Speaker 1: A talented New Orleans preacher got the job of a lifetime.
Speaker 2: A week later, he was dead.
Speaker 3: This case was one that immediately drew my attention because
Speaker 3: it was not a typical murder case.
Speaker 1: It happened in the Trine months following Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 3: Absent any eyewitness and given the circumstances and the resources
Speaker 3: in the city, it simply just became a cold case.
Speaker 1: But the killer would strike again.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, another one.
Speaker 1: One person had information that could stop the killer from
Speaker 1: striking a third time.
Speaker 3: He was sort of the last man standing who could
Speaker 3: bring it to the authorities.
Speaker 1: But could the police get to him before it was
Speaker 1: too late.
Speaker 4: This song is something you hear about on the TV
Speaker 4: show you know, like you never think this was something
Speaker 4: that would happen in real life.
Speaker 1: Today, we're in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the tragic story
Speaker 1: of an aspiring preacher named Ernest Smith. I'm Sloan Glass
Speaker 1: and this is part one of Bodies on the Bayou
Speaker 1: on American Homicide, And just a warning that this episode
Speaker 1: contains some graphic content.
Speaker 2: Please take care while listening.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever been to New Orleans,
Speaker 1: but it's a very special place. The historic French Quarter
Speaker 1: dates back to the seventeen hundreds. Today, the city's oldest
Speaker 1: neighborhood is famous for its vibrant nightlife.
Speaker 3: That is where you find Bourbon Street in many of
Speaker 3: our most famous bars.
Speaker 1: That's Laura Rodrigue, she worked with the New Orleans District
Speaker 1: Attorney's Office.
Speaker 2: We like to eat, we like to drink.
Speaker 3: There are constantly events going on, or carnivals or parades.
Speaker 2: We are a city that simply likes to party.
Speaker 1: It's a city that lives by the motto let the
Speaker 1: good times roll, and Bourbon Street plays host to many
Speaker 1: of those parties.
Speaker 3: Whether it's the cuisine or the arts. So many different
Speaker 3: opportunities here to explore, so many different things.
Speaker 1: Where else in the world can you walk down the
Speaker 1: street eating a poe boy in one hand with a
Speaker 1: cocktail in the other while a jazz player strikes up
Speaker 1: a song on the corner.
Speaker 3: Having been somebody who has traveled elsewhere, I can say
Speaker 3: that there really is no place like New Orleans Today.
Speaker 1: Well over a million people from all different walks of
Speaker 1: life make their home in the Big Easy.
Speaker 3: There is a certain sense of camaraderie among the community.
Speaker 2: They rally together.
Speaker 3: They support one another, and they take a lot of
Speaker 3: pride in saying that they're from New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Let's look back at the summer of two thousand and
Speaker 1: five as a test of that camaraderie. That's when Hurricane
Speaker 1: Katrina made landfall and left nearly eighty percent of New
Speaker 1: Orleans underwater.
Speaker 5: Katrina slams into the Gulf willed us up to one
Speaker 5: hundred and twenty miles reptiles that could kill you, stop
Speaker 5: go literally ripped.
Speaker 6: Off the side repper part of the roof.
Speaker 2: Covering the Superdome where some ten thousand people at saw Gass.
Speaker 5: Station, which is basically where we've sought safety.
Speaker 3: It is slowly being ripped apart.
Speaker 1: Before our The city lost more than eight hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand homes, three hundred thousand vehicles, and eighteen hundred lives,
Speaker 1: making Katrina one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the US.
Speaker 3: It truly did devastate the city of New Orleans to
Speaker 3: a large extent.
Speaker 1: At the time, over half of its population relocated to
Speaker 1: other cities.
Speaker 2: After Katrina.
Speaker 3: There were simply problems for everyone in the city in
Speaker 3: terms of getting back into their homes. What was left
Speaker 3: of the neighborhoods, So you might be living in a
Speaker 3: home and you might be the only person on your block,
Speaker 3: and that's scary.
Speaker 2: It was scary, especially when things went wrong.
Speaker 3: It really made law enforcements job a lot more difficult.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like patrolling the street normally and knowing that
Speaker 3: there were people also looking out for each other. You know,
Speaker 3: it's pitch black and some of these neighborhoods where power
Speaker 3: hasn't been turned on to some of the homes, if
Speaker 3: the people haven't returned.
Speaker 1: Like all city services in New Orleans after Katrina, the
Speaker 1: police department struggled to keep up.
