Original subtitles

♪ slow, suspenseful music ♪

[distant siren wailing]

[indistinct police radio chatter]

[Barbara] I miss her.

It hurts.

I see Necole every night.

I pray every night, Necole.

I pray that whoever did this to you,

God have mercy on 'em.

To this day, it's been eight years.

It'll be eight years, and nothing's been done.

[Andrew] Kristen was a lovable child.

She got murdered when she was 21.

Eleven years gone by and nothing.

Something don't add up.

I mean, why eight girls killed

in a span of four years

and nothing?

On none of 'em.

[woman] I don't think that the police trying

to find out what really happened to those eight women.

They're not trying to...

to find the answer.

[Nick] They act like it doesn't matter

'cause it wasn't their sister, wasn't their daughter.

Whoever's all involved, they all got to feel untouchable

right now because nobody's doing nothing about it.

With Loretta,

nobody's ever been charged.

[woman] They have never arrested anyone

in Whitnei's death. Never.

I keep praying for that day.

They get up every day, and they go on

like it's just another day.

But, you see, every day for us

is like that day that we lost

our child.

Every day is like that.

Thirteen years.

We've got nothing.

Why?

♪ tense, dramatic music ♪

♪♪♪

[Campbell] Jennings is an odd place.

You hear these really outlandish theories

that, as soon as you're hearing them, you think,

"Well, this can't be true. This just doesn't make any sense."

And then they check out.

You don't know

what to trust of your own judgment pretty quickly.

[Scott] There is something about Jennings

that obviously doesn't exist in other places.

People will tell me,

"Well, it's just happenstance. We just...

That was just the luck of the draw."

[scoffs]

I-I can't swallow that.

You can't have eight murders that happen,

one of which under the eye

of the FBI while they're in town,

without something being fundamentally flawed

about the situation that's in Jennings.

[Ethan] The years of these eight homicides going unsolved

raise significant questions about law enforcement

and what they knew.

You look at the Boudreaux Inn.

In the Jeff Davis 8 era,

the Boudreaux Inn was the place in town to go

for sex and drugs.

And everybody knew it.

It seems impossible to believe

that the Jennings police or the sheriff's office

were not aware that this was going on.

So many years after the first homicide,

what was still keeping these cases from being solved?

By 2011,

Ricky Edwards was facing a lot of criticism,

even from the parish elites,

about his handling of the Jeff Davis 8 case.

The years of bad publicity

had taken a toll,

and it was finally the end for Ricky Edwards

as Jeff Davis Parish sheriff.

♪ tense, sinister music ♪

There is a sheriff's election.

A man named Ivy Woods,

who's with the Louisiana State Police,

runs for sheriff.

As soon as I take the office of sheriff,

I plan to go into... to the records

and see what's all done in investigations

and keep the ongoing task force

working on the investigation on these murders.

[Ethan] Woods campaigned specifically on a promise

to dedicate resources

to the Jeff Davis 8 case

and to bring justice to the case.

[man] ...as sheriff, Jefferson Davis Parish,

state of Louisiana,

according to the best of your ability

and understanding, so help you God?

-I do. -[applause]

[Sarah] I thought Ivy Woods

would've busted this open.

That was his big thing.

We're gonna bring new people in, you know,

we're gonna let new cops come in and look at these cases.

Maybe we overseen something, and they'll pick it up.

But you still haven't heard nothing.

He hasn't done nothing, either.

[Ivey] My boss, Ivy Woods,

and the investigators that we have on this case,

wanted nothing more than to solve one or all.

That's been one of the-the biggest hurdles,

uh, is getting people to want to talk to us.

I think there was a black cloud

over the task force and the investigators

and the former sheriff's administration.

People felt that they couldn't trust 'em.

They would not talk to 'em and not give 'em information.

It hampered the investigators to be able to do their job

because people didn't want to talk to 'em.

[Ethan] The single most disturbing aspect

of the case, investigatively, is that,

contrary to the law enforcement narrative

that they don't really have anything,

they've got quite a lot.

There are shockingly concrete statements

from witnesses

who have firsthand knowledge

of the homicides.

