Ronald Dominique: The Bayou Strangler (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and my microphone is traveling away from me and I'm Elena and
my microphone is staying right in front of me my microphone oh and this is [Music]
morbid um my microphone loves to just like drift off away for me it's like it does it's like don't speak she says no
she says I know just what you're thinking it's true she does you know what I mean um Ash sings now she's a
singer did it sound like that did it sound like I was like a real professional it did 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 please stay away from me
well I'm leaving the country soon kidding just kidding no but don't get sick for your vacation I would be so
[ __ ] pissed let me tell you you dare do that no I think I'm going to be fine I'm going to take some uh this is not
professional advice but I am going to take some Zam it always gets me some zinc or Zam
Zam it's the one that has zinc in it zinc yeah you know again not professional medical advice no never
it's like I said the other night I'm just a podcast girl I'm just a podcast girl okay when I was making that um
sleepy girl mocktail you add 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 honestly honestly um but yeah it's been a it's been a wild day today we had a meeting
with like a very cool person today yeah we did I thought you were about to just go for it I was like wow I'm just edging
everyone um go watch the rewatcher you'll get that joke but uh I forgot we were there I was like hey you might want
to explain that if you watch the rewatcher it's a running joke okay I didn't just pull that out of my butt but
yeah it was a cool meeting and hopefully it will lead to something cool that you
guys will know about and we'll let you know when that happens that's the goal until then that was annoying of me to do
but I was excited about it I'm excited about it too yeah anyway but you know what I think I'm really you know just
stalling the beginning because this case is a very sad case very very very sad and we are on part two of the byou
Strangler Ronald Dominique a sad case but definitely one wortht telling and I think you're doing a really great job so
far oh thank you very much I hope so you're welcome uh yeah this is just one of those cases we're in part two now so
I believe I mean I believe at this point we're at close to 10 murders wild he's like pretty prolific and just awful and
the again we're going to see more and more the way that this was portrayed in the media was pretty shameful a bunch of
[ __ ] painful um and you know in the end the Justice gets served legally but it's really unfortunate that the entire
time it wasn't it was just a [ __ ] mess it's just really upsetting but let's continue now we are on to 2002 at
this point wow um so 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 to stop killing for you know long periods of time but it does happened
remember old [ __ ] flower Dennis Raider BTK over in Kansas there he killed 10 people over a 15year period and then he
just settled into life as whatever the hell he was and ended his reign of terror for a long time to be honest so
it's like there was that happens um also Gary Ridgeway who the green R 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 yeah 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 oh yeah you i' I've read like a little bit about that case and you're right yeah can confirm like yes
you are correct uh it's unclear what caused Ronald Dominique to stop killing between 2000 and 2002 but he did uh at
the time he'd been working two jobs and had become involved with the Lions Club and other community activities so maybe
he found some kind of degree of social acceptance that he was looking for didn't like quite feel the same urges he
felt who knows maybe he was just like his mind was elsewhere or maybe he just didn't get caught for those specific on
that's that's a very plausible thing too so it's like who knows but from what we
know there's nothing between those two years connected to him uh whatever the case may have been though Dominique's
Hiatus came to an end on October 5th 2002 when he met 20 yold Kenneth Randol a neighbor in hom um remember he had
moved to H who fit the Killer's victim type pretty perfectly on October 6th Kenneth Randolph's body was discovered
face down in a remote cane field in rural lefou Parish I've looked all these up so I'm trying to see them as well as
I can sounds good to me he was completely nude except for a pair of white athletic socks oh God unlike the
previous victims this body appeared to have been posed by the killer as well um this is a little gra a little graphic
just a little upsetting just so you know um he was posed so that his like buttock
stuck out so it was It was obviously done to appear very crass like that was in and it was supposed to be like a
humiliating way to Poe someone I [ __ ] hate this guy so much he's [ __ ] gross he's disgusting just to I I don't
understand the depra the depravity to do that to another person to do any anything like this to another person and
then to to someone like that like the 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 yeah 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 yeah uh the autopsy was conducted a few days later by Dr Britney
Summers who collected the usual hair and fiber evidence and also conducted a rape
kit that they hope could maybe be used for a DNA comparison if they ever got a suspect yeah Dr Summers concluded that
Kenneth Randolph had only been dead five or six hours when his body had been discovered in the field uh so very fresh
and he had superficial abrasions on his arms and legs and a large horizontal abrasions stretching from his forehead