Speaker 2: In certain neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: You didn't know how long it would take and whether
Speaker 3: it was even worth it to get the police involved.
Speaker 2: And that's when violent crime soared.
Speaker 5: Hurricane Katrina chased away more than two hundred thousand people
Speaker 5: in New Orleans, but criminals are coming back. Police department
Speaker 5: figures show the number of murders has gone up every
Speaker 5: month since the storm.
Speaker 1: So now here is our story. In April of two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, thirty eight year old Ernest Smith was
Speaker 1: a preacher who had just moved back.
Speaker 2: To his home in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Ernest's life before that move.
Speaker 4: Ernest was always when never usaw he could walk into
Speaker 4: a room and the first thing he has on his
Speaker 4: face as a smile.
Speaker 1: Caroline Jackson and her husband Apostle Jackson were ministers who
Speaker 1: mentored Ernest.
Speaker 7: Ernest was special. He was the real deal. Ministry was
Speaker 7: his heartbeat. Ministry was what he was about.
Speaker 4: It ain't loved to preach. I think he would woke
Speaker 4: up with a value of a microphone, be born one.
Speaker 7: He was truly a man of God.
Speaker 1: Life was a tough climb for Ernest, who lost both
Speaker 1: of his parents at a very young age. Although he
Speaker 1: was later adopted, he was always plagued by that desire
Speaker 1: to fit in and belong to us.
Speaker 4: He was a son, and I think he felt like
Speaker 4: we went on in parents he had.
Speaker 1: The church became that place where Ernest felt like he belonged.
Speaker 1: But the downside of being a preacher was it didn't
Speaker 1: pay his bills, so Ernest supplemented his income by working
Speaker 1: as a truck driver. The money was good, but he
Speaker 1: was often on the road and away from his wife
Speaker 1: and daughter. To no one's surprise, his marriage ended up
Speaker 1: in a divorce. And not long after that, a single
Speaker 1: mom named Emma walked into his life.
Speaker 7: She met him by going to his ministry when he
Speaker 7: was preaching that song, Well, a man loves a woman,
Speaker 7: That's what's Ernest's song. He really loved it, this walkman.
Speaker 1: Emma and Ernest married in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 7: Emma was a perfect pastor's wife. She did everything to
Speaker 7: help the church. She did whatever was necessary to make
Speaker 7: sure his ministry was functioned and running.
Speaker 1: Emma was also busy outside of church. She prepared taxes,
Speaker 1: dabbled in real estate. She even sold beauty supplies.
Speaker 4: She so whigs and all of the other things that
Speaker 4: make you look girly. Yes, she would say she was
Speaker 4: a jack of all trades.
Speaker 2: More than that, Emma was a go getter.
Speaker 1: She grew up poor and always dreamed of living the
Speaker 1: glamorous life.
Speaker 4: She wanted to have nice things, so she went after
Speaker 4: the business world.
Speaker 2: She was busy and it paid off.
Speaker 1: Every year or so, Ernest and Emma would upgrade homes
Speaker 1: and move into a place that was a little bigger
Speaker 1: and nicer. But when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, it forced Ernest and Emma to
Speaker 1: temporarily relocate to Arlington, Texas.
Speaker 4: Emma came back to New Orleans. She came back because
Speaker 4: she needed to get back to her business, so Ernest stayed.
Speaker 4: After she moved back here, they didn't come back together.
Speaker 2: Ernest liked Arlington.
Speaker 1: He wanted to stay because he had plans to build
Speaker 1: a church there.
Speaker 4: She wanted him to come back, but he was saying
Speaker 4: that he didn't want to come back.
Speaker 1: The battle over where to live put a strain on
Speaker 1: their marriage.
Speaker 7: Call us up, anyone to talk to us about the marriage.
Speaker 7: I think that's when we found out that someone was
Speaker 7: really going on.
Speaker 1: Apostle wondered whether there was more to the story, but
Speaker 1: he did what any preacher would do.
Speaker 7: I convinced him that he needed to get his marriage
Speaker 7: another chance.
Speaker 1: Ernest took that advice and he took Emma on a
Speaker 1: cruise to help rekindle their relationship and put their marriage
Speaker 1: back on track. And he started looking for a full
Speaker 1: time pastor job so he could spend more time at home.
Speaker 1: Then Kime a miracle and opening at a mega church
Speaker 1: in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Ernest interviewed and landed the job.
