Amanda McElfresh

amcelfresh@theadvertiser.com

In the early and mid-2000s, Louisiana's Jeff Davis Parish was the center of one of the biggest crime mysteries in the nation.

The bodies of eight women were found in or near the parish during that time, often along rural roads, ditches and canals. Investigators established a multi-agency task force to look into the cases. Then-Sheriff Ricky Edwards said a "common offender" likely committed the murders. Authorities maintained they investigated thousands of leads and talked to hundreds of people, to no avail.

The women were of different ages and races, but shared much in common. Many were friends or acquaintances. All had documented histories as sex workers and drug abusers. They all were known to frequent the south side of Jennings, the area known for high crime and low economic development.

Many in the parish were skeptical of the investigation, citing a history of complaints about questionable practices in the the Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff's Office, including traffic stops and evidence mishandling, that date back to the early 1990s. Family members said investigators didn't keep them updated on their progress.

The unsolved killings drew media attention from outlets ranging from the Jennings Daily News and KPLC-TV in Lake Charles, to a 2010 story in The New York Times.

Since then, though, the case has been quiet. The body of the last known victim, Necole Guillory, was found in Acadia Parish in 2009. No major public statements have been made about the case since then. All of the murders remain unsolved.

Now, though, author and investigator Ethan Brown is delving deep into the murders in his new book, "Murder In The Bayou," which will be released by Scribner on Sept. 13.

Brown said he reviewed hundreds of pages of task force witness interviews, homicide case files, federal and state court records, and the personnel files of the officers at the center of the case. He also interviewed friends and family of all of eight victims, as well as some possible suspects.

The book lends further credence to a longstanding theory that the Jeff Davis Eight are not the work of a serial killer. Rather, they are attributed to the area's history of drug and prostitution activity and the the murky, complicated relationships that develop in a small town between residents and law enforcement officers.

Here, Brown discusses his work, his book and some of his theories about the case.

How did this case come to your attention, and why did you pursue it for so long?

I went to Jeff Davis Parish in the summer of 2011, essentially at the invitation of Kirk Menard, the private investigator who did some work on the cases. I spent about a week out there, talking to people. I didn’t do much research or investigation. I had no sense of what I was doing, other than taking a look at the case.

During my trip there, I was introduced to a guy who dated several of the Jeff Davis victims … He had been shot several months earlier and was in a wheelchair and was a pretty striking guy. I met the guy (David ‘Bowlegs’ Deshotel), and the next morning, I got a call from Kirk saying that he had just been murdered … Nothing like this had ever happened in my entire career. It was especially strange that this would happen in a tiny town.

That morning, when I got the call, I went out to the crime scene … There was no crime scene tape, there was nothing to secure the crime scene and people were going in and out of the home, removing items from the home. I had certainly never seen anything like that either.

(In the book, Brown cites numerous documents related to police not securing scenes or not following up on leads.)

That man’s murder is still unsolved. That trip, and that specific event, was a catalyst for my interest in this case.

Your theory is that the victims were been killed by different people, but who are in the same circle and have strong ties. Was that your theory all along, or did you come to that during your reporting?

I came to the conclusion of the multiple suspects theory as I worked on the case ... There were two cases where folks were arrested and even indicted. In the Ernestine Patterson case, two guys were arrested and indicted, and in the Kristen Gary Lopez murder, a number of arrest warrants were issued, but those were dropped.

That in itself should tell you that even though these cases fell apart, there is more than one person involved. When you look at law enforcement documents on this, you see the same cluster of names crop up repeatedly as suspects.

From The Archives: Jeff Davis officials confirm "common offender" killed women

You write about the numerous suspects and arrests over the years. Why do you think those charges were dropped and the cases did not progress further?

The Ernestine Patterson case is mysterious to me as to why it fell apart. They had really good witnesses in that case, quite a few with great first-hand accounts, including confessions from the suspects. I honestly can’t tell you what happened in that case. One possible explanation is that the case was pre-Katrina and the storms of 2005. There was apparently a big lapse in all sorts of crime scene work because of the storms. That may have played a part in it, but they had good witnesses in that case.

In the Kristen Gary Lopez case, it was immediately brought to the investigators’ attention that Kristen had been riding in a truck with Frankie Richard (who was arrested in that case) and a number of other people. They were told she was riding in the truck either in the hours before she was killed or the moments before she was killed. Warren Gary of the Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office purchased the truck from a female inmate who rode in the truck with Kristen, cleaned it and resold it. A key piece of evidence in that case was destroyed, essentially.

You write about neglected evidence, rejected witness statements and other concerning aspects of the investigation. For example, your research shows a knife was found that matched Ernestine Patterson's wounds, but investigators did not follow up on the potential evidence. You also note that some possible witness statements were disregarded in at least one case, and that a Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff's Office employee may have destroyed evidence in at least one murder. How well do you believe authorities investigated these murders?

I don’t think they were investigated properly. You might have man-hours that certainly would be high on this case, but when you look at the actual work product, it’s really bad … It’s hard for me to say they’re trying or not trying. I don’t know. This could be their best work. But in terms of what I’ve seen of their work product, it’s incredibly poor.

From The Archives: Fear and hope in Jennings as killer search seems stalled

In 2014, you published an article on medium.com about this case. In an eerie coincidence, a woman’s body was found in nearby Lake Arthur soon after its publication. Authorities maintain the case had no connection to the Jeff Davis Eight, but how did the timing make you feel?

That case is odd. I believe the coroner ruled it a drowning because there was a shallow pool of water in that ditch. Her family and friends who knew her say it may be a drowning, but how did she get to the ditch? There’s also a number of incredibly close connections between her and the Jeff Davis Eight. The question of how did she get to the ditch is still out there.

You note that property records indicate a field representative for Congressman Charles Boustany was an owner of the Boudreaux Inn in Jennings in the late 1990s and into the 2000s.

One of the most important part of the drugs and sex trade in Jeff Davis Parish in the early 2000s and mid-2000s was the Boudreaux Inn, just off I-10 in Jennings. The Jeff Davis Eight, almost all of them were a fairly constant presence at the Boudreaux Inn.

It had long been whispered that the proprietors of the Boudreaux Inn were politically powerful people. Once I started engaging in this as a book, it turned out that a man who is a field representative for Charles Boustany was a co-proprietor of that business back then. A number of people I spoke to told me they knew this field rep personally, and he was at the business fairly regularly.

(NOTE: In the book, Boustany spokesman Jack Pandol tells Brown that Boustany never visited the Boudreaux Inn, was unaware of his field representative’s involvement in the motel and never had any contact with any of the Jeff Davis Eight victims.)

It has been several years since any publicly announced developments in this case, or any victims who have been connected to the Jeff Davis Eight. Do you think the cases remain under investigation, and could anyone else still be in danger?

Yes, they are still looking at it. The task force is active as far as I know. There are investigators with the Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office who are active on the case. The FBI is active on the case.

As far as if anyone is still in danger, I don’t know the answer. One thing I can say is that I do feel the Jeff Davis Eight milieu, with very few exceptions, has been eliminated. There isn’t really anybody left alive from that time period, and those homicides are unsolved.

That milieu and that time period has truly passed. I think there are people who certainly like it that way. I know this is an extremely uncomfortable topic in the parish.

When I was working on this, the sheriff, Ivy Woods, put a message on his website about me. One thing he said is that ‘the past is the past.’ I think that’s how they would like to regard something like this, even though it’s not in the far-reaching past at all.

From The Archives: Half-dozen years later, Jeff Davis investigation goes on