48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Suspicious Death of Megan Parra

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

A father’s determination successfully reopened the investigation into the death of his daughter, Megan Parra. What do Correspondent David Begnaud and Producer Judy Rybak think about the evidence that left viewers wondering, what really happened to Megan Parra? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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the troubled case against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Anne-Marie Green, and we are back for another episode of 48 Hours Postmortem. And I'm joined today with CBS News national correspondent David Begnaud and producer Judy Ryback to discuss the suspicious death of Meghan Perra. David, Judy, thanks for joining me. You bet. Yeah, always a pleasure to be here with you, Anne-Marie. This is a case that took, you know, so many twists and turns over several years. In 2014, Megan Parra was found on her living room floor by her parents. she was unresponsive from a gunshot wound to the head.

When she later died at the hospital, the manner of her death was questioned by her family. Was it suicide, as police said, or was it a homicide? Before we get into postmortem, though, let's remind listeners what this case was all about. On June 28, 2014, in the small town of Cottonport, Louisiana, Missy and Steve Ducote faced the unthinkable when they discovered their daughter, Megan Perra, in her own home with a gunshot wound to the head. I wouldn't know how to tell you.

I've never felt like that before or since. Missy, a nurse practitioner, tried to revive her daughter. She was breathing just barely, though. Megan's husband, Dustin, showed up minutes later, slipped in his wife's blood, and also tried to save Megan. But it was too late. She was taken off of life support the next day. Her death was ruled a suicide.

But Steve Ducote was convinced there was foul play. I knew something was wrong with this case from the start. I knew she hadn't killed Azil. He eventually got his hands on more than 100 images taken at the shooting scene. Some of the photos revealed signs of a struggle, says Ducote, like this wine rack found behind a chair. Megan's sister Betsy Jansong says the blood spatter patterns just didn't look right to them. We were on the computer researching and learning about ballistics, about blood spatter.

Steve Ducote says they kept finding more and more evidence they believe proved. Megan was murdered, but no one would listen. The state shut you down. Oh yeah. Sheriff shut you down. Right. Until a crime scene analyst discovered what he believed to be irrefutable physical evidence

on the shorts Dustin was wearing that day. Evidence that the Avoyals Parish District Attorney Charlie Riddle presented to a grand jury on October 13th, 2021. Six minutes after you presented to the grand jury, they come back with a charge of second degree murder. But it was not an open and shut case, says Riddle. People thought we were just a grieving family.

And he just led us for nine years, still leading us. So, David, you are originally from Louisiana. us. So, David, you are originally from Louisiana. What was your impression of Steve's persistence and determination to re-examine his daughter's death and how that speaks to the culture of Louisiana? For me, it was classic Louisiana, right? People from the area where I grew up and Steve grew up about an hour away from me, They were a persistent, genuine, relentless group of people when they feel passionate about something. We're very welcoming, but we are very insistent when we see an injustice. And here is a man who literally was on his own island. Nobody seemed to believe him. Nobody was basically backing him. And he quietly and for the most

part politely persisted for years when folks in town and people in power didn't believe him. What do you think was sort of at the heart of why he insisted on getting this case reexamined? What was justice he was looking for? He did not want those boys, Megan's two sons and his grandchildren, to believe and go forward with their lives thinking that their mother took her own life. He just was not going to accept that. Understandable. So, Judy, what initially hooked you when you heard about this case? So, I was sitting at home one night and I got a call from David. You're not going to believe it. I just got a call from a guy I used to know in Louisiana. And, you know, I'm going to send you this video, take a look at it, and then let's talk.

David, tell them about the video, please. Well, the video, they have these two retired FBI agents who when you sit there and you watch them talk and you watch the interrogations they did. I mean, I'm telling you, if you know, it's proof that we live in a world today where you can watch a video and you're like ready to render a verdict. And, you know, I was ready to render a verdict of we got to go look into this story. And I think what I'm fulfilled by in this hour is I think Judy and the editors did a masterful job in telling a story that does not tip the scale, that presents the facts and allows people to come away at the end forming their own opinion. See, I think that's really interesting that people need to know that often when you're covering these cases, obviously there are families on both sides of a case that appeal to you to win you over.