Speaker 7: Him and her was going to move to Atlanta. She
Speaker 7: was going to be first lady and he was gonna
Speaker 7: be pastor.
Speaker 1: On the evening of April twelfth, two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: Ernest called Apostle with the good news.
Speaker 7: He was already excited, like he had found a treasure.
Speaker 1: It was a much needed step forward for Ernest and
Speaker 1: Emma's marriage and a huge boost for his career.
Speaker 7: This would have been the first time in his ministry
Speaker 7: that he'd have had a ready made family ready for him.
Speaker 7: I mean, if you ever wanted a pastor, he would
Speaker 7: have been the one. He was just that gifted.
Speaker 1: So they have that conversation on April twelfth, and that night,
Speaker 1: Ernest and Emma took a break from packing up for
Speaker 1: their big move. Emma wasn't feeling well, so Ernest planned
Speaker 1: to go out for a ride on his motorcycle.
Speaker 7: I said, I'll be careful out there, said I hung up.
Speaker 7: Then five hours later we get the news that he's dead.
Speaker 7: We will sleep and we have a good phone call
Speaker 7: from Emma and she tells me. She says, Ernest is gone.
Speaker 7: It's gone where And she said he's dead. That told
Speaker 7: my heart up.
Speaker 1: Emma was a mess. In between crying, she explained that
Speaker 1: Ernest took his motorcycle for a ride and returned around
Speaker 1: eleven pm. That's when someone ambushed him.
Speaker 4: She said, Well, I heard three bang bang bangs, she said,
Speaker 4: but I thought it was a car bag fire.
Speaker 1: Emma said she was in bed with a bad toothache
Speaker 1: and had taken some pain medication to help her sleep.
Speaker 1: She woke up to the sound of her husband's cries
Speaker 1: from downstairs.
Speaker 4: He woke her up out of her sleep. He said, Babe,
Speaker 4: that I've been shot.
Speaker 1: When Emma came downstairs, she found Ernest collapsed on the
Speaker 1: front steps of their home. His red shirt was completely
Speaker 1: covered in blood.
Speaker 4: So she tells us, She says, well, somebody was trying
Speaker 4: to rob Ernest still his motorcycle. Somebody was trying to
Speaker 4: take his bike from him. She called the police, called
Speaker 4: the amber. She said, well, y'all know we living in
Speaker 4: the noise. You know how long they take to get here.
Speaker 4: So by the time they got here, he was already gone.
Speaker 1: Ernest Smith, the gifted preacher, who was just days away
Speaker 1: from being installed at a church in Atlanta, was now
Speaker 1: a casualty of the post Katrina crime wave in New Orleans.
Speaker 3: At the time of Ernest Smith's death. The city was
Speaker 3: still very much suffering after Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 1: Laura Roderig worked with the New Orleans District Attorney's office.
Speaker 3: The place where they were living was largely abandoned. In fact,
Speaker 3: they were the only people living in that apartment complex.
Speaker 3: It was almost a scary place to live because you
Speaker 3: had nobody around you. There weren't lights on anywhere.
Speaker 1: Ernest was shot twice in the chest with a nine
Speaker 1: millimeter weapon.
Speaker 2: There were no witnesses and no known motive.
Speaker 3: His motorcycle was right there on the scene next to him.
Speaker 3: The keys to the motorcycle were found in the grass
Speaker 3: right nearby. Absent any eyewitness and given the circumstances and
Speaker 3: the resources in the city, it simply just became a
Speaker 3: cold case.
Speaker 1: It seemed like a senseless crime that would go unsolved.
Speaker 1: Then five years later, another murder in a neighboring state.
Speaker 2: Brought this case.
Speaker 6: Back to life.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and six, Ernest Smith was about to
Speaker 1: begin his dream job as a pastor of an Atlanta church,
Speaker 1: but a few days before he and his wife, Emma
Speaker 1: moved there, he was gunned down in front of his
Speaker 1: New Orleans home. His mentor Apostle Jackson performed his eulogy.
Speaker 7: The funeral was wall the wall peoples. He was standing up.
Speaker 1: At the request of his devastated widow. Apostle did something
Speaker 1: at the funeral he had never done before. He used
Speaker 1: his eulogy to urge anyone who knew what happened to
Speaker 1: Ernest to come forward.
Speaker 7: I was trying to convince them that somebody need to
Speaker 7: go to the police and try to find out what happened.
