← MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Legends of the Pet Cemetery (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
00:55:07
In the early morning hours of September 21st, 2009, a man woke up in his bed in New Orleans with a start, to the sound of metal clinking in the dark corner of his room. The man’s heart raced as he peered into the shadows. And then he gasped – because there was someone standing in the corner, staring at him. As the figure stepped forward, the clinking sound got louder. And the man realized this person was wrapped in heavy, metal chains. And suddenly, he understood. What he was seeing was a ghost – and he knew exactly who had murdered them.
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- [00:00]
Mr. Ballin
Hello, fans of the strange, dark and mysterious. I'm here today to tell you all about what it actually means now that we've moved over to the SiriusXM family big picture. It means we are gonna make more content for you. Right now you get one YouTube video a week on Saturday. Well, what we're gonna do now is we're gonna have the Saturday upload be the same, but then also the Mr. Ballin podcast. Well, we've begun already filming those episodes like a YouTube video. So that's a second piece of content every week. Then there's two other shows that you guys don't even know about yet, which means on any given week, you could have up to four new video pieces of content on the Mr. Ballin channel. And also all these pieces of content will double as podcasts as well. This new content schedule is going to start early next year. Also, there's one other thing I want to clarify, which is the state of Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries and redacted. Those shows were created in collaboration with Wondry the, but now we're partnered with Sirius. And so we're not gonna be making any new episodes of either of those shows. For now. If you wanna hear my podcast episodes one week early and ad free, make sure to subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. Keep on the lookout for more announcements in the coming weeks. Thank you. In the early morning hours of September 21, 2009, a man was asleep in his bed in New Orleans when suddenly he heard the sound of metal clinking in the dark corner of his room. And so he sat up. The man's heart raced as he stared around the room, looking for where the sound came from. And then suddenly, he saw it. There was a figure in his room, standing right there, staring at him. And then the figure began to move towards him. And as it moved closer, the clinking sound he was hearing got louder. And the man realized this person, this figure, was wrapped in all these heavy metal chains. And suddenly the man understood what he was seeing was a ghost. And this man knew exactly who had murdered them. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right show, because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please take pictures of the Follow button's brand new car and list it for sale online. Okay. Let's get into today's story. This time of year, most of us are checking off our holiday gift lists. But identity thieves have lists, too, and your personal information might be on them. Protect your identity with Lifelock. Lifelock monitors millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss. And if your identity is stolen, Lifelock will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Make this season about joy, not identity theft. With LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com mrballin Terms apply.
- [03:29]
Commercial Announcer 1
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- [03:52]
Mr. Ballin
In the early afternoon on April 13, 1985, 60 year old Dorothy Thompson walked into a bank in St. Bernard, Louisiana. Her hip was really bothering her. So she was moving slowly, but at the same time, she was also trying extra hard not to limp or seem unsteady. She knew the people in her small town liked to gossip about her, and so she didn't want to give them anything new to talk about. But as expected, you know, despite her best efforts to conceal her slower sort of limpy movement, when she got into the lobby, the handful of tellers and customers that were inside looked towards her, took stock of her and began whispering. So the little town of St. Bernard was about five miles outside of New Orleans, and it was the kind of place where people were generally pretty friendly and everyone seemed to know everyone. But this smallness made it pretty easy for rumors to spread. And most of those rumors in this town seemed to be about Dorothy. Dorothy did have to admit, though, that she had given people a lot to talk about. Dorothy, who had lived in this town for 39 years, was the owner of the town's pet cemetery. Now, this pet cemetery was actually a true business. Dorothy made her income from pet owners, you know, buying plots of land in the cemetery. But that wasn't really the thing that made, you know, Dorothy stand out as the centerpiece of gossip. It was the fact that she not only owned this pet cemetery, but she lived on the cemetery by herself. And considering the fact that the cemetery also had a rumor of being haunted, it just seemed like, how could anybody do that? How could she live there full time? And these ghost stories, you know, surrounding this pet cemetery were not just, you know, to do with animals that have been buried there, but they were about people because people had died on this property, including both of Dorothy's husbands. The first husband was a very heavy drinker who regularly abused Dorothy. And it got so bad at a certain point that she eventually just shot him in self defense and killed him. So, so that's how he died. And then her second husband had died from suicide, and Dorothy was the one who actually found his body on the porch. And so these deaths had led to more stories about Dorothy and how she was some kind of husband killer. But what people didn't see was how much all this death really weighed on her. And when her mother died about six years ago, it had almost broken Dorothy completely. Dorothy and her mother were incredibly close and. And after she died, Dorothy got so depressed that she had to be admitted to the hospital for quite a while. She was doing better now, but some days were still really hard. And so now at the bank, Dorothy ignored the look she got as she approached the teller. She needed to get cash out to pay her handyman, Kenny Palmiere, who had done some work at the cemetery that morning. And because Dorothy didn't actually drive, Kenny was also her chauffeur for the day. And he was outside right now waiting to take her on a few more errands. So Dorothy told the teller how much money she needed, and then after they counted it out and handed it to her, Dorothy took the cash, turned around, and headed back outside. A couple Hours later, around 4pm, Dorothy sat in the passenger seat of Kenny's car as he drove down a highway. They had just wrapped up at the grocery