48 Hours - A City On The Edge

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was left with a severely challenged justice system struggling to cope with the highest murder rate in the nation. This report focusses on the January 2007 murder of filmmaker Helen Hill and the December 2006 murder of musician Dinerral Shavers. “48 Hours" Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 8/14/2008. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I understand Helen's adoration of New Orleans. It was so Helen. Helen was very southern. Bohemian. A creative soul. And filmmaking was her passion. She and Paul came here, I guess, in 1991, and they sort of fell in love. Helen was not naive.

She was concerned about coming back to a city that was recovering and was still broken. All the way, huh. But Helen and Paul came back to be part of the rebuilding, and I admire them for that. My name is Jake Hill. Helen was my younger sister. And it was 5.30 in the morning. Paul woke up.

And he heard Helen shouting, screaming. Get out, get out, don't hurt my baby. And Helen saw Paul, screamed at him to call 911. At that point, he heard a shot. Helen was shot once in the neck. It was clear that she died right away. It happened last night in the 2,600 block of Dumaan Street. To a murder in the 3,000 block of Josephine Street.

It's been a violent weekend in New Orleans six shootings in less than 24 hours. We're averaging about 17 murders a month, and that is the highest murder rate of any city. It's about stopping the violence. I mean, come on, none. Don't use your energy to be evil. You know what I'm saying? You know, when you envision New Orleans, you think of somebody like De Niro. Someone who's upbeat, positive, loves music.

I mean, that embodies New Orleans. My name is Kevin George. I'm principal here at L.E. Robwin High School. De Niro Chavez was my band director and my friend. It was December 28th. De Niro's stepson was in some sort of trouble. He came to help as he always would. The stepson got into the vehicle.

The gunman came out. About 30 minutes later, he had died. And that was, I'll never forget that moment. What happens when De Niro Shavers get killed? What happens when Helen Hill gets killed? My sister was just murdered. There's people out there that know exactly who did this. If we can't find justice for De Niro Shavers,

then the citizens of New Orleans have very good reason to be alarmed and frightened. I feel a lot of guilt. I feel guilty that we moved back to New Orleans and I feel guilty that it was Helen and wasn't me. Exactly one year after Hurricane Katrina drove them away, Paul Gay-Lunis and his wife Helen Hill, full of hope, had moved back to New Orleans. She embraced it. She really did. She loved everything about her. She loved everything about New Orleans. She loved the city.

She loved it. Her imagination, I think, was shaped in part by it. Helen's imagination was just one of the qualities that made her so endearing. I think of that wonderful smiling, sunshine face coming at me. She was always right there with you. Well, she was also fun. Helen was raised in Columbia, South Carolina, by her mother Becky and her stepfather Kevin,

both college professors. She was such a happy child. Helen was only nine years old when she discovered what she wanted to do with her life. That's when she decided she wanted to become an animator. Helen's first film won an award. And the quirky animated movies that followed always retained a sense of playfulness and wonder.

She wanted their films to have a childlike appearance and wanted that to come through in her mature adult films which are full of ideas. When Helen was in college at Harvard, she met Paul Gaylunas. They just seemed to be right for each other. They were just friends when they moved to New Orleans after graduating. But there the friendship deepened into something more. Oh, this is the one about Helen and Paul.

Inspiring her sweet film, Tunnel of Love. Paul sings the song. It's about two people finding each other, becoming best friends, friends growing into love. The dentally fall in love with you. They shared a lot for New Orleans as well. And so after they got married, they made the city their home. Paul, now a doctor, opened a clinic that served the poor.

Helen taught and worked on her films at home. All the neighborhood kids got to know us because we had this pet pig. A pet pig? A pot belly pig named Rosie. So these kids came over. every day and they just really loved Helen so much. Life seemed complete when in 2004, Helen and Paul had a child of their own, Francis.

She just adored this little boy. Hey, I thought you look good in the sunshine. She was just the most wonderful mother in the entire world. It was about one year later that Katrina hit. The day before the storm arrived, they bundled up their one-year-old son. their pet pig and drove to Helen's parents' house. We just thought we were going to be back in about two or three days.