to his chest wow there were abrasions on his wrists from where he'd been bound and
one of his wrists had bled indicating that the leg ligature was tied really tightly and had cut into the skin and he
was alive for it obviously finally Dr Summers concluded that the cause of death was strangulation evident by a
quote hemorrhaging on the underlying soft tissue surrounding the hyoid bone oh okay uh despite the obvious ligature
mark on randol's neck Dr Summers was unable to determine whether he died from a ligature or manual strangulation hm
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
died from that or whether he put his own manual pressure onto it I don't know it's it that's like strange to me maybe
they're like signs of both so she couldn't say which one he had died from yeah cuz 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 uh but less
than 2 weeks after the the discovery of Randolph's body in the cane field another young black man had gone missing
from hom uh on the evening of October 12th 2002 so not long after all not at all uh Shelly Weston wasn't too worried
when her boyfriend 26-year-old Anoka Jones hadn't returned after he I guess he had just come home a few minutes
earlier than that and he had brought his bicycle in the apartment and then he was
like oh I'm just gonna go outside for a smoke oh 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 maybe he went somewhere I don't know like he does this sometimes like she was like uh 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 home and she hadn't heard from him so she
became very alarmed and reported him missing right away but by then it was already too late oh no um Jones's body
was discovered under the interstate 310 overpass the following morning he was discovered by Officer John Smith um he
was a patrol officer who just happened to be driving in the area wow uh uh officer Smith immediately noticed drag
marks leading from the body to the edge of the road which indicated that he was obviously dumped there 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 uh there was a small amount of dried blood around his mouth and surface
abrasions on his torso and hands okay which also could be partially from dragging right I was just going to ask
you that now like the other victims NOA Jones's cause of death was aixia by strangulation and the manner of death is
considered to be homicide so right away it's fitting right in now through interviews with Jones's friends and
family investigators learned that several hours before he'd gone missing from his girlfriend's apartment uh an
NOA Jones and a friend had been confronted on the street by two men who had pulled up alongside them in a gray
truck H now according to Jones's friend Ron Gibbons Jones Su ran as soon as the men got out of the truck so ran away um
because apparently in the truck there was a very known drug dealer that was riding in the back seat and I guess this
I'm not going to name him because you know 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 um but he rattled off a
list of other associates anyone he knew who could have been responsible for the murder and he offered up 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 them all that being a well-known drug dealer yeah and they were able to cross
him off the list like he didn't do it I mean that's nice that he helped I'm glad
he at least helped a little bit now despite being pointed in the direction of other of drug dealers detectives in
lefo Parish had a feeling that Jones's murder had nothing to do with drugs meanwhile investigators in other
parishes around New Orleans had began reading through reports of unsolved murders in surrounding jurisdictions and
they started noticing the connections between their unsolved cases and those as far out as H now 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 he also moved it around a lot to really make it a mess to
investigate he really made this as [ __ ] horrific as he could for everyone inol makes sense for example
detectives working the Kenneth Randolph case and Jefferson Parish arranged to speak with the friends and families of
Anoka Jones hoping they might discover any common Associates any enemies that they both might have had that maybe led
to their murders unfortunately other than some shared habits and Lifestyles that the two men maybe had in common
they really didn't have a whole lot in common other than that 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 every but
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 here in the case of Ronald Dominique the victims were all
marginalized men of color from impoverished communities and they were and and the way the media was portraying
it was they laid quote unquote high-risk Lifestyles which is not a [ __ ] thing so there was no internal or external
pressure on the on investigators to catch this person it's like why wouldn't you just want to anyways and again like
I said before this was all made even more complex and garbled by the fact that Dominique committed these crimes in
multiple jurisdictions sometimes as much as 60 or 70 miles apart wow so he just drove
around getting close departments to even work together can be hard right never mind getting that kind of thing like you
you're contending with a lot a complex system and also contending with egos pride pride with you know people not
keeping accurate records or not keep keeping you know a good chain of custody on evidence or not interviewing the
right people not having the record they need eror human error and you're doing it with miles apart trying to put these
together just like Statewide yeah now Anoka Jones was the 12th man killed by Ronald Dominique and eight months would