store and now he was taking her back home. As they drove, the two made some small talk, mostly about the weather and also the work that Kenny had done that morning on the grounds. But the truth was, Dorothy didn't really know Kenny at all. I mean, she had just hired him the day before, but he seemed nice enough and she was hoping he would stick around for a while. After all, she had had a pretty high turnover rate amongst her handymen over the last year, and so she was hoping now for some consistency. So both the pet cemetery itself and Dorothy's house, which again was on the cemetery grounds, required a lot of that Dorothy was just not physically capable of doing. Besides her bad hip, she also took medication for her depression that made her weak and sometimes very disoriented. Now, sometimes Dorothy would ask her neighbors for help, but generally speaking, she preferred to just hire people to do the work because, you know, people needed steady work. She could give that to them, and she appreciated the help. However, the problem with hiring these handymen Was that, unfortunately, a few of her, you know, former handymen had turned out to be criminals. Last fall. Her handyman at the time, this guy named Elkin Childress, had lived with her and worked on the grounds. But Elkin was always just sort of wandering around and exploring the property instead of taking care of it. Then she had found out he'd been arrested for robbery. So she guessed that what he was really doing when he was walking around was casing the place, you know, looking for ways to break in or to steal something. Luckily for her, he actually quit before she had to fire him. And the guy before Elkin was even worse. His name was Brandon Nodier. Brandon was a total loudmouth who had started working for Dorothy right after her mother had died. He and his wife Bonnie had moved in with Dorothy so Brandon could keep up with the repairs while Bonnie drove Dorothy around. But just like Elkin, the issue she ran into with the notiers was theft. The previous spring, Dorothy had had this really intense depressive episode and was taking a lot of medication for it. And while she was all, you know, medicated and groggy, the notiers convinced her to sell them her land for basically nothing. But when Dorothy realized what had happened, she made the Nodiers move out and then got a lawyer to overturn the deal that she had signed. And so since last year, Dorothy, along with the Notiers, had been in this horrible legal fight over this land. And she knew, you know, the notiers, Brandon and Bonnie were, were furious at her. And on top of that, Brandon, who was this huge loudmouth, just would not stop talking about this dispute. Not only was he talking about it in public, but he also kept contacting Dorothy to sort of talk her into dropping the suit altogether. But Dorothy was not about to drop this issue. I mean, this cemetery and the land had belonged to her mother, and now it was hers. Like it mattered to her. She's not just going to give it up. And so now, sitting in the passenger seat of the car, Dorothy watched as Kenny turned off the highway and eventually pulled into her driveway, which was quite long and wound through some thick woods. Because remember, she lives on this cemetery. It's sort of secluded from society. And as the pair drove along this driveway and got closer and closer to her home, eventually she could finally see some of the tombstones up ahead. This cemetery was enormous, and basically any kind of animal you could imagine was buried here. Some of the graves were just engraved stone slabs, but others were pretty extravagant, including one human sized Buddhist statue of somebody's pet cat. Kenny finally pulled up in front of the house and got out to help Dorothy carry in the groceries. And when he was done, Dorothy handed over the cash that she owed him and said she would call him when she had more work. Then she watched as Kenny got back in his car and drove off back down the driveway. Around 9pm that night, Dorothy poured herself a healthy glass of wine and went to her bedroom to turn on the tv. She'd spent the evening going through some bills and taking calls from cemetery clients, so by now she was exhausted. But as soon as she got into bed, she heard a phone ring on the other side of the house. Dorothy groaned and took her wine with her as she shuffled down the hallway to the kitchen to answer the call. And when she answered it, she heard her friend's voice. A woman named Patricia Newman. So Patricia was about half Dorothy's age, and the two of them had been introduced by a mutual friend three years earlier. Patricia had started out as more of a caretaker for Dorothy, since Patricia had experience working with the elderly. But they'd gotten along really well and became quite close to the point where they had sort of a mother, daughter type of relationship. And since Patricia only lived about 10 minutes away, Dorothy did depend on her pretty much daily for things like supervising her medication and driving her to appointments. In many ways, you know, Patricia was like the one person outside of the hired help that she did spend a lot of time with. And so that's actually why Patricia was calling now. She wanted to know if Dorothy still needed a ride to the pharmacy the following day. And Dorothy said that she did and said thank you. And then the two talked for a bit longer before ultimately saying goodnight. After that, Dorothy hung up the phone and then poured herself a bit more wine. And then she just kind of stood in the kitchen for a bit listening to the crickets outside. And then when she was about to finally leave and go back to bed, she heard something. It was the sound of a car making their way slowly up her long driveway. Here's my typical holiday gift giving pattern. I tell myself to be really thoughtful and think hard, but then I wait until the last minute and just buy a gift card. But this year, I'm gonna break that cycle and I'm gonna get something I know my sisters in particular are going to love. It is the coolest digital picture frame out there. It's called Aura frames. My sisters are gonna love all the tiny snapshots, like the kids running through the house, late night kitchen chaos, all the moments that, frankly, I would never post on social media. But somehow, you know, with Aura, my family will get all of that like they're right there with us. Each frame can be personalized with a custom message that appears when it's first turned on. A personal touch and you can enjoy unlimited free uploads. Just download the Aura app, connect to Wi Fi and start sharing memories for a limited time. You can save on this perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver Matte frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code Ballen at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code Ballen. This deal is exclusive to you listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Also, support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.
