Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On November fifth, two thousand and five, a jogger found
Speaker 2: the body of thirty two year old mother of three,
Speaker 2: Brandy Renee Dyson, floating in a lake behind the Lake
Speaker 2: Charles Civic Center. Brandy had been struggling with mental health
Speaker 2: issues and with addiction.
Speaker 3: For a while.
Speaker 2: She seemed to be doing well and settled into an apartment,
Speaker 2: but then she lost her apartment after taking refugees in
Speaker 2: from Hurricane Katrina. She then moved into the Civic Center
Speaker 2: in Lake Charles with a lot of other evacuees from
Speaker 2: the storm. After that, Brandy was caught drinking that broke
Speaker 2: the rules of the Red Cross, the organization that was
Speaker 2: running things at the Civic Center, so Brandy was asked
Speaker 2: to leave there. This seemed to start what would turn
Speaker 2: out to be her final downward spiral. Police believed she
Speaker 2: set up a camp on a pier near the Civic
Speaker 2: Center and had been living there for a few weeks
Speaker 2: when the next massive hurricane, Hurricane Rita, hit and devastated
Speaker 2: the state. Sometime in the midst of all this storm chaos,
Speaker 2: Brandy was brutally murdered. The bruising on her neck was
Speaker 2: so bad that her own father said she had to
Speaker 2: be buried in a turtle neck sweaters. Almost twenty years
Speaker 2: since Brandy was murdered, the person who was arrested and
Speaker 2: at first charged with her murder has been released, and
Speaker 2: no new suspects have come forward, But this unsolved case
Speaker 2: still seems to be on the minds of the detectives
Speaker 2: at the Lake Charles Police Department Down there. Brandy's family
Speaker 2: tells me they have a nickname for Brandy Dyson. They
Speaker 2: call her the Lady in the Lake. I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
Speaker 2: as a small town where murder never happens. I have
Speaker 2: received hundreds of messages from people all around the country
Speaker 2: asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
Speaker 2: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
Speaker 2: you'd like me and my team to look into, you
Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
Speaker 2: Line at six seven eight seven four four six one
Speaker 2: four or five. That's six seven eight seven four four
Speaker 2: six ' one four or five. This is Helen Gone
Speaker 2: Murder Line. Brandy's family described her as a kind person,
Speaker 2: a mother who loved her three children, But, as we
Speaker 2: said last week in Part one, Brandy battleddiction to alcohol
Speaker 2: and struggled with mental health issues, includings get So Effective disorder.
Speaker 2: Detectives told Brandy's family they believed that she was brutally beaten, strangled,
Speaker 2: and dumped into the lake. Brandy had been spending time
Speaker 2: with a man named Jeremiah Salazar, who was six feet
Speaker 2: tall and at the time had shoulder linked hair. Witnesses
Speaker 2: said they saw Brandy with a man matching that description
Speaker 2: outside the civic Center and later at a bar. They
Speaker 2: arrested Jeremiah Salazar, but he was later released when the
Speaker 2: DNA taken from Brandy's body was found not to be
Speaker 2: a match for him.
Speaker 3: Since then, the.
Speaker 2: Case has gone cold and no new suspects have ever
Speaker 2: been arrested, so we were trying to figure out why
Speaker 2: the police were so focused on jeremiahs and if there
Speaker 2: could be other potential suspects out there. Last week, we
Speaker 2: talked to Brandy's sister Miranda and daughter Holly. We've been
Speaker 2: trying to find out more about the condition of Brandy's body,
Speaker 2: but our Foyer request was denied and Holly has not
Speaker 2: yet been able to get a copy of the autopsy report.