pass before he killed again 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 [ __ ] disgusting that's what kills me and it's like this [ __ ]
this monster took moments of deescalation right that's your time use that time really hone in stop the next
room from happening and it feels almost like 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 but it's like you got to put the nose to the grindstone and you you
got to try to stop that next where's the task force being put together the connect that's a good thing that you say
that cuz we will talk about that ah 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
you're leaving pieces out of the puzzle because you want people to feel like they want to help more which is even
sadder but you're not warning the right people so the right people don't have their guards up and it's so interesting
to me because obviously we're talking about quote unquote high-risk Lifestyles which we don't even think is a thing but
that's what they were claiming and it's how it was labeled but it's like you know sex work is considered quote
unquote highrisk 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 so it's like 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 yeah 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 and
it's why [ __ ] up and it's and there's points when the next murder happens and you say that could have you could have
at least tried to stop that from absolutely and it's and 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 because you need to hear how awful 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 of Ronald shameful may
maybe like heard his name like on a TV show or something like that but not as much as I should and maybe right like
cuz I they they don't do any like this is not told now on the afternoon of Saturday May 24th 2003 18-year-old
detrell Woods left his mother's house in h telling his cousin he was going to stay with his girl girlfriend for the
night now from the moment his friend Gary bird Wright had arrived to pick him up 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 and I oh heart po woman and to not be able to convince him
and then no wor like what what are you talking about mom you know I mean like yeah of course we all like whatever like
Mom I'm fine and again detrell was just like Mom it's fine like don't worry about it and then he reminded her I left
my bike at Gar so if nothing else I need to go get it back and he's like I promise you I'm going to be back
tomorrow oh God and he told her that I promise you I'll be back tomorrow the next day two men riding dirt bikes in a
cane field off Highway 56 in Bayou Blue discovered detrell Wood's Body laying next to his bicycle laying next to his
bicycle oh my God so he had gone to get his bicycle yeah and he was probably coming home yep
now when they'd finally managed to find a telephone the two dirt bike riders told police they had quote found a black
man with who was dead and puffy that's what they said oh now unfortunately when detectives arrived at the scene what
they were describing was that decomposition was well underway uh it appeared as if the man had been in the
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 it was very interesting to cuz they were like it really looks like he's been
here longer but he hadn't now among the first things that hom City detective and
let me just preface this his name Rhymes it's a little it's it's sometimes you give you a little giggle little a little
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 Fryman so all righty it's pretty awesome name go detective Fryman 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
franman for having that name uh but coming right back into it the one of the first things that he noticed was that um
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 uh and also the tires on his bike appeared
clean and there weren't any tire tracks in the dirt which also suggested that whoever ever had dumped his body had
also carried the bike to the scene instead of rolling it there which was that's interesting and that does give
you insight into the kind of possible builds or strength that this person has absolutely um they're not only bringing
his body out there with the bike too but holding the bike not rolling the bike and it's like that's an inter to me
that's like huh like that should get when you when you look at Ronald Dominique when they finally catch him
he's a big guy very intimidating so it's like that was very telling it's something small but it's something it's
anything you don't have anything else you know that's like a little bit Insight I think I I would I'm assuming
they caught that I would hope but like that would be first on my mind is like I think we're looking for someone that's
like big and strong right now the preliminary autopsy found no signs of trauma or injury to derrell's body and
there were no signs of defensive wounds like the preliminary autopsy okay 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 uh they
didn't see anything that would stick out to them because one he was already in a
a strangely um accelerated state of decomposition that's kind of throw it off a little but also that's why you
didn't see any like outside injuries is cuz he was manually strangled that makes
sense um and which again is strange as well cuz he wasn't bound yeah we're going back and forth so it's like how
did that happen but then again this is an 18-year-old young going up against Ronald going against this very large man
so I guess I can see that he could probably do it pretty quickly um now according to the few friends that he