- [13:54]
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- [14:30]
Mr. Ballin
The following morning, a little after 1pm, the friend Patricia Newman pulled up outside of Dorothy's house and threw her car into park. Patricia had called Dorothy around 9am that morning to tell her she was going to be late getting her, but Dorothy hadn't answered. Patricia had tried calling a few more times, but Dorothy never answered, which ultimately made Patricia pretty nervous. Dorothy was a heavy drinker in her 60s and was on a lot of medication, so deep down Patricia knew it was possible Dorothy wasn't answering because she had had some kind of accident or medical emergency. So she was at Dorothy's now, not so much to take her on her errands for the day, but just to make sure she was okay. Patricia got out of her car and hurried up to Dorothy's front door, but when she knocked there was no answer, and after looking in a few windows, she didn't see Dorothy or any kind of movement inside. It just seemed very quiet and still. Patricia went back to the front door and tried it, but she found it was locked. So she just kept on knocking for a while, and after a few more minutes of Dorothy not answering and not hearing or seeing any sign of life in there, Patricia felt worried enough that she left the front door and went to go call the police. Not long after that, Patricia was back at Dorothy's house, this time watching anxiously as two police officers forced Dorothy's back door open. The officers had gotten there just a few minutes ago, and Patricia had explained to them how Dorothy, you know, could be inside and very likely was hurt or something was wrong here. And so the officers kind of fanned out and began searching around the house, looking for a way in. And they found the back door was not locked. It was just jammed. So now they were in the process of getting it unjammed. And so finally, after a few swift kicks to this door, it finally gave way, and it swung open, and the two officers, along with Patricia, went inside. Patricia immediately began yelling out Dorothy's name and going room to room looking for her. And what she quickly realized is she could hear the sound of a television that was on, and it was coming from Dorothy's bedroom. But when she went to the bedroom and looked inside, Dorothy wasn't in there. In fact, after searching the whole house, there was no sign of Dorothy anywhere. And there wasn't any sign of any kind of problem in the house. Like, there was no disturbance anywhere. No struggle, no, like, accident where somebody fell over. It was just like Dorothy was gone, and that was it. Now, for the two officers, they didn't really know what to make of this, because to them, you know, it didn't appear like anything horrible had happened. You know, there was no active emergency here. It's just that, you know, this person has left their TV on, and they're not here when they should be. And that was concerning, but not enough to warrant, like, a big reaction from authorities. But Patricia, she knew, you know, based on what she was seeing, that this was so uncharacteristic of Dorothy that something definitely had gone wrong here. But even though Patricia really adamantly communicated that concern to the two officers, they just told her that, you know what, let's wait, give it a few days, and give Dorothy another couple of calls, and if she doesn't show up in the next few days, come talk to us. And so after the police left, you, know, despite Patricia having this sense that something's off here, she did what she was told. You know, she went home. She continued trying Dorothy, but never got an answer. She called around town to see if anybody had seen her or heard from her, but no, nobody knew where she was. And so finally, after four days, Patricia put in another call to the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office. And this time, she absolutely begged them to do something because Dorothy Thompson was still missing. And Now Patricia was 100% certain that something bad had to have happened to her. At around 10:30am on the same day that Patricia has made this plea for help, four days after Dorothy had inexplicably gone missing, Detective Brian Valalungo drove his cruiser through Dorothy Thompson's pet cemetery, along with Sergeant Terrence Strada. Both men worked for the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office, and they had been tasked to look into Dorothy's disappearance. Valalungo hadn't even gotten to the scene yet, but he was already uneasy as he drove past the animal tombstones and gravesites. This place had always creeped him out. Finally, the officer's cruiser made their way all the way to the end of the driveway, and they reached Dorothy's home. And right away Valalungo could see there was a woman, maybe in her 30s, who he guessed was Patricia, who was standing by the front door. She seemed visibly anxious and impatient as she stood there waiting for Valalungo and Strada to get out of their car. And when they did get out and walked over to her, she got straight to the point. She said the last officers had not actually done a real search of the place, just a sort of basic welfare check. And so now she needed them to do a full search of Dorothy's house and her grounds to make sure Dorothy really wasn't somewhere on this property. Valalungo and Strada assured her that they would do that, but first they needed her to start from the beginning and tell them about the last time she saw or spoke to Dorothy. Patricia seemed pretty irritated by this and said she had already told the officers everything she had known, both on the phone call and then previously with those other officers who had done the welfare check. Like, can we please just get into the search? But Valalungo insisted and said, look, I don't fully know the whole story, so please, like, give me some information. And so begrudgingly, she would tell Valalungo what she knew. Basically that she had called her friend on the 13th at night to ask if Dorothy would need a ride to the pharmacy. The next day she had said yes. And then the next day comes around and Patricia calls her friend to confirm she's going to swing by and pick her up that morning. But Dorothy doesn't answer. And so eventually Patricia goes to the house. Dorothy apparently isn't there. She knocks on the door. Dorothy doesn't come out. It just seemed off. And so Patricia calls the police. They show up, they find the back door is unlocked but jammed. They force it open. They go inside, and, you know, nothing's disturbed. And Dorothy is just missing. And there was no rhyme or reason to it. And so now Patricia was convinced that something bad had happened to Dorothy. And she really was hoping that they could help her. Falalungo nodded and then asked Patricia if maybe Dorothy had friends or family that she might have just gone to stay with. But Patricia immediately shook her head and said no. Dorothy was pretty much alone in the world and almost never left her house. And she didn't have a car because she didn't drive. Also, Patricia said she had already called around. And nobody had seen her friends, family, no one. And then at this point, Patricia was very clear. She told the officers that she believed the only reason Dorothy would have left her house that day or that night before was. Was if somebody else had forced her to. Valalungo shot Strada a look. He didn't doubt that Patricia was worried about her friend, but they need to look around before they jump to any conclusions here. So he asked Patricia if she could show them the unlocked door. And