Going West: True Crime - The Bayou Killer // 13

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

When 23 men are found strangled to death between 1998 and 2006, Louisiana police begin a seemingly endless search for their killer. This is the story of Ronald Dominique, the Bayou Killer. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's going on through crime fans? I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host Daphne, and you are listening to Going West. Today we're going to talk about one of America's most prolific serial killers that you've probably never heard of. But first let's give a couple shout outs. Yes, thank you to Molly and Ariana for the 5 Star Reviews. And if you guys want to shout out in our next episode, go over to Apple Podcast and leave us a 5 Star review, but make sure to leave your name and location so we can give you a shout out. Last but not least, we want to give a shout out to the spooky vegan. She runs a vegan horror blog and she's so awesome.

Check out her Instagram at the spooky vegan or her website, thespookyvegan.com. And if you guys haven't already picked up your privatized long sleeve t-shirt, make sure you go over to our website and grab yours today. There's only one week left on the pre-order, so pick yours up. Yeah, you can get yours today at goingwestpodcast.com. They're really cool and comfortable, so make sure you get it before the pre-order ends. Alright everybody, this is episode 13 of Going West. Let's get into it. When 23 men are found strangled to death in Louisiana between 1998 and 2006, police begin a seemingly endless search for their killer.

With an unfortunate lack of DNA and almost no suspects, the community is left in terror for over 8 years. This is the story of Ronald Dominique, the Bayou killer. Ronald Joseph Dominique was born on January 9, 1964 in the small community of Tibido, Louisiana. Tibido is about 60 miles outside of New Orleans, and it's definitely the type of town where everyone knows each other. There are a lot of people throughout the community who described Ronald as very helpful and kind, and he really loved helping others.

He actually spent Sundays volunteering at Bingo Night and assisting senior citizens. In high school, he was in the Glee Club and sang in the school choir. Although he wasn't openly gay during his teen years, he was constantly bullied about being gay by his peers. He was definitely a loner and an outsider and wasn't really liked all that well by his classmates. It's unclear if it's just because a lot of his peers were homophobic or because he just didn't have a very likable personality.

And as he got a bit older, he started expressing himself more and began frequenting gay clubs and also dressing in drag. Ronald was a utility meter reader and pizza delivery guy for most of his working career. As an adult, he fell into a lot of financial troubles. And to top it off, he was having major health complications and was even hospitalized for a heart condition that caused him to walk with a cane. He ended up moving back in with his mom before eventually moving into a trailer on his sister's property. It's actually pretty shocking to me that there's not a lot of detail

about his childhood and his upbringing. So we don't know what kind of relationship he had with his parents, but we're going to do the best that we can to kind of give you a description of who Ronald Dominique is as a person. Yeah, I always think it's really interesting to know how a serial killer was brought up because I think it's interesting to know if they were abused or if they're terrible upbringing somehow affected who they were, or if they're terrible upbringing somehow affected who they were, because some serial killers were very loved.

Like we know Ted Bundy had a good upbringing, but he turned out to be a monster. So I think that's really interesting to know, and I wish we knew more about that for Ronald Dominique. The one thing that we do know is, as we mentioned just a bit ago, is that he is a loner, in fact, and is an outsider. So that could be the reason why we just don't have a lot of information about Ronald as a person. On June 12, 1985, Ronald began his long road of criminal activity.

He was charged with telephone harassment. He basically pled guilty, paid the $74 fine, and was done with it. It's unclear exactly what he did, but phone harassment usually means that you call someone and threaten them or Disturb them in some way consistently on the phone. But if he was charged for it, you'd guess it was pretty bad. Yeah, you usually don't get charged for telephone harassment for making a couple print calls to a friend. Yeah, I don't know who it was to either, but I'd be really interested to know more about that. As far as we know, Ronald didn't commit any other crimes for about eight years. In 1993, a man had told police that Ronald Dominic raped him at gunpoint, but he refused to testify against him,

so this accusation and crime really slipped through the cracks. And to explain a little bit about who Ronald was as a person and give you kind of a description of him, he was short, kind of overweight. He seemed to be physically strong, but I think emotionally weak as a person, we realize later that he's a pretty timid person. He's white, short, and kind of balding. He's pretty stocky, I guess you could say. So on August 25th, 1996, when he was in his early 30s, Ronald was charged with forceble rape. This incident was definitely a big red flag for what was to come regarding Ronald in his crimes. Some of Ronald's neighbors actually witnessed a half-naked young man escaping from Ronald's