that they were able to speak to TR was described by them as slow in his learning capabilities okay which just
goes to show you he was vulnerable yeah he was part of that whole Ronald Dominique is a is a little monstrous
[ __ ] and he goes after marginalized and vulnerable people who and it's like it's
just like [ __ ] up when you hear that you're like that's so [ __ ] up it is like that's uh it just makes me so
angry but it's another level of [ __ ] up upon every other level that he's already checked off it really is and it
just like it makes you know it makes drr so much more vulnerable to like [ __ ] Predators like this and it's really
upsetting to think about 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 going to get your
blood boiling everybody so get ready according to detective Dennis thoron when it came to investigating 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 like don't don't put yourself out investigating
these kind of murders don't put yourself up any like don't break your neck trying
to investigate these kind of person that gets killed in your jurisdiction you should break your neck like what you
should do your [ __ ] damnedest because that's the job you took well and think about like and they didn't say you know
try your hardest for like these certain kind of people don't break your neck over it like don't don't don't put
yourself up wow and it's like they're not even being subtle about that he said that with his whole
chest like he said the quiet part out loud that man just said Yep this is the attitude everybody had and he said hello
I'm a racist like what the [ __ ] like how like you got to start thinking about it
you're like cuz we look at these serial killers and we're like how do 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 people outside of that who are
supposed to be fighting against this and are supposed to be and it's like how the
[ __ ] are you like you're just like oh my God like it 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 like that should never cross your mind who the [ __ ] are you to decide that's the
thing who the [ __ ] are you that's the thing like like who what makes you I don't what makes you any better than
anybody else don't get it and I'm like I know none of us are perfect none of us have a squeaky clean from day one
[ __ ] reput 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 but you all
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 cuz I'm like 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 human no
who and you talk to like these you read about these family members and Friends of these young men right most of them
that I have read all of the ones that I've read that have spoken about it have said that these men were trying to like
get themselves back on track 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 it
EXA I think that's the attitude that you should have if you're an investigator everybody is somebody somebody and as
because you're somebody somebody and you have somebody yeah how do you not look at it like that how do you not see that
cuz when working in the morg that's how we looked at every single person who came in there is this is somebody's
somebody so you treat it like it's your somebody exactly because I would want somebody to my somebody as their
somebody in that situation right so it's just 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 like I don't you he sometimes
it's a power thing it isely it's not some people are there to help and to 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 get into it because they
like the power yeah it's an ego thing like we've all been around those kind we sure have so we we've all said that with
a heavy hand so we all know those kinds oh that's just really sad and I can't imagine having to read that later as
somebody's family M and just knowing that they were like we're not going to break your neck to figure out break our
necks to figure out what happened to your child and it's like wow okay I'm glad he got like called out for saying
that yeah now a year and a half passed before Ronald Dominy killed again so see another deescalation and he went he goes
like boom boom boom boom boom one there's like six days in between them and then it's like drops off 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 Caro produce in January of 2004 but he quickly found another job
with a maintenance company and he worked there for six months and then he left there for another job not not keeping a
job the classic serial killer a maintenance guy can you imagine that guy going into your [ __ ] house 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 now one of those areas was de alamans which I think I
said that right I looked it up a million times de alamans an unincorporated region that fell in both St Charles and
lefou parishes we're in Louisiana yeah yeah um in late October Hurricane Matthew hit the greater New Orleans area
There Was 80 mph winds I mean it caused havoc and especially in the landscape uh
in De alans this unincorporated area so when the storm had finally passed through Jeff Murrow had gone out to
survey the damage around town okay you know just one of the residents just going around right 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 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 push to have yeah uh they both returned to the pond and he helped
survey the scene 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 the this uh man's body during the hurricane oh this suggested that he
was desperate to get rid of this man's body yeah once detectives arrived on the scene Jerome took photographs and
searched for any evidence on or around this man's body but found nothing 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 and