they would begin their investigation. Moments later, Valalungo stepped into the home through that back entrance, followed by Strada and Patricia. As he walked around the house, he saw that, like Patricia had said, you know, it was very neat and tidy. There really was no sign of anything that had gone wrong inside the house. No sign of a struggle or a fall of some kind. It was just like the house was left exactly as is. That sort of contradicted Patricia's theory that, you know, the only way Dorothy would have left the house was if she had been forced, suggesting some form of a struggle. But at the same time, you know, what Patricia was saying about Dorothy is that she was kind of frail. And so Valalungo thought, you know, okay, maybe it's possible that she was forced. And, you know, she didn't put up any kind of a fight. And that's why we don't see any disturbance. He didn't know, but it just seemed odd that nothing had been displaced if we're talking about some form of an abduction. Also, as Valalungo continued his walk around the house, he could see that items of value like Dorothy's tv were still there. So it didn't seem like this had been a robbery. But unlike the first officers who had done that initial welfare check with Patricia a few days earlier, Valalungo did agree that something wasn't right here. Because as he continued to walk around, he kept seeing signs that Dorothy had clearly not planned to leave her home or had left in a hurry. For example, there was a half empty glass of wine in the kitchen and the television in the bedroom was still on. And so those are things that simply would not be if somebody was planning to leave for any extended period of time. And also, based on what Patricia had told them, he could rule out a family emergency suddenly taking Dorothy out of town or any kind of last minute trip because Patricia had called around and that stuff hadn't happened. At a certain point, Valalungo stopped walking around the home and just asked Patricia, you know, how was Dorothy's mental state? And Patricia clearly hesitated for a second before she admitted to Valalungo that, you know, Dorothy was on a whole bunch of medication and sometimes it did make her mental state kind of foggy. And so Valalungo naturally thought, okay, you know, maybe it's possible that in a sort of foggy mental state, maybe for whatever reason, she wandered out of the house on her own. And then once she was outside, something happened to her. Whether it was, you know, an animal, a person, a fall, like anything could have happened. He knew the back door had been unlocked during that initial police welfare check. And even though he knew the door apparently had been jammed, you know, it clearly had not been jammed so much that it prevented them from getting inside. And so maybe that door just always got stuck, you know, and maybe that's all that happened. She walked out the back door and when she shut it, it got jammed, and that was normal. And so Valalungo turned to his partner and sort of explained to him his theory around Dorothy maybe wandering out on her own. And then something else happened once she was outside and said, hey, you know, she's clearly not here. Let's go out there and search the grounds and see if we can find her. Fifteenteen days later, a little past 7am on May 3, 1985, Valalungo stepped into Strada's office to give him an update on the case. At this point, Valalungo thought it was extremely likely that foul play was involved here because they had searched Dorothy's house and her property a few times at this point, and they had not found Dorothy anywhere or any evidence to explain what had happened to her. Patricia had mentioned that Dorothy had a tattoo of a cross on her left index finger. So Valalungo had spent the last couple of weeks calling around to local hospitals and morgues to see if any women had been brought in with that marking Valalungo also interviewed Dorothy's neighbors and the tellers at that bank that she had gone to shortly before she vanished. And also he had interviewed some people in town who just knew who she was. He'd also tracked down Dorothy's new handyman, Kenny Palmier, who the bank had said was with Dorothy on the day she vanished. He apparently was driving her around. But none of these people had heard from Dorothy since she vanished 20 days earlier, same as Patricia. Even though nobody knew where Dorothy was and really couldn't offer all that much information to help the investigation. It was like everybody Valalungo spoke to had a pretty strong negative opinion of Dorothy. Like that she was this recluse and that she was kind of crazy. And, you know, people thought she had murdered her husbands and buried their bodies in the pet cemetery. And also her house and her land were haunted. But, you know, none of these rumors were gonna do anything to advance the case. But it was interesting to Valalungo that people felt this way about her. The only real lead that Valalungo got was something he got from speaking to Dorothy's lawyer. A few days ago, we'd mentioned that Dorothy was in the middle of this very contentious lawsuit over the rights to her property with a pair of former employees named Bonnie and Brandon Nodier. And since Dorothy's case was looking more and more like an abduction or even homicide, the fact that there was this active lawsuit that Dorothy was embroiled in was a big red flag. So Valalungo naturally knew he had to speak to Bonnie and Brandon. But as Valalungo sat across from Strada at his desk and filled him in on all this, Strada's phone rang. Strada picked it up and listened to the person on the other end. And immediately there was this look of shock that came over his face. Strada thanked the caller and then hung up. And then told Valalungo that a body had been found in the Mississippi river the day before, about 40 miles downriver from here. And they thought it could be Dorothy. Just a few hours later, Valalungo and Strada stood with Patricia Newman inside of an exam room at the coroner's office. In front of them was a long metal table. And lying on this table was the body of the woman who had been found inside the river. Patricia had been asked to come in here and see if this was Dorothy. But as Valalungo looked at the body, he didn't see how Patricia was going to be able to do that, because the body was already incredibly decomposed and very bloated. The medical examiner had said this woman had likely been in the water for weeks and they hadn't done an autopsy yet. But any findings would probably just be a guess because of how badly damaged and decomposed the body was. The only thing they did know for sure was that this definitely was a homicide. The woman was found with a plastic bag tied over her head and she was wrapped in a lot of very heavy chains, probably to weigh her down so her body would not float up and be found. And so Valalungo looked over at Patricia, who looked visibly anxious as she stared at this body. You know, she seemed kind of overwhelmed by the moment. You know, she was shaking and she was just staring, sort of shocked. But eventually, you know, after looking at the body, she spoke and she actually said that she didn't think this was Dorothy. And for a second, Valalungo was actually disappointed. Not because he was hoping Dorothy was dead, but for the sake of the case, you know, to figure out where she had gone. But then he remembered something. He stepped up to the body. He put on a glove and gently examined the woman's left hand. And there, just visible on her index finger, was a tattoo of a cross. This was Dorothy.