Speaker 1: It was heartbreaking for everyone, including Emma, who struggled to
Speaker 1: afford the proper funeral she felt her husband deserved.
Speaker 7: She was grieving. She had to borrow the money from
Speaker 7: me to bury him, and when she got the insurance money,
Speaker 7: she did get me my money back.
Speaker 1: Even with Apostles plea at Ernest's funeral, no new leads
Speaker 1: came in and his murder remained unsolved. A year later,
Speaker 1: Emma started over. She moved to the tiny city of Poplarville, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: which is about an hour north of New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: built a home in the rural countryside.
Speaker 7: That's one of the most beautiful houses I ever seen
Speaker 7: in my life. I was a TV in every room.
Speaker 7: I'm talking a big screen TV. In the bathroom. It
Speaker 7: was just beautiful.
Speaker 1: It is a lot less expensive to live in poplar
Speaker 1: Ville than it is to live in New Orleans. But
Speaker 1: when Apostle and Carolyn visited Emma in her new home,
Speaker 1: they were in awe.
Speaker 2: The house had.
Speaker 1: A swimming pool, a pond, and a boat, even a
Speaker 1: state of the art security system. It was the perfect
Speaker 1: home on a street called Emma Lane. But even with
Speaker 1: the new house, they could still sense a lot of
Speaker 1: pain with Emma. Grief can do many things to a person.
Speaker 1: An Apostle's wife, Carolyn, was concerned with how thin Emma looked.
Speaker 4: This is our first time seeing her at the been
Speaker 4: a while, and we look at us a wow. You know,
Speaker 4: she had lost a lot, a lot away.
Speaker 1: There was also something else different about her. Emma Smith
Speaker 1: proudly announced she was now Emma Rain. A few months earlier,
Speaker 1: she had quietly married James Rain, a former military buddy
Speaker 1: of her late husband. Much like Ernest, James Rain was adopted,
Speaker 1: drove a truck, and was a few years younger than Emma.
Speaker 1: James said he looked up to Ernest almost like a
Speaker 1: big brother, and with Ernest gone, James seemed like the
Speaker 1: perfect person for Emma.
Speaker 4: She and I had an opportunity to just sit out
Speaker 4: on the front porch, and I told her, I said, well,
Speaker 4: this is it. This is what Ernest always dreamed of.
Speaker 4: This is what he wanted. They had a boat, the house,
Speaker 4: and the big pond. You had the big elaborates house
Speaker 4: on the inside, you know, so you got everything. She said, Yeah,
Speaker 4: she's telling me how she missed him. You know, she
Speaker 4: wished that he was there to enjoy all of that.
Speaker 4: I said, I wish he was here too.
Speaker 1: Emma finally had the life she'd always hope to have
Speaker 1: with Ernest, but it would only last a short time.
Speaker 1: Five years later, in twenty eleven, Carolyn an Apostle turned
Speaker 1: on the nightly news and were left speechless.
Speaker 7: James had got killed.
Speaker 4: I'm a call, she said. She was out of town
Speaker 4: on the business trip, and then that's when they found
Speaker 4: him deceased. I'm like, oh my god, you know, another one.
Speaker 4: It's too much. It was just too much to deal with.
Speaker 1: It was unbelievable. One week before James Rain's thirty eighth birthday,
Speaker 1: someone broke in and shot him while he was in bed.
Speaker 4: So this is like whoa, this is like way too
Speaker 4: much and it's way crazy that all these husbands are dying.
Speaker 1: How could someone lose their husband not just once, but
Speaker 1: twice in such a cruel manner.
Speaker 7: That's crazy, That's crazy. Laurad El Mercy.
Speaker 1: Laura Rodriig worked for the New Orleans District Attorney's office.
Speaker 1: The police come out and essentially start trying to piece
Speaker 1: together what happened. They learned Demo was away on a
Speaker 1: business trip in Arkansas and the last she heard from
Speaker 1: her husband, James, was sometime around midnight. By eleven AM,
Speaker 1: she was worried.
Speaker 3: Emma Rain calls James's mother and says, I can't get
Speaker 3: a hold of James. Can you go check on him?
Speaker 3: So James's mother goes to the home. She goes upstairs,
Speaker 3: finds him shot in the head and in the neck
Speaker 3: in the bed.
Speaker 2: She calls the police.
Speaker 1: There was nothing missing from the house. It appeared to
Speaker 1: be a targeted shooting, but.