clotted blood was in the muscles of the neck which um was indicative of very strong strangulation wow very
aggressive despite all this evidence of violence the cause of death was listed as accidental cocaine
overdose what yep why I want you to hear that again Dr Frank Johnson said that the victim was killed using a lot of
force that's a quote and then said that there was blunt force trauma to his shoulder lower back and
buttocks and clotted blood in the muscles of the neck indicative of strangulation but the cause of death is
accidental cocaine overdose how what yeah I don't like how did they get away with that how did they get away
with a lot of this was there even any cocaine in this person's system like what no idea blunt force trauma to
cocaine overdose yeah yeah in the middle of a hurricane what like it's like is there even any damage to the
heart whatsoever doesn't make any sense what now and again we don't we still don't know who this person is so
fingerprints taken by the coroner turned out to be a match for 46-year-old Larry
Matthews um police reports described him as quote somewhat homeless which I was like the [ __ ] does that me i to describe
someone and Matthews apparently had few Connections in the area and according to
his brother though there was no one who would have wanted to hurt him no and a day later however detectives in Tibido
got a call from Homa police saying that they had a man in custody by the name of
Jim Jim jarmin and this man named Jim jarmin had information about the murder of Larry Matthews huh now according to
jarmin he had been visiting a friend in Tibido 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 jarmin by the way who's
currently being held held now According to Jim jarmin 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 so jarm agreed and gave Matthews the keys but
Matthews never returned which is why jarmin contacted police and actually filed a police report for his missing
car okay it's a very strange story don't know if that whole thing at that is all
from Jim jarmin 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 so using the information provided by jarmin detectives were able
to trace Larry Matthews movements back to a party where he'd left from but beyond that they really had nothing to
work with a day later the car Matthews had left in was found to be in the possession of four young men who fled
after being pulled over and the car was impounded and then returned to Jim jarmin this is strange so they claimed
that there appeared to be no signs of violence or foul play at the scene or in the car and so detectives stuck with the
cause of death provided by the coroner and the case was officially closed that's the wildest thing I've ever heard
in my entire life wild trauma nope cocaine nope cocaine and indicative of strangulation nope cocaine so so Ronald
Dominique waited less than 2 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 they got
a complaint from a customer who was saying there was a bad smell coming from one of the units so they went out to
check the offending unit and they found out that it it wasn't held by padlocks and chains which was typical of a
storage unit yeah it was held shut with only a twist tie what 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
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 so hom police were dispatched to Gator storage and they were accompanied by the tabone I believe
that's how you say it I hope I said it right terbo Parish sheriff's deputies they immediately learned that the
business had very little if any security measures in place especially for you know a storage business yeah there were
no cameras no alarms come on no other technology that they could rely on for any help or leads which is probably why
this one was chosen 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 so the body was
initially labeled a John do mhm and was transported to the coroner's office due to the heat and humidity in the storage
unit the state of deom was very far along much too far along to determine really much of anything other than that
this victim was a white male and in his early 20s wow so they thought he was in his 50s that's how decomposed his body
was um 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
now a couple days later Homa police receive a call from a local business owner named Francis Barber she was
concerned that she hadn't seen or heard from her friend Michael Barnett the last
time she'd seen him was on Friday October 24th when he left her apartment on his bicycle telling her he had plans
to meet a girl at a nearby fire station detective showed Barber a sketch of a dragon tattoo that they had actually
taken from the body they found in the freezer or excuse me in the storage unit y uh 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 now while detectives finished up their interview with Francis Barber detective Simon our friend detective
Simon there yeah 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 but no one remembered having seen him and no one saw anything out of the ordinary that
night so it didn't appear that he had made it there right now they only had a kind of tentative identification at this
point a tattoo is a pretty good identif but you can't you can't use it as like word you know but investigators
interviewed Michael Barnett's friends and family hoping it would lead them to physical evidence they could use to
confirm the identification in the process they learned that Barnett had come to Louisiana from Mississippi
several years earlier and had on and off again relationships with his friends and