Things didn't turn out that way. It wasn't until weeks later that Paul was even able to wade to their house. Everything was just completely thrown in every direction in the house. And her films? A lot of her films were ruined. They lost everything. But Helen had no doubt what she wanted to do. Helen was very, very determined to move back to New Orleans.

I think she wanted to be part of that rebuilding of New Orleans. How did you feel about her going back? Well, I would have preferred her to stay here. In fact, Helen's mother begged her not to return. I was aware of bad things happening there. And even Paul had his doubts. Paul didn't want to move back to New Orleans. Well, I think he was a little bit more cautious.

And when Helen and Paul did go back, Paul was unnerved by how different the city felt. There's huge areas that are kind of ungoverned. It's not a city where you can feel entirely safe anywhere. It was January 3rd. Paul and Helen put two-year-old Francis to bed. We stayed up and looked at these pictures of him and he just looked so cute and we just laughed and laughed and and that was um pretty much my last

man the nightmare began around 5.30 a.m. I was woken up by the sound of helen's voice sounding very anxious and frightened and yelling get out get out don't hurt my baby get out right now. Alarmed Paul grabbed his son so I had Francis in one arm and I got up and I got up and I I called that, Helen, are you okay? And I saw right away that there was a man restraining her at the front door and she was struggling. And she yelled out, call 911. But it was too late.

Helen was shot. With his son in his arms, Paul ran to the back of the house and tried to hide. And it was only a few moments later that I saw a man walk into the kitchen. And he walked, took a few steps towards us and held out a gun. And at that point, I turned my head down

to protect myself in Francis. And I heard two or three shots, gunshots. And then everything went silent. The gunman was gone. But the horror for Paul was just beginning. She was lying there. and wasn't moving, and her eyes were closed, and there was blood by her head, and Frances saw it too.

Helen was killed instantly, one gunshot to the neck. Paul, too, had been shot three times. Francis had somehow escaped injury. Helen's stepfather and mother were at home in South Carolina when they got the news. It was just an awful day. I don't remember a lot about that time. We haven't nailed to explain why this happened

to someone who intended so much good in the world. An independent filmmaker is the latest victim of New Orleans homicide epidemic. There are many angry people in New Orleans that took this personally, and they want to find the person that did this to Helen. It happened last night in the 2,600 block of Dumain Street. Officers found the body of 25-year-old De Niro Schavers lying in the middle of the street.

He was so young, so intelligent, so vibrant, and we had this gunman just take him away. Just eight months earlier, De Nirole Shavers and the Hot Ape Brass Band were celebrating the first Mardi Gras since Katrina. He was a great drummer. He was a great drummer. He was a great drummer. Big Benny Pete plays the tuba and is the leader of Hot Eight. And he was always finding new ways to express the music. De Niro, just like Helen Hill, knew what he wanted to be from a very young age.

And he was playing drums and I was playing trumpet. Shemar Allen. We wanted the same thing. We wanted to be good at music, you know. Growing up in the tough Ninth Ward, Shumar and De Niro were best friends. Along with their buddy Joe Williams, music was their playground. They were all barely into their teens when they were asked to join the hot eight brass band. And every morning he would wake up and play the drum and wake everybody up. I mean, he really went into it. De Niro's mom,

Yolanda. I was very proud of him. And when I first went to one of their performances, I was like, oh, this band is amazing. This 1994. film documents Hot 8 as they were growing into a musical force in New Orleans. We used to go out in the French quarters on the weekends and playing the quarters. It was cool. It was real cool. The drummers really is the vibe. Like if we're coming down the street.

Here, De Niro Shavers is only 14. Sometimes people dance to what the drummers are playing. It's like something that's coming from the inside. As De Niro grew up, so did Hot 8. Give it up New York. The band started to tour the country and cut CDs. At the same time, De Niro was also going to college and paying the bills with a variety of jobs. For a time, he was a civil sheriff.

