Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Killer in the Storm

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Young mother Brenda DuPont is found murdered in her home in Opelousas, Louisiana in May 1988. The initial investigation quickly turns cold, but Brenda’s older sister, Linda, vows to get justice, no matter how long it takes.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpApartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.BetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/COLDCASE to get 10% off your first month.Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. I used to drink coffee with Brenda every morning. Brenda had something good every day cooked. Yes, indeed.

They had so many questions. They were asking, who do you think did it? They asked me, did you have anything to do with it? Why would I kill my little sister? She had been stabbed in the head ten or more times. It was a horrible death. I went to a nurse casket. I told Brenda before I die, I'm going to solve this murder.

And I plan to do just that. There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America. Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's May 20th, 1988 in Opelousis, Louisiana. And 29-year-old Brenda DuPont is at her sister Linda. house to help her prepare for a celebration.

I was graduating and gave my GED, and Brenda came and started helping me make finger foods, cookies, sandwiches and stuff for the little party after my graduation. And Brenda stayed at my house until, I'm sure, about 8.30 or 9 o'clock that night. And then it started raining real hard, lightning. I mean, lightning was so bright you would think it was sunshine outside. It was raining really hard. Brenda went back to her apartment. She said she was going to go in for the night.

Brenda rents an apartment behind Linda's home, and they spend most of their free time together. But something seems a little bit off the next morning on May 21st. I used to drink coffee with Brenda every morning. And the next morning, I sent Lee Herbert my son to go get Brenda come eat breakfast. But Brenda didn't answer the door. And then finally, after about third or fourth time, I went to my landlord's house and asked her if I could use her phone to call the police

because I knew something was wrong. Brenda would have let us in by now. The police arrived to find a locked front door. An officer knocks, but Brenda doesn't answer. The officer notices that a window at the back of the apartment is open. When the policewoman looks inside, she can see Brenda, and she knows she needs to get into the apartment by any means necessary. When the police woman kicked the door in, I saw the mattress was kind of slanded against the bed frame.

And I saw Brenda's body in a fetal position. Her eyes were open, but I knew she wasn't alive. When I saw Brenda's body on the floor, and I saw all the blood, I started screaming. And it was hard because I had to call from my family and tell them that Brenda was gone. it was really hard. More officers are dispatched to the scene. Lieutenant Dwayne Grimmett has worked in the area for over a decade, and he has seen a rise in violent crime during that time.

Lopoulouse's used to be a very good place to live in. When I first started here, it was 1977. I enjoyed the people that I met in the street as an officer in the city and the people that I worked with. You didn't have many homicides. Things started to change in the town. As the years went on, it got worse. I was working as a patrolman on that particular day.

I knew Brenda lived at that residence. I knew Linda, her sister. I knew all of the people that lived in the house. This wasn't a big city at the time. I remember a past by the crime scene. There was a lot of people out there. Detective Jude Victorian, is already at Brenda's apartment,

where the officers are videotaping the gruesome crime scene. Going into the crime scene and observing Brenda's body lying there, it was an overkill. You know, it was blood everywhere. It was an efficiency home that Brenda lived in. It was one-bedroom kitchen. The thing that stood out to me was the multiple stab wounds and the bite marks.

That in particular stood out to me. She had no clothes on. That struck out to me that we would have to request, you know, sexual assault kit be administered during the autopsy. I was perplexed and angry at the same time, angry because who in the world would do this to Brenda? When we were going through the crime scene, we were looking for any possible weapons, anything that the suspect could have left behind at that crime scene. We found no weapons in Brenda's house that could have caused this,

or that was even linked to this. Detective Victorian zeroes in on the open window and the locked door. You don't enter a person's house and then leave out the window. You come out the same door that they let you in. The theory at the beginning of Brindus murder was that whoever killed her, she let them in. She knew them because the door was locked. The investigators speak to those closest to Brenda,

including her sister Geraldine and her cousin Bobby. Brenda was the youngest girl and 12 children. We were six girls and six boys, and Brenda was the baby girl. Brenda was my godchild. My mother chose me to be her godmother. My dad was a sharecropper. We had to miss the first six weeks of school

to help my daddy harvest crops. They were raised in a little country town on the Bayou. Very poor people like many, many families are from this area. Her dad fed his family catfish from Bayutech, and they lived a very, very loving life in that family. I would have done anything for my little sister, Brenda. We all had a share in spoiling Brenda. We call it in French and got to shoe.