family 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 it's it's on and off like how everything's going tumultuous [ __ ] like you know every
family whatever but they were like we were worried when we hadn't heard from him and like it wasn't that wasn't
normal yeah now according to two of Barnett's friends he' recently moved in with a new roommate named Dorian Bates
and they felt certain that Dorian was involved in whatever ever happened to their friend okay which is
interesting meanwhile another detective Don berson had received a warrant for Barnett's apartment and she was hoping
that there they would be able to find fingerprints or other physical evidence to confirm this identification finally
but it seemed Barnett had very few belongings at the time of his death but buron did discover that Barnett lived in
a group home in his Youth and I this girl like this detective I'm like girl yes she went for it she did cuz she
found out when he was younger he lived in a group home and she was like hm I bet he saw a dentist there a so by the
time she tracked the dentist down he had retired and had sold his practice [ __ ]
but she was like who you sell I'm going to talk to the new owner so she talked to the new owner the new owner kept all
the old records and faxed bar Barnett's dental records to the homah police department and they were used to
successfully identify by the body discovered in the gator storage unit as being that of Michael Barnett which but
also you're happy that he wasad to be identified yeah and I'm glad that that detective took all those step like she
went the distance to find those records she put her [ __ ] 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 uh
victim to the serial killer stalking Suburban New Orleans this time however there was a break in the pattern it
seemed Not only was Michael Barnett a white man yeah but the killer had also gone out of his way to hide his body 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 they found themselves at another dead end oh you know like they're not giving they're not getting
anything new here they had managed to get as far as identifying this victim but there was really no other evidence
at the scene the list of storage unit renters went nowhere they looked into all of them right so there was little
else that they could do but wait until the killer found another victim basically which is what they would end
up doing a lot now as it turned out Homa 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 Fields behind the hom
shrin Center when one of them noticed some clothing laying on the ground 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 yeah they've seen that before apparently or they were
like I didn't know if he was dead or unconscious yeah yeah so they called the homea police who were immediately
dispatched to the scene detective Simon was among the first to arrive at what was you know now a familiar scen
unfortunately the man was lying on his side wearing only blue jeans and socks and he had clear ligature marks on his
neck and wrists um as he was bagging one of the victim's hands for processing detective Fryman 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 ler Rett one
of the suspects in the murder of Anoka Jones oh wow the last person and it was one of the asked people to see Jones
alive what the [ __ ] and that's just by happen stance it's wild 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 um he would associate with some drug dealers in the area like that's how police knew him yeah detective Fryman
immediately tracked down all those known associates but none of them had seen Leon for several days and his family
hadn't heard from him that time either yeah now eventually Fryman tracked Leon's movements to the sugar bow Motel
which was a local location that's pretty popular with sex workers and those looking to procure their services um
according to two witnesses at the motel Leon had been seen a couple of days before his death with another white guy
driving an older looking Chevrolet Suburban okay now while Fryman work the streets trying to tack down anyone who
could help them find the killer an autopsy technician began doing a primary analysis of Leon's body as far as they
could tell Leon had been dead for about 24 to 36 hours before he was found hemorrhaging in both eyes indicated that
the cause of death was likely Strang strangulation and there was evidence to suggest that he had been sexually
assaulted oh no now according to the autopsy technician quote the victim was extremely drunk at the time of his death
and it would not have taken much force to strangle him he Tak advantage of in a big way also the autopsy confirmed
confirmed that Leon had been killed in almost exactly the same way as the other suspected serial killer murder victims
this was there was very little doubt at this point that he was part of this body
count right now we're going to go into the last phase of murders between 2005 and 2006 now once again Ronald
Dominique's choice of victims which are marginalized transient you know uh what the media was La calling high risk
uh vulnerable people um and his propensity to move between jurisdictions as he killed had worked to his Advantage
unfortunately right he left almost no evidence at the scene of any of these men's bodies and lon'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 um while this had allowed him to be you know successfully evade capture since the
late 1990s by 2005 it it also made him more Brazen as well he was becoming way more Brazen I was waiting for that which
is usually when they [ __ ] 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 now by
the time the body of 31-year-old August Watkins was discovered in a field behind