[Richard] I ended up in a-a rehab in Logansport, Louisiana.

I went there to try to get help to get sober.

Get clean off the dr-- uh, the crack cocaine.

While I was there,

Frankie Richard shows up there in a, in a-- coming to rehab.

At that time, I kind of thought Frankie was really sincere

about trying to get help.

Frankie was in charge of the laundry,

so he had a laundry room and he had a little coffeepot

and everything set up in there,

and we would go sit in there and visit and talk.

While we were sitting in there drinking coffee,

Frankie did confess to killing Whitnei Dubois.

He said he had beaten and killed Whitnei

at his mama's house

in a camper trailer on the side,

where his brother Billy used to stay.

And that he had placed her in a 55-gallon drum

behind his mama's house.

And he also confessed to killing Kristen.

He never went into detail of what took place about Kristen.

I didn't, I didn't get into details with him,

I just listened to what he would speak of. Uh,

Frankie wasn't a person you pushed for answers.

The next morning,

I told the administrators there

you know, that Frankie had confessed,

and it wasn't the-- wasn't even the next morning,

Frankie was gone.

They came and picked him up and brought him home.

To this day, I don't know if anything

ever been done about it.

[Ethan] It doesn't make sense.

People have put themselves at risk

by going to the task force,

have given information to the task force

that is credible, and that information

just goes into a black hole.

♪ gentle, somber music ♪

♪♪♪

[Millet] I was a Louisiana state trooper for 20 years.

I retired as a deputy commander

with the state police.

When these murders first started happening,

I and my wife, like everybody else, were concerned.

We watched the news, we listened to all the different reports,

but we assumed that the-the sheriff and the task force

were gonna get to the bottom of the this

and that they were doing their job.

But as time elapsed,

I was alarmed and-and quite frankly, disgusted

that nothing had been done.

Nothing had been solved.

I was a Louisiana state trooper for 20 years,

dealing with, um, gambling and prostitution and narcotics.

I saw all these girls getting killed

and wondered what-what was going on.

Why wasn't something done?

I just didn't quite understand

why they could not have solved these crimes.

♪♪♪

I got to talking to Tanny,

and found out that he was interested

and had been for some time.

[Devillier] After talking to certain people

in Jeff Davis Parish, confidential informers,

families of these people that were killed,

I thought, "Let's look at it again,

and let's find out who still may be involved,

that's still alive."

[Millet] Anybody that you talk to in this investigation,

Terrie Guillory's name always comes up.

There were allegations while he was a warden

that he was having sex with some of the girls.

I would say that a warden having sex with inmates

would be malfeasance at the least.

And then,

we found out that there was a lawsuit in federal court

about sexual misconduct in the jail

when Terrie Guillory was there as the warden.

[news reporter] As alleged in her lawsuit,

it was just one week into her stay in jail

when Lisa says jail guard Mark Ivory first assaulted her.

You know, I figured it would be handled.

[news reporter] This was Sheriff Edwards' response

when I asked him about the case Tuesday.

It's very surprising that I did not know about it at the time,

uh, but I won't go into any specifics about it at this time.

[Ethan] The litigation was eventually settled,

but not before accused jailer

Mark Ivory took his own life.

[Millet] I think it was a practice in the jail

to abuse the girls, to have sex with them.

I was able to pull documents that shows

this went back to 2002,

when a deputy was charged for having sex

and abusing these girls in the jail.

[Ethan] Bucky and Tanny

brought this case to my attention.

The case resulted in a plea deal

to malfeasance in office.

Terrie Guillory was not the warden at this time,

but he conducted investigative interviews.

And one of the witnesses was his cousin,

victim number eight,

Necole Guillory.

[grunts, sniffs]

♪ slow, somber music ♪

♪♪♪

[Barbara] Necole's second home

was the jailhouse. [chuckles, sniffs]

But she told me that she would rather be in jail,

because she was safe.

She felt safe there.

And Necole told me that she would literally do things

to get put in jail.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] Necole Guillory was the last

of the Jeff Davis 8 victims in 2009.

She said that she knew

who was perpetrating these murders,

from the very first victim in 2005.