home window. He was screaming and saying that Ronald tried to kill him with a bowie knife. However, the victim actually didn't end up testifying against Ronald either. This could be for a number of different reasons. It's hard to imagine just how afraid this man was at the time and he probably didn't want to endanger himself further by testifying, especially since Ronald had apparently tried to kill him. It's really unfortunate that neither of these crimes were properly dealt with and I completely

understand the victims not wanting to come forward and testify. It could have helped so much later on because as we know what's to come is so terrible and so many people died and these were really big warning signs of what he's capable of. I mean, you rape and try to kill two people and you just go off Scott free pretty much. Yeah, I think that obviously we understand that it's probably a pretty scary thing to have to testify against somebody who tried to rape and kill you and I totally get that and it's just really unfortunate that it didn't happen that way because 23 people ended up losing their lives. Regardless of the lack of witness, Ronald was booked on a $100,000 bond.

So he did end up going to prison. We mentioned that it kind of slipped through the cracks because he only went to jail for three months, which is obviously nowhere near enough time for raping somebody and trying to kill them. During his time in jail, he was beaten by other inmates and he obviously really hated that. It traumatized him. So when he got out, he swore that he would never go back to prison. So instead of just raping men, he decided he would start killing them too so they wouldn't talk. You know what actually would have been a really like effective way to avoid jail time?

Would we maybe to like not commit horrible crimes? Yeah, if his goal was to like not be in jail, then obviously maybe just don't rape and kill people, you know? Yeah, like that was literally his reasoning. He's like, I never want to go back to jail again So I'm gonna keep raping guys, but instead I'm gonna murder them too, so they can't tell on me Like what kind of logic is that? And we see that Ronald likes to make excuses and he likes to twist all these different scenarios to work for himself because he's a selfish person And he loves playing the victim Most of the upcoming details will include scenarios

that are actually stated by Ronald himself. So we know a lot of what really happened during these incidents because of Ronald's confessions. One night in 1997, a 19 year old named David LeVron Mitchell was walking down the street when Ronald Dominique drove by. Ronald slowed down the car, supposedly asking David if he wanted to fool around. David said that he needed to make some money, so he agreed. After David got into the car, they drove somewhere and started fooling around.

Everything seemed fine until Ronald suddenly tied David up and began strangling him until he died. He then dumped his body near Hanville by a water treatment plant, which was about 40 miles away from where Ronald was living at the time. His body was discovered without shoes and with his pants around his ankles, in a shallow canal almost completely submerged in water. Initially, they actually thought that David was just drunken trying to pee in the canal and then fell in because there was no initial sign of struggle or a fight. When they determined he died by a sphixiation, they knew he couldn't have drowned because the water was just way too shallow. It was then that David Mitchell was treated

as a homicide victim. And it's actually a shame that law enforcement took so long to determine that David had been murdered and we'll see kind of this pattern happening in this investigation where they don't really think much of it until about like the third or fourth victim. Six months later, 20-year-old Gary Pierre was found dead in St. Charles Parish. Then in July 1998, 38-year-old Larry Ranson was also found in St. Charles Parish. They had both died by strangulation. And I think at this point police started to realize that this wasn't a coincidence. In October of 1998, 27-year-old Oliver LeBanks was found dead. Oliver was a friendly restaurant

worker in the French Quarter of New Orleans who had five children of his own. He had recently fallen into drugs and began losing his way and his job. Unfortunately for him, this meant he was more desperate for money so he began doing sex work to make ends meet. One night that October, Oliver LeBanks was walking the streets of New Orleans when Ronald Dominique pulled his car up to him. Ronald asked him if he wanted to make some money by fooling around. Oliver said yes and got in the car. Just after they started fooling around, Ronald hit him over the head with a tire tool before tying his hands. He then strangled Oliver to death and dumped his body on the side of the road, like he did with so many of his victims. It's very risky on Ronald's part to do it this way because we see a lot of serial killers

going to great lengths to dispose of their victims bodies, and we just don't see Ronald doing this at all. And a big thing that we do know about Ronald in this case is that he has the greatest dumb luck I think I've ever seen with the serial killer. Yeah, it's pretty unbelievable, and you guys will see. So unfortunately, there really wasn't much concern for these victims earlier on. A lot of the victims were sex workers, they were unemployed, homeless, or down on their luck.