She was my little hot cake. I spoiled her a lot. But mom and dad made sure we went to church. We had catechism once a week, like on Saturday mornings. Brenda didn't want to be dressy, dressing all the time. She wanted to be in her jeans sometimes, her little tank tops. But mom and dad always told Brenda you can't wear just anything in church. When Brenda was 18 years old, she gave birth to a daughter of her own, Monica.

I do believe she was a little bit nervous when she found out she was pregnant because she was young. But Brenda was a very good mother. She started dating when her mother and father let her go. And she married the young man she was in love with. And that didn't last very long. The breakup is hard on Brenda, and she struggles to support herself and her daughter. So she had no income. Brenda was really depressed then.

That's when the CPS got involved. And that's how she lost custody of Monica. Brenda was depressed after they took Monica away from her. And they told her, you know, the only way you get Monica back is for you to do what the doctors tell you to do, Brenda. She started taking her medications and she was abiding by it. Brenda moved next to her to me. And she was getting on her feet.

Brenda would do what she had to do to give her daughter. Brenda was doing very well. It seems as though Brenda's life has been snatched away just as she was getting it back on track. The investigators narrow their focus to the people living nearest to Brenda, her sister Linda, and Linda's boyfriend, Dyker Chavis.

Dyker was my boyfriend at the time. He lived in the home with me. He was a working man, and he tried to do everything he could for me and my children and would help Brenda too, Brenda and Monica if they needed. They started questioning me. They had so many questions. They were asking, who do you think did it?

Did you have anything to do with it? Why would I kill my little sister? I was angry with the police because they were looking directly at us. Nobody in my house did this. So if y'all want to find a true murderer, go out and find the true murderer. The chief of police at the time summoned all the entire investigative. division into going and into canvassing the area. Sometimes people don't want to come forward right away.

People see things that they don't think are important to investigators. A canvas is done to hopefully seek out someone who has information relative to the crime. But the initial canvas on that day revealed no new information relative to Brenda's death. It was extremely rare for this kind of murray. something like we had never seen before. We were at a loss. We just, this was brutal. Adding to the police pressure,

people in the small community are scared that the killer is not finished. I was very paranoid after my sister was murdered. I wonder if that's the one that killed my sister. I wonder if he's going to come after me. The first thing I was afraid of is that whoever killed Brenda would come back, and I was afraid of that.

A lot of people were concerned, Because that person who did commit that crime is still out there. And he's probably going to kill again. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sometimes summer can feel like two totally different seasons. On one hand, it's sunshine, travel, longer days. On the other, it can be a lot. Schedule shifts, routines disappear,

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I woke up to this blinding light and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV. Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows and they were all free. The truth is ours.

It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, fringe arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. Police processed the crime scene and the medical examiner takes Brenda's body to a funeral home.

It wasn't until I could get to the funeral home where we could do a thorough examination in the presence of the corner. During the autopsy, the coroner finds bite marks and 31 stab wounds. Forensic scientist and crime scene investigator George Shiro recalls the evidence that is collected. I first became familiar with the Brenda DuPont. case when I was working at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab in 1988. There were over 75 items of evidence that were submitted to the Louisiana State Police Lab.

I was able to look at the items from the sexual assault kit, such as the vaginal washings and the vaginal swabs. We were able to identify seminal fluid and actually identified, visually identified, spermatozoa. So we knew that there was a sexual element involved to the case.