- [28:52]
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- [29:22]
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- [29:57]
Mr. Ballin
Four days later, on May 7, Belalungo got to his office and sat down at his desk to start the day. And he had a lot to do because he was now in the middle of a homicide case. The medical examiner who had done the autopsy on Dorothy didn't find any water in her lungs. So as a result, they had decided the cause of death was most likely asphyxia from strangulation or suffocation, not drowning. Now, Valalungo had known all along that it was possible somebody had abducted Dorothy from her home and killed her. But now that it was official, he was sort of reviewing the case notes from the beginning to see if anything had been overlooked while this was still basically considered a missing persons case. And he started with the place Dorothy was last known to be. Her house. Dorothy's home was incredibly neat and undisturbed. So it was possible Dorothy was lured from her home and killed somewhere else. But Valalungo knew from talking to her neighbors and Patricia that Dorothy was, you know, naturally pretty reclusive and did not leave her house easily. So it sort of made the most sense to him that Dorothy must have actually been killed in her home. And the reason the crime scene was so pristine was that Dorothy was overpowered really quickly. Now, originally, Valalungo had considered Dorothy's current handyman, Kenny Pommier, to be a suspect, since he was the last one to see her alive, because he was the one who dropped her off at her home at 4pm around the time she went missing. But Valalungo had revisited Kenny and found that he had an alibi. But even if he didn't have an alibi, Vellalungo wasn't really sure what Kenny's motive would even have been. I mean, there'd been no sign of a robbery inside of her house. And on top of that, it just didn't seem like Dorothy had much money to begin with, like she wasn't wealthy. And also, the way she died, you know, strangulation or suffocation, you know, that's so personal. And so whoever would have done that would have had to have a reason for it. But so far, Valalungo had not spoken to anyone who really had a serious issue with Dorothy. I mean, people definitely had opinions about Dorothy, but it was almost like people said, stay away from her. You know, she lives on haunted land and she's killed her husbands. But it. It just seemed like rumor mill. There didn't seem to be somebody who really had a targeted issue with her. There was that outstanding lawsuit with the Enodiers, the two people who were, you know, battling over the rights to her property. But it wasn't clear to Valalungo if In the middle of this lawsuit was like, real hatred between the parties. You know, he had yet to see that. And so at this point, Valalungo felt like his biggest problem was that he really had no real evidence. There were no witnesses, and they'd searched Dorothy's house repeatedly at this point, and they hadn't found anything useful. And there were no forensics on Dorothy's body. Since her body had been in the water for so long, all the forensics had been washed away. But just then, there was a knock on the door, and an officer poked his head in and told Valalungo that he had something that he might want to come see. And so Valalungo got up and he walked over, and the officer said that they had just brought this guy in for writing bad checks. And it turns out his former employer was Dorothy Thompson. Valalungo was immediately interested and asked for more information. And the officer told him that this man's name was Elkin Childress, and he had been the live in caretaker for Dorothy for two months last fall. And Elkin had told the officers who had arrested him that the reason he had wanted to work there at the pet sematary for Dorothy was to find the treasure. Apparently, along with all the other rumors about Dorothy, there was another rumor that hundreds of thousands of dollars were, you know, buried somewhere on Dorothy's property. And Elkin had become obsessed with finding it, but he said he never did. When Valalungo heard this, he felt his pulse pick up. He'd never heard this treasure rumor, but it wasn't any crazier than any of the other rumors he had heard about Dorothy. And if Elkin was that serious about finding, you know, said treasure, maybe he'd gone to Dorothy and tried to force her to tell him where it was. But before he could say or do anything, the officer told Valalungo not to get too excited because Elkin had an alibi for the night Dorothy went missing, and it checked out. However, the officer said that Elkin had mentioned something else that could help with the investigation. According to Elkin, there was somebody in Dorothy's life who befriended her for the sole purpose of trying to inherit everything she owned. And that person was Patricia Newman. And as soon as the officer said that, Vallungo's gears in his head began to turn, and he thought, why didn't I see this before? After all, it was Patricia who called the authorities. She's also the one who aggressively pushed this investigation in the early days, which, you know, Valalungo had assumed was just because she was worried about her friend. But now he was starting to wonder if maybe she was trying to make herself look innocent. It's not unusual for killers to try and insert themselves into investigations to seem cooperative or to cast suspicion on other people. Patricia had also entered Dorothy's house multiple times before Dorothy's body was found, which certainly gave her an opportunity to interact with the scene and potentially hide evidence. And so Valalungo turned and ran to go find Strada. They needed to speak to Patricia immediately, and this time it would be as a suspect. On May 8th. So, six days after Dorothy was found in the river, Valalungo once again met with Dorothy's close friend, Patricia Newman. But this time, the meeting was inside of a police interrogation room. And as Valalungo sat at the interrogation table looking at Patricia, he was watching her very carefully. She did seem somewhat annoyed that she had been called in for this, but she also seemed very nervous. In particular, she kept fidgeting with her hands. Now, Valalongo had really considered his approach here, since Patricia could have been lying to him this whole time. His plan was to start off pleasant and kind of lull her into a false sense of security that he believed everything she had said was true so far. And then at some point, he would surprise her with a sharp left turn and see how she reacted. So he started with some background questions about Patricia's relationship with Dorothy and nodded appreciatively as Patricia explained how she and Dorothy were good friends and Patricia also took care of her. But then, kind of out of nowhere, Valalungo asked her about Dorothy's estate and if it was valuable or not. She did say that Dorothy owned the house and the land it was on outright, so no mortgages or anything, so it had to be worth something, but she didn't know how much it was worth. Valalungo responded to this by saying, okay, you know, forget the financial worth of the property. Is the property worth something to you, Patricia? At that point, Valalungo could clearly see, you know, Patricia realizing what was happening here. She had this alarmed look on her face, like she was starting