After Loretta's murder,

Necole's closest family members said Necole

became extremely paranoid,

so paranoid, in fact,

that she locked herself in her room

for nearly two weeks.

[Barbara] Necole told us

that she saw someone murdered.

She told my o-oldest daughter that, too--

that she saw someone murdered.

When Necole would start to talk,

she would clam up.

When she realized what she was doing,

she would stop talking.

♪ pulsing, dramatic music ♪

[Ethan] This is yet another thing

that these women knew

that put their lives at risk.

Many of the women were witnesses

to the Jeff Davis 8 homicides themselves.

♪♪♪

Witnesses close to Muggy Brown went to the task force and said

that Muggy saw the body of Loretta Chaisson

floating in the canal

before a fisherman found her.

♪ slow, suspenseful music ♪

Kristen Gary Lopez was also interrogated

in Loretta's case.

Kristen was apparently pulled into a room.

The door was closed.

The interrogation happened,

and Kristen comes out... shaken.

Muggy was also interviewed as a witness

in the Ernestine Patterson investigation.

♪♪♪

When she was in the South Andrew Street area,

Brittney Gary said loudly

that Uncle Frankie killed Whitnei.

♪♪♪

Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno told Brittney

that she knew who killed Muggy Brown.

♪♪♪

According to Necole's mother, Barbara,

Necole knew who was doing this.

She's known all along.

She said Necole told her

that it was the police that was killing these girls.

And, in fact,

a witness actually went to the task force

months before Necole was killed

and said that Necole was going to be the next victim.

And, indeed, she was.

♪♪♪

I had been working on the case for about three years.

In January of 2014, I finally published

a long piece about the Jeff Davis 8 case

on Medium.

After the piece was published,

there was extraordinary attention on the case.

I received tips

and information constantly.

One of the messages that I received

was from a reporter

who introduced himself as an expert on the Ku Klux Klan.

He said, "I'm working on a huge story

about a Klan informant in Jefferson Davis Parish

who is also a police officer.

The police officer has a lot of information

about someone named Terrie Guillory."

[phone line ringing]

[Mott] This is Raymond.

[Ethan] Hey, Raymond, it's, uh, Ethan Brown here.

I don't know if you know me,

but I'm an investigative reporter in New Orleans.

[Ethan] You know, I've been contacted about your story

because there's a major character in-in common,

which is Terrie Guillory.

Raymond Mott was a police officer

with the Lake Arthur Police Department,

which is just a few miles down the road from Jennings.

And Terrie was his boss.

[Mott] It was approximately a month and a half

after I started with Lake Arthur Police Department

that the chief brought in Terrie Guillory.

I didn't know Terrie Guillory personally,

but when you arrest somebody for narcotics,

you try to get them to roll over and give you some information,

and one of the things I always told the informants

that I've had

is you have to work off three charges or give me a dirty cop.

And when people would hear that, "Give me a dirty cop,"

uh, Terrie Guillory's name, 80% of the time, popped up.

♪ slow, somber music ♪

[Ethan] Raymond's story is complicated.

Right around the time when we spoke,

a picture of him had emerged

from a Klan rally.

He ended up being fired from the Lake Arthur PD.

[Mott] I never denied it was me in the photograph

but there's a story behind the photo.

[Ethan] According to Raymond Mott,

in the summer of 2014, he and a friend

went to a Klan rally in North Carolina

and when they came back, uh, Raymond had some regrets.

It was supposed to be a protest against illegal immigration

and the effects

that illegal immigration has on our government,

which I s-- I stood behind that-that principle

the whole time and still do till this day.

Uh, but when I got there, it-it's not what it was.

What I did is took the information that I had

and compiled a file.

I gave the information to an FBI agent,

told her the information on the KKK

and-and all this other stuff.

Because of the information that I gave to the federal agent,

the Louisiana state charter of the KKK lost all their members.

[Ethan] Raymond claimed that

the photograph of him at the Klan rally

was used as ammunition to terminate him

once he raised

very serious claims about Terrie Guillory.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

[Mott] I had been hired by Lake Arthur to work in narcotics.

