant] They're not even being subtle about that, he said that with his whole chest.


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[Assistant] Like he said the quiet part out loud. That man just said...


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[Assistant] Yup. This is the attitude everybody had. And he said, hello, I'm a racist. Like, what?


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[Assistant] You gotta start thinking about it. You're like, cause we look at these serial killers and we're like, how do you, 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 person? But then you see that inside of them.


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[Assistant] What the fuck are you? Like, you're just like, oh my god. Like, it's upsetting to think that people in power like that and people in authority can have those kind of like biases and thoughts like some people are worth it and some people aren't.


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[Assistant] From day one, fucking reputation. It's like everybody has made mistakes. Everybody has stepped out of the line a little bit. Everybody has done something regretful in their life. If you say you haven't, you are lying and enjoy your ignorance.


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[Assistant] Everybody. So it's like for you to be able to judge someone else so harshly while sitting there with dirt on you too is so wild to me.


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[Assistant] Cause I'm like, we're all, we're all, we're all unclean. Everybody, we're all just doing our best. Most of us are out here trying to do our best, but it doesn't look like you are when you're acting that way to your fellow humans. No.


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[Assistant] You talk to like these, you read about these family members and friends of these young men. Right.


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[Assistant] Men were trying to like, get themselves back on track.


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[Assistant] They had families, they had kids in most cases, they were working, they were just trying to like get themselves above water and it's like, everyone's been there. Well and also, everybody is somebody somebody.


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[Assistant] And it's also just like, I don't understand why we're going off, but I don't understand why you go into this line of work if that's not how you think. I know.


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[Assistant] Like I don't know, why are you here? Sometimes it's a power thing. It is, it absolutely is. It's not, some people are there to help and to


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[Assistant] Be the person that like takes care of people and is there to, you know, stop danger and keep people safe and then some of them


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[Assistant] Yeah, he goes hard and then he stops for a while and they're not making headway and it's like take these opportunities to make the headway. Right. But he had been laid off from his job at Karo Produce in January of 2004.


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[Assistant] He quickly found another job with a maintenance company and he worked there for six months and then he left there for another job.


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[Assistant] Not, not keeping a job, the classic serial killer. A maintenance guy, can you imagine that guy going into your fucking house? Yeah.


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[Assistant] And then he got a job as a meter reader for an electric company, which was a job that required him to spend considerable time driving the back roads of Bayou Blue in the surrounding area.


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[Assistant] Now one of those areas was DeOlamans, which I think I said that right. I looked it up a million times. DeOlamans, an unincorporated region that fell in both St. Charles and Lafourche parishes. Oh, okay. Remember we're in Louisiana. Yeah. In late October, Hurricane Matthew hit the greater New Orleans area.


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[Assistant] That's when he noticed the body of a young man lying beside a pool, or excuse me, a pond about 20 minutes from his home.


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[Assistant] So Jeff Murrow headed back to his house to get his neighbor. His neighbor was Don Jerome, who was a criminalist with the St. Charles Sheriff's Department. So he was like, you're a good person to have. They both returned to the pond and he helped survey the scene.


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[Assistant] Now during this like initial examination of the body at the scene, Jerome was unable to find any identification on the victim. Uh, this man's body was extremely wet, quote unquote, which indicated that the killer had dumped this man's body during the hurricane. Oh.


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[Assistant] This suggested that he was desperate to get rid of this man's body. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Once detectives arrived on the scene Jerome took photographs and searched for any evidence on or around this man's body but found nothing.


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[Assistant] Now the autopsy was conducted the following day and during this, uh, Dr. Frank Johnson determined, quote, whoever had killed the victim had used a lot of force. Oh wow. Also Johnson, um, discovered the victim had suffered blunt force trauma to his shoulder, lower back, and buttocks.


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[Assistant] And clotted blood was in the muscles of the neck, which was indicative of very strong strangulation. Wow. Very aggressive.


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[Assistant] Despite all this evidence of violence, the cause of death was listed as accidental cocaine overdose.


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[Assistant] Why? I want you to hear that again. Dr. Frank Johnson said that the victim


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[Assistant] Was killed using a lot of force, that's a quote.


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[Assistant] And then said that there was blunt force trauma to his shoulder, lower back, and buttocks, and clotted blood in the muscles of the neck, indicative of strangulation. But the cause of death is accidental cocaine overdose. How? What? Yea. I don't, like, how did they get away with that?


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[Assistant] Is there even any damage to the heart whatsoever? Doesn't make any sense. Like, what? Now, and again, we still don't know who this person is.


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[Assistant] So fingerprints taken by the coroner turned out to be a match for 46 year old Larry Matthews.


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[Assistant] Uhm, police reports described him as quote, somewhat homeless. Which I was like, what the fuck does that even mean? Describe someone.


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[Assistant] 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 Thibodeau got a call from Houma police saying that they had a man in custody by the name of Jim Jarman.


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[Assistant] And this man named Jim Jarman had information about the murder of Larry Matthews. Huh.