Investigators might have the killer's DNA. But there isn't much they can do with it at this point. Well, back in 1988, forensic DNA analysis was in its infancy. It just wasn't as precise and accurate and as widely available as we needed. There weren't really any workable databases back then to compare things to. The evidence leads the detectives to question whether the murder was a crime of passion. You want to talk to the people who lived close.

You want to talk to people who had knowledge of who she was and what she did. The investigators, they talked to several people who lived in the neighborhood in reference to the murder of Brenda DuPont. And you do want to talk to the family members. The sister lived right in front of Brenda DuPont. They wanted to take me to Baton Rouge to take a lie detector test. And I was willing. The test said, I passed it.

They didn't have to worry about me. So they continued and continued testing other people that they thought would have done it. Linda passes the polygraph, but she and her boyfriend Diker are still under a cloud of suspicion. The attack on Brenda was brutal, and the investigators believe Linda or Diker would have heard her screaming. I believe they questioned Dica a good bit because here was Dica, I mean, right next door. Initially, we thought that Linda and Diker's proximity in such a horrible and violent crime. that they didn't hear anything. You know, we all investigators talked about that.

Linda and Diker claimed that the thunderstorm on the night of the murder must have drowned out Brenda's screams. I know if Linda would have heard anything, Linda would have gone out. I know Linda. Linda would have gone out and faced the killer, no doubt. Detectives learn more about Brenda's romantic life while speaking with her family.

They discovered that she had been dating two men named David at the same time. We learned that Brenda was dating both of them during the same time, and we needed to find out if one found one another. They both got mad at one another. It just was a revenge killing. So certainly we had to pick up those two and interview them. When you get this kind of information, you try to find that person and talk to them and, you know, see where were they at the time?

What were they doing? What was going on with them? And like all other people, the investigators talked to them about this crime. It was later ruled out that they had nothing to do and were not affiliated with the death of Brenda Dupon. As the detectives continue their search for Brenda's killer, her family gathers for her funeral. 11-year-old Monica will tragically have to face life without her mother. The whole family was devastated. I had donated my plot in the cemetery.

My little brother made her headstone, a beautiful headstone. The family buries Brenda with her maiden name, Bergeron. It was only the immediate family could view her body because it was so badly messed up. And when I went to sarcastic, I told her... Brenda, before I die, I'm going to solve this murder. And I meant that. One person missing from the funeral is Brenda's estranged husband, Jerry, who was separated from Brenda, but remained a part of the family. After he found out Brenda was murdered, he never came around.

My mom even offered him to be a pallbearer. He said yes, and he didn't show up. But you don't come to your own wife's funeral. Come on now. We thought Jerry could be involved in it. Because, you know, he didn't want her anymore. He put her and her little girl out, and he left Brenda for another woman.

Just a few weeks before, she got killed. She had gone and met up with that woman that her husband, Jerry, was messing with. They got into an argument. And the lady was bigger than her, but Brenda did not back down. We mentioned everything to the cops. We told them about that.

The police look into Jerry and his girlfriend. Well, we're always going to pick up and talk to the strange person. We have to rule him out as a suspect. Detectives contact the estranged spouse to see if it was a revenge killing and to see if, you know, there was any culpability. Brenda's ex and his new girlfriend have solid alibis for the night of the murder, so they are checked off the suspect list. Despite interviewing hundreds of people,

the police have no witnesses, no solid suspects, and no new leads. We got to that point where we just couldn't do anymore with it until the case evolved. And I always say about this case is this is a case that the evidence had to wait for the technology to catch up with it. It was very, very frustrating

because we kept running into dead ends. It's now October 1988. Five months have passed since Brenda was killed, and Opelousis is rocked by another murder. We had a report of a shooting approximately three or four city blocks from Brenda's homicide. A lot of people were concerned because it was a pretty shocking thing for them to know that something like this had happened in the city. Because of the proximity.

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Opelous's police looked for a connection between Clint Thompson, who was suspected of being involved with the shooting and Brenda's murder. He was chasing a female. into a home, apparently to hurt her, there was an individual, a man who was at the home, and shot and killed him. His case had some similarities to Brenda's crime because he was trying to get into a house.