the Lache Work Release Center investigators knew there was no longer POS it wasn't going to be possible to
conduct this investigation quietly and out of the public eye you know they were trying to keep a lot of things 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 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 yeah 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 Homa tunnel oh that's the saddest thing ever I know
like now an autopsy confirmed that Watkins cause of death was strangulation yeah the discovery of August Watkins was
meant that he was the 17th victim wow this killer this prompted the hom police chief Pat budro 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 f w yeah thank you for finally coming to that he pointed to the
unsolved murders of all these men in 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 Leon Lett and August Watkins were related um Chief investigator for St Charles Parish uh
Sam Zena told reporters we think without question Jones fits into the group with
hom and laforsch as far as Lifestyles and being found along the same Corridor area so they're at least coming forward
with something something finally 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
was an official state sanctioned task force like brought up and it should have been happening so much earlier than this
way earlier and when you finally get that official state sanctioned task force 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 that task force should have been put in into
position so that they could use all that [ __ ] to move it forward they were just
sitting there with this stale case and letting another body appear at a nowhere didn't care enough and it's like what
the [ __ ] again we've seen task force work so well before we've seen way sooner now unfortunately 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 it's a it's a polite uh a polite way of saying that the victims gay black
men who some were involved in sex work yeah had a transient lifestyle saying that they weren't exactly sympathetic
enough to Warrant the expense of similar task Forces ones that at the time had been recently assembled to catch Baton
Rouge serial killer Derek toddle whose victims were white college co-eds that's so [ __ ] up so they that
one they're saying they're saying quietly they're making sure that one stays a little more subtle but that's
what they were saying that's it's just so sad how 17 young men not justify a task force I don't get that and how do
you think that and I don't give a [ __ ] 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 no one was like what the [ __ ] guys like
you have to hope that somebody sitting in one of those rooms was like are you [ __ ] kidding me but they didn't have
P yeah now it's awful that's so disheartening it is 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 so following the
discovery of August Watkins a small amount of resources was allocated to finally assemble a task force to catch
this killer 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 whoo whoa whoo there's 17 dead
bodies here let's let's get it together and finally the right communities are hearing about it too and they're able to
put pressure on finally because they're finally hearing that they together so this included law enforcement from each
of the parishes with in in which each of the victims were discovered so this is a
lot of parishes coming together for this task force too that's great and they started with Oliver Le Banks remember
Oliver yes like for some reason Oliver like just like when you look up that 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 cuz I'm telling you it's going to it's going to tear your and 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 they 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 and yeah completely dehumanized yeah so they started with Oliver Le Banks and they
went through the most recent victim August Watkins with this task force and finally we're going to see a little
movement forward in this case that's where she's going to that is where I'm going to leave off on part two oh my
gosh you know what though that was a very heavy episode so I think you're you're leaving you're leaving us with
some hope which I have to thank you for and have hope because because my God in part three we're gonna have we have some
more heavy stuff coming up but it's just it's a lot to take in out at once yeah but we are going to get a little bit
we're going to get something at the end we're moving in the right direction I promise you we will finally see but
just understand how ofly 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 but stay poor families that had to sit around years and years and years and
just think like well is is the day ever going to come that I'm going to find out
what happened to my kid these families had to push just to get their family members treated like human beings and
then they also had to sit there like we have in part three we'll talk about it these these families would have to talk
to reporters just to try to get it moveed forward and they would have to be like yeah my son you know my mes he like
he had some tough struggles in life but like he was doing this it's like you should 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 like yeah he made mistakes but he was doing better
and it's like that's okay that he made mistakes he's still a person so gross that people are put in that position
it's just upset but no I'm glad that we're going to get some kind of Justice in part three so so stay tuned for part
three yeah and with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep weird I don't have to tell you
that's weird it's really sad God [Music] [Music] almighty