This small town has an awful lot of narcotics activity.

And, just like I always do,

start making drug busts left and right.

I'd make four or five drug busts almost every shift.

Whenever I would make a substantial drug bust,

that'd put the case in the newspaper,

I would put the person's picture.

I would let the community know:

this is the person, this is what they were caught with.

During this time,

Terrie Guillory and I had several conversations

based on my job performance.

He was telling me that

I can't do narcotics work in a small town

like I do for a larger department.

And then Terrie called me in the office one day

as assistant chief and gave me a direct order

to stop making drug busts.

"People are tired of reading about you and your drug busts

in the newspaper. Now stop."

Shortly after that incident,

the photo was released,

and I was fired.

The Lake Arthur police department sat on the...

on the photo for over four months.

They didn't use it. They just kept it.

I think that the-the photo was dropped and released

because I was an obstruction to Terrie Guillory's agenda.

♪ melancholy music, featuring strings ♪

♪♪♪

[birds singing]

[Ethan] Raymond also told me

a story about Terrie

and Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno,

victim number six.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

[Mott] The chief and I were dispatched

to Crystal Zeno's sister's residence.

She had a dispute with the neighbor.

When I made contact with the complainant,

she went into hysterics.

She started screaming and crying, and

I tried to calm her down and ask her what was going on.

And she just started saying she didn't trust law enforcement,

she didn't trust the police.

Uh, then she outright directly said,

"Terrie Guillory killed my sister."

This was not the first time I heard Terrie Guillory's name

in reference to the Jeff Davis 8.

I did talk to Terrie about things like that.

I say,

"Terrie, there's a lot of people talking on the streets,

saying you were involved with the Jeff Davis 8.

People are saying

you had sexual contact with the victims.

People were telling me that you were the last phone call

a couple of the girls made before they ended up missing."

And Terrie looked me directly in the face

and said, "You can believe about 95% of what you hear."

♪ dramatic music ♪

♪♪♪

I didn't really know how to take that,

you know, because I've been hearing a lot.

It felt like he was confessing a crime to me.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

♪♪♪

Later on that day,

Terrie was sitting outside under the awning,

and he called me over to him.

He looked me in the face, and he said,

"Try to do the right thing,

because your demons will come back,

and they'll find you."

And then he told me about the Jeff Davis 8.

He said, "Man, I can tell you things about that case

that would... that would blow you away."

He said, "That wasn't just one killers."

He said, "It was several different people."

♪ suspenseful music ♪

Later, I did a full police report on the incident,

and also put in the report

the statement made about Terrie Guillory.

Unfortunately, at the time,

Terrie Guillory was the guy checking the reports

and turning them in on our behalf,

um, so, I haven't heard anything

or seen anything of the report since.

♪ dramatic music ♪

♪♪♪

[Devillier] The people in Jennings

that I've talked to--

we're talking about people that were,

um, regular Joes,

you know, the families of the persons

who were killed, their relatives--

they're all fearful of law enforcement in Jennings.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] Bucky and Tanny contacted me,

and we've been putting together

information about

current law enforcement misconduct

that connects back to the Jeff Davis 8 case.

They believe that the most effective avenue

for this case is with the Feds.

We're suggesting that we hand this over

to law enforcement that can be trusted.

What I want to do is to ask Sheriff Ivy Woods

if he would consider calling FBI in

so that we could give them all the information we have,

and they could coordinate their efforts together

and perhaps solve some of these crimes.

I personally can see no reason for him not to ask the Feds in,

because, um, one of his campaign promises was

to really get after this...

these murders and try to solve 'em.

[Ethan] Why wouldn't Ivy say,

"This is rooted in the past.

I'm gonna step away

from this," and simply invite the Feds in?

[Devillier] People are not gonna come forward

if they don't trust you.

The task force and the sheriff back then

were all asking for tips, and asking, "Please come forward,"

and this and that, one thing or another.

People were just too afraid.

They were all afraid.

And I think they had reason to be afraid.

I had no faith in the task force.

And to this day, I still have no faith in the task force.

The community of Jennings don't trust the law enforcement.