You know, there was a lady there. You know, we thought that, hey, this is, that was the big break. This was it. It was very, very urgent. Either we have our man who committed this horrible crime at Brindler's house, or we still have a killer out on the loose.

The dead man may be the killer the investigators have been hunting. Aiming to link Thompson to Brenda's murder, Detective Victorian turns to a new forensic technique. Forensic odentology, what's called pattern matching, was touted as being almost as good as fingerprints by a lot of their experts. Investigators want to compare the bite marks on Brenda's breast to the suspect's dental impression. The marks were so identifiable on her

that we had good pictures, good pictures to scale, and we were going to solve this case. My partner and I, at the time, went to Petersburg, Mississippi, where we met with a forensic old ontologist there who was sort of world-renowned. He had a reputation. I remember my partner and I sitting down

with this pathologist. After talking to him, we was just, I mean, I was just confident that the bite mark was going to bring us to where we needed to be. We needed exemplars of Thompson's teeth. And the corner did the impressions and obtained exemplars we needed. At that time, we had been in consultation

with a second forensic odontologist. He was in Washington, D.C. at the FBI headquarters. He advised me if I could give him. get over there, he would be more than happy to make some determinations. And, you know, at that point, I got on the next flight out to Washington, D.C. with the exemplars and met the forensic pathologists at the FBI Academy. It was urgent that we get somebody to examine those exemplars so that we can move on with our investigation. Detective Victorian still has suspicions about Linda's boyfriend, Diker Chavis.

So he tests bite samples from both Diker and Thompson. The exemplars, the forensic autonautologists examined, definitely ruled out Diker Ray Chavis as a suspect. However, Clint Thompson's exemplars bared some similarities. I was confident on my way back after obtaining that information. I was hopeful that we had our suspect.

As the prime suspect is already dead, investigators can't question him or employ their usual tactics. The chief of police typed up a statement that there was a similarity to the bite marks and sent it to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab. Once we had learned that back in 1989, that a bite mark had been identified, we'd considered the case solved based on the information we had at the time. So most of the people are not even looking at it again. Brenda's sister Linda isn't convinced that the case is closed.

When the police came home and mentioned Clint Thompson may have done this to Brenda, I didn't go for it. I didn't know Clint Thompson, but I don't think Clint Thompson did this to Brenda. The pathologist takes a closer look and determines that Clint Thompson couldn't have left the bite marks on Brenda. So, investigators are right back to square one. I felt frustrated, you know, it was sad because we just couldn't put our hands on the suspect. I asked them what's going on with Brenda's murder. Are y'all still working? City court gave me custody of Brenda's daughter. And it was, it was hard because Monica's only thing was, who killed my mama?

And we couldn't answer that. We couldn't answer it. What do you tell her? Linda remembers the promise she made while standing at Brenda's casket. And she is determined to keep the case alive. And I said, in my book, it'll never be a cold case file. Never will be. That's my baby sister. And I promised her I was going to solve it. And I planned to do just that.

I keep Brenda's pictures in my den on the piano. And I have some on a bookshelf and just remember things that she and I did together. I said, Brenda, I promised you I was going to solve this case. It's been a year since the murder, and detectives still have no idea who killed Brenda DuPont. You certainly get tips that you had to follow up on. It's just that all of it just wasn't turning up anything. We just didn't have anything solid to go with. They didn't want to tell me they had made it a cold case file.

As time passes, the leads in the case vanish, and the case goes cold. It's now 1995, seven years since Brennan's. was killed, and Detective Victorian leaves the department. Leaving the department and the suspect is still running around, you know, it certainly frustrates you. And you think about, did we miss out on anything? Did we leave something behind? You know, having to pass in front of that house or pass in that area at different times, certainly triggered certain emotions.