Speaker 3: Why it was a vacant area, There were no eyewitnesses
Speaker 3: to the murder.
Speaker 2: There wasn't a motive that was clear.
Speaker 1: The police department in the quaint town of Poplarville Canvas
Speaker 1: the neighborhood to find a lead.
Speaker 3: Poplarville is sort of a small town where everybody kind
Speaker 3: of knows everybody through a relative, a cousin, a friend,
Speaker 3: somebody you work with. They were getting a lot of statements,
Speaker 3: trying to navigate and piece together what could have happened here.
Speaker 1: If there's one thing about small towns, it's that people
Speaker 1: usually know everyone else's business, and the people of Pomplarville
Speaker 1: knew some dirt about James Rain.
Speaker 3: The detectives learned that there had been issues of infidelity
Speaker 3: with James Rain. The two of them had engaged in
Speaker 3: a physical relationship for some time before Ernest Smith had
Speaker 3: been killed.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, they were military buddies and they stayed friends.
Speaker 1: The police learned James used to socialize with Ernest and Emma.
Speaker 3: James Rain and him had become friends during the military,
Speaker 3: and that's how they knew each other.
Speaker 2: In fact, James almost.
Speaker 3: Looked up to Ernest Smith like a mentor, somebody who
Speaker 3: he respected and would go to for advice.
Speaker 1: But that friendship ended when Ernest learned what they were
Speaker 1: doing behind his back.
Speaker 3: He had confronted James Rain in the past and was
Speaker 3: just determined to really fight for his marriage and to
Speaker 3: make it work.
Speaker 1: Ernest had been trying for a pastor job in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and he knew no church would hire him if his
Speaker 1: marriage was on the rocks. So up until his death,
Speaker 1: he was trying to fix things with Emma.
Speaker 3: He was fiercely loyal to Emma Rain. He just did
Speaker 3: not want to give up on their marriage. In fact,
Speaker 3: he had just gotten her a dozen roses right before
Speaker 3: the murder.
Speaker 1: So let's break this down. Emma was fooling around with
Speaker 1: James while she was married to Ernest. Ernest knew about
Speaker 1: the affair and confronted James. Then Ernest mysteriously got killed.
Speaker 1: A year later, Emma marries James, and then five years later,
Speaker 1: James was also mysteriously killed.
Speaker 3: It was certainly a strange set of facts.
Speaker 1: And while detectives tried to make sense of what was happening,
Speaker 1: the estates that James and Emma had built in Poplarville, Mississippi,
Speaker 1: burned to the ground. Luckily no one was injured, but
Speaker 1: investigators rule that that fire was arson what was going on,
Speaker 1: So that again is very suspicious, very strange. This is
Speaker 1: a whole different ballgame. With two dead husbands and one
Speaker 1: down house, Emma Rain's life hit rock bottom in search
Speaker 1: of another clean start. She left Poplar Villain headed to Missouri,
Speaker 1: where her luck was about to change. By twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: Emma Rain had buried two husbands and even lost her
Speaker 1: home to a fire. Police couldn't make sense of it.
Speaker 1: Across the two homicides, there were no suspects, no arrests,
Speaker 1: not even so much as a lead prosecutor, Laura rod
Speaker 1: Reg investigated.
Speaker 3: This case was one that immediately drew my attention because
Speaker 3: it was not a typical murder case. There were no
Speaker 3: eyewitnesses to either murder. Nothing was adding up. There wasn't
Speaker 3: a motive that was clear, other than the fact that
Speaker 3: we knew this woman's last two husbands were also found
Speaker 3: dead in sort of mysterious circumstances.
Speaker 1: The first case had gone cold, and investigators did not
Speaker 1: want James Rain's murder to reach a similar fate.
Speaker 2: If they aren't.
Speaker 3: Able to develop a suspect or get a lead within
Speaker 3: the first couple of weeks, it's almost never going to
Speaker 3: be easy to find one quickly after that.
Speaker 1: But shortly after James Rain's murder, things would take a turn.
Speaker 1: Late one night, James's brother received a mysterious phone call,
Speaker 1: a woman's voice he did not recognize told him to
Speaker 1: walk outside and check his mailbox. As cryptic as that sounded,
Speaker 1: he wanted answers. James's brother went to the mailbox and
Speaker 1: found a thick envelope filled with documents. These documents contain
Speaker 1: information about a lawsuit Ernest Smith's life insurance company had
Speaker 1: filed to prevent Emma from obtaining the insurance proceeds from
Speaker 1: Ernest's policy.