Because y'all don't know who to trust.

Y'all don't know who to go to.

They don't want to release no information.

Or no nothing to nobody.

They want to push everything to the side.

[Nick] I was told by one person,

I met with this lady some years back.

She wanted to meet with me, and she wanted to tell me

her part in the whole thing

about how she was helping with the investigation.

One of the things that stuck out:

She told me that it goes higher than we think it is.

Not just the authorities in this town. It goes higher.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] I still had questions

about what was preventing the case from being solved.

And I kept coming back to the Boudreaux Inn.

The incident reports that I had pulled

raise enormous questions

about how this place continued

to be operated unencumbered.

Drug activity was a constant.

The sex trade was a constant.

This is something that everybody knew.

And this was all happening at the height

of the Jeff Davis 8 case.

The Boudreaux Inn had a license for gambling.

And the standard for those licenses

is actually quite high.

You could have something as...

a 16-year-old drinking on the premises

and lose your license based on that.

It seems impossible the Boudreaux Inn

could maintain its gambling license;

could maintain its liquor license

without protection from local law enforcement.

♪ sinister music ♪

♪♪♪

You have to understand

politics in Louisiana.

You have to understand that for you to be able

to do something that's illegal and get away with it,

you have to have the ability to call somebody

to get out of trouble.

[Ethan] What I heard, you had to be careful

of the Boudreaux Inn

because there were powerful people

behind the business.

The notion of a powerful person or persons

didn't come with any kind of hint of who that might be.

What I thought that they meant was,

a well-heeled local,

maybe a man who owned a car dealership

in Jennings.

I just didn't know.

But it always stayed in my mind

to be wary of the Boudreaux Inn.

As I dug deeper, I began to hear about

someone named "Big G" related to the Boudreaux Inn.

Big G was our poker man. He would come on Wednesdays,

and he would, uh, clean the poker machines out

and count the poker money.

He was a big, heavyset fellow,

like he could pull his weight if he wanted to.

I did meet him one time.

I told him "Nice to meet you," shook his hand.

He was-- I don't know, didn't look happy, I mean,

like a Good... [chuckles]

Good Samaritan, you know what I'm saying?

He wasn't a friendly man; let's put it like that.

♪ somber music ♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] Someone told me "G" stood for "Guillory,"

which was particularly unhelpful given the number of people

in Jeff Davis Parish with Guillory as their last name.

But I pulled the lease for the Boudreaux Inn.

Sure enough, on the lease was

a Martin Guillory.

Who is Martin Guillory?

What does he do?

What did he know or not know about what was going on

at the Boudreaux Inn at the time that he operated it.

-[phone line ringing] -[Martin] Hello?

[Ethan over phone] Hi, is-is this Martin Guillory?

-Yes. -Hey, it's... Ethan Brown here.

-Who? -Ethan Brown.

I'm the, uh, reporter who contacted you

several days ago, and you asked me

to send an introductory e-mail to you...

Uh-huh.

[Ethan] I had been investigating Martin Guillory.

He lived a bit east of Jennings.

Deep Cajun country.

He ran for local political offices,

and he...

was involved in some small campaigns.

[Ethan on phone] So I-I have a-a few questions for you.

[Martin] Uh, I will not answer any question, Mr. Brown.

[Ethan] Okay, so, so your-- I want to be clear here,

though, Mr. Guillory. I'm giving you the opportunity

to respond to allegations.

So your position is,

"I-I have no response"?

[Martin] Well, no, I mean, what allegations

do you have against me?

[Ethan] Were you aware of criminal activity occurring

-at the Boudreaux Inn? -[Martin] No, sir.

[Ethan] Were you aware of the women of the Jeff Davis 8

being involved in prostitution at the Boudreaux Inn?

-No, sir. -Did you know those women?

Uh, I met one or two, but, uh, I,

I did not know the rest of 'em.

[Ethan] Okay.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] There was a time in the summer of 2011.

I had just met Frankie Richard.

I was in my earliest stages

of looking at this case.

And...

Frankie, at that time,

really enjoyed calling me on my cell phone.