Speaker 2: But it turns out that Brandy's family does have some
Speaker 2: information about the condition of Brandy's body, which may be
Speaker 2: able to give us some clues that could help identify
Speaker 2: her killer. We also talked last week about possible similarities
Speaker 2: to other cases, including the eight women who were murdered
Speaker 2: in Jefferson Davis Parish between two thousand and five and
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine. These women were all found in
Speaker 2: the region of Jennings Louisiana, and all were sex workers
Speaker 2: or had ties to sex work in some way. These
Speaker 2: victims have been called the Jeff Davies eight, and even
Speaker 2: though the cases don't appear to be connected by a
Speaker 2: single serial killer, the murders have unearthed allegations of potential
Speaker 2: cover ups by certain members of law enforcement, as well
Speaker 2: as allegations that members of law enforcement may be behind
Speaker 2: or have knowledge of some of the murders. And these
Speaker 2: cases have definitely highlighted systemic failures in the Louisiana criminal
Speaker 2: justice system. So is Brandy's case out all similar to
Speaker 2: any of those cases. Brandy was found in Calcashu Parish,
Speaker 2: which is a little over thirty minutes away from Jennings
Speaker 2: where the other victims were found. Like some of the
Speaker 2: other victims, Brandy was found in water. Many of the
Speaker 2: Jeff Davis eight victims were believed to have been killed
Speaker 2: by exphyxiation, the same cause of death that suspected in
Speaker 2: Brandy's case, though in the Jeff Davis eight cases, many
Speaker 2: of the victims were too decomposed for detectives to know
Speaker 2: for sure what killed them. We talked to Miranda about
Speaker 2: Brandy's past. She told us that She believed that it
Speaker 2: was possible that Brandy, because of her addictions in transient lifestyle,
Speaker 2: may have turned to sex work at some point. Brandy
Speaker 2: had been strangled several times in the past on separate occasions.
Speaker 2: She said that during the time when Brandy was living
Speaker 2: in New York City, Brandy was apparently involved in some
Speaker 2: type of relationship with someone who abused her and strangled her.
Speaker 2: Brandy survived, but Miranda said she will never forget getting
Speaker 2: those frantic calls from the hospital emergency room about her sister.
Speaker 4: I've never told Holly this, but one time the guy
Speaker 4: strangled her. He thought she was dead, but she wasn't.
Speaker 4: But they called me one time and they were like,
Speaker 4: can you come get your sister from New York? And
Speaker 4: I said, do you know how long it would take
Speaker 4: me to get there? And they're like, what do you mean?
Speaker 4: And I said, do you realize where you called? And
Speaker 4: they were like, no, your sister gave us your number,
Speaker 4: like you're around the corner. It was like, ma'am, you
Speaker 4: called the Louisiana.
Speaker 2: Brandy's family saw that she was battling her addictions and
Speaker 2: mental health issues, including unmedicated Schitzo effective disorder. They tried
Speaker 2: to help her when she left New York and returned
Speaker 2: to Louisiana.
Speaker 4: She was living with me when she came back, and
Speaker 4: she started drinking and doing drips and I have kids,
Speaker 4: and I tell her, you can't do that and live
Speaker 4: in my house. And she said, you're not going to
Speaker 4: let it be, so you got to go. So she
Speaker 4: went to live with my brother. Same thing happened there,
Speaker 4: so he had to make her go too well. She
Speaker 4: sort of staying at the Lifehouse Mission and that's where
Speaker 4: throughout herself together, she was doing good.
Speaker 2: It's obvious from talking to Brandy's family that they wanted
Speaker 2: to help her. They wanted to give her somewhere to stay,
Speaker 2: but at the same time, it seems like they had
Speaker 2: to make sure that their own families were safe. This
Speaker 2: can feel like an impossible choice, and it's one that
Speaker 2: a lot of people are dealing with. After that, Brandy
Speaker 2: went to the Late Charles Civic Center, where she would
Speaker 2: die weeks later. Miranda said after that hurricane hit, the
Speaker 2: entire family had to evacuate to different locations. Brandy ended
Speaker 2: up the Civic Center in Lake Charles, and Miranda said
Speaker 2: that it was in Lake Charles where Brandy met then
Speaker 2: thirty five year old Jeremiah Salazar. Brandy's family doesn't know
Speaker 2: much about Jeremiah's how they met, how long they had
Speaker 2: been in a relationship, or even what the exact nature
Speaker 2: of that relationship was, because the contact with Brandy was
Speaker 2: irregular in the first place, and then after the storm hit,
Speaker 2: in that chaos, Brandy's family were pretty much completely cut
Speaker 2: off from Brandy or anything that was going on with
Speaker 2: her life.