So some people even refer to these murders as taking out the trash, which is really messed up because these are people who lost their lives lives despite what kind of situation they were in. The fifth victim was Joseph Brown, and his body was found just two blocks away from where the Kenner Police Department was in 1998. When police questioned his family, they asked them a variety of questions, including whether or not he was ever sexually involved with other men. Joseph's family told the police that he would pretty much do anything for money. I don't know if Ronald is just really dumb or if he's trying to taunt the police

by putting this body near the station. I mean, I don't know what's going on, but he's pretty bold. Ronald definitely went after a specific type of man, those who were wandering the streets alone at night, who were more or less down on their luck, because these were the type of people who would do something like, say, get into a stranger's car and do what they asked in exchange for money. This was also a very rural part of Louisiana, so it was a lot easier for Ronald to pick someone up, commit the crime, dispose the body, and move along before anyone would even notice. Unfortunately, some of the bodies stood for days and even weeks until being discovered

because of the locations he would dump them, so he really didn't go out of his way to put them somewhere super far off the map or anything like that, but because this was a more rural area, they sometimes didn't stand out immediately. In May of 1999, 19-year-old manual read was found raped and murdered. He was also involved in male prostitution and frequented the French Quarter much like all of her labanks. Here is Ronald's account of what happened. Ronald picked up manual asking if he wanted to make some money, but when manual got into

his car, he got on top of Ronald, held a knife to him and told Ronald to give him all make some money. But when manual got into his car, he got on top of Ronald, held a knife to him, and told Ronald to give him all of his money. At this point, Ronald hit him over the head with an object, and started choking him with the seatbelt. His body was later found inside of a dumpster. Manual was shirtless, and his belt buckle was inside out. This made police believe that Ronald raped him, and after he was dead, redressed him before putting his body in the dumpster. Who knows if it's even true by the way that manual attacked Ronald first? Ronald loves playing the victim so he definitely could have made that up.

And knowing him, he probably did make it up. So police actually found semen on manuals body and were able to develop a DNA profile based off of it. However, they couldn't find any match in any of the database they ran it through, so this was kind of another dead end for them for now. Ronald's 9th victim was Mitchell Johnson. Mitchell Johnson had walked his two nieces to a convenience store outside of New Orleans when Ronald approached him, showing him a photo of a woman. He stated that it was his wife and that he wanted to pay Mitchell to have sex with her.

After that, Mitchell walked his nieces back to his sister's house and then left. He was never seen again. Now, it's unclear if his body was ever found, but it's our impression that it wasn't. I don't know if Ronald later came out and told him about this, or the reason we know this story is because Mitchell told his sister

It's kind of unclear how we know this information, but he was a victim of the Bayou killer At this point we have nine bodies and police have zero potential suspects They had no idea what kind of person or people could be committing these crimes, what background they came from, or what kind of job they had. They were completely stumped, and then Ronald took a break for about a year. Throughout 2001, he either for whatever reason didn't commit any crimes or was just better at hiding the bodies. In May 2003, 18-year-old Detrelle Woods became yet another one of the Bayou killer's victims. Just like the others, Ronald asked Detrelle to get into his car and that he was going to

pay him. Ronald actually told police that he needed to have sex with Detrelle. This was a big help for law enforcement to figure out the motive for these crimes. They were definitely a matter of sexual gratification and sexual fantasy. At this point, all the confirmed victims were more petite black men, which really proved to be his type. Interestingly enough, if you listen to interviews of him talking about the murders, he pretty much cries through all the details, but he definitely loved being in control and he enjoyed killing these men.

As you mentioned, Ronald had a type and they were usually black men, but Ronald's first white victim, Michael Barnett, was found on October 9, 2004. So this is I think what kind of threw off police, because now it wasn't just black people being targeted, it was now just met in general, especially since all the victims were different age ranges too. So please still had no idea what they were searching for. Michael was found in a storage unit, and since it had been hot that week, his body had been bloated almost three times its regular size.

