In 1985, the owner of a Louisiana pet cemetery was strangled and dumped in the Mississippi River. Nearly three decades later, stories about her alleged ghost helped investigators finally bring her suspected killer to justice.
Jose Cruz and James Tregler said they were visited by the spirit of 61-year-old Dorothy Lou Thompson, who revealed buried details that ultimately helped authorities solve her murder and link it to former groundskeeper Brandon Nodier.
“It didn’t have to end that way,” Thompson’s friend Patricia Newman said in the three-part HBO docuseries The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story. “I was devastated.”
What Happened to Dorothy Thompson?
Thompson had been widowed twice, and both of her husbands died from gunshot wounds.
In 1970, Thompson fatally shot her first husband, Logan Banks. Authorities concluded that she had acted in self-defense. Her second husband, Donald Robinson, was shot in 1978, but prosecutors filed no charges in connection with his death.
After her mother died in 1979, Thompson inherited the property beside the cemetery.
Thompson vanished in April 1985. The next month, authorities recovered her body from the Mississippi River. Steel chains weighed it down, while a plastic bag had been placed over her head and secured with wire.
“At the time of her death the coroner gave the reason of her death as asphyxia,” former Sheriff Jack Stephens told Fox 8. “It was clear that foul play was involved.”
Who Was Brandon Nodier?
Brandon Nodier and his wife, Bonnie, lived on Thompson’s 14-acre pet cemetery, where an estimated 5,000 animals—including monkeys and a cheetah—were buried. Nodier worked there building tombstones.
The relationship between Nodier and Thompson deteriorated over a dispute involving the property. According to St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief John Doran, Nodier allegedly tried to take the land from her.
Nodier and Bonnie had allegedly convinced Thompson to sign over the property, but they stopped making payments required under the agreement. The parties were due in court around the time Thompson disappeared.
Dorothy Lou Thompson’s Ghost Helps Solve Her Murder
Although Nodier quickly became a leading suspect, investigators lacked direct evidence tying him to the killing. The case remained unsolved until two witnesses came forward with accounts that included alleged encounters with Thompson’s ghost.
In 2009, Nodier’s acquaintance, Jose Cruz, told police that Thompson’s spirit had appeared to him and urged him to help solve her murder. Cruz also said Nodier had admitted killing Thompson years earlier.
“I was told right after it was done, but being from the environment I was raised, I didn’t want to snitch or anything like that,” Cruz said in police footage featured in the docuseries. “[Nodier] told me personally that he had the old lady from the pet cemetery in the back of his pickup truck.”
“I can’t live with it anymore,” Cruz continued. “I just can’t live with this. Something has to be done about this; it can’t go unpunished. It’s just too heinous of a crime.”
Cruz’s statement breathed new life into the investigation. Several years later, another witness came forward with a similarly chilling account.
In 2012, James Tregler told authorities that Thompson’s ghost had haunted him as well. He claimed he witnessed Nodier attack Thompson inside her home. According to Tregler, Thompson briefly regained consciousness, while Nodier ordered him outside and continued strangling her.
Tregler said he later watched from Nodier’s truck as Nodier carried Thompson outside with an extension cord around her neck and a bag over her head. He alleged that Nodier placed her in the vehicle, drove to a ferry landing and threw her body into the river.
“I should have stopped it. I should have stopped Brandon when Dorothy took that big deep breath,” Tregler said in the docuseries. “But I was just overcome with fear. I’d have been dead, too, let’s be honest here. Brandon wouldn’t have hesitated. Brandon’s a scary man. But I didn’t realize he was evil like that.”
Where Is Brandon Nodier Now?
Nodier surrendered on April 25, 2012, after a grand jury indicted him on a second-degree murder charge. He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and, in 2014, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He has since been released from prison and while he and Bonnie later moved to New Orleans, his whereabouts are unclear.
As for whether Thompson’s ghost played detective, docuseries director Phil Carney said that’s up for interpretation.
“Some people said it’s guilt. These people knew what they were a part of and they are haunted by what happened on that night,” Carney told Gold Derby. “For others, they genuinely believed that this was her ghost coming back for vengeance, and then other people just kind of laughed it off.
“But one thing is certain,” he said. “The case would not have been solved if it weren’t for the fact that these men claimed to be visited by Dorothy’s ghost.”
Nodier’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.