But the violent crime that had always plagued New Orleans took its toll on him. He would get very upset. Went on. Every time he called mama, there's another murder in the city. And then in August of 2004, his close friend Joe Williams was shot and killed by New Orleans police officers. They shot him over 15 times, you know, and he didn't have anything but a trombone and a cell phone to cause. De Nirol in uniform was at the scene where he talked to a news crew. And something needs to be done about it. It's a damn sand. It's the third police shooting in three days. It was Joe's death that inspired De Nirole to write a song that challenged the people of

New Orleans. I have a song that I wrote entitled, Get Up. It's about stopping the violence. I mean, stopping the violence and let's get up and dance. It's about to go down. Chad Honoré plays the trumpet in Hot Eight. When I first line to rise, it just broke me down. It was a party saying, my people keep the peace.

Bring this murder right down. But the music stopped with Katrina. I lived on 5430. My sister Cheval lived at 5428. Yolanda brought us back to the ninth ward to see what's left of her house. And it just was, you know, home. It just is home.

And I guess we'll find other place like the Lower Night Ward, just home. De Niro's relatives, like so many others, others were scattered across the country. So was the band. Come on, man. A few months after the storm, in Atlanta, Georgia, Hot 8 reunited. The most important thing is playing the music, being together. It's just being a hot eat, that's the most important thing.

And so by Mardi Gras 2006, the band was back and playing a part in the rebirth of their city. De Nirole wanted to do more. He believed music could teach. Getting to school you, we had no textbooks. We had trouble staffing our school with teachers. Kevin George is the principal of Rob Winn High School. In the fall of 2006, he was trying desperately just to provide basic education for hundreds of kids from all over New Orleans.

De Niro began working with us as a day-to-day substitute. De Nirol had bigger plans. And he came to me, he said, look, I got this idea. I said, what do you got? He said, I want to start a band here. I mean, did you have any instruments in this school? Not one instrument. Not a problem to De Nirol.

He was sure he could get instruments. But now he had to get the kids. And he saw me in the hallway. He said, you want to be in a band? And I was like, yeah, I'll be in a band. I was like, who you is? And he said, I'm the new band director. He said, you want to join the band?

And I was like, I don't know how to play. He said, I teach him. Rishad, Devon, and Rufus were just three of the more than 70 kids who gave up their lunch hours and stayed after school to be part of De Niro's band. He brought me up one day, and he had the drum line all lined up, and they were beating on the desk. And I'm looking at this. I'm like, okay, this guy is something special. He was always open to any questions that you had for him. You know how when you want to talk to somebody, but you don't want to talk to your parents.

You could go talk to Mr. Shea, but you do anything you ask him. He was like an angel. The Nirod touched so many people. De Nirol's sister, Nikita. That was his purpose in life to try to reach, you know, these kids. I just focus on doing the right thing at all, all times. I mean, I stay positive. De Nirol, at only 25, had a lot going on.

Yeah. He had a six-year-old son, DJ. This is my wife, Tiffany. wife Tiffany. And he had recently married and added two stepchildren to his family. December 28, 2006, Hot 8 had just played another New Orleans funeral. After we finished performing, we was talking, and then it just started raining. We all ran tired of calls.

It was like, see you tomorrow, whatever. On his way to pick up his wife, De Niro got a call. The stepson was in some sort of trouble. He came just to pick the stepson up from where he was. His stepson was visiting a girl outside of his neighborhood, and some of the local boys didn't like it. The stepson got into the vehicle. The gunman came out.

The gunman shot into the back of the car trying to shoot the stepson, and it actually shot De Niro in the back of the head. members and De Niro's family rushed to the hospital. His mother Yolanda got there too late. And they had him laying on his table. And he just looked like he was sleeping, and his own was hanging down. And I just said, De Niro, please wake up and tell me

you love me like you did last night. To take him away from us, the way that happened, was very difficult for a lot of us. Is it hard to be here? It is. Knowing that this, well, he took his last breath. De Nirol Schaver's sister, Nikita, took us to the street to piece together what happened the night a gunshot took her brother away. What did his stepson see?

What did he tell the police initially? He just saw somebody running towards the car. He said go, but it happened too far. It happened too fast. I didn't really see anything. De Niro's stepson might not have seen anything, but Nikita believes there were plenty of people on this street who did. And as far as you know, there were people who saw this.