And they said he was almost completely unrecognizable, and you can imagine being down in Louisiana and with the humidity in the heat, it wouldn't be hard for those bodies to decompose pretty quickly. Yeah, and I wonder if it was his storage unit, like whose storage unit was it and why did he put him in a storage unit, because most of the victims were found in a canal or on the side of the road. So this one was a little bit different. One thing that we do know is that he likes his isolation while he's committing these crimes,

so whether it's in a car, typically it's going to be in an enclosed space, so maybe he uses a storage unit because he knew that people wouldn't be able to hear Michael's cries for help or anything like that. And also one quick thing to note is that originally Michael was okay with being tied up by Ronald and tell Ronald had mentioned what he was about to do to Michael. That's a good point to bring up that actually a lot of the time with these murders, he would ask, can I tie you up? And sometimes they would say yes. And so it wasn't just him forcibly tying them up. Sometimes it was, but sometimes it wasn't.

And we'll have some more information on the Bayou Killer and his crimes after this break. I'm Rosanne, host of the Killefonia Dreamy Podcast, a show that delves into the darker side of the not so cold in state. Together, we will visit some of the most unhinged and chilling crimes that ever shook California. Join me, as I take you on a journey into a new story each week with a different backdrop from all around California, from the bright lights and glamour of Hollywood, to the picture rest and tranquil wine country, no crime, no town, nobody is off limits. Listen to Killaporn and Dreamy on the Orbital Dixon Network or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Melissa Cummins from The Hontodrive. A paranormal podcast dedicated to you and your experiences. I know what it's like to have something happen to you that's unexplainable, and how it feels to want to tell someone that you're concerned they may think you're crazy, whether it's a disembodied voice, an apparition, or something you just can't explain. This is your place to share it. So come tune in with me every week while we discuss anything and everything that falls into our paranormal and supernatural world, because it goes our out there, and if you're not careful, they will get you. And welcome back.

In April 2005, 31-year-old August Watkins was found lying face down in a ditch next to a small canal. At this point, law enforcement finally decided to put a proper task force together to solve these murders, over seven years after they started. It's unknown why this was, considering this point there were at least 17 bodies found in almost identical situations. Apparently there had been a lot of talk over the years about getting a task force together, but it just didn't happen for such a long period of time.

There were members from the Louisiana State Police, FBI, and local police departments. It is so mind blowing to me that it took them this long to put together a task force. I mean, you have 17 bodies. I mean, shouldn't you have put together this task force after like the third victim? Think about every other case that we've researched or known about. I mean, it never takes this long Like maybe the second victim in there like oh, we got to do it on our hands who's murdering people like it took them Seven years to put a task force together after 17 people showed up dead and I really hate to say this

But I truly believe it's because these victims were black and most of them came from poor upbringing and I just feel like law enforcement didn't really care all that much until they realized, wow, we've got 17 bodies here, it's like, come on man. Yeah, I totally agree and I think a big part of it too is like you said that they were kind of from a poor upbringing or they were sex workers or drug users and so like I said earlier how people thought this was the killer taking out the trash would just so messed up but we see this in other cases too where

if the body count is mostly sex workers then people kind of think oh well they did it to themselves they got themselves in the situation and And it's just like, these are people. These are human beings. It really shouldn't matter what anybody does for work or where they come from or anything like that. What should matter is that they're innocent people and their lives are being taken and they deserve justice. And I don't want to completely shit on the police because I think that they did do pretty much all that they could do considering there was almost no DNA to go off of. So it was a tough case with bad and tricky circumstances.

The whole task force got together for a meeting to discuss a game plan and as soon as the meeting broke, a call came in about a body found. It was 23 year old Kurt Cham, whose body was floating in a bayou and Lafouche, Louisiana. If you look at the locations of these crimes on a map, they span over 70 miles across with bodies popping up all across the radius, making it really hard for police to figure this out. Kurt's body unfortunately didn't have any DNA that police could collect, which is something they really needed to crack this case.