Speaker 4: The only things that I know about him is what
Speaker 4: the detective toldn Like, we didn't know him. We were
Speaker 4: all displaced, we were all homeless. I was living in
Speaker 4: Alabama when she died. I know what he looks like
Speaker 4: only because the picture. You know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 4: we didn't know him. We just know what they said
Speaker 4: or what they've speculated. So there's so many even nineteen
Speaker 4: years later, there's so many questions that we've never gotten
Speaker 4: any kind of answers for.
Speaker 2: Even though some people thought there could be a connection
Speaker 2: between Brandy and the Jeff Davis eight, there are some
Speaker 2: major differences between these cases. For one thing, many of
Speaker 2: the Jeff Davis victims had ties to each other, two
Speaker 2: were cousins and there's no indication from what we know
Speaker 2: so far, that Brandy was connected to any of those victims. Jennings,
Speaker 2: where most of the Jeff Davis eight were found, is
Speaker 2: just over a thirty minute drive from Lake Charles. Many
Speaker 2: of the Jeff Davis eight victims had faces that were unrecognizable,
Speaker 2: either because they had been beaten or because they were
Speaker 2: so badly decomposed.
Speaker 3: This was not the case with Brandy.
Speaker 2: In fact, one of the major things that is different
Speaker 2: about Brandy's case from the Jeff Davis case is the
Speaker 2: amount of time that Brandy was in the water. Brandy
Speaker 2: was found almost immediately, and she was not hard to id.
Speaker 2: Detectives were able to take usable fingerprints and get Brandy's
Speaker 2: identification very quickly because the Prince matched fingerprints from one
Speaker 2: of Brandy's recent arrests. Again, according to Brandy's family, she
Speaker 2: was apparently seen between twelve am and two am on
Speaker 2: the morning of November fifth in the bar Crystals. Her
Speaker 2: body was found the next morning by the jogger, meaning
Speaker 2: that her body was only in the water for a
Speaker 2: few hours. Miranda said that the district attorney and detectives
Speaker 2: were very blunt when they talked to her about the
Speaker 2: condition of her sister's body and how quickly it had
Speaker 2: been found.
Speaker 4: He said, Branda, I don't want you to think I'm
Speaker 4: being mean, and I'm like, okay. He said, you grew
Speaker 4: up in southwest Louisiana. I say, yes, sir. He said,
Speaker 4: you know what Christ does to a body, They go
Speaker 4: for the eyes and no. You know, she said she
Speaker 4: didn't have one crab owner. That feels me. She was
Speaker 4: found very soon. Her body was in this white piget
Speaker 4: to safe had been in there a terribly long time.
Speaker 4: You know. That's because I grew up in Louisiana. People
Speaker 4: would drown if they were in there in the water
Speaker 4: too long. That salt water, and that water eats the
Speaker 4: body it, you know.
Speaker 2: Miranda said that Brandy did have water in her lungs,
Speaker 2: but she was told by police that it was a
Speaker 2: very small amount. A lot of people think that water
Speaker 2: can't enter the lungs after death, that any amount of
Speaker 2: water in the lungs means that the person was still
Speaker 2: breathing when they hit the water, But actually that's not true.
Speaker 2: A small amount of water can enter the lungs even
Speaker 2: post mortem. So we can't tell from current information if
Speaker 2: Brandy was alive or not when she hit that water.
Speaker 2: She may have been taking her last breath when she
Speaker 2: was dumped, or she could have breathed in the water
Speaker 2: sometime during the struggle. If she was being choked in
Speaker 2: or around a body of water, that's another question. Where
Speaker 2: was the actual primary crime scene. Was it where Brandy
Speaker 2: was dumped in the lake or somewhere else. The body
Speaker 2: of water where Brandy was found was within a few
Speaker 2: feet of where she had set up camp in the
Speaker 2: back of the civic center. Brandy's family say detectives were
Speaker 2: in regular contact with them in the months after the murder.