The trauma of losing her mother in such horrific circumstances, takes a toll on Brenda's now 18-year-old daughter, Monica. It was hard to see that child not being raised by her mother. Linda loved her dearly and did everything she could for the child. But we could tell the child long for her mother. Monica wouldn't stay home. She got to drinking. She started drugging.

She wasn't taking good care of herself. She had friends that didn't care about it. her. Monica moves to Georgia to start over. Linda remains determined as ever to get justice for Brenda. Linda's persistence, her bravery, her love for her sister, kept this hope alive. But she stayed on them and she called the police officer and say, please help us find the killer. About to spend in 28 years of state police, I was elected sheriff of St. Landry Parish in 2006. I've been sheriff ever since. When I first got elected sheriff, in fact, Linda said, okay, big boy, we want to close this case. She was not a pain, but she would call me routinely. And she'd called

the chief of police at that time and say, please help us find the killer. And when another chief came along, Mr. Gallo, he was hounded, rightfully so by Linda. It's December 2007, and Perry Gallo is about to become the new chief of police. I decided to run a campaign for the elected position of chief of police. And during the course of that campaigning, I came across family members who expressed an interest in solving cases that had gone dormant or cold. And one family in particular was Linda who asked me to please have someone look into this

her sister's case, and I assured her that I would. In 2012, Chief Gallo maintains his promise and opens a cold case unit in the Opelousas Police Department. I knew the perfect person to look at these cases, and that individual, of course, was Duane Grimmett. It's safe to say that there are certain investigators who have a better working relationship with crime labs, and Dwayne Grimmett is one of those guys. When you start working a case like this, you have to make sure.

that you have everything that either the crime lab has or that your office has or they had they kept it. There was a lot of paperwork that I had to regenerate as far as getting it from the crime lab or witnesses. You had to find the witnesses and talk to them and get statements from them again. It was obviously to us through experience that the person that did this new Brenda because of the violence that took place inside the home. Lieutenant Grimmett interviews previous witnesses. including Dyker Chavis, who was once a person of interest. During the interview, Diker mentions a name that had come up during the early stages of the investigation,

one of Brenda's boyfriends. Diker tells the investigators that he'd heard a rumor that the man had confessed on his deathbed. This is someone that knew this victim. I was determined to find out what took place in that house. with Brenda DuPont in 1988. It's March 2012, and Lieutenant Grimmett is following up

on the lead provided by Diker Chavez. She was dating Brenda DuPont at the time. This incident happened with her. Diker Chavez told me that they thought that David was involved in this crime. Unfortunately, the information leads to a dead end. But the police still have the DNA samples taken in 1980. Grimmett thinks that their best shot is to run the swabs, so he asks George Shiro to help.

It wasn't until 2012 that we actually were able to take those vaginal swabs and test them and get a result. Normally we look at 16 genetic markers on the DNA molecule. We got 12 of the 16, but it was still good enough that we could get it into a database. Sheero runs the DNA through KOTUS, a national database, of DNA samples and gets a hit. It matches a man named Janelle Rubin. It's a name Lieutenant Grimmett has heard before. I immediately went to the evidence room and started searching for Brenda's case.

And when I pull the case out, there's a bag of 8mm tapes. And I grabbed the bag and I start going through it. And the first person that I come across is John L. Rubin. Ruben was 18 when Brenda was murdered, and police had questioned him at the time because he had a connection to Linda's children. Jonell was a don't give a damn about nothing person. He was getting arrested a lot. God, he didn't have a good record. I had known him through my job as a police officer.