It must have been really stressful for them to come out of that meeting just to find another body because now they're really getting serious about it and now they're really trying to figure out okay who's doing this and suddenly bam another body pops up and they were coming up pretty frequently. Sometimes it would be two in a month, sometimes it would be every other month, but sometimes it would take a few months to find one. So he kind of was sporadic about his killings. The general public really began to panic at this point, and these murders were all over the media

and in the newspapers, especially since there was such a large amount of bodies turning up with absolutely no clues or evidence, people were just terrified. The Bayou Killer's 19th victim was found in July 2005. It was 28-year-old Alonzo Hogan. He was riding his bike around Huma, Louisiana, and his body was found on some dry grass in a ditch very shortly after he was killed.

He and Markson is risked indicating that he had been tied up, just like the others. Since Alonzo's body wasn't found in water like many of the other victims, police work extremely hopeful that they would be able to potentially find some DNA, and then it would ultimately lead them to the killer. After hours and hours of working, surprisingly, they weren't able to uncover any DNA at all. I just don't understand how that's possible, like how is there no fibers or anything that they could find? Yeah, that is super strange to me as well, and how are they not finding any semen if most of these victims were raped? Well, he said later that he always tried to use a condom, but he thinks on the one where there was semen found

that the condom broke. Okay, gotcha, that makes more sense to me. But still, but he thinks on the one where there was seem and found that the condom broke. Okay, gotcha. That makes more sense to me. But still, with DNA, if they were in his car or in his trailer or anything, how is there nothing? Yeah, we know that from, you know, other cases that they can find the smallest fibers from anything, carpets, upholstery and cars and things like that. So it's weird to me that no hairs were found, nothing like that. We also know that Ronald is kind of a slob and he's kind of careless when he's committing these crimes.

I mean, he's dumping the body's willy-nilly wherever he wants and I'm sure he probably wasn't wearing gloves and he was not being very careful. Yeah, he's not one of those super organized murderers. He's just a sloppy dude who has really good luck. 17-year-old Wayne Smith, who is victim number 20, is found dead in August 2005. So just a few weeks after Alonzo's body was found. Wayne's body was found very badly decomposed in a drainage canal fully clothed.

He was a bit different than most of our other victims because he had a stable home life and a girlfriend. A lot of the local police officers actually knew him and said that he was a good kid. According to Ronald, which again who knows how credible he is, Wayne had flagged down his car and asked him if he was looking for drugs. When Ronald said no, Wayne then asked him if he liked to fool around. Ronald said yes and Wayne agreed that he did too. Ronald took Wayne back to his trailer and was apparently afraid that he was going to get raped.

Okay, this is ridiculous because Ronald is a heavy-set man in his early 40s at this point and Wayne is like a slim 17-year-old boy. And Ronald is afraid of getting raped, even though by the way he agreed to fooling around with him. Also, he himself is a rapist, so I think maybe he just doesn't like being on the receiving end of things because he likes to be in control. So maybe that's what was happening. Maybe Wayne was trying to, you know, make the moves on him and he was just kind of like, no, because he likes to be the one who calls the shots. That's just what I think. Ronald actually tied Wayne's hands up at this point with a rope and they had sex. And afterwards, Wayne asked him for the money that he was

promised and apparently said that if he didn't give for the money that he was promised and apparently said that if he didn't give it to him, he was going to call the cops. This struck something in Ronald because, as we know, he's deathfully afraid of going back to prison. So just by the mere mention of police being involved, Ronald started to panic and choked Wayne to death. Again, who knows if Wayne ever said that? That's just what Ronald said. And if this investigation wasn't already messed up enough, while police were investigating Wayne's murder in August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, flooding streets with up to 10 feet of water. So now law enforcement's focus completely shifts because now their cities are in even more

danger than before, and they have to help these hurricane victims. For the next eight months or so, not only the case of the Bayou Killer, but all investigations are pretty much put to a hold. Understandably, they've got to do what they have to do to try and save these people. So another quick thing to note is that it's really unfortunate because they actually, police stations actually had to move a lot of their evidence files from the first floor up to the third floor and it still didn't help.