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[Assistant] Now according to Jarman, he had been visiting a friend in Thibodeau a few nights earlier when Larry Matthews showed up at the house and the two men got talking about drugs. This is according to Jim Jarman by the way.


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[Assistant] Who's currently being held. Now according to Jim Jarman, Matthews told him he knew where he could get some drugs and some sex workers. But in order to do so, he'd need to borrow Jim Jarman's car.


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[Assistant] So Jarmin agreed and gave Matthews the keys, but Matthews never returned.


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[Assistant] Which is why Jarman contacted police and actually filed a police report for his missing car.


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[Assistant] Okay. It's a very strange story. Don't know if that whole thing, that is all from Jim Jarman, we do know that apparently he filed a police report because his car was missing because he thought Larry Matthews had run off with it. Okay.


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[Assistant] So using the information provided by Jarman, detectives were able to trace Larry Matthew's movements back to a party where he'd left from.


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[Assistant] And so detectives stuck with the cause of death provided by the coroner.


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[Assistant] And indicative of strangulation. No, cocaine. So Ronald Dominique waited less than two weeks to kill again. Like we said, he goes through these bursts. In late October 2004, the owners of Gator Storage, which was a self-storage business in Bayou Blue,


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[Assistant] They got a complaint from a customer who was saying there was a bad smell coming from one of the units


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[Assistant] So they went out to check the offending unit and they found out that it wasn't held by padlocks and chains, which was typical of a storage unit. Yea. It was held shut with only a twist tie. What?


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[Assistant] So the woman noticed the smell right away and she also noticed a dark fluid resembling blood seeping out from under the storage unit door. That's absolutely terrifying. So she opened the door to the unit and she was confronted with the dead body of a man she believed to be middle-aged, maybe in his 50s. Oh god.


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[Assistant] So Holmont police were dispatched to Gator storage and they were accompanied by the Terrebonne, I believe that's how you say it, I hope I said it right, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's deputies.


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[Assistant] In fact the only thing detectives had to work with was the list of 50 or so names of renters that were provided to them by the owners of Gator 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 he got in there in the first place. Okay.


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[Assistant] So the body was initially labeled a John Doe. It was transported to the coroner's office. Due to the heat and humidity in the storage unit, the state of decomp was very far along, much too far along to determine really much of anything.


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[Assistant] Other than that this victim was a white male and in his early twenties. Wow. So they thought he was in his fifties. That's how decomposed his body was.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and that there was no signs, obvious signs of trauma to the body, but again, that's tough. Yeah. Autopsy technicians move the body to refrigeration hoping an identification would come and provide some more details.


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[Assistant] Now a couple days later, Holmont police receive a call from a local business owner named Francis Barber.


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[Assistant] She was concerned that she hadn't seen or heard from her friend Michael Barnett.


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[Assistant] The last time she'd seen him was on Friday, October 24th when he'd left her apartment on his bicycle telling her he had plans to meet a girl at a nearby fire station.


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[Assistant] Detective showed Barbara 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.


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[Assistant] And Barbara confirmed that it was indeed Michael Barnett's tattoo saying, quote, I'm positively sure Michael has that tattoo. I remember seeing it many times.


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[Assistant] Now while detectives finished up their interview with Francis Barber, Detective Simon, our friend Detective Simon there, went to the fire station to talk to anyone who was on duty that night that the man was said to be on his way there.


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[Assistant] But no one remembered having seen him, no one saw anything out of the ordinary that night, so it didn't appear that he had made it there. Right.


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[Assistant] Now they only had a kind of tentative identification at this point. A tattoo's a pretty good identi- but you can't, you can't use it as like, word, you know?


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[Assistant] But investigators interviewed Michael Barnett's friends and family, hoping it would lead them to physical evidence they could use to confirm the identification.


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[Assistant] In the process, they learned that Barnett had come to Louisiana from Mississippi several years earlier.


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[Assistant] And had on and off again relationships with his friends and family.


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[Assistant] But they too had grown concerned about him when several weeks had passed and they hadn't heard from him. They were like, yeah, it's like, you know.


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[Assistant] It's on and off, like how everything's going, tumultuous shit, like you know, every family, whatever.


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[Assistant] But they were like, we were worried when we hadn't heard from him in Selma. Like it wasn't, that wasn't normal. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Now according to two of Barnett's friends, he'd recently moved in with a new roommate named Dorian Bates, and they felt certain that Dorian was involved in whatever happened to their friend. Okay. Which is interesting.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, another detective, Don Bergeron.


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[Assistant] That there they would be able to find fingerprints or other physical evidence to confirm this identification finally.


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[Assistant] But it seemed Barnett had very few belongings at the time of his death, but Bergeron did discover that Barnett lived in a group home in his youth. And this girl, like this detective, I'm like, girl, yes, she went for it. She did. Cause she found out when he was younger, he lived in a group home and she was like,


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[Assistant] All those steps, like she went the distance to find those records. She put her fucking neck out for it. She did. Now the local papers picked up on the story before detectives even knew the victim's name, and the press didn't hesitate to connect this latest victim to the serial killer stalking suburban New Orleans. This time, however, there was a break in the pattern, it seemed.


