01x06 - Monster in Bayou Pigeon

[bunniefuu]

(ominous music)

- When Cochise didn't come home,

yeah, we know

something was wrong.

- In Bayou Pigeon

there's total darkness.

We got some places that

you couldn't see your hand

in front of your face.

(thunder cracks)

- He reached to

turn on that light.

When he did, pow.

- When they told us that

he made a confession.

That's enough evidence for me.

- I think he loved the challenge

of, you can't catch me.

- We did everything that

we possibly can to find

Cochise, and it never happened.

- Somebody called and says,

"Look, there's a barrel

washed up in the bayou."

After all these

years we thinking,

oh, (bleep),

this may be the one.

(dark country guitar music)

(birds squawking)

(frogs croaking)

- [Ronnie] I still live

on the, the land

that I was born

and raised on.

I've never had any other

address in my life and that's

been 64 years.

What I love about living

here at Plaquemine is

we don't have that

big city feel.

You know what I mean?

When you go further south,

you'll notice where the

whole landscape changes.

It's more woods, more water.

This can be a pretty

dangerous area.

If you want to lose

somebody, come to us.

In Bayou Pigeon, there's

no street lights, you know,

it's just total darkness.

We got some places that

you couldn't see your hand

in front of your face.

So you very well

could come up missing,

and it would take

days, months, you know,

before you were located,

if at all located.

But m*rder, it's not an

everyday occurrence here,

so we take it very serious,

and we don't stop

until we find 'em.

(train whistle blows)

- [Narrator] It's a gray,

rainy day in Iberville Parish.

29 year old Curtis

Cochise Smith is spending

a quiet day with family.

(gentle guitar music)

- It was a normal

day. I was at home.

Cochise was living

with me and my parents.

- Cochise was in the

process of trying to acquire

some diapers for his baby,

and he had contacted his boss

and he was trying to get

some money to go make

sure he could make

that run for the baby.

- Cochise was doing odd jobs,

you know that type of work.

Nothing where he was gonna

make any money from it.

- He did say he got $10 to

get some diapers for the baby.

(thunder cracks)

- [Narrator] The grocery

store is less than a mile away,

but one hour later, Cochise

still hasn't returned.

- When Cochise didn't come home,

yeah, we know

something was wrong.

Cochise did not

stay away from home.

Cochise was gonna come

home to see his only child.

We went out looking for Cochise.

We checked where

my mom house was.

We checked in the cane

field and stuff like that.

But, turned up nothing.

Three days later

my mother reported

that Curtis was missing.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Cochise

and his siblings grow up

in a loving home.

- Cochise was my older brother.

My mom and dad had

10 kids in the house,

6 boys and 4 girls.

Cochise was the fourth boy.

I'm the baby girl.

So, we are about like

three years apart.

I could remember back

when I first got my bike

and a little girl had ran

into my bike, and I told her,

"You ran into my bike."

So, Cochise got off of his bike

and took the little girl bike

and threw it in the ditch.

(Chrisanne laughs)

So Cochise, he was

very protective of me.

(kids yelling)

(somber music)

- [Narrator] Even into his 20s,

Cochise decides to stay

close to home on the