Speaker 2: They seemed super focused on their suspect, Jeremiah Salazar. They
Speaker 2: even went all the way to Tacoma, Washington, got him arrested,
Speaker 2: and got him extradited back to Louisiana, where he was
Speaker 2: held on a million dollar bail. The grand jury voted
Speaker 2: to indict him, but then they got DNA results back
Speaker 2: from Brandy's body, and those results changed everything because, according
Speaker 2: to the district attorney, who spoke to a reporter from
Speaker 2: American Press in twenty eleven and also talked to Brandy's family,
Speaker 2: the DNA taken from Brandy's body was not a match
Speaker 2: to Jeremiah's.
Speaker 4: If demy case to go back in front of the
Speaker 4: Green jury, They're gonna want to know why you already
Speaker 4: got an indictment. Why would you even do that? You know,
Speaker 4: I've never understood why would you even do that? You know?
Speaker 4: But it was the assistant DA that did that. His
Speaker 4: name was Paul Raggie.
Speaker 2: I totally get why this would be traumatic for a
Speaker 2: family to hear. But if it's true that the DNA
Speaker 2: excluded JEREMIAHS as a contributor, I also understand the district
Speaker 2: attorney's decision. In a later interview, he explained that if
Speaker 2: they had gone to trial and it had been revealed
Speaker 2: the DNA was not a match, JEREMIAHS would have been acquitted.
Speaker 2: By not going to trial, they believed they would have
Speaker 2: the opportunity to retry him later if new evidence resurfaced,
Speaker 2: But it's unclear what police detective's plan was next after that.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, one of two things should have happened.
Speaker 2: Either they needed to find more evidence against their suspect, JEREMIAHS,
Speaker 2: if in fact they still believed he could be the killer,
Speaker 2: or they needed to find other potential suspects. After the
Speaker 2: grand jury came back with no bill, Brandy's family said
Speaker 2: there were a few possibilities in their minds. They considered
Speaker 2: the possibility that jeremiahs could have attacked Brandy because she
Speaker 2: had sex with someone else, or that the person who
Speaker 2: had sex with Brandy had killed her. There's also still
Speaker 2: the question of whether or not that sex was consensual.
Speaker 2: Detectives told Brandy's family there were no signs of sexual assault,
Speaker 2: but with the information that we have access to, it's
Speaker 2: just impossible to know for sure. There's another possibility that
Speaker 2: Brandy was killed by someone else entirely, or maybe more
Speaker 2: than one person. Unfortunately, after Jeremias was released, the family
Speaker 2: said they pretty much lost contact with the DA and
Speaker 2: with the detectives. Some of Brandy's family members felt that
Speaker 2: police seemed to stop looking and that Brandy was not
Speaker 2: a priority, and because no one has been caught, Brandy's
Speaker 2: family has had to scour their minds for any detail
Speaker 2: well that could give them that crucial clue that could
Speaker 2: help get justice, even when those details are horrific to relive,
Speaker 2: like the nightmarish conversation with the funeral home that Miranda
Speaker 2: says happened when Brandy's family was trying to figure out
Speaker 2: if they could have her in an open casket, something
Speaker 2: that no family should ever have to experience.
Speaker 4: There were stipulations to even have an open task to female.
Speaker 4: You know, her net has to be covered, she had
Speaker 4: to have a band on to hold her risk in
Speaker 4: the right place because it was just broken and her
Speaker 4: neck it couldn't have been any darker. And we were
Speaker 4: not supposed to look, and I did, and I wish
Speaker 4: it would have never done it because it shows how
Speaker 4: violent it was.
Speaker 2: And there was something else that Miranda mentioned. Brandy wore
Speaker 2: a choker necklace which was actually a dog.