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[Assistant] Not only was Michael Barnett a white man, but the killer had also gone out of his way to hide his body.


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[Assistant] He hadn't left him out in the open. Which he usually does. He's usually pretty conspicuous. Uh, unfortunately, while detectives also agreed that this was most likely the work of this serial killer that they didn't know who it was at this point.


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[Assistant] They found themselves at another dead end. Ugh. You know, like they're not giving, they're not getting anything new here.


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[Assistant] They had managed to get as far as identifying this victim, but there was really no other evidence at the scene.


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[Assistant] 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 found another victim basically, which is what they would end up doing a lot.


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[Assistant] As it turned out, Houma detectives didn't have to wait long to see another victim. On the morning of February 20th, 2005, a father and son were out riding their dirt bikes with a friend in a grassy field behind the Houma Shrine Center when one of them noticed some clothing laying on the ground.


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[Assistant] They went up to it to inspect further and realized it 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 sleeping it off on a field. They've seen that before apparently, or they were like, I didn't know if he was dead or unconscious. So they called the Homa police who were immediately dispatched to the scene.


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[Assistant] Detective Simon was among the first to arrive at what was, you know, now a familiar scene unfortunately.


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[Assistant] The man was lying on his side, wearing only blue jeans and socks, and he had clear ligature marks on his neck and wrists.


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[Assistant] Uhm, as he was bagging one of the victim's hands for processing, Detective Freiman got a look at the young man's face and was shocked to realize that he knew who this person was. Oh wow. This was 22 year old Leon Leret.


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[Assistant] One of the suspects in the murder of Anoka Jones.


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[Assistant] Wow. Oh wow. And it was one of the last people to see Jones alive. What the fuck? And that's just by happenstance. It's wild.


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[Assistant] So like so many other of Dominique's victims, Leon had struggled to maintain stable housing and had been arrested a few times for petty crimes.


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[Assistant] Uhm, he would associate with some drug dealers in the area, like that's how police knew him. Yeah. Detective Freiman immediately tracked down all those known associates, but none of them had seen Leon for several days.


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[Assistant] Now, while Freiman worked the streets trying to track down anyone who could help them find the killer,


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[Assistant] An autopsy technician began doing a primary analysis of Leon's body.


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[Assistant] As far as they could tell, Leon had been dead for about 24 to 36 hours before he was found.


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[Assistant] Also the autopsy confirmed that Leon had been killed in almost exactly the same way as the other suspected serial killer murder victims. There was very little doubt at this point that he was part of this body count. Right.


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[Assistant] We're gonna go into the last phase of murders, between 2005 and 2006 now.


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[Assistant] Once again, Ronald Dominique's choice of victims, which are marginalized, transient, you know, uh, what the media was


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[Assistant] Uhm, 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, and Leon's transient lifestyle made it incredibly difficult for detectives to just trace his movements. They were trying to figure out where he'd been, and it was hard.


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[Assistant] Well, this had allowed him to be, you know, successfully evade capture since the late 1990s.


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[Assistant] By 2005 it had also made him more brazen as well. He was becoming way more brazen. I was waiting for that. Which is usually when they fuck up and they get caught. You would hope so. Now also Dominique's body count was rising and everyone in and around New Orleans was beginning to take note every time any body was found anywhere. Finally.


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[Assistant] Now by the time the body of 31 year old August Watkins was discovered in a field behind the Lafourche Work Release Center, investigators knew there was no longer po- it wasn't going to be possible to conduct this investigation.


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[Assistant] Quietly and out of the public eye. You know how they were trying to keep a lot of things quiet? I'm surprised they were able to for as long as they did. Me too. But it was honestly becoming detrimental because so much speculation was happening.


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[Assistant] Now Watkins was a black man known to police for some petty crimes, but, and you know, he had a history of like unstable housing and employment. Now at the time of his death, Watkins had just been evicted from his apartment and he'd been sleeping in the stairway underneath the Holma tunnel. Oh, that's the saddest thing ever. I know.


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[Assistant] Now, an autopsy confirmed that Watkins' cause of death was strangulation. The discovery of August Watkins meant that he was the 17th victim of this killer.


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[Assistant] This prompted the Homa police chief Pat Boudreau to call a press conference and he said, I think there is enough evidence to be concerned there is a serial killer in our area. 17 bodies I would say. Wow, yeah, thank you for finally coming to that.


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[Assistant] He pointed to the unsolved murders of all these men and parishes around New Orleans and told the press that law enforcement officials from various agencies had been working together to determine whether the murders of Anoka Jones, Detrell Woods, Michael Barnett,


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[Assistant] Leon Leret and August Watkins were related.


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[Assistant] Uhm, chief investigator for St. Charles Parish, uh, Sam Zinna, told reporters, we think without question Jones fits into the group with Homa and Lafourche as far as lifestyles and being found along the same corridor area. So they're at least coming forward with, you know, something. Finally.