But it's up to 48 hours to really ask the tough questions, you know, not just of the police, questions, you know, not just of the police, not just of the accused, but also of the grieving family members of the victims. And that's difficult for the family a lot of times, because imagine the worst moment in your life now being in the hands of strangers you just met to put together for an hour in prime time. I mean, you'd be a little concerned too, right? Right. So listen, at the heart of this case is the investigation, both the one conducted by authorities and also the one conducted by Megan's family. So we're going to start with the lead detective, Chris Knight's investigation. David or Judy, what stood out to you about the investigation that he conducted? So if you ask any investigator,

they'll tell you that even if it looks like a suicide, you have to investigate until you rule out homicide. That was not done. You know, and then the family told us that Detective Chris Knight said he found Megan's fingerprints on the gun. And they were like, well, you know, I guess she shot herself because why else would her fingerprints be on the gun? And then what set Steve Ducote into investigating this case was that he later found out that the gun hadn't been tested at all, that Chris Knight had allegedly lied to him. That definitely stood out to us. You have to remember that when they found Megan, she was still alive. Had she been dead when she was found, this whole investigation would have gone differently. They would have had more pictures of her the way she was found, and

they also probably would have tested her hands for gunshot residue. But the fact that she was alive, was taken to the hospital, they worked on trying to save her life, and then her organs were harvested. By the time she got to the medical examiner, her hands were bagged, but at that point, what kind of gunshot residue would they have found on her hands? But Chad Johnson, who was a local detective in town,

Detective Knight asked him to come over and look at the scene. And Johnson told us over the phone that he told Knight, you know, the scene was really badly contaminated and that he had to do a very good job of investigating this to figure out what had happened. But instead, Chris Knight's investigation was minimal. And I want to remind listeners, too, that Chris denies that he told the family the gun had been fingerprinted. Right. Anne-Marie, this case is so wild in terms of how this investigator handled it. It came down to a one-page report. I mean, the guy basically suggested to the medical examiner, because she told us this, that he felt it was a suicide and kind of was a done deal before she even really started working heavily on the case. A really messy initial investigation.

So then four and a half years later, Detective Knight is questioned by former FBI agents, Zach Shelton and David Lemoine, who were able to officially investigate after being deputized by the Cottonport Police Department. As we mentioned before, according to Knight, on the day of the shooting, detective and blood spatter expert Chad Jean-Sean showed up to the scene, told Knight that it was clear to him that Megan had shot herself. And that's why Knight says he didn't investigate further. Here's a clip of Chris Knight in that interrogation. When the body was positioned and the blood splatter in the gun, it actually was suicide. But on a recorded interview.

Okay, we're on the record. Jean-Saul disputed Knight's account. What Detective Knight basically wanted to know was, could I determine if this was a suicide or not? Jean-Saul disputed Knight's account. Jean-Saul says he told Detective Knight that the scene was badly contaminated, and he advised Knight to investigate closely until he could rule out homicide. But Knight admits he never even sent the gun out for testing. Why not? I have no idea.

And said he had never fully examined the evidence. I looked at it as a suicide and not a homicide. If I box this, you know, then I mean, I'll take the button. My fault, you know. But was mean, I'll take the button. My fault. But was it done on purpose? Absolutely not. From your extensive experience reporting on crime duty, what do you think of Knight's explanation? Oh, my goodness.

We've had so many conversations about this. I think he was young and inexperienced. And I think, you know, she was found behind locked doors by herself. It just, I think to him, it just looked like a suicide. I just don't think he thought that it was murder. We'll never know. And he is just admitting to everything like, yeah, I didn't do that. Yeah, I didn't. I don't know why I didn't send the gun off for testing. I don't know why I didn't do this. I don't know why. I mean, it is maddening. And by the way, we did everything but beg him to sit down for an interview. And he just didn't want to talk.

He did not want to do anything in front of the camera. He sent us a written statement that's included in the piece. Here's a clip from the broadcast. Chris Knight repeatedly refused our request for an interview, but did send this written statement, which reads in part, I was a young, inexperienced investigator. And would I do some things differently today? With the training and experience I now have? Absolutely. You know, I think the other problem was the accident the night before the shooting. the other problem was the accident the night before the shooting. Chris Knight was actually at the scene of the accident. And I think he thought, oh, she tried to kill herself last

night and now she succeeded. So that may have also played into the way that he behaved. Right. And what's interesting about the medical examiner's determination here with Megan's death is the medical examiner determined that it was a suicide as well. And when a lot of people think of, you know, a medical examiner, you think this is a doctor, we're talking about science, an authority figure, but really so much of their own investigation is informed by the evidence that they're given by police. Police often sort of give them kind of a framework. They set the scene and then the medical examiners look at the science and kind of use a combination of both to come to a conclusion.