Speaker 4: Collar Brandy or a dog choke chain as a necklace,
Speaker 4: and it was she used so he could have walked
Speaker 4: up on her bracker. And you know, if you grabbed
Speaker 4: somebody from a coach chain, it's going to do some
Speaker 4: major damage.
Speaker 3: Could the dog collar choke chain be a clue?
Speaker 2: Could it mean that Brandy was in some sort of
Speaker 2: dominant submissive relationship with jeremiahs or with someone else. Then again,
Speaker 2: the necklace could have nothing to do with anything. The
Speaker 2: necklace could be a simple fashion choice. Was her killer
Speaker 2: using the choke chain to abuse Brandy making some kind
Speaker 2: of a statement, or was it just something that they
Speaker 2: grabbed at because it was convenient. Miranda made the point
Speaker 2: that the killer may not have known Brandy at all.
Speaker 2: If it was a stranger, If someone saw Brandy walking
Speaker 2: around late at night in that area behind the civic
Speaker 2: Center in a vulnerable state, they could have grabbed her
Speaker 2: by that choker. The choker could have made her an
Speaker 2: easier target for someone wanting to hurt her. It's just
Speaker 2: one of many details that keeps Brandy's family members and
Speaker 2: me to be honest up at night. Another question that
Speaker 2: Miranda has if detectives believed that Brandy had consensual sex
Speaker 2: with someone and that it wasn't sexual assault, then why
Speaker 2: were they so focused on the DNA that was taken
Speaker 2: from Brandy's vagina.
Speaker 3: Would there not be DNA elsewhere.
Speaker 2: On her body that could be important, especially if the
Speaker 2: killing was violent and apparently she put up a fight
Speaker 2: from what detectives have told her, Miranda believes that there
Speaker 2: may have been an opportunity lost in checking Brandy's body
Speaker 2: for fingerprints.
Speaker 3: Miranda said that one of the original.
Speaker 2: Detectives on the case, Detective McCullough said that he had
Speaker 2: recently attended the FBI Crime Lab school, and there they
Speaker 2: told him what you do in cases like Brandy's is
Speaker 2: let the body air dry and then check the body
Speaker 2: for fingerprints. So that's what he told the crime lab
Speaker 2: when they received Brandy's body. However, the detective later told
Speaker 2: Brandy's family he was overruled. Miranda said the lab did
Speaker 2: not check for fingerprints around Brandy's neck.
Speaker 4: I think if they would have done that, they may
Speaker 4: have gotten a fingerprint.
Speaker 2: A reason why they might not have tested is because
Speaker 2: they might have thought that her body was too wet
Speaker 2: to get accurate fingerprints. I did some research into this,
Speaker 2: and apparently in order to get fingerprints on bodies that
Speaker 2: get pulled out of the water, crime scene analysts use
Speaker 2: a method called small particle reagent, which means they spray
Speaker 2: a solution onto the wet skin and then this specialized
Speaker 2: solution binds to the oils and the fingerprints, and that
Speaker 2: process makes the fingerprints visible. But it's a delicate science,
Speaker 2: and if the body is too wet, prints can wash off.
Speaker 2: Four years after the charges against Jeremiah were dropped in
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, Miranda said she and her family
Speaker 2: heard nothing from detective and then in twenty nineteen, investigators
Speaker 2: called Miranda out of the blue. In twenty nineteen, Brandy's sister,
Speaker 2: Miranda got a call from the police.
Speaker 4: They did call me in twenty nineteen. They lift my
Speaker 4: number up online and they said we need you to
Speaker 4: come in and we need to talk to you.
Speaker 2: According to Miranda, the police detectives told her that DNA
Speaker 2: technology had improved and that they wanted to do some
Speaker 2: more testing with DNA in regards to Brandy's case. Miranda
Speaker 2: wasn't sure exactly what they were testing, if it was
Speaker 2: just the DNA found in Brandy's vagina, or if something else,
Speaker 2: possibly the Halloween mask that was found near Brandy's body,
Speaker 2: could be tested for DNA.