Yeah. Those witnesses may be the key to finding De Niro's Shaver's assailant. But in Helen Hill's case, there is much less to work with. Her husband described the killer as a bloodline. killer as a black male believed to have entered the house through the back door. Do the police have anybody, even a possible suspect in this case? I don't believe at this point they do, but I have confidence. Helen's older brother, Jake Hill, went to her now empty house to find a pile of unopened mail.

This is their 15th year reunion at Harvard. This is the class report. And in that report, Helen's unopened. words about her wonderful life with no idea that it was about to end. We made it back to New Orleans after a year in South Carolina and I love being back here. Every single person has a Katrina story and folks are still having a hard time. We feel lucky we have little Francis to keep us busy and happy. Did anyone have a reason to want to kill Helen?

Absolutely not. It's absurd. Police ruled out Paul as a suspect. And then we could all move on to finding the son of a bitch who didness. But when Jake met with investigators, he was shocked and troubled by what he saw. The day we arrived here, you know, I thought I was going to the police station to meet with the detectives. And then I understood the detectives were working out of temporary facilities. And I guess I didn't quite understand what that was until I got there and they were working

in trailers. It's been 500 days, you know, since Katrina. My sister was just murdered, and I'm going to meet with detectives and trailers. Our offices are in a FEMA trailer in the middle of the tennis court, the city park. Almost two years after Katrina? Yes. Actually, I've got to see what street were on. Most of the street signs are missing.

A cop for 27 years, Lieutenant Mike Glasser also leads the police association. Here's a beautiful corner. He's an excellent place to be shot. Since the storm, he says, police have fewer. tools than ever to stop criminals. We're operating with nothing and trying to combat an escalating problem. There was something I was jarring about that, that my sister has just been killed. And the United States of America, you expect there is a competent legal system that's going

to take charge. And then you come somewhere like this and, you know, they don't have a crime lab. Last summer, the city finally did open a new crime lab. But the police department still struggles to replace the more than 500 police officers it lost. It looks like the National Guard is on duty. Nearly three years after the storm, there are still sections of New Orleans that have to be patrolled by the National Guard.

The American military patrolling the streets of American city is not a sign of success. Helen Hill's killer could be anyone, anywhere. Before Katrina, this house where Paul and Helen lived was in a neighborhood considered safe, But now police say a new breed of criminal roams the city. Young, cold-blooded killers who have no fear they'll ever pay for their crimes. Police say they found an unidentified man lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to aside. Officers found a 33-year-old man shot several times. An unidentified 57-100 man lying inside a victim line.

I actually heard it on the radio. Music professor and cafe owner Beatty Landis had tuned out the violence until she heard a friend's name. 25-year-old De Nirole Shavers. It's one of those things that you can't believe you've actually heard it. They couldn't be talking about De Niro. Then on January 4th, one week later, another name. But weeping friends and neighbors identified the victim as filmmaker Helen Hill. Her neighbor, Helen Hill.

To hear that when I was so raw, from De Niro's death, it felt for that moment like an unfathomable statistic. Beatty decided she had to do something. With a few friends, she launched an organization called Silence is Violence, with a march on City Hall. I was thinking a few dozen, maybe 60, 75 people from the neighborhood would walk with us.

But that day, not dozens, not even hundreds, But thousands of people came marching from neighborhoods all over New Orleans. We have come to lodge our complaint. So many New Orleans were finding the means to express their own grief and their own anger and their own fear. I ask that you not let the death of my brother, Mrs. Helen Hill, and all the rest of my New Orleans citizens go in vain. It was a cry for my... It was a cry for change.

Criminal justice system and the government is broken. That city officials like Mayor Ray Nagin couldn't ignore. I heard everything that you said. And this city will focus on murders. There was a lot at stake as the investigations into De Nirol and Helen's murders continued. A lot of people would be watching. Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mysteries is a way.

weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailan Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of The Darkly Curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. Before Christmas 2006, members of the Robwin High School band were still practicing on school books and desk. The instruments that their band leader, De Niro Schavers, have worked so hard to get, finally arrived, just days after he was murdered. A lot of the horns and the drums were sitting in the office as soon as I opened the door. Principal Kevin George. He would always show me

the list of things that he ordered. And when I saw that in my office, it really touched my I'm gonna'all Shavers never got to hear Rashad Lee play his first notes on baritone. I just said I wanted to cry, but I was like, couldn't do it. Why not? It's like, I hear this so bad. If I cry, I'm gonna keep on crying, crying, crying, crying. Today, police arrested 17-year-old David Bond. On December 29th of 2006, police made an arrest in the murder of De Niroz