Okay, so you're bringing up something that's so important here. In this case, the medical examiner said to us, Chris Knight called her before she even cut into Megan's body and basically gave her a rough estimate that he thought it was probably a suicide because this and this. She then proceeds with that thinking into the autopsy, finds a little bit of bruising, by the way, that is kind of questionable enough to write it on the report. And where could that old bruising come from in the abdomen area? Right. But then she issues a finding of suicide. And Anne-Marie, what's so important about what you're bringing up is that then is a determination that all the officials in town start saying, well, the doctor said it was a suicide. So then Steve Ducote, the father, is trying to undo that because

that is a classification. What then becomes even more fascinating about this story is the unwinding. This medical examiner went from suicide to undetermined to homicide. And I think, Judy, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she said this is the first time in her career she's ever walked it back that far and gone from suicide to homicide. First time the district attorney says he's ever saw that. First time I've ever seen that in my career, that it's been walked back that far. Yeah, for sure. That's what she told us on the phone that night. that far. Yeah, for sure. That's what she told us on the phone that night.

You've interacted with a lot of medical examiners, especially in these, you know, small towns, large counties. They work hard, Judy. They do work hard and they're overworked. They have too many cases and there's, you know, sort of a rush on everything. And I think that might have been at play here as well. But of course, the investigation and the examiner's report just didn't sit right with Megan's family, especially her father, Steve. So when we get back from the break, we're going to get into his relentless fight for justice and what finally cracked this case wide open. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California.

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And the judge asks Dan Schaub, the commander of the criminal investigations unit at a Voiles Parish Sheriff's Department, to look into this. And let's listen to what Schaub said in the broadcast. First thing I did was, you know, talk to Steve, see what his concerns were. We started working on things and boy, he was working. Unfortunately, says Schaub, there wasn't much to work with. Here

there was not even basic Detective 101 that was done by Chris Knight. Schaub says his hands were somewhat tied by Steve Ducote, who he says prevented him from accessing certain evidence like Megan's cell phone. At that point, Dustin had the cell phone, and he did not want to ask Dustin for her cell phone. Okay, so this is, you know, struck me as odd.

Steve is pushing. He is fighting hard. He wants a new investigation. But then he starts to pull back when it comes to the cell phone information. What was that about? Dustin and the boys were living with Steve and Missy at that point. And I think Steve was just nervous. He was nervous for his son-in-law to find out that he was having him investigated. So he wanted Dan Schaub to do as much as he could without speaking

to Dustin. Let's discuss more of the evidence. The family eventually obtains 115 photographs from the initial investigation of the crime scene, and then they begin analyzing the photographs. And I want to talk about the blood spatter evidence. David or Judy, you know, what did you two make of this evidence? Yeah, so initially that was one of the things that was outstanding to us. If you shoot yourself, you know, the bullet goes right through your head, most of the blood spatter you would think would be on the exit wound side, right? It seemed like there was more blood spatter on the entrance wound

side where she shot herself. But, you know, two things about that. Experts have told us that you can't rely on that, that there can sometimes be more blood spatter on the entrance wound side. But also when you look at the photographs, no photographs were taken of her left side where the exit wound was. So you can't really tell if there was more on the entrance wound side because you can't see the exit wound side. Also, there was some question about the bullet. The bullet was found in the room to the left side of her.

So in order to believe that she was shot the other way, the bullet would have had to bounce off several walls to end up where they found it. Also, Dustin slid in the blood, right? So we don't know how much of that spatter comes from the slide. We just don't know. There just isn't enough information about the blood spatter. I just want to talk about the gun.

When you look at this gun, there is like a needle print of blood inside on the top portion of the gun that appears to some as if the gun was wiped clean. And what was used to wipe it just couldn't get that little needle point that sort of burrowed in the gun. That was always interesting to me. But also remember, there's no photographs down the barrel of the gun and there's no photographs of the other side of the gun. So you're only getting a partial view of the gun. I agree that it looks like wiped clean, clean as a whistle. But we're limited by what we can actually see. Right. And then the gun disappears, you know.

And this is another thing we didn't get to talk about. Oh, yeah. Tell them where the gun went. So according to Steve Ducote, the gun is given back to Dustin and a relative of Steve's buys the gun from Dustin and then throws it in the river. In Toledo Bend, which is a very popular sort of vacation spot where some people have second homes. And, you know, I'd say it's about two hours from where this death happened. I mean, the truth is, by the time this relative bought it, it was irrelevant anyway, right?

I mean, what are you going to get off of it at that point? But they just felt it was so hurtful to have that gun in existence that they threw it in the river. But of course, Anne-Marie, if you're an investigative reporter like us, we're like, now why you need to throw it at the bottom of a lake? It seems suspicious. This case really starts gaining more momentum in 2018 when Steve brings it to his friend from high school, David Lemoine, who just happens to be a retired FBI agent. And then David comes out of retirement and he enlists a fellow retired FBI agent, Zach Shelton, to help. And they did something that Detective Knight never did the first time around. They questioned Dustin extensively for an hour. Let's play some of that conversation.