Speaker 4: That's when they tell me they're going to run some
Speaker 4: things throes. I think, I'm not I'm sure if it's
Speaker 4: the FBI or PS. But it was in northern Louisiana.
Speaker 4: They were going to send some things and brunt it
Speaker 4: through CODIS because everything has changed.
Speaker 2: So CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, is a computer
Speaker 2: program that searches the databases of DNA profiles around the country.
Speaker 2: COTIS contains DNA profiles from convicted offenders and from crime
Speaker 2: scene evidence. But CODIS isn't a magic bullet, and there
Speaker 2: are a lot of reasons why COTIS might not get.
Speaker 3: A hit on someone.
Speaker 2: If there's no match, that could potentially mean it was
Speaker 2: someone with no criminal record or who's not in the
Speaker 2: system for other reasons. Now, in the past, only state
Speaker 2: crime labs could access CODIS, which meant that investigators had
Speaker 2: to wait weeks, months, or even years to get results.
Speaker 2: But now, using rapid DNA testing machines, this process happens fast.
Speaker 2: Louisiana got their first rapid DNA testing in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: Now this means instead.
Speaker 2: Of having to take a cheek swab and send it
Speaker 2: to the lab and wait weeks or months, they can
Speaker 2: run a program on site at the police station and
Speaker 2: get a result in an hour and a half. Now,
Speaker 2: there have been a lot of concerns raised about this technology,
Speaker 2: including privacy concerns and the fact that everything is evolving
Speaker 2: so fast, but Louisiana was one of the first in
Speaker 2: the nation to have this technology option. Because of their laws,
Speaker 2: Louisiana allows DNA collection from suspects when they are booked.
Speaker 2: Some states don't allow DNA collection at all. Other states
Speaker 2: only allow it once there's probable cause, but Louisiana lets
Speaker 2: detectives take DNA as soon as the booking happens. Miranda
Speaker 2: said she wishes she knew what DNA testing was done
Speaker 2: and if the DNA did go through CODIS. She wonders
Speaker 2: if there was a match, even knowing that there was
Speaker 2: no match would be some type of information. But it
Speaker 2: seems like even though detectives did tell her that they
Speaker 2: were looking into Brandy's case again in twenty nineteen, which
Speaker 2: was before rapid DNA machines were available outside crime labs,
Speaker 2: she wonders if they actually did send that material out
Speaker 2: for testing, because when Holly talked to detectives at around
Speaker 2: that same time period, they told her the same thing.
Speaker 4: If they told Holly this same exact thing, so that
Speaker 4: heals me they haven't even sent that step And what
Speaker 4: year was that they told maybe twenty nineteen, because by
Speaker 4: now you would have gotten it back, you would have
Speaker 4: at least gotten a DNA profile, not saying you would
Speaker 4: have got a hit, but you would at least have
Speaker 4: a profile. But they told Holly the same thing, then
Speaker 4: they were going to be sending sets why haven't you
Speaker 4: seen it yet?
Speaker 2: So, in the absence of more information, we find ourselves
Speaker 2: pouring over tiny details from Brandy's family, details that could
Speaker 2: help lead to the missing piece. In this case, we
Speaker 2: have gotten a few more details about Brandy's belongings. We know,
Speaker 2: for example, Brandy's purse was found near her body, but
Speaker 2: the purse did not have her ID in it. It
Speaker 2: turns out that Brandy's ID her driver's license, was found
Speaker 2: somewhere else, somewhere completely different, at the Isle of Capri Casino.
Speaker 2: The Isle of Capri Casino closed after the COVID nineteen pandemic.
Speaker 2: It reopened in twenty twenty two and is now called
Speaker 2: the Horseshoe Lake Charles Casino. It's located about four and
Speaker 2: a half miles from the spot behind the Civic Center
Speaker 2: where Brandy's body was found.
Speaker 3: To get there, you have to cross a bridge.
Speaker 2: The casino is in the neighboring city of Westlake, and
Speaker 2: that's across the IT Freeway, the same freeway that in
Speaker 2: the past has been a major route for drug trafficking.