(Part 2) In the spring of 2005, law enforcement officials in southern Louisiana had a growing number of murder victims they had begun to suspect were connected to an unidentified serial killer operating in the area. The victims were all men, mostly in their twenties and thirties, many had histories of drug and alcohol abuse or were known to police as sex-workers, and all had been strangled and dumped in secondary locations.

Over the course of a decade, Ronald Dominique developed into one of the worst and most prolific serial killers in American history; yet his story and those of his victims remains largely unknown and ignored by the mainstream media.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe & 99 Cent Renal Podcasts for research!

References

Alford, Jeremy. 2005. New information coming soon in local murders. August 24. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://www.houmatoday.com/story/news/2005/08/24/new-information-coming-soon-in-local-murders/27020266007/.

Armstrong, Shell. 2007. Dominique pleads not guilty to 9 murders. January 17. Accessed March 29, 2023. https://www.houmatimes.com/news/dominique-pleads-not-guilty-to-9-murders/.

Associated Press. 2005. "Man found in Lafource Parish was from Houma area." Abberville Meridional, May 3: 2.

—. 2005. "Deaths od five south Lousiana men may be linked, police say." Shreveport Times, April 25: 12.

—. 1999. "La. deaths may be work of serial killer." Shreveport Times, June 23: 5B.

—. 2006. "Police look for links between serial suspect, priest's death." Shreveport Times, December 9: 22.

—. 2006. "Arrest made in serial-killer investigation." Town Talk, December 2: 17.

—. 2006. "Serial murder suspect was average Joe, says shelter residents." Town Talk, December 3: 8.

DeSantis, John. 2006. Accused lived on the fringe of two worlds. December 4. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210128012212/https://www.houmatoday.com/article/DA/20061204/News/608089983/HC.

Hunter, Michelle. 2006. "Serial-killer suspect confesses; Trysts led to rapes, strangling, cops told." Times-Picatune, December 6.

L'observateur. 1999. Beaten teen’s body discovered in Kenner. October 26. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.lobservateur.com/1998/10/26/beaten-teens-body-discovered-in-kenner/.

—. 1999. Two deaths reclassified as murders in St. Charles Parish. Fdebruary 6. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.lobservateur.com/1999/02/06/two-deaths-reclassified-as-murders-in-st-charles-parish/.

Morris, Robert. 2006. Mother protests dead son’s link to serial killer. June 19. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210131004921/https://www.houmatoday.com/article/DA/20060619/News/608089995/HC.

Ramage, James. 2005. "Serial killer theory floats around cases." Shreveport Times, May 15: 1.

Rosen, Fred. 2017. The Bayou Strangler. New York, NY: Open Road Media.

—. 2018. Uncovering the Truth Behind One of the Bayou Strangler’s Victims. April 10. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://the-line-up.com/uncovering-the-truth-behind-one-of-the-bayou-stranglers-victims.

St. Charles Heral-Guide. 2006. Mother’s tears for son killed by serial madman Dominique. 12 06. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.heraldguide.com/tragedy/mothers-tears-for-son-killed-by-serial-madman-dominique/.

The Daily Review. 2002. "Houma man's body found." Daily Review, October 17: 6.

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

The episode discusses Ronald Dominique's murders, highlighting systemic failures in police investigations of marginalized victims.

Key points

Podcast Introduction. Ash and Elena introduce themselves and their podcast, sharing humorous anecdotes.
Transition to Serious Case. The hosts shift to discussing the tragic case of Ronald Dominique, a prolific serial killer.
Media's Shameful Portrayal. Elena discusses the media's insensitive portrayal of the victims, highlighting systemic issues.
Missed Opportunities. Ash expresses frustration over how moments of deescalation were ignored, leading to more deaths.
Community Ignored. Elena critiques the lack of warnings for marginalized communities, emphasizing the need for vigilance.
Preliminary Autopsy Findings. The preliminary autopsy found no signs of trauma, but Detrell Woods was manually strangled.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's just really upsetting.

Elena's reaction to the media portrayal of the case.

2:58WatchFeb 15, 2024

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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