Shortly after authorities found the body of David Mitchell, several law enforcement agencies put together a task force, per the Houston Chronicle. Houma, Louisiana police chief Patrick Boudreaux was among the first to look at the subsequent series of murders as the work of a serial killer, noting that the killings didn’t follow the typical pattern of drug-related murders and that several of the victims were found without their shoes. As reported by the Seattle Times, FBI profilers considered this the most significant serial killer case in the United States due to the large number of victims as well as the nine-year time span over which the murders took place.

How was Ronald Dominique caught? One of his victims had refused to let Dominique tie him up and had managed to escape. The individual reported the incident to his parole officer during a weekly visit. According to All That’s Interesting, he told the officer that he’d been tied up by an older man who seemed to be ill. Within a short period of time, authorities arrested Dominique, who was apparently “no trouble at all” and willingly gave them a DNA sample. The sample linked him to two of the murders, and Dominique soon confessed to all 23 killings. On September 24, 2008, per the Deseret News, he pleaded guilty to eight murders, all of which had taken place in Terrebonne Parish, in order to avoid receiving a death penalty. He was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms in prison.