Occasionally, he'd give me tips on the case,

or things that he thought were tips,

and at one point he said...

"Hey.

You know about Charles Boustany?

You need to investigate him."

I'd certainly heard the name Charles Boustany.

He was a congressman

in my then home state of Louisiana,

who, in 2016, was running for United States Senate.

[Boustany] Tonight, I'm proud to announce my candidacy

to be the next United States senator

for our great state of Louisiana.

[cheering, whooping]

He was a conservative politician,

a family values sort of politician.

Louisiana's a conservative state.

We hold close traditional values of faith and family.

We value the lives of the unborn.

We believe in the rule of law.

We know strong families provide the best opportunities

for the success of our children.

Values that would, uh,

be in conflict with the sort of things

that were going on at the Boudreaux Inn.

I had never heard Charles Boustany's name

in the context of the Jeff Davis 8 case,

but now, many years later,

as I looked more at Big G Guillory,

I had found that he had

a phone number on Capitol Hill.

The man who ran the Boudreaux Inn

was a field representative

for Congressman Charles Boustany.

What was Charles Boustany's relationship

with the Boudreaux Inn and with the women of the Jeff Davis 8?

♪ slow, suspenseful music ♪

I spoke to a relative of Necole Guillory's,

and this person said

that she was with Necole

and they passed yard signs

for Charles Boustany,

and Necole pointed him out

as somebody that she knew from the Boudreaux Inn.

[Ethan] She used his name-- Charles Boustany?

[Jessica] I was walking with Kristen one day

to her grandma's house.

She talked about Charles Boustany.

She had sex with him,

he paid her, they had a little heated argument.

What Kristen and Charles Boustany was arguing about?

Wouldn't say.

[Frankie] The rumor has it

that Loretta

was tricking

with Charles Boustany.

Oh, Loretta was one of his favorite girls.

[Ethan] And tell me about your work with Charles Boustany.

I know you've been his field representative

-since 2005? -[Martin] Something like that.

-Yes, sir. -[Ethan] Okay.

Did Charles Boustany ever go to the Boudreaux Inn?

[Martin] Not that I can remember.

[Ethan] Did Mr. Boustany ever know or have a relationship

in any capacity with any of the women of the Jeff Davis 8?

[Martin] Well, of course not. Not that I know of.

Why would that man deal with any of the women

at Boudreaux Inn?

[Ethan] I don't know. I'm-- it-it's a question.

[Martin] W-Well, sir,

I don't know what's your alternative motive,

I don't know who you're working for

and what are you trying to insinuate here,

but I assure you, you're going down the wrong path. Okay?

-[Ethan] Fair enough. -That's all I have to tell you.

[Martin] You get whatever you got,

and, uh, just do what you got to do

and I-I assure you that when you'll come out

with all of these allegations,

uh, we gonna file suit against you.

Don't you ever talk to me no more.

[phone clicking]

[Cormier] The fact that a source said

that Charles Boustany was there doesn't prove

that he was there, from a legal standpoint.

Somebody said this happened.

You know, obviously, it's information,

and you have to look into it, and we did.

It's like anybody else.

Now, just because somebody said that it was Charles Boustany

doesn't mean it was.

Doesn't mean it wasn't.

[news reporter] The headline of The Washington Post story reads

"A new prostitution scandal roils a Louisiana Senate race."

[news reporter 2] The claims stem from a book

written by a journalist, Ethan Brown, that examined

the unsolved murder of eight prostitutes in Louisiana.

Joining us now, Republican congressman Charles Boustany.

These are scurrilous, baseless lies.

Let me be very clear: it's politically motivated

at a time when my campaign has significant momentum.

I've got to ask you. Part of being in the Senate

is-is a judgment issue.

And I'm wondering if it goes at all to the issue of judgment

that you had this staffer

who I don't think anyone would question

whether or not he was involved in running this "Bordeaux" Inn

where these eight women who were prostitutes hosted clients.

W-Why keep him on the staff? Why have that liability?

Well, we didn't know about this until this just broke.

And, uh, he hid this from us, and when we found out about it,

uh, we immediately terminated his-his deal.

