Episode 17, The Dark Star

New Orleans Unsolved began as a deep dive into one mysterious death. But in the six years Anna dedicated to investigate the cases that eventually became the basis for both seasons of the podcast, she discovered that rarely were the details isolated. They were part of a web consisting of cops, corruption and cruelty. In the season finale of The Rope Murders, Anna's investigation comes full circle. 

The path of Anna's investigation takes her back to Pass Christian, Mississippi for a second look at the location where Mark Richardson's body was discovered. We also hear about a more sinister undercurrent of what ties these cases together and the shocking news that brings us to the present day. 

The Rope Murders took place at a time which preceded what we've all come to know as forensic science. The murders of Dennis Turcotte, Mark Richardson and Daniel Dewey were also comitted before the internet age . Anna's investigation of the murders has never revolved around web-sleuthing. Much of it has revolved around making contact and connections. It has led her on a path to retrace the trail of a suspected serial killer. In this episode, Anna explains why taking the long way home revealed more than she expected. 

Dead end roads don't always lead to dead ends, sometimes they lead to answers. Anna takes a trip to meet a listener that helps connect the dots to a location she has been searching for for years. 

From digging into old records and newspaper archives to tracing faded genealogy lines, Anna has used different investigative techniques and tools. But the one tool that perhaps produced the most revelatory information has been a map that became available through a cab company. In this episode, Anna details what she placed on this map, and in turn, what she learned from it. She also makes a shocking discovery when she examines a document related to one of the Rope Murders.  

Over the course of six years and two seasons of the podcast, Anna has been trying to decipher the identities of the murdered teenage boys who ended up in the photos that were eventually shown to other children. The individual who showed them those photos was a child predator. Anna's investigation has steadily cleared a path through a forest of questions. In this episode, she explains why what was in the background of those photos is perhaps as important as what was front and center in them. Her latest interview also brings us back to a place central to Season 1 of New Orleans Unsolved...the Ninth Ward. 

Anna unexpectedly connects with a woman who had information that sent her reeling. The years Anna has spent investigating the Rope Murders have been filled with attempts to connect deaths, details and decades. It’s been a constant pursuit of this theory that the murders of Dennis Turcotte, Mark Richardson and Daniel Dewey were part of a wider web spun by predators masking as trustworthy people. In this episode, the interview Anna wasn’t quite prepared for reveals the story of a missing boy who, until now, only existed in the memory of a 10-year-old boy. 

During Anna’s investigation of the Rope Murders, she found correlations to the mysterious case of Eddie Wells, the pedophile operation ran by Boy Scout Troop 137, and one person who seemed to have tentacles touching all those elements. But it took Anna years to find those connections. In the initial stages of her investigation, she had a working theory about the Rope Murders. That theory was tested when she was called to a meeting of law enforcement officers. Also tested was her trust in the people who attended that meeting.       

Anna’s investigative focus stays on the Orange Grove Plantation as she sits down with a woman who, as a young girl, lived near the plantation in Plaquemines Parish and visited its grounds. Through Anna’s yearslong investigation of the Rope Murders, she’s come to believe the Orange Grove Plantation was a significant site. It was also a place a survivor from season 1 of New Orleans Unsolved was taken as a child. In this episode, he recalls the murky circumstances surrounding the times he ended up at the plantation, and why the man who took him there always kept the contents of a particular footlocker a secret. 

Fragmented memories, fading landmarks and decades old newspaper articles have been among the puzzle pieces Anna has had to work with as her investigation of the Rope Murders took her deeper into Plaquemines Parish…and some of its troubled history. One place, located off what was described as the shell road, stood for more than a century. But for one person, it represents a dark point in his past. In this episode, Anna explores its possible connection to the Rope Murders.