I feel like y'all tried to incriminate me. You need to come clean and you need to say we got in a fight and maybe she grabbed the gun first. Maybe she shot herself in front of you. I don't know, but you were there. When she was shot, in front of you. I don't know, but you were there. When she was shot, I was not there. David Lemoine pushed so hard that Dustin abruptly ended the interview. I'm done, guys.

In that moment, I'm thinking he's definitely involved. So when you heard the interrogation, and I'm sure you listened to much more than just that little snippet that we played. What did you think about Dustin's demeanor? What did you think about their approach? I thought they were respectful, honestly. And quite frankly, I thought Dustin was candid. He looked comfortable. He seemed agreeable to being there. He didn't seem agitated. He didn't seem unhappy. And then it got a little testy. And then it got real testy. And Dustin got up and left. And so what ends up happening is Dustin is charged with Megan's murder. Three days before the trial, though, is scheduled to begin, his defense team offers a plea deal of negligent homicide, and Megan's family agrees to it. Dustin pleads nolo contendere, which basically means no contest.

District Attorney Charles Riddle got to question Para on the stand, and here's a clip of him reading the record. Your marriage to her was a struggle for the last couple of months of her life, correct? Answered by Paraaira, yes sir. On the morning of June 28, 2014, you and her were arguing and she threatened to leave, correct? Paira, yes. I'm not contesting as part of the no-law contingent plea. You had a pistol in your hand and in the struggle the gun went off firing into her head, correct? Answered, yes. I'm not contesting as part of the no-look contingent plea. We wanted to make sure that he admitted that he shot her and it was not suicide.

To us as a family, him admitting to that, that was huge. A negligent homicide charge only carries a maximum sentence of five years. Dustin will likely only spend 18 months behind bars and the rest on parole. Why did the family accept this deal? They weren't trying to lock Dustin away forever. It was clear to Judy and I all along that what was most important was getting those boys to understand their mother didn't do it. And now in a court of law, in their father's own words, they have it. And what was second most important was getting custody of those boys.

Because what Steve and Missy did not want was for those boys to be living with their stepmother while their father was in prison. And so here's what's interesting to note. In Steve and Missy getting the boys, they don't just have them temporarily until Dustin gets out. Dustin has lost custody.

His rights were terminated. And in order to get them back, he has to go to a court and petition a judge and make the argument. That is an uphill battle. Jeez. Listen, let's talk about when you do sit down across from him, David. He refused to speak to you. him, David. He refused to speak to you. And then when Dustin arrived at the sheriff's department to turn himself in, you approach him and ask him for his side of the story. But he still will not say a word. I have to say it was perhaps the most polite confrontation I've seen, David.

Your Southern charm was, you know, showing itself in full force, But you couldn't get anything out of him. What was your impression of him during that meeting? Not once did he have a look of anger or wanting to yell at me. I mean, his eyes were soft, his facial expressions were restful, and he just sat there. And what I am fascinated by is how someone who has faced an avalanche of criticism and suspicion and then takes a plea deal and is now going to jail is still mouth shut. I think that Dustin was afraid he was going to end up in prison for the rest of his life. And he took this deal because I think he thought he would do a year and a half in prison and then go on with his life. And he just wanted us and everybody to go away. Megan's parents got what they really wanted, which was to be awarded full custody of Megan and Dustin's two sons. Now,

at the time of the shooting, those boys were just 18 months and four years old. They're now 11 and 13. What sort of impact has this had on them? Yeah, it's been really tough. It's been really tough. But we are told that things are getting better. I mean, you have to remember that they were living with their dad for nine years while their grandfather was investigating their father. And hearing only what their dad wanted them to know. Right. At some point, you know, Missy told us that they basically stopped talking to their grandparents. I think these cases are particularly difficult on the families of the victims.

This is my fourth case in a row where the question was, was it suicide or murder? And I've noticed that these cases are really more difficult on the families than a murder case because there is no full closure. When you know someone has been murdered, there's a villain, there's somebody you can focus your attention on. But when you're fighting to prove that your loved one didn't take their own life, there's a lot of emotion around that that you don't see in other cases. I can totally see that, Judy. The guilt that family members would have. Why didn't I see something? Why didn't I say something? Why didn't they reach out to me that you might not have with a random murder? I want to thank you guys, both David and Judy, for joining me for this. This has been a great conversation. Pleasure. Yeah, always a pleasure.

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