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[Assistant] Now, in all the counties where Dominique's victims had been discovered, investigators did their best to coordinate with one another, like we were saying. Right. But what they really needed


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[Assistant] And it should have been happening so much earlier than this. Way earlier. And when you finally get that official state sanctioned task force.


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[Assistant] You get all the resources that come with that. 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 murders,


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[Assistant] That task force should have been 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 out of nowhere. I didn't care enough. And it's like, what the fuck?


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[Assistant] Again, we've seen Task Force work so well before. And way sooner. Now, unfortunately,


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[Assistant] The federal authorities found the links between the cases, their high risk lifestyles, quote unquote, 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 were disposed of in the same manner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of saying that the victims, gay, black men, who some were involved in sex work, had a transient lifestyle,


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[Assistant] Saying that they weren't exactly sympathetic enough to warrant the expense of similar task forces. Ones that at the time,


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[Assistant] Had been recently assembled to catch Baton Rouge serial killer Derek Todd Lee, whose victims were white college coeds.


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[Assistant] They're making sure that one stays a little more subtle.


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[Assistant] I don't get that. And how do you think that? I don't give a shit 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.


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[Assistant] What the fuck, guys? Like, you have to hope that somebody sitting in one of those rooms was like, are you fucking kidding me? But they had no pull. But they didn't have pull. Yeah. Now, it's awful. Oh, that's so disheartening. It is.


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[Assistant] Now the increased press coverage of the case and 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 were starting to put these together.


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[Assistant] So following the discovery of August Watkins, a small amount of resources was allocated to finally assemble a task force to catch this killer.


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[Assistant] So it was, as soon as they came out and said, you know what, I don't think it's fine. It's tenuous. We're not really worried about it. That's when finally the pressure came in where they were like, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's 17 dead bodies here. Like, let's get it together.


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[Assistant] And they started with Oliver LaBanks, remember Oliver? Yes. Like for some reason Oliver, like just like when you look up, you look up at pictures of these men and I'm telling you it's going to rip your heart out. Oliver has a very familiar face. He does. He reminds me of someone, but look up pictures of these men.


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[Assistant] Cause I'm telling you, it's gonna, it's gonna tear your, and I don't mean crime scene photos, I mean like, photos of who they are. Who they were in their lives. And it's like, that'll make you realize how, if you haven't already realized how horrific it is that they were completely ignored and just treated as trash. Yeah, completely dehumanized.


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[Assistant] So they started with Oliver Labanks and they went through the most recent victim, August Watkins, with this task force. And finally...


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[Assistant] Some more heavy stuff coming up, but it's just, it's a lot to take in all at once. But we are going to get.


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[Assistant] Understand how awfully this case was represented in the press. When it was represented at all. I don't know how you couldn't at this point. It's wild to me. Wow. And these poor families that had to sit around years and years and years and just think like, well,


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[Assistant] He had some tough struggles in life, but like he was doing this, it's like, you shouldn't have to validate why your child or why this person that you love is a human being that deserves to be treated like a human being. Like that's so sad that you have to validate that.


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[Assistant] So stay tuned for part three. Yeah. And with that being said, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. I don't have to tell you not to keep it this weird. Just really sad. God almighty.


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[Assistant] Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.


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[Assistant] My breakup? And then my like, not breakup time? And then like...


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[Assistant] Uhm, so yeaah, you're listening to the show in a, in a twar now, in a, in a, for about a twar now, and that, and you're going at a, at a very interesting way, I guess, from now to beginning. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] You are also saying that your name is Jade, uhm, which I can say. Yup, thank you. So this terrifying


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[Assistant] Butthole clenching experience takes place way back when in the lovely year of 2016 I was but a scrawny pimple-faced


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[Assistant] The fall air was nippy and I was at a sleepover with two of my friends. Amy, whose house we were residing, lived in the middle of literally bum fuck nowhere. Like actually, she lived on a hundred acre private property that was only accessible by a windy gravel road. Honestly, the dream.


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[Assistant] Are they like government workers though? Like don't they make like better money? I have no idea. Like there's not one part of me that can answer that question. Yea, I don't know what they make, but I do know that they work, like technically you're a government employee.


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[Assistant] Sometimes. Yeah, depending on where. Yeah, exactly. So the house was an old two-story brick house with looming windows. Amy's dad also had numerous secret tunnels in the house just in case of any threat.


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[Assistant] Yeah, they had like a dead mummified clown there. And all this other weird shit. It was a cool place, but I think it's gone now. Ever been there, people in California.


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[Assistant] But Amy's dad also had numerous secret tunnels, ba ba ba. I've never seen, I've never personally seen these tunnels. They were locked up. But Amy has informed us that there were bulletproof vests stored inside. That man is in the FBI, CIA. 100%. This is not relevant to the story, but it helps set the scene and vibe of the house and area we were at.


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[Assistant] Leading up to this, my friend had told us a handful of times how strangers had shown up lost on her property. Most had been illegally hunting the land, not knowing it was private property, or college kids fucking around. So random people showing up was not uncommon, however, they were quickly taught a lesson by her dad. The clown attack happened outside.