He actually offered his resignation, uh,

and-and was sh-- felt shame that he hid this from us.

We have no, uh, no relationship

with him now in my official office.

We didn't know about this until this broke.

And, uh, we're gonna get this campaign

back on what it needs to be on,

national security, on d-dealing with this stalled economy

and protecting our American values.

Everything's under assault right now,

and it's time to move forward

with the real issues in this campaign.

♪ slow, somber music ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] The alleged involvement of Charles Boustany

with several of the Jeff Davis 8 women

certainly does not suggest that Charles Boustany himself

was involved in any way

with the homicides of these women.

What it suggests to me

is that there is yet another layer of power

involved in this case

that would prevent the case from being solved.

♪ gentle, somber music ♪

♪♪♪

[Ethan] These eight women

were mothers, wives,

girlfriends, nieces,

they were people who were loved...

...and I think it's just incredibly important

to remember that.

I hoped that the book

would provide a highly detailed

and credible narrative

about what actually happened to these women.

I also hoped

that there would be movement of some kind

and the book could spur a new investigation.

That never happened.

[Millet] Out of courtesy and respect,

for Sheriff Ivy Woods, I asked for a private meeting with him,

and at that meeting, I informed him we had developed

a lot of information that we feel like

that the task force didn't have in the past.

And the sheriff Woods was very cordial with me, very nice,

and he told me he would get back in touch with me in a few days.

That's been... two or three months ago.

I haven't heard a word from him.

[Devillier] I think there is someone

that's in this chain,

whether it's a chain from the sheriff down

or the sheriff up,

and they've encouraged him not to move forward.

I went and talked to the FBI.

The feeling that I got

from the FBI agent that I spoke to

was they were very interested and very excited,

but nothing came of it.

So, uh, for someone to be that excited with evidence

that was presented to them,

someone put a stop to it.

We can all agree as we sit here today

that we've pretty much run out of avenues.

We've been to the people that should care,

we've reached out to 'em

with what we feel is good information,

and just like you said,

we've been treated with indifference.

♪ melancholy music ♪

♪♪♪

[Cormier] Despite whatever's been said,

or whatever people believe,

all these eight cases are being worked.

They're still active cases.

I personally...

feel that I'm-I'm letting the families down.

But I can assure the-the families and the public

that we will continue to work on these cases.

We can't discuss a lot about information and events

and how things occurred,

but we're going to continue to do everything we can,

and hopefully the public will also help as much as they can

and be willing to work with us on this.

[interviewer] Is there anything you can tell me

about Frankie Richard?

Frankie Richard remains a person of interest currently.

♪ slow, somber music ♪

[man] Frankie, there's only two things

I need for you to do today.

The first thing you got to do: cooperate.

And the second thing you need to do with me

is just tell me the truth 100%.

All right, just relax for me, okay?

[Ethan] You can look at 2005 to 2009

as a specific time

that has very deep

misconduct in law enforcement,

and has a singular character in Frankie Richard.

[man] All right, need you to remain still.

Look straight ahead, answer only yes or no.

The test is about to begin.

[Ethan] Frankie's insistence all along has been

that he is not involved in any of the eight homicides,

and that he has been unfairly implicated

in these cases.

That really has given him this great drive

to want to clear his name.

And even go as far

as to want a polygraph on it.

[man] Only answer yes or no

to the questions I'm about to ask you.

Is this the month of December?

Yes.

[Ethan] But when you speak to Frankie,

it's like a tide that comes in

but stops in a certain place.

You know that there's more beyond

where that tide sort of stops.

[man] Regarding the murder of Kristen,

do you intend to answer truthfully

each question about that?

Yes.

♪ suspenseful music ♪

[Ethan] When Kristen went missing,

Tracee Chaisson initially told investigators

that Frankie, and Frankie's goddaughter Hannah Connor,

killed Kristen.

[Tracee] I lied on Frankie.

I lied on Frankie, and went back

and told the people that I lied.

[man] Did you help sell that truck?

No.

Did you participate in the dumping of Kristen's body?

No.

[birds cawing]

[Hannah] I know Frankie

was not involved with Kristen's death.