to see that she was not being treated like a witness, but rather a suspect. And so Patricia quickly said, no, you know, the property was not worth anything to her. She didn't want it, not at all. But she kind of turned it around on Valalungo and said, look, if you're looking for someone who does want that property, well, you ought to speak to the notiers. Now, Valalungo knew who she was referencing. These were the folks who were embroiled in that lawsuit with Dorothy before she went missing and was found dead. But Valalungo didn't say anything. He just sort of gave Patricia a look like, oh, explain what you mean. And so Patricia took the cue and told him that the Notiers had been Dorothy's live in employees for years, and they were complete monsters. She said that Brandon had been verbally abusive towards Dorothy while he worked for her. And also he was one of the main people spreading all these rumors about Dorothy in town, about how he thought she killed her husband and how her land was haunted and she was crazy. But she said that wasn't even the worst of it. She said Brandon was also a thief. She said the year before, when Dorothy was on a lot of medication for depression, like more than normal, and she was not of sound mind as a result of it. She said that Brandon and his wife Bonnie had convinced her to sign over her property to them for basically nothing. And that's when it hit Valalungo. Like, he was aware that there had been this lawsuit over the land, but he didn't really have all the details about it. He just knew there was some dispute. And he also knew that Dorothy's lawyer had mentioned the Notiers days ago. But that was also right before Dorothy's body had turned up. And things had been sort of hectic. And so Valalungo had not followed up with her lawyers yet. And so he didn't really have the context of, you know, how nasty this legal fight really was. Patricia said she had convinced Dorothy to get a lawyer and to fight this, that it was not right. They were doing this to her. And Dorothy had done that. She'd gotten a lawyer. And in fact, her and the Notier's court date had happened just 10 days before Dorothy went missing. As Valalunga was listening, it was like he couldn't believe it. This was so obvious, and it was right in front of him the whole time. The Notiers would clearly benefit from Dorothy's disappearance, and pretty clearly there was real beef between the parties. So at this point, Valalungo kind of shifted tactics and was less interested in looking at Patricia as a suspect and instead assured her that, you know what, he would speak to them. Now, Valalungo did speak to Patricia for a bit longer. I mean, she was still a suspect. She was very close to Dorothy, who was this older woman with no obvious heirs. And Valalungo had not seen Dorothy's will yet. But you know, he wouldn't be that surprised if Patricia was in there. And if she was, that would prove she would have also benefited from Dorothy's demise, just like the notie's would. But regardless, Valalungo knew he was well overdue for a conversation with the noties, so they were going to be his next call. Three days later, in the afternoon on May 10, Valalungo found himself back in the precinct's interrogation room. But this time it was a bit more crowded. He'd managed to track down 31 year old Brandon Nodier for an interview. And while Brandon had agreed to talk to Valalungo, he had also insisted on having his lawyer present as well, which immediately signaled to Valalungo that Brandon likely had something to hide here. Valalungo had looked into Brandon's background since speaking to Patricia, and he found out that Brandon had a criminal record which included assault. Valalungo also spoke to a few people in town about Brandon, and he had been told that Brandon apparently had a very hard time keeping his mouth shut. He apparently consistently seemed to threaten or go off on people whenever he got even marginally upset. He was a hothead and a loudmouth. So given all this, Valalungo expected Brandon to be at least somewhat antagonistic or defensive in this interview. But when Valalungo asked him about this, you know, highly contentious lawsuit with Dorothy, Brandon didn't seem like an angry loudmouth at all. Instead, he just seemed confused. He explained the whole thing really was just a big misunderstanding. Brandon said he and his wife had known Dorothy for six years and actually lived with her for part of the time. And from his point of view, he thought, you know, Dorothy viewed them as sort of like family. And that's also why he said he believed she was selling them her land at such a low rate. It was like a family discount. He said it just sort of seemed like she really wanted them to have her property. And it was actually Brandon and his wife that had sort of insisted on paying for it. Brandon said, you know, everything about this transaction had really been fine and above board until Patricia Newman got involved. Brandon seemed very frustrated as he began to explain how he didn't really know what had happened. But Patricia somehow got into Dorothy's head and convinced her that he and his wife Bonnie had somehow taken advantage of Dorothy. And Brandon saying, like, that didn't happen. That's not how this went, Brandon said. You know, as far as he was concerned, it actually seemed like Patricia was the one who was taking advantage of Dorothy. And then he said there were actually all these times when apparently Patricia was staying with Dorothy, and at some point they would get into some kind of fight and, like, Patricia would get mad at Dorothy and Dorothy would flee her own house and run to the notier's house, like, for protection, for safe haven. They said that was fairly common. Like, Patricia was this awful person that, you know, Dorothy had to flee from. As Valalongo heard this, he kind of didn't know what to think. I mean, you know, Brandon could be lying to him, but truthfully, Brandon seemed very convincing. And also, you know, Brandon just didn't really seem smart enough to be a master manipulator here. In fact, if anything, Brandon seemed kind of dense, and it was hard to believe he could engineer this murder without leaving behind any evidence or witnesses and then also concoct this sort of brilliant story about how Patricia really was the one behind this whole thing. But Brandon's wife Bonnie was a suspect, too, and it was possible that, you know, she was the ringleader and Brandon had just sort of followed along. They were divorced now, but if they were wrapped up in this lawsuit with Dorothy together, it was possible they could have, you know, come together and join forces to take care of the problem, that is, get rid of Dorothy. All that's to say, Balalunga was not going to eliminate Brandon as a suspect just yet, but he needed more evidence before he could connect him to the crime. So ultimately, he told Brandon he could leave and that he would be in touch. And then Valalungo watched as Brandon and his lawyer stood up and filed out of the room. It was sort of funny in a dark way that just a few days ago, Balalungo couldn't see any reason why anybody would want to kill Dorothy. And now it was like everybody in Dorothy's life, elk and Patricia, and now the notiers, wanted Dorothy's money and so really would benefit if she went away. And so now he just had to figure out who wanted Dorothy gone the most.