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[Assistant] We were sitting on her trampoline, one of those with the net around it. We were discussing deep topics, as middle schoolers do. The only light nearby was a faint glow from the back porch light. The house was a good way away from the trampoline. Her backyard was large. It was almost a semi-circle of cleared land, edged by thiiick dark woods.


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[Assistant] Excuse me. Amy, Sarah, and I were sitting in a sort of triangle formation. The two of them were sitting facing me and I was facing them. As we were talking something caught my eye over their shoulders. Keep in mind I have terrible eyesight and consistently boycott wearing my glasses.


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[Assistant] So it was hard to make out what I was seeing. Your eyesight is gonna get worse, baby. A glint of something white had shifted in the woods, which was a very good distance away.


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[Assistant] At first I just assumed it was a wind chime or something, but my friends had noticed that I had gone quiet. They eyed me questioningly.


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[Assistant] I think I saw something white moving in the woods over there, I whispered. They turned to look behind them squinting. For a moment we were all silent, observing the entrance to the woods. Then I saw it again. It seemed to be pacing the edge of the woods, outside of the cast of the dim light the porch light was giving off.


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[Assistant] Sarah gasped, her hand was trembling. Jade, I'm not kidding, I see something red too.


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[Assistant] We stood from our spots conscious, cautiously. I'm sure it's nothing, Amy assured us. We watched as the black figure crept out from the shadows and oh my gosh, with a labored breath, Sarah says, guys, it was red hair. It has. It has. It was.


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[Assistant] As he stepped out of the woods we screamed, well Amy and Sarah did, I just kinda stood there. He tilted his head, observing us. He paced the edge as if pondering his victims.


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[Assistant] I heard Amy whimper something beside me, clearing her throat as she repeated her inaudible sentence a bit louder.


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[Assistant] I whipped my head back to the clown and sure enough, in his hand the clown was clutching a long butcher knife, glinting in the low light.


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[Assistant] My friends clung to each other. Sarah had fat tears rolling down her cheeks. I cleared my throat and continued yelling my empty threats. Do you really think that this is worth jail time? It's not too late to turn around and leave.


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[Assistant] Dickwad. And do not read further. I'm not going to. Don't read further. Sarah and Amy were screaming for their life. He had a knife and could potentially cut through the trampoline or stab at us from underneath.


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[Assistant] But as I ran over to him and jumped to land on his head, he came back up from under and he pulled off his mask and it was Amy's dad. The end.


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[Assistant] That was great. That stressed me out. It was the way Jade really like, built that one up.


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[Assistant] Yeah, she did the like dot dot dot. He pulled off his mask. And it was Amy's dad. The end.


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[Assistant] Uhm, let's see. Didn't ya? Didn't ya? Alright, I'm gonna read Listener Tale. That time the night stalker almost got my uncle. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hi, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy. This listener tale is attached as a double-spaced Potipha, and I have also attached some pictures of my adorable fur babies. White dog is Olive, posing with the book she was named after, and the black dog is Pax, my little soulmate.


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[Assistant] Okay, uhm, and I put pictures of me and my best friend and my mom and I because we are huge fans of your podcast and listen all the time. Well, thank you all and we love you. Alright.


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[Assistant] Hello beautiful ladies, my name is Marian. Feel free to use my name and any others I mention. I want to preface this with the fact that this will likely be a bit long. Insert apologies that I don't really mean here.


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[Assistant] I'm from a small town in Utah, but don't let the fact that I live in Utah fool you into thinking that my life has been simple or boring because it has been anything but, and I have so many crazy stories to tell from an accidental near-death experience or multiple.


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[Assistant] I grew up and still live in a small and extremely, extremely religious city in Utah. Being someone that has always been incredibly into anything fantasy. Hell yea. Movies, TV shows, games, and especially books. Music that my peers considered strange at Ghost in Blue October. I haven't heard of Blue October. They're good. Are they? Mhm.


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[Assistant] Uh, things like the horror, thriller, and true crime genres and I, god forbid, shopped at Hot Topic back when it was more edgy. Hell yea. There's also the frequent usage of the fuck word and nothing is not widely accepted here. I was always somewhat of an outcast and one of them weirdos.


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[Assistant] I was told my passion for fantasy was childish on a regular basis, and that my interest in true crime and similar genres was creepy.


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[Assistant] Among other colorful and creative insults. That's so terrible. You know what I say? Fuck em. You know what I say? It sounds like you're fucking cool as hell. Yea, you are the weirdos mister. Hell yea. And we love you.


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[Assistant] It didn't help that I'm not subscribed to a certain religion that is wildly popular in my desert state and that I was always open about the fact, uh, excuse me, about that fact and my interests that didn't quite fit into the standards of said religion. Hey, to each their own. Everybody can believe whatever they want.


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[Assistant] It's a, excuse me, it's meaning as a piece between a mother and a daughter that my mom and best friend and I got together as my first tattoo. Obsessed. Love. Also are you Norwegian girl? We are heavily Norwegian. Hell yea, you're heavily Norwegian. And are genuinely obsessed with embracing our cultures. I saw those beautiful blue eyeballs in those pictures.