I don't even know that man. David Bonds is 17 years old. Lieutenant Joe Meish was head of homicide for the New Orleans Police Department. He said three witnesses, all young girls, named David Bonds as the gunman. At this point, how many witnesses do you have that are willing to go to trial? Actually, in this case, we have several, several witnesses that are very strong witnesses, and I'm 100% confident that David Bonds will be convicted of this case. As confident as the police say they are, the truth is convictions for murder in New Orleans are rare.

Just how rare? Well, De Niro Schavers was one of 162 homicides in 2006. Police made arrests in a third of those cases, but there have only been five convictions. The numbers don't lie. In New Orleans, a lot of people are getting away with murder. How important is it that these cases actually go to trial and someone is held accountable? That is the biggest thing here, and I think that's why so many of these killers are so callous. They very rarely see anybody go to trial and go to jail.

In 2007, nearly 3,000 suspects ranging from alleged drug dealers to murderers were simply released because the district attorney failed to file charges. But even when charges are filed, cases often fall apart. And what's the effect? I think the effect is no one wants to testify because they're afraid that this guy's going to be out of jail. No one wants to put themselves out there. And even De Niro's students understand that fear. So if any of you witnessed a crime, would you be afraid to come forward and say what you saw?

Because I wouldn't want to jeopardize my life or my family life, so I wouldn't come forward. We have to think about after I talked what are we going to do now? How would the police protect my family? Where they're going to be at? Still, police say they're confident that in De Niro Schaever's case, witness testimony will put away the alleged killer. It sounds like in this case, the witnesses are crucial to convicting David Bond. Absolutely.

The witnesses are crucial. I think they have the wrong guy. William Boggs, a public defender, is David Bond's lawyer. He claims the overtaxed police department did a shoddy investigation. You had a rumor which was repeated by a 15-year-old, maybe two 15-year-olds that the police seized upon and then declared the case solved. I believe they did that because of the pressure that was on them to solve. murders in the city.

According to Boggs, there's no physical evidence to connect bonds to the murder. Police found the murder weapon, a semi-automatic handgun like this, but they can't connect it to bonds. And the several witnesses Lieutenant Meijs was so confident about, they begin to back out. There were, by all accounts, up to 20 on the street. And it would stand a reason that if you've got all those people,

there should be lots of witnesses, who saw what happened. There should be lots of witnesses. And how many witnesses did the prosecution offer? One witness. That witness was a 15-year-old girl, and with all the pressure on her, her mother refuses to let her testify.

She called a local television station to explain. They should have been getting all these witnesses instead of depending on one little child. In June 2007, De Niro's sister Nikita and Beatty Land has come to court only to see the case against a man accused of killing De Nirol fall apart. Today, D.A. Eddie Jordan dropped the second-degree murder charges against 18-year-old David Bonds. Bady and Nikita leave in shock. Like so many other suspects, David Bonds is simply released without going to trial. There isn't anything that they could say to me that would justify them dropping the case, anything at all. Who's running the train? Who's flying this plane?

New Orleans most popular radio talk show host Garland Robinette believes the entire justice system in New Orleans is failing, and he blamed city leaders. Why won't these witnesses come through? Why can't this DA and police chief find more witnesses? because they prove to us on a regular basis that they're going to put them back on the street. Whether it's police that can't write a report that the DA can accept, whether it's the DA that doesn't know how to file the charges to keep them off the street,

or whether it's a judge that turns them loose. If we don't remove the power structure and rebuild it, the whole system will fall apart. Shame on you, Mayor Nagin, Superintendent Riley. District Attorney Jordan, you have really let us down. To learn each day that the system is more broken than you believed it had been the previous day is very discouraging. It's so deeply, so fundamentally broken.