- [44:06]
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- [45:13]
Mr. Ballin
About five months later, in October of 1985, Balalungo stood in the middle of Dorothy's pet cemetery along with Sergeant Strada in total disbelief because all around them, almost every single tombstone had been completely smashed. Now, Valalungo had no idea who had done this, but it was sort of oddly fitting because just like this cemetery, Valalungo's homicide case was a complete and total mess. Since May, Valalungo and some other investigators had questioned both Patricia and Brandon Nodier multiple times. But all they ever did was point the finger at the other one. And now the two primary suspects in Dorothy's murder were essentially at war over her property. After Dorothy's will was read, it would turn out that Patricia Newman had inherited a huge chunk of her estate, including whatever proceeds came from the cemetery business. But the notiers were saying that no, you cannot just give that to Patricia because the property is theirs. And so the business is theirs because Dorothy had signed it all over to them. And the lawsuit to overturn that sale, despite it being very contentious, it had not been resolved yet. So you can't just shuffle it over to Patricia. And on top of that, Bonnie Nodier, Brandon's ex wife, had literally moved into Dorothy's house, making it even more complicated. And so that was why the St. Bernard Sheriff's Department and the state police were at the Pet Sematary right now. Patricia was there and trying to get access to the house since she needed to get some of Dorothy's things and Bonnie wouldn't let her in. Now the uniformed officers had just gone there to make sure everybody played nice, but Valalungo and Strada had tagged along specifically to try to ask Bonnie a few questions. Now, Bonnie was still very much a suspect in Dorothy's murder, but so far investigators had actually not been able to interview her, and Valalongo had hoped that maybe this was their chance. However, when they arrived, Bonnie was extremely angry and she refused to speak to anyone and told all the officers and Patricia to get off her property. And even though the officers along With Patricia had eventually gotten inside, and Patricia took what she needed. The officers had not been able to get Bonnie to say anything to them. She refused. And so now Balalungo and Strada walked back to their cruiser, past all these shattered tombstones, feeling very frustrated that they had multiple suspects here and no way to eliminate any of them. Brandon Nodier would directly benefit from Dorothy's death because if she was dead, then the lawsuit he was embroiled in would get dropped and he would, by default, take control of Dorothy's land. He also had a criminal record and, according to Patricia, had been horrible to Dorothy when they lived together. Brandon's ex wife, Bonnie, could have helped him do it, too, since, after all, she was named in that lawsuit as well, and she had taken full control of Dorothy's house after she died, so clearly she was intent on living there. But Patricia also could have been highly motivated to get Dorothy out of the picture, since she was named in the will. And she'd seemed really controlling of Dorothy and had repeatedly inserted herself into the investigation. And then there was the handyman, Elkin Childress, who had been eliminated through his alibi and. But Valalongo felt like he deserved another look. He had admitted that he was obsessed with finding treasure on Dorothy's property, and now all the gravestones were mysteriously smashed, which could indicate that maybe he had come back and this was, you know, part of his attempt to find the treasure. You know, maybe they were inside the gravestones. Then again, if they're going to treat Elkin like a suspect, well, then anybody who had heard rumors about the treasure on Dorothy's land was also a suspect. And considering how the residents of St. Bernard clearly gossiped a lot about Dorothy, it seemed like that would mean basically everyone in town was a suspect. But without any forensic evidence or witnesses, Falalungo didn't see how they would ever be able to connect anybody to this crime. Still, he and Strada got back in the cruiser and headed back to the station to keep at it. The investigative team kept working this case diligently for weeks, weeks and then months, interviewing and re interviewing suspects and speaking to people who knew Dorothy. They even met with a psychic who claimed she knew who the killer was. And some people even called in with tips that they had seen Dorothy's ghost in the area, and they would even go follow up in case maybe Dorothy was there. But none of that went anywhere. None of it amounted to any new, meaningful evidence that the police could actually use to bring somebody to court. And as time went on, Dorothy's Case changed hands multiple times before finally going cold. 24 years later. On a Thursday afternoon in late September of 2009, Detective John Duran sat at his desk in the Saint Bernards Police Precinct doing some paperwork. And he just put his pen down and leaned back in his chair to take a break when another detective poked his head in and told Duran, hey. The caller was on the phone, and Duran knew exactly who he was talking about. A few days ago, an anonymous caller had put in a tip to say he had information about an old cold case from 1985, the murder of the lady who owned that pet cemetery. And Doran had known immediately that the caller was talking about Dorothy Thompson. Duran had actually used to cut the grass at the Pet Sematary when he was 15 years old. And so he and his friends knew all about Dorothy, how she was, you know, this eccentric recluse who potentially murdered people and who turned up dead one day. But during the first call, this tipster had gotten spooked and hung up without giving his name. And as soon as Duran picked up the phone to speak to the caller, he immediately said, whoever this is, you're not going to get in any trouble here. We just want your name and your location. I want to come talk to you and just hear what you know. You're not going to get in any trouble. Can you do that? There was a pause, and then the caller reluctantly agreed. Later that day, Duran and another detective sat in the living room of a New Orleans home, right across from a very fidgety looking older man. The man's eyes kept darting all around the room, and periodically he kept looking over his shoulder like somebody was going to, you know, jump out at him. And it occurred to Duran as he was watching this guy, that he didn't just seem nervous, you know, about the information he was going to spill to them. He