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[Assistant] The state isn't all that bad, but it's definitely unique, and these are just my personal experiences and opinions here. My amazing mother always told me, let your freak flag fly, darling, and boy do I, with no plans of stopping. Your mom sounds awesome. And can we go to hell yeah? Hell yeah!


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[Assistant] To this day she's never stopped encouraging me to completely envelop myself in all my interests, hobbies and passions and anything else I love. Aww.


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[Assistant] I also have to give my best friend Cassidy a shout out for playing a huge part in helping me in school.


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[Assistant] Alright, now that I've accidentally rambled on a bit too long, let's get into the story.


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[Assistant] Around the night, around the time the night stalker was doing his asshole true crime things, my mom was a cute little fifth grader living in California. My young mother was obviously horrified about what could happen to her and her two siblings and her mother. Her dad didn't live with them, but I honestly don't think any of them were too concerned about that hoe.


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[Assistant] I have talked to her about this and all of her memories of the time, which she still remembers vividly. I thought you guys might find an inside perspective from someone who was directly affected and traumatized by the horrible things this man did interesting.


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[Assistant] She can still recall the voices of reporters on the news with startling accuracy and remembers almost every detail about the case, including the fact that it was people in the neighborhood not too far away from her own.


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[Assistant] The fact that she was 5 years old and worried about this. I'm 5th grade. Oh, 5th grade, okay, I'm silly. But either way. I mean still, you're so young. A baby. You're like 10. Or like 11, I don't fucking know. You're so young! A baby!


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[Assistant] There was one dreary night that my grandma was out of the house for a little while. My ten or eleven year old mom, see I should have fucking read that first, was staring out the window at the backyard, her eyes trained on the family sleeping golden retriever.


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[Assistant] There was a stalky tree right outside of her bedroom window and the leaves began to rustle. The only thing her young brain could think of


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[Assistant] Was that the noise had belonged to the night stalker. There was no other possibility. It couldn't have been her black cat putty who loved being outside and climbing trees.


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[Assistant] Of course, when in a state of current terror and constant general panic, the human brain is seldom wired to think clearly. So she did what any terrified 10ish year old kid would do.


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[Assistant] And she probably called the police and told them that the Night Stalker was trying to break into her house. Honestly, good for her. You know what? You'd rather be safe than sorry. Within a few minutes, the police showed up. The Night Stalker was nowhere to be found, but better safe than sorry. There you go, overreact. Or, in this case, serial murdered.


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[Assistant] Luckily, he never did show up at their house. She remembers hearing about every single time there were new victims on the news and her terror rising, wondering if her family would be next. Oh, that must have been awful. Seriously. One night, her older brother decided he was going to stay over at a friend's house. This was a little worrisome for obvious reasons, but they promised to be safe so my grandma okayed it.


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[Assistant] You can imagine the horror of the next morning when they heard that the night stalker had struck again on the same street where my uncle had stayed the night before.


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[Assistant] Dickhole Ramirez had struck on that street in the house that was right next door to the one my uncle had slept over at.


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[Assistant] There's some debate between my mom and grandma about whether it was the house right next door or if it was the one two houses down. Either way.


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[Assistant] But my mom says she's positive it was next door, so we'll go with that. I believe your mom.


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[Assistant] Honestly, it's so fortunate that he didn't become a victim, but it is extremely unfortunate that the next door neighbors did. My mom can't remember the name of the family that this did end up happen- uh, excuse me.


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[Assistant] That did end up his victims, but does remember that her family somewhat knew them.


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[Assistant] Of course we're all so thankful he didn't choose the house my uncle was in, but it's weird to feel glad about it because it was another family and people who also didn't deserve it instead. Ugh, that's so awful. I know. There are undoubtedly a lot of conflicting emotions there. It's like survivor's guilt. It is, yea, like a different kind of form of it.


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[Assistant] My uncle's now grown up to be a cop who has taken down some really awful dudes. So big that he and his family had to go to a witness protection once, which is part of the reason why the only names I've given are me and my best friends. Damn. That's wild. Wow.


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[Assistant] My mom has grown up to be an amazing nurse who helps so many people and same with my aunt. My grandma's still around and even though we don't always see eye to eye, we do generally get along because they're all always there for me whenever I need them.


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[Assistant] I can't imagine what would have happened if any of them had been the victim of that shit kicking ass clown. Shit kicking ass clown is exactly what he was. Love that so much. Now, if you aren't tired of my writing yet, then I have another story about someone else I know who was almost true-crimed in the nighttime by an infamous serial killer here in Utah. His name was Ted Bundy. You may have heard of him. Never heard of him. No.


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[Assistant] Some backstory to how I know this one. I met my current best friend close to six years ago when I was a junior in high school.


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[Assistant] We were acquaintances for a little while, and then it wasn't long until we were best fucking friends.