Speaker 3: She had the insurance policy on Ernest Smith, and it
Speaker 3: started at one hundred thousand, the money increasing from year
Speaker 3: to year from one hundred to two point fifty all
Speaker 3: the way up to eight hundred thousand. But a closer
Speaker 3: look showed that just before Ernest's death, the amount was
Speaker 3: increased to eight hundred thousand dollars and the beneficiary changed
Speaker 3: to James Rain, which was extremely suspicious because everybody knew
Speaker 3: that was her boyfriend while she was married. So it
Speaker 3: didn't make any sense why Ernest Smith would allow James
Speaker 3: Rain to be his beneficiary since he had clearly had
Speaker 3: heated arguments asking James to stay away from his wife,
Speaker 3: and you know, really just did not get along with
Speaker 3: James in that time period in his life.
Speaker 1: And there was more these documents also indicated that James
Speaker 1: Rain had been involved in Ernest Smith's murder.
Speaker 2: How was it possible that an.
Speaker 1: Insurance company could put two and two together but detectives couldn't.
Speaker 2: If this is.
Speaker 3: Actually true, if they actually prove this, this is shocking,
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: So this is getting really weird, especially for James Rayn's brother.
Speaker 1: He's just found out that the insurance company blamed his
Speaker 1: brother James for the death of Ernest Smith. So he
Speaker 1: shares this with a couple of his trusted relatives, including
Speaker 1: his other brother, Alfred Everett.
Speaker 3: James Rain's murder leads to what we learn is sort
Speaker 3: of an uneasy feeling that Alfred Everett is going through.
Speaker 2: He was nervous.
Speaker 3: He has a moment where he feels like he needs
Speaker 3: to talk to somebody and that he has to get
Speaker 3: this off of his chest.
Speaker 1: Obviously, Alfred's strange behavior concerned the group, so they did
Speaker 1: something weird too. They drove him out to the middle
Speaker 1: of nowhere so they could talk candidly.
Speaker 3: During that conversation, Alfred Everett admits that Emma and James
Speaker 3: had paid him to shoot Ernest Smith, that there was
Speaker 3: a life insurance policy he was supposed to get one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars from it, and that's why he shot
Speaker 3: Ernest Smith.
Speaker 1: After keeping this secret for five years, Albert's conscience finally
Speaker 1: got the best of him and he shared what happened.
Speaker 1: On April twelfth, two thousand.
Speaker 3: And six, Alfred Everett parked down the street again. During
Speaker 3: this time, it would have been too dark for anybody
Speaker 3: to sort of locate what would be considered a suspicious
Speaker 3: car or.
Speaker 2: Something out of the ordinary.
Speaker 1: Alfred revealed he sat and waited that night for Ernest
Speaker 1: to return from riding his motorcycle.
Speaker 3: He runs up, he shoots, and exits the scene as
Speaker 3: quickly as possible to jump in the car to head
Speaker 3: back toward Mississippi.
Speaker 1: On the way back, Alfred said he threw the gun
Speaker 1: in Lake Pontchatrain, which borders New Orleans. The bridge over
Speaker 1: Lake Pontatrain is also known as the Causeway, which is
Speaker 1: the world's longest continuous bridge over water.
Speaker 3: Lake Pontchatrain is a very very large lake, so there
Speaker 3: was really very little to no chance that we would
Speaker 3: ever recover that weapon. You know, it's often speculated how
Speaker 3: many weapons could possibly be at the bottom of Lake
Speaker 3: Pontchatrain just to give you an idea of how massive.
Speaker 2: The lake is. So let's sort through this.
Speaker 1: Alfred, James Rain's brother, said he was hired by James
Speaker 1: and Emma to murder Emma's first husband, Ernest Smith, and
Speaker 1: he did it for a cut of Ernest's life insurance money. However,
Speaker 1: Alfred claimed he had absolutely nothing to do with his
Speaker 1: brother James Rain's murder.
Speaker 3: The group knows they're all going to sort of make
Speaker 3: a decision what to do with this information and how
Speaker 3: to sort of protect Alfred to whatever extent they can,
Speaker 3: but also have him acknowledge what he has done. You know,
Speaker 3: he was sort of the last man standing who could
Speaker 3: bring it to the authorities.