actually seemed pretty genuinely terrified. But finally, the man took a steadying breath and said he knew who killed Dorothy, and he had known for years. Now the guilt of knowing was haunting him, literally. He told the detectives that he had been seeing Dorothy's ghost covered in chains and asking him to come forward. Now, at this, Doran raised his eyebrows skeptically, but didn't say anything. You know, this was a pretty crazy start to the story and pretty hard to believe, but at the same time, it didn't really matter what, you know, prompted this guy to come forward. It mattered what he had to say. And so, with an open mind, Doran, along with his partner, just sat there and waited. And eventually, the old man despite being very scared and timid, finally did just come out and say what he knew. Based on a decades long investigation and multiple confessions, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Dorothy Thompson on the night of April 13, 1985. Sometime after 9pm that night, the killer was sitting behind the wheel of their truck, making their way up the long winding driveway through the woods towards Dorothy's house. And as they drove along, the killer found themselves sort of looking out the window and taking in the sights, you know, the tombstones, the trees, the house up ahead, the whole property, you know, taking it all in. And as they did that, they thought to themselves that it was time to stop waiting for their fortune to arrive. They needed to take it because Dorothy did not deserve to have this. In fact, the killer believed Dorothy didn't deserve to live. And so the killer eventually arrived right outside of Dorothy's house. And they stopped their truck, they threw it in park, and then, calm as can be, they got out and they walked around to the back of the house. There they knocked and eventually Dorothy, you know, made her way to the door and she looked out through the glass and she saw this person, the killer. And she looked confused, but it didn't stop her from opening the door. And as soon as she did, the killer didn't hesitate. They jumped on top of her. Dorothy tried to scream, but the killer immediately wrapped their hands tight around her throat and she went silent. And then in silence, they strangled Dorothy until she stopped moving. Then once Dorothy was crumpled, lifeless on the ground, the killer found some sheets and wrapped them around Dorothy's body and then dragged her outside to the waiting truck. Once they put Dorothy's body in the truck, they drove to a section of the Mississippi river not far from Dorothy's house. There, the killer got out and they grabbed Dorothy's body and they tied her hands and her feet together and also, just in case, put a plastic bag tightly over her head. Then they wrapped her body in chains. And then once she was all prepped, the killer, calm as can be, lifted her body up, walked over to the Mississippi river and threw her in. Moments later, the killer was back inside their truck, driving along, feeling better than they had in months. Because now that Dorothy was gone, all their problems were solved. It would turn out Dorothy Thompson's killer was indeed Brandon Nodier. He had not only tricked Dorothy into selling him her land at a very cheap price, but also when she figured out he had basically conned her, she sued him at Patricia's urging. And when that happened, Brandon thought, okay, well, if I just kill Dorothy before this lawsuit gets dismissed, because they're going to figure out that this was not fair, that I did con her. If I kill her now, well, by default, the charges get dropped and the sale goes to me. The property is mine. On the night of the murder, Brandon was not alone. He actually asked another one of Dorothy's former handymen, a guy named James Tregler, to come along with him and basically just wait in the car. And so he had done that. Now, Brandon was an incredibly violent person, and he did not think twice about murdering Dorothy to make sure the lawsuit got dropped. But Brandon also had a famously big mouth, and he told his entire friend group what he had done. And so basically, all of Brandon's friends were aware of this horrible crime, and they totally believed what he said because they were fully capable of him being able to commit extreme violence, but they were scared of him. And that's why none of the friends came forward to say, you know, what they knew. But finally, one of these friends was so haunted by their knowledge of this crime that that they did eventually come forward. That was the caller who, you know, told the detectives what happened. And in their rendition of what happened, they said Brandon didn't act alone. There was somebody else, a guy named James Tregler. And so as a result of that tip, it would take another four years, but they would ultimately speak to James Tregler and he would confess to having been there on that night. And with that, they had enough evidence to finally charge Brandon for the murder. Brandon ultimately surrendered to authorities in 2012, and he would get a 10 year sentence for pleading guilty to Dorothy's murder. Brandon's ex wife Bonnie was not involved. As for James Tregler, the other handyman who drove with Brandon on the night of the murder, he always maintained that he didn't know the murder was going to happen. And so he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Even though the Pet Sematary is still standing today, it's now abandoned and totally overgrown. However, treasure hunters continue to walk around the property with their metal detectors, hoping that they'll be the ones to finally find the treasure that's buried there. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories is hosted and executive Produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Produced by Jeremy Bone. This episode was written by Kate Murdoch Story editing by Karis Pash Cooper Research and fact checking by Shelly Shue, Samantha Vanhus, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway and Camille Callahan Research and fact checking supervision by Steven Ear Audio editing and post produced by Whit Locasio and Cole Locasio Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain Production coordination by Samantha Collins Production support by by Antonio Minata and Delaina Corley Artwork by Jessica Claugston Kiner theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts. There's this one, the Mr. Bolland podcast as well as Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool Redacted, Late Nights with Nexpo and A Twist of History. All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See you.
- [59:54]
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