I feel it in my soul

that he has nothing to do with Kristen.

[interviewer] You weren't with him that night?

-No, I was not. -So you can't--

-I could-- -No, you can't tell me

-with certainty that he wasn't-- -I could--

I could be wrong that Frankie was there.

[interviewer] So what is the truth?

The truth is I know nothing.

[softly clears throat]

[man] Did you physically harm Kristen?

No.

[man] The test is now over, please remain still

while I take the instrument out of operation.

[Ethan] From the first time that I met Frankie

in a trailer in Breaux Bridge,

the question has been

why was Frankie Richard,

a suspect in multiple homicides

in Jeff Davis Parish,

so freely and openly talking to me?

And it's a question that, to be honest,

I've never been able to resolve.

[sighs]

[man] Hate to be a bearer of bad news...

inconclusive.

Can't call it one way or the other at this point.

[Ethan] Even now,

I can't say for sure

what does Frankie really know?

[Frankie] I was...

looking at this shit

like poor, pitiful Frankie.

They out to fucking get him.

Well, they've been out to get me all my fucking life, you know?

I just...

thought about it for a while and said,

"I'm gonna start fighting back."

And that's what I'm doing.

And sooner or later,

everything...

that we are sitting down talking about

will come out.

Somewhere down the line, the truth...

will be known.

Whatever it is.

♪ guitar music playing ♪

♪♪♪

[Stacy] Heavenly Father and righteous God.

♪♪♪

Another day is upon us, Lord,

and the sun is coming in through the windows.

Just like clockwork, Lord, you... woke us up

and started us on our way.

We ask you to walk with us, Lord.

Keep Satan, his devils, his demons and all away from us.

Protect our children and our loved ones.

Walk with us, Lord, as we stumble through

in this world of sin.

♪ dramatic music ♪

♪♪♪

There were eight young ladies

that were killed in the area.

And yet, today,

they still don't have an answer

to what has happened to those children.

Some were white, some were black.

They could have been trying to kill your daughter,

your granddaughter.

But thanks be to God, they didn't.

But somebody's child got killed.

[Teresa] It's ten years later.

People may think

that I forgot,

that I just let it die

and let it turn cold like y'all did.

Not a chance in hell.

Those are our fallen children.

I feel like every street that every one of them children

were found on, them streets ought to be named after them.

It shouldn't be Keystone Road.

It should be Brittney Ann Lane.

Whitnei Dubois.

LaConia Brown.

Shay.

Kristen.

Loretta.

Necole.

[Kindra] I think all the girls have been forgotten,

'cause it's like, nobody not talking about them no more.

[Richard] At the time, everybody was scared.

Now everybody's mad.

I would like to see justice done, man. Really.

Not only for Kristen,

but the seven other girls.

[woman's voice distorted] I was one of those girls.

Running the streets.

I'm doing this because I hope that maybe I could help

just one, one in the future,

or maybe make justice for Loretta.

Anyone that speaks the way I have,

I'm pretty sure they'll tell you the same thing,

that they're afraid.

There's a lot of people out there that know a lot more.

And I really, really pray to God that they decide to talk.

If somebody would just come forward,

just one little piece of information is all they need,

to the right person.

But who's that right person?

Who do you trust?

The police know...

somebody,

one of them fuckers g-- that's gonna watch this, knows.

One, two, three, four of 'em.

They know.

[wind whooshing]

♪ slow, somber music ♪

[woman] I just don't understand how...

people can't take in consideration...

...of other people's lives.

I don't see how people can act like people don't matter.

Everybody matters. Everybody... [sniffles]

...should be cared about.

At the end of the day, nobody was there to help them.

Nobody was there to help the girls.

[Jessica] They knew it was happening.

They knew, one by one.

They really just didn't want nobody to get involved.

They didn't want nothing to happen to their family,

their friends, their loved ones.

But this ain't 2000 no more.

Somebody got to speak up.

Somebody got to be their voice.

Maybe other people will get the courage to step up

and speak on what they know.

It's just a wish.

Hopefully it comes true.

♪♪♪