Speaker 1: They certainly wanted Alfred to do the right thing, but
Speaker 1: they also wanted to somehow.
Speaker 3: Protect him, and so they offer to help him get
Speaker 3: an attorney. They advise him that he should report this
Speaker 3: to the authorities, and Alfred says that he will. He
Speaker 3: promises that he's going to tell the police, he's going
Speaker 3: to come clean, and he's going to accept responsibility for
Speaker 3: what happens.
Speaker 1: But Alfred never went to the police. He just disappeared,
Speaker 1: leaving his relatives even more conflicted. They wondered was Alfred
Speaker 1: hiding out, was he being honest when he said he
Speaker 1: wasn't involved in James's murder, or worse, was he killed?
Speaker 3: There were so many moving parts, dead bodies, life insurance policies.
Speaker 1: They were left with very little options. So the families
Speaker 1: comp between a rock and a hard place. So what
Speaker 1: did they do? They decided to call a detective they
Speaker 1: saw on TV.
Speaker 2: They see descend A.
Speaker 3: Barnes on a televised episode of a case that she
Speaker 3: had handled a cold case in New Orleans, and decide
Speaker 3: to randomly reach out to her in the New Orleans
Speaker 3: Police Department.
Speaker 8: Relatives of James Rayne came to police headquarters after seeing
Speaker 8: me on a Channel six news.
Speaker 1: James's brother and uncle were impressed by how detective Barnes
Speaker 1: cracked an unrelated cold case, and they felt she was
Speaker 1: the person to help them.
Speaker 8: They had recently learned about the brother being involved, Alfred Everett,
Speaker 8: and as soon as they tried to give him the
Speaker 8: opportunity to come forward and to speak to the authorities,
Speaker 8: and when he refused, they they had to, I guess
Speaker 8: take matters in their own hand, and they had to
Speaker 8: advise the authorities of what they were able to learn.
Speaker 1: They handed over the insurance documents that mysteriously mound up
Speaker 1: in the mailbox of James Rayne's brother.
Speaker 2: Think about that, how did that happen?
Speaker 1: And then they shared Alfred Everett's confession with Detective Barnes.
Speaker 2: That could not have been easy.
Speaker 8: A lot of witnesses come forward after they family members
Speaker 8: are murdered, and I guess they feel for that family
Speaker 8: and now they can put their self in that family shoes,
Speaker 8: so that allows them to, I guess, have a come
Speaker 8: to Jesus moment.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Laura rodrig worked with Detective Barnes.
Speaker 3: I remember to Senda and I kind of sitting down
Speaker 3: and being like, whoa, you know, it was just not
Speaker 3: your typical case.
Speaker 2: No way wasn't.
Speaker 1: And now the New Orleans PD reopened the murder investigation
Speaker 1: have Emma Rain's first husband, Everett Smith.
Speaker 3: As soon as she sat down with them and they
Speaker 3: gave her the information and she was able to pull
Speaker 3: the cold case file, it was very obvious to her.
Speaker 2: That this was making sense and wait for this.
Speaker 1: Once everything came into focus, the police would find another victim.
Speaker 2: He was tragically hit by a vehicle.
Speaker 1: And there was a growing fear that there were more.
Speaker 3: This was somebody who had no regard for human life
Speaker 3: at all.
Speaker 1: And it will all hinge on finding Alfred Everett.
Speaker 3: We had a murder for hire, you know, somebody killing
Speaker 3: husbands to make a living.
Speaker 1: I'm slung Glass. In the surprising conclusion of Bodies on
Speaker 1: the Bayou, we'll and cover all the secrets behind the
Speaker 1: murders of Ernest Smith and James Rain.
Speaker 2: She gets the phone call.
Speaker 3: She learns that James is dead, hopped some champagne and
Speaker 3: had set thanks to celebrate.
Speaker 1: That's next time on American Homicide. You can contact the
Speaker 1: American Homicide team by emailing us at American Homicide Pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. That's American Homicide Pod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. American Homicide is hosted and written by me
Speaker 1: Sloane Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a
Speaker 1: division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gants.
Speaker 1: The series is also written and produced by Todd Gans,
Speaker 1: with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our
Speaker 1: associate producer is Kristin Melcurrie. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 1: Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio editing, mixing, and mastering by
Speaker 1: Nico Auruka. American Homicides' theme song was composed by Oliver
Speaker 1: Bains of Neiser Music Library provided by My Music. Follow
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