Speaker 2: It's also the highway the Jeff Davis A and many
Speaker 2: other vulnerable victims have been found dump near So was
Speaker 2: Brandy at the Isle of Capri Casino? If she was,
Speaker 2: was it that night or a different night? Was she
Speaker 2: seen on any surveillance video there? Did the police ever
Speaker 2: go to that casino and talk to people there? Also,
Speaker 2: how did she get to the casinos several miles away
Speaker 2: if she was there at all, Because from what we understand,
Speaker 2: Brandy did not have access to a car, and getting
Speaker 2: to the casino involved driving several miles along a freeway.
Speaker 2: It's not an obvious path to walk. Was Brandy at
Speaker 2: that casino or did someone take her ID and use
Speaker 2: it there?
Speaker 3: And if so, who is that person?
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like robbery was the motive in Brandy's case, because,
Speaker 2: from what we understand, the rest of her stuff was
Speaker 2: still there inside her purse, only her ID was missing.
Speaker 2: Miranda said, over the years, detectives have given her more
Speaker 2: information that they've collected about the night that Brandy was murdered,
Speaker 2: But again, this is just speculation.
Speaker 3: These are theories that detectives were exploring.
Speaker 2: Miranda's frustration comes from the fact she doesn't know if
Speaker 2: these theories are ones that police have investigated and ruled out,
Speaker 2: if there's still considering suspects or even which witnesses they
Speaker 2: talked to. She also doesn't know if there was any
Speaker 2: surveillance footage from that bar from the night Brandy disappeared,
Speaker 2: because detectives have mentioned to Brandy's family the possibility that
Speaker 2: Brandy may have been flirting with someone else at that bar.
Speaker 2: Where did that theory come from? Did it come from
Speaker 2: other witnesses or from something Jeremiah said to them.
Speaker 4: He wanted to leave, he less he stayed. Well, then
Speaker 4: after that part of it, it's all speculation, like face
Speaker 4: to stay because of the semen that he called her
Speaker 4: having stakes with somebody and she was drunk. She probably did,
Speaker 4: you know, so that would explain the violence. Maybe I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't even know why somebody would
Speaker 4: do something like even you know, in the heat of
Speaker 4: the moment. It's just extreme.
Speaker 2: Miranda said that when she talked to detectives, they told
Speaker 2: her that they were waiting to get more information. She
Speaker 2: believe that they were still focused on jeremiahs and she
Speaker 2: wonders why, given the fact the DNA wasn't a match
Speaker 2: to him when.
Speaker 4: We met with them in twenty nineteen, they are there's
Speaker 4: those waiting to get something new to get after him again.
Speaker 2: But in my opinion, the obvious missing piece in this
Speaker 2: case is the DNA, because they do have DNA, and
Speaker 2: that DNA, the district attorney has publicly stated, is not
Speaker 2: a match to JEREMIAHS. So, whoever that person is, even
Speaker 2: if they did have consensual sex with Brandy and had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with her murder, they could potentially have
Speaker 2: answers about what happened on the night of November fourth
Speaker 2: and in the early morning hours of November fifth, two
Speaker 2: thousand and five.
Speaker 3: Brandy's family wants to find that man.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure would be nice if they could find who
Speaker 4: she was having consensual effects with. You know, maybe that
Speaker 4: person could say what happened.
Speaker 2: Another question is what really happened between Brandy and JEREMIAHS
Speaker 2: on the night of November fourth. We know they'd been
Speaker 2: hanging out together near Brandy's makeshift home on the pier,
Speaker 2: and detectives have told Brandy's family that they found Brandy's
Speaker 2: bus ticket because there was a previous arrest they were
Speaker 2: both on the same ticket. They determined she had been
Speaker 2: planning to go to Tacoma, Washington with JEREMIAHS. We have
Speaker 2: been trying to find Jeremiah Salazar. He had an arrest
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, and then after that we can't find
Speaker 2: anything until another arrest in twenty twenty three. He seems
Speaker 2: to be living largely off the grid. And again, since
Speaker 2: the grand jury returned that no True bill in two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, JEREMIAHS has never been re indicted or
Speaker 2: charged with anything in connection to Brandy's murder. We did
Speaker 2: text his daughter and other members of his family. None
Speaker 2: of them have heard from JEREMIAHS in several years. They
Speaker 2: were completely unaware of Brandy's murder or of his alleged
Speaker 2: involvement with her. His daughter said that he had mental
Speaker 2: health issues as well as outbursts of violence. But even
Speaker 2: if he was violent with Brandy, which we don't know,
Speaker 2: that does not mean.