Just one month after charges were dropped and David Bonds was released. Bonds is charged with second-degree murder. He was re-undited for the murder of De Nirole Shavers. We have the cooperation of several witnesses. Prosecutors had three critical witnesses, including the 15-year-old who had allegedly seen the murder, but who had earlier refused to testify. When the trial began in April,

everyone was sure that their testimony would convict bonds of murder. Prosecutors began making their second-degree murder case against David Bonds this afternoon, saying three teenage witnesses identified him as the shooter in separate photographic lineups. Then a bombshell. The day the key eyewitness took the stand, the prosecution's case fell apart again. The 15-year-old would only say, quote, I don't see nobody, end quote. But another witness, just 13 years old, testified she did see. the shooting. The stark contradiction left the jury deadlocked and then a decision. After

deliberating for five hours and two split votes, a jury clears David Bonds of all charges in the killing of New Orleans musician D' Naderl Shavers. Once again, David Bonds was released. De Niro's sister was devastated. The little bit of hope that we did have in this system in thinking and that we were headed in the right direction, it's gone. As for Helen Hill's case, nearly a year after she was murdered, there were still no suspects. Am I disappointed that it's been eight months, and it seems like the case is cold?

Absolutely. Desperate, Helen's brother Jake returns to New Orleans. My sister was about eight months ago. He's betting a fifth. $18,000 reward will motivate someone to talk and help find his sister's killer. The sister was killed eight months ago early in the morning. You know anyone who knows anything? We're pleading with you to come forward, to do the right thing to help solve this despicable crime.

I'm afraid for our safety and I think I'll always have that fear a little bit in me as long as they haven't found that person. Helen's husband, Paul, struggles to move on without his wife. Everything is completely different and empty without her. With his young son, Francis, Paul now lives as far from New Orleans as possible, feeling betrayed by the city that he and his wife once loved. Helen just loved that city so much and the people responsible for taking care of that city before and after the hurricane, you know, haven't done their jobs. It's a scandal, it's unbelievable, and Helen's death is a result of it.

Helen and De Nirol's murders served as a wake-up call for the city at large. We have come to declare that a city which could not be drowned in the waters of a storm will not be drowned in the blood of its citizens. Pastor John Raphael. How you doing, man? God bless you. Once a New Orleans cop is still walking a beat. How are you all doing this evening?

Trying to change attitudes one person at a time. We've seen enough murder, enough families destroyed. enough mothers having to bury their children, and we're doing all that we can to bring back the value of life and to save lives in the city. Ironically, it's the same message De Niel Shavers was trying to get out before his own brutal murder.

Stop the violence. I mean, the hurricane wasn't enough to wake up. I don't know what it is. I mean, live your life, man. Have fun. I mean, come on now. You're from New Orleans. Act like you're from New Orleans. I think if he had more time, he would have been like the Martin Luther King of music. Shemar Allen says De Nirol had a calling.

He had so much that he wanted to say and so much that he wanted to do, and he would have spent his whole life doing it. Is it still hard to believe? It's still hard to believe to this day, especially when his son is always with me now. The hardest part is knowing that he ain't going to be able to see the great musician that his son is going to be. It's impossible to watch DJ at age seven and not think of his father.

My daddy, he was a cool person. Everywhere he goes, he brings me with him. DJ no longer have a father. I no longer have a brother. How they no longer have a drummer? His students no longer have a teacher. Every time I walk in here, every time I hit a word bang, I think about Mr. Chavez.

Like when he died, I was crying, but... After De Niro's murder, some of his students thought about leaving the band. I was going to quit. I was like, well, then who's going to teach us? Why? There's no sense to come. But something hit me like, but keep on going and going to keep on going. And the marching band that De Niro envisioned, long before they even had instruments, has now taken root.

One, two, three, four... They were invited to a band camp held at the University of Southern California with the renowned Trojan marching band. Man, it's a big opportunity. It's like it's a once in a lifetime chance. De Niro Shavers would have been proud. We lost someone who truly loved the kids. We just lost a New Orleans treasure on De Niro Shavers.

Helen Hill and De Nirole Shavers came back after the hurricane to save the city they loved. You can't kill this spirit! Katrina! Katrina couldn't kill New Orleans, but the continuing storm of murder just might. Ellen Hill's murder remains unsolved.