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[Assistant] From thinking she was a chill person I wanted to know better to suddenly knowing that if anyone even looked at her wrong, I would promptly be ready to aggressively throw these hands directly into their face. These hands are a class 2 weapon and I am not afraid to use them. Hell yea. Now back to the story.


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[Assistant] This is about five minutes from where I live now. Holy shit, that's crazy.


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[Assistant] My friend's grandma was going to drill practice at the school, which was her high school at the time. When she got out of the car he approached her and gave his usual crusty dusty lines about needing help to fix his lame car.


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[Assistant] She basically told him, sorry, I don't know anything about cars, gotta go, I'm late. And continued hurrying into the school. If you've ever been on a drill team or met someone in charge of one, you know that they do not fuck around. She was like, nope, I gotta go. She was like, I am late and I must go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time she left, he was no longer there. Sadly, he did come back later that night and take a different girl from View, uh, Viewmont who did theater and was heading home after a school play she participated in. I think it was Denver Kent.


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[Assistant] When I think she was there actually, if I remember correctly, she was picking up her brother from school. Yeah, like from the play. Like he was in the play. Yeah, like the play was going on and she was picking him up, I believe. Oh, that's so sad. And I think she, she was one that, um,


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[Assistant] Like he strangely kept at his home for a little while. They don't know exactly how long. It was a very strange one. He, he had like such a weird, like everything was like a little bit different with each case. Yea, it was very strange. So, it's just like scary and so sad. Only 17. My god, you're so young. Like your whole life ahead of you. Yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, when she heard about the missing girl, she immediately thought about the man in the parking lot and the fact that the girl went missing from her school.


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[Assistant] She wasn't one to give any stranger the time of day, because fuck people you don't know.


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[Assistant] But if she had simply been on time to her drill practice, she could have been 10 buckets victim that night.


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[Assistant] Again, I'm glad she wasn't his victim because I wouldn't have my best friend if she had been, but just like my uncle.


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[Assistant] It's hard to be completely glad when you know that someone else was still victimized instead. Thank you ladies for taking the time to read this long fucking thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've also attached, uh, attached pictures of my adorable animals because they deserve some recognition for their adorableness. Always. Uh, and we love them. Love them. We also have a haunted spooky road here in good ol' Utah if you'd like to hear about it. Ooh. Uh, yes. Congrats to Ash and Drew on the engagement slash wedding. Thank y'all!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so it says, hey guys, it's me, ya non-binary, they, them, pal. Amelie. Amelie. And thank you for that pronunciation. You said pronounced like Emily, but with an A in the beginning. Amelie. I know a person named Amelie, so I'm assuming.


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[Assistant] Uh, so it says before I begin my I thought I died and saw Jesus story, I have to add the obligatory I love you segment.


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[Assistant] I'm slightly worried about that, but hey, making people a wee bit worried mixed with scared is what this trash mammal does best, even without even trying. Some call it actively making poor life choices, but I like to think of it like future Amelie's problem. Anyway, below I've added my story in the form of a puttifa.


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[Assistant] Feel free to shorten it if you want. Now read and enjoy, please. And sorry for spelling grammar errors. Never be sorry. All the best, Amelie. Let's see.


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[Assistant] It says, act one, you beautiful human.


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[Assistant] Acts you separated these into. That's cool. History of St. Lucia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, there's this really cool, I think it's like, I don't know if you called it a resort, that's why I just said property. But it's like a vacation place where you can stay and there's like no walls in the hotel room and you have uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A view of this mountain, I think it's called Jade Mountain. Ooh, that's beautiful. It looks cool. I was like, whoa. I think they're talking about a celebration of St. Lucia. But, I'd like to go now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This ended up as a wee problem when she grew up and her mother wanted to marry her off to a man who was not Christian, but our girl was able to postpone the engagement every time while praying to God to save her from this marriage. Her mother however,


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[Assistant] Got sick with an incurable disease, so after some persuading by Saint, by Lucia, they went, she's not Saint yet. Not yet. They went to Saint Agatis, I hope I'm saying this right, grave to pray for a cure. Saint Agatis? I'm gonna look it up. Probably Agatis. Oh, here we go.


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[Assistant] Agatha. Agatha. Leave all that in. Agathis.


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[Assistant] Picture it. The suitor was real mad that he was rejected. Cue eye roll.


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[Assistant] However, she never gave up her faith. She was then ordered to become a sex worker at a brothel. Not really how I would personally describe what happened. As she was to be taken to the brothel, she was placed in this like cart thing. Can't remember the English word for it.


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[Assistant] Last attempt to kill her was to stab her with a sword straight through her neck, but she did not die. Not until someone came to do the anointing of the sick.


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[Assistant] I love Sweden. Uh, today we celebrate Lucia in church and even in schools. I hope not. Also, you know who's from Sweden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sounds like a great time. Sounds like Merlin. In kindergartens, you can sometimes see, even see some kids dressed as mini Santas or even gingerbread men.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, cause they're all walking around with a lit candle in a room together. It's getting hot. And they're dressed in these things.