John L. and I had a couple of encounters as me as a police officer. neighborhood. He'd get in trouble from time to time. And I go to the evidence room and I listen to the tapes. And that's when I find out pretty much that he had scratches on his neck. Brenda DuPont had cuts all over her body. So the person that was responsible for this may have had some type of wound on him also. When questioned about the scratches in 1988, Rubin explained that he had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend. He also gives an alibi, but the police never verified it. Grimmett immediately contacts the woman who allegedly

provided Rubin with the scratches and the alibi, and she doesn't remember it the way Rubin did. Linda also has information that deepens the suspicions over Rubin. She gave us a statement about Janelle, how about how Janelle was there the night before. This incident happened, and he was playing. with a knife, and then I learned that John L. Rubin had been arrested on a domestic abuse charge. So I went to the Alpoulos's police department, and got him out of jail, brought him to my office,

sat down and started talking to him to John L, in reference to the murder of Brenda DuPont. I mean, you still have a lot to finish, you got to finish the case. You want to make sure that the person that you're fixing to put in jail is the right person. that committed this crime. Once he was placed in the jail, he was right there in my finger tips. All I had to go over there and get him and bring him back to the office and talk to him.

I remember walking into this interview room in 2012 talking to Johnny L. Rubin. Knowing that I had DNA evidence, DNA hit on him, I wasn't sure that he was going to give me the information that I was looking for, but it felt good to have him in that room. And if you can see that he's crossing him,

He's crossing his arms. He wants to listen to what I have to say, but he doesn't want to give me any information. Rubin denies going to Brenda's house. But Lieutenant Grimmett knows he has DNA evidence that says otherwise. He orders a second DNA comparison to strengthen the case. And when it matches again, a judge signs an arrest warrant. On March 29, 2012, Rubin is brought back to the station. I tried to get him to tell me what had taken place there, and he wouldn't budge.

So I told him out a warrant for his arrest. He said I have a vaginal swab that was taken from Brenda DuPont that matches you. Janelle Rubin is shocked and insists that the DNA is not his, but the evidence is strong enough for investigators to charge him with first-degree murder and aggravated rape. Police Chief Gallo informs Brenda's sister of the development. I was outside sweeping my carports, and Perry Gallo called my house, and he said, I want to meet you at my office at 12 because we made an arrest. He said, we arrested Jonell Rubin.

I said, after 24 years, y'all finally got him. It's January 2016. Almost 28 years have passed since Brenda DuPont was murdered, and her killer is finally facing trial. The defense argues that the prosecution can't place Rubin inside the house based on the evidence. But Lieutenant Grimmett tells a different story. Janelle Rubin came through the back window on the south side of the house,

possibly using that ladder to get into that window and surprised Brenda. He sexually assaulted her. He stabbed her a number of times, probably with the knife that he was carrying and he got out of the window. I believe it's because Brenda was sort of defenseless. He figured, well, she's small, she won't defend herself. I believe that's what happened.

Ruben was tried, and on January 27, 2016, the jury returns with a verdict after two hours of deliberations. They find Janelle Rubin guilty of first time. degree murder. When that verdict come in that he was guilty, and then at that time, you saw where it really got to him, and

he was taken away. And the newspaper man took a picture of you can see tears in his face. Oh, God. He just thought he was going to be found not guilty. After all these years. Three weeks after the verdict is returned, the judge sentences

Ruben to life in prison. There's so much relief. I'm sure not only for me, the department that was work in this case and also the family, you know, I know that they were relieved that Brenda DuPont's killer was now going to jail for the rest of his life. After years of hoping for justice, the family has dealt another crushing blow. Just two months after Ruben is sentenced, Brenda's daughter Monica passes away. She was just 39 years old. I know her little girl would still be alive if my sister would be alive.

You cannot come to terms with something like that that happens. Every October, we have a day. It's called All Saints Day. Once a year, we clean our loved ones' graves, and we put them fresh new flowers. I like to tell everything's going to be okay now. You will always be my little got to show. I love you dearly.

I did visit Brenda's grave after he was found guilty, and I told Brenda I was going to solve this. And it was like I had did my work. And there it is. And it's like I could feel her. You know, I could feel her around me. Yes, indeed. Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barrows.

It's produced by the Law and Crime Network, and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson. Our composer is Blake Maples. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher, and our supervising producer is McCamee Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Mai Te Cueva, and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, Cold Case Files.

For more cold case files, visit AETV.com. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV. Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows,

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