Speaker 3: That he killed her.
Speaker 2: Holly told us that she has spoken to Late Charles
Speaker 2: police detectives recently. She asked for access to Brandy's case file.
Speaker 2: She pointed out it's been twenty years and that the
Speaker 2: case is still unsolved. She says detectives told her normally
Speaker 2: they would give the case file back after this amount
Speaker 2: of time, including Brandy's personal items. However, they said they
Speaker 2: feel that this case is still solvable. My question is,
Speaker 2: are they still focused on Jeremiah's suspect. Do they believe
Speaker 2: he was kind of the one that got away? Are
Speaker 2: they still trying to build some sort of a case
Speaker 2: against him, because that's definitely the impression that Brandy's family
Speaker 2: seems to have, or are they potentially looking.
Speaker 3: For other suspects.
Speaker 2: Holly and Miranda would love to know what happened after
Speaker 2: detectives said they were sending in materials to test in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. They want to know if genetic material was
Speaker 2: sent through to Codis, what genetic material it was, and
Speaker 2: what happened with it. And even though Miranda said she
Speaker 2: understands the Lake Charles Police Department is probably understaffed under
Speaker 2: a lot of pressure, she still feels like Brandy's case
Speaker 2: has been forgotten partially because of Brandy's lifestyle and to
Speaker 2: her family, that is heartbreaking.
Speaker 4: I feel all these years that because of her lifestyle
Speaker 4: that they really didn't care even to even try. And
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter. She was steal somebody's mother, she was
Speaker 4: steal somebody's daughter. Who is steal somebody's.
Speaker 2: None of Jeremiah's family members who we spoke to have
Speaker 2: any idea where he may be today. Miranda said, the
Speaker 2: fact that there are still no arrests and no justice,
Speaker 2: and that there is still potentially a killer out there
Speaker 2: walking the streets, it's something she thinks about all the time.
Speaker 2: In fact, she wonders if even speaking out could put
Speaker 2: her and her family in potential danger, and it's something
Speaker 2: she said she has brought up with the Lake Charles
Speaker 2: Police in the.
Speaker 4: Past, and after Brandy's death, I did a please with
Speaker 4: the media for if anybody had any information, And when
Speaker 4: I asked the detective, I said, should I be scared?
Speaker 4: And he's told me he said, do I think he'll
Speaker 4: come after? You know? He said, but always be aware
Speaker 4: and surrounded, so he sometimes it does happen.
Speaker 2: We are going to keep pushing to see if we
Speaker 2: can get access to any part of Brandy's case file
Speaker 2: or her autopsy report. We are going to keep trying
Speaker 2: to help her family get answers. In the meantime, since
Speaker 2: this case started, I've gotten a lot of messages about
Speaker 2: unsolved cases in Louisiana, in and around.
Speaker 3: Calcaush you perish.
Speaker 2: So next week we're going to take a look at
Speaker 2: a triple homicide, one of the most notorious unsolved cases
Speaker 2: in Louisiana. We're going to go back to nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 2: when three bodies were found inside a freezer at a
Speaker 2: convenience store called Kk's Corners.
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
Speaker 2: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
Speaker 2: by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her
Speaker 2: research assistance. Noah Kamer mix and scored this episode. Our
Speaker 2: theme song is by Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
Speaker 2: Brandon Barr, and L. C.
Speaker 3: Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonpott.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helengong Murder Line at six seven eight seven
Speaker 2: four four six one four five. That's six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 1: School of humans,