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[Assistant] It says, it is wild, and in the very front of this choir is the Lucia, traditionally played by a girl, but you know what, it's 2023, so let's skip the boy versus girl thing, so yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Lucia is dressed in the same white gown and red ribbon, but instead of a wreath, they wear this crown with like seven lit candles on it. That's danger. Anyway, this Lucia choir then sings a bunch of songs and then we eat these really good saffron buns to celebrate. Have you ever had saffron? I have. It's delicious. It is. Act two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What a bunch of racist brats. And yes, I was a gingerbread man during Lucia in kindergarten. Anyway, casual racism aside, I was hyped to be the Lucia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was obviously something we worried about, so we made sure that during the performance we had someone in the very front making sure that I don't faint and is ready with supplying me with water to drink.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to make sure that I don't get turned into South Asian barbecue by seven candles on my head.


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[Assistant] So when everyone was seated, we lit our candles and started walking and singing. All good, a bit nervous, but you know, you know what, a dark church with only a few candles lit while we are singing, our whole show was also without any instrument, is a vibe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We sang a couple of songs. All is well, the priest is still doing her little moves to check if I was good, so I gave her a thumbs up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was the blurry figure of a woman with long blonde hair smiling, looking down at me, and behind her I saw Jesus on the crucifix in this bright light. The fuck? At this point I remember thinking, Welp, I guess I'm dead. Jesus and an angel are here to collect my soul.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was also confused, not by the fact that I had apparently died. No, no, no. But because, as I may have failed to mention earlier, I am Buddhist. How hard did I die to see someone else's god?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, Amelie, do you know who I am? I was silent since, well, you know, me dying and ending up in Christian heaven. Like, where's Buddha?


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[Assistant] She then laughs a bit at my silence before saying, no of course not, we've never met before.


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[Assistant] Okay, then why do you ask me? I mean, y'all not get some kind of training from God before doing this? Like, how can you be underfunded in heaven? I can take being dead like, oh chill, but do y'all not have a functional working system up here? Damn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] During my mental tirade, the angel then says, you fainted. Oh I'm alive, chill. I fainted? That's neat, never done that before. I'm alive, chill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Turns out the angel was like a doctor or something.


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[Assistant] I, as the rational person I am, and knowing that, oh boy, I'm still dizzy, said, yeah, sure, let's keep going. You can't stop a they from a sleigh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I got helped up, I noticed that they had removed the crown. Apparently as I fainted, my choir teacher was able to run up and scoop up the crown before I hit the floor. Honestly, very impressive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I stood up, I felt the priest putting on the crown. I heard the sound of my teacher using the lighter to light the candles, which I did not know they were going to do since it all went so well the first time. But in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so he kept singing, and after the show was done, I was damn proud of myself. I got some minor, what are you doing, sit down and rest, this is the last time you are Lucia, from my friends, but the adrenaline kept me alive and full of energy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as always, keep it weird, but not so weird you think you died and came to the wrong afterlife.


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[Assistant] Just the way you wrote that is chef's kiss. So good. So good. Chef's kiss.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm also looking up Amelie because they gave us their Instagram. Yea, I was literally just gonna do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna read my next listener tale, how a butter knife and my friends manly yell probably saved my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello, weirdos! My name is Riley. Feel free to use my name and the names in the story. I have attached a double-spaced Puddafa to this email. Also, do people usually write Puddafa, or do you just read Puddafa as Puddafa? I need to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, yes, I read PDF as Potipha, and when people write Potipha, I read it as Potipha. So basically, no matter what you say, we'll say Potipha.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyways, I will absolutely freak out if this gets read on your podcast. I've been listening for years and absolutely adore you guys. Your witty banter and humor has me almost peeing my pants and laughing out loud to myself, which often creeps my fiancé out when I have AirPods in because it just sounds like I'm randomly laughing standing in the middle of the kitchen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm realizing that last sentence might not make sense so let me explain that. We live in a house built in 1895 and some very creepy stuff has been happening. My fiance came up to me the day after we moved in and said, why did you just say my name?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I calmly said, I did not. I was on the other side of the house. And he says someone or something. Ooh, spooky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We both about pooped our pants and the weird stuff has continued.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm kinda down with the spooky stuff as long as it makes him finally realize that ghost spirits or whatever you want to call them are real. I just keep talking out loud to the ghost saying please just let me know what you need in a non-creepy way and I can do it for you. But enough of the creepy whispering and knocking things over when I'm alone and enjoying some of that sweet green Washington herb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If anything major happens, I will be sure to write it again, but as of now, I think that it is a nice ghost. Anyways, that is not what this story is about, so let's get into it.


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[Assistant] How a butter knife and my friend's manly yell probably saved my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We both didn't love the college or the vibe, so halfway through our first year we said screw it and both applied to study abroad in, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or Vieto, Italy? Ooh, that sounded nice. I hope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In order to pay for all the amazing things we were about to experience in Italy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We would fly, we would first fly to Athens and stay there for a few nights and then from Athens we would fly to Mykonos. We booked our Airbnb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Airbnb's for both Athens and Mykonos and before we knew it, we were on our flight to Athens.