So a lot of this evidence was actually lost during the hurricane, giving Ronald a better chance of getting away. For those of you in different countries or those who don't really know much about this hurricane, it was absolutely devastating to New Orleans and its surrounding cities. It caused almost 2,000 fatalities and was completely catastrophic to the area in general. I actually went to New Orleans in 2013, so whole eight years after Hurricane Katrina hit, and people were still talking about it and talking about how they were still recovering their businesses from it and their homes like it really really really fucked the city up. Yeah and it only lasted a little over a week but it caused years of damage. By the way for all you true crime fans out there,

crime con is actually going to be in New Orleans this year so definitely check that out. In September 2005, so just weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit, 40-year-old Christopher Ville's body was found, but he was last seen just a few days before the Hurricane hit. His brother was actually a Louisiana police officer, and his family had originally assumed that he had left town when Katrina hit to go somewhere safer. Ronald Dominique later explained that this wasn't the case and that he had strangled him to death with a cord. It really threw police off initially because, unlike other victims, Chris Deville was very

physically fit and built. So it's a bit shocking that Ronald Dominique could overcome him since he's heavy set and not really in shape. In November 2005, 21-year-old Nicholas Pellegrin was discovered behind a residential area. Nicholas had been doing some construction at a friend's house in Lafrouge, and Ronald Dominique had been assigned to read meters in that area. Apparently while Ronald was reading a meter by a trailer Nicholas was working on, they struck up a casual conversation and even exchanged phone numbers, so Ronald could buy some

weed off a Nicholas later that night. This was definitely a different approach than Ronald had taken with any other victims. There was no talk of sex, they didn't go off together, and they had met while working, so it was a pretty high-risk situation for Ronald to be out in the open with him like this, because it could have been traced back to him if someone saw them, especially since he did end up killing Nicholas. So a couple days after their encounter, Ronald gave Nicholas a call. Ronald stated that they met up at his trailer, and Nicholas wasn't very happy that he only

wanted to buy $30 worth of weed. Apparently, Nicholas threatened to call the cops, which as we can all assume, this sounds pretty unlikely. Why would Nicholas bring police into a drug deal that he was involved in? It just doesn't make any sense. And the funny thing is about all this is Ronald is always playing the victim, so whether he's scared of being raped or scared someone's going to call the cops, it's almost like he's justifying his reason for killing them because he was scared they were going to blank.

Yep, he's always gotten excuse. It's never anybody else's fault in any situation. Well, most of the stories he tells are confusing in that way. He paints the real victims to be the monsters when we all know that it's the other way around. So meanwhile, Nicholas has been tied up, and of course he's trying to fight back, but Ronald tells the story that Nicholas was trying to kick him while his ankles were bound, so in self-defense, Ronald pushes him into a cabinet and it causes Nicholas to collapse.

So Ronald began to panic, apparently, and choked him. Then he dumped his body. Ronald pushes him into a cabinet and it causes Nicholas to collapse. So Ronald began to panic, apparently, and choked him. Then he dumped his body. So as we've mentioned, there was never any DNA evidence found on any of the bodies, except for semen with one of them, which led them nowhere. The only real shot the police had at catching the bayou killer was to find someone who had seen something or even met the killer themselves. Enter Ricky Wallace. Ricky was a man of the area who was walking the street

soon after Nicholas had been murdered. A car pulled up alongside of him and a heavy set white male in his 40s yelled over to him through the car window and showed him a photo of a white woman before asking if he wanted to have sex with her for money. So in Ricky's mind, he's looking at this picture of this beautiful white woman and he's thinking, okay, I get to have sex with her and get paid. Good deal. So he says yes and he gets into Ronald's car. Ronald explained later that he could usually tell when men were straight and when they

were gay. So if they were seemingly straight, he would use the photo on them to lure them into his car so he could then rape and murder them. When they got back to Ronald's trailer, Ricky started to get a weird feeling, especially when Ronald, holding rope, asked if he could tie him up. Ricky said no way, not gonna happen. He then asked Ronald to take him home and surprisingly he did. Police suspected that he let him go so willingly because he only received

gratification when he was in complete control when his victims were tied and at his mercy. So when they were free he didn't feel very powerful. And to be honest, Ricky Wallace seemed like a pretty intimidating guy to He had a very loud voice and I'm sure that kind of intimidated Ronald as well I actually read somewhere that there was another victim where they were in a similar situation They didn't want to be tied up and said no and left and Ronald let them go So I feel like his game was if you let me tie you up I can do whatever I want to you, and if you don't, then I don't really have control or power over you at all.

When police heard this story from Ricky Wallace, they were certain that they had their guy. It sounded like the kind of situation that was getting these other men killed. Ricky Wallace showed law enforcement where the camper was and they went there. After knocking on the door, Ronald Dominique opened it and greeted them. They asked him some general questions and checked him out before going back to the station and pulling any information they could on him. To their surprise, they found his previous charges for battery, harassment, and aggravated rape.

It was then that they decided to bring him in for questioning. When he got there, Ronald Dominique basically said that he had heard about the murders, but that he had absolutely nothing to do with them. So they asked him for a DNA sample, which he agreed to, but they couldn't hold him. Even though there were factors that made them believe it was him, they didn't have any hard evidence whatsoever, so they had to let him go. Especially since the murders had taken place over multiple jurisdictions, legally this was very difficult to work on. Not to mention, there were actually two other active serial killers in the state of Louisiana at this time. The DNA database and crime labs were so backed up and busy because of the other serial killers that it took almost 10 whole months until they could get the results back on Ronald Dominic's DNA swab. And in this time at least one man was murdered.

In October 2006, Christopher Sutterfield was picked up by Ronald and then taken back to his trailer. There, Christopher was tied up, raped, and murdered. Ronald put him in the back of his truck and drove 40 miles out to dump his body. This was very upsetting to police because they were so confident that they had the right guy, but they couldn't convict him until they had DNA proof that he was the man who did it. And because they had to wait to get the results, people kept dying on their watch. Since it took so long to get the results, I wonder if since they were so sure that it was him and he was their only real suspect, if they followed him or watched him at all throughout that time?

At the very least, they could have definitely had somebody keeping an eye on Ronald during this time, so I don't know how he was so easily getting away with these other murders after he had been questioned. Well, that's the thing. If they had somebody sitting and watching him, then he couldn't have really committed another crime. So I don't know, I think that would have been a smart thing to do for sure. About two weeks after finding Christopher Sutterfield's body, the task force got together for another meeting.

During the meeting, one of the members left to take a phone call and came back with incredible news. The DNA was a match. The Bayou killer was indeed Ronald Dominique. And I find it ironic that Ricky Wallace's street name was actually Motor Mouth, and he was the one that actually led investigators to Ronald in the first place. After two years of the task force investigating this case and nearly nine years after the murder started, they found their guy.

They immediately started looking for Ronald. Upon going to his trailer, they found that his sister had actually kicked him off of her property, so he was now living at a homeless shelter in Huma, Louisiana. Once they found Ronald and questioned him for about a day, he had confessed to 23 murders. Not only did he confess, but he spilled all the details to the police. As we stated earlier, he wasn't bragging or soaking up the glory of these horrible crimes.

I mean, he was crying. He told police that everything he did was to save himself and that he had to kill these men or else he would have been killed himself. He wasn't crying because he felt bad, he was crying because he was just scared of what was going to happen to him because everything is about him. Regardless, police were so thankful he was giving details of the murders. Since no one was present other than Ronald in the victims, we had virtually no idea how any of it happened if Ronald didn't confess. So many killers go to prison and retain their innocence even when evidence is so overwhelming that you know that they're

lying. So it's nice when someone actually admits they're wrongdoing and gives law enforcement a better idea of how everything happened. but either way he's still a horrible person. Ronald Dominique pled guilty to first-degree murder in court to raping and killing men over a 10-year period to avoid the death penalty, but he still received eight death sentences. He is currently 55 years old and incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. The confirmed victims whose details are unknown include Bruce Williams, Angel Mahia, Michael Vincent, Kenneth Randolph, Anoka Jones, Larry Matthews, and Leon Lorette.

Ronald Dominique killed at least 23 men, but it's believed it could have been as many as 40, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history, which is something he should be far from proud of. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. We release episodes every Monday, so make sure to check us out next week for a brand new case. Also make sure to get one of our shirts they're only available for pre-order for one more week so go to going westpodcast.com and get your shirt today. And don't forget to check us out on Instagram at Going West Podcast and also on Twitter at Going West Pod. If you guys are on Patreon or you're not on Patreon yet, go check out our account, it's patreon.com slash going west podcast. If you subscribe for $5 a month, you get two bonus episodes every month and discounts on merch.

Yeah, and one really cool thing that we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be talking about horror movies and the real crimes that inspired those horror movies for our bonus episodes on Patreon. So definitely subscribe for that. So for everybody out there in the world, keep it real and stay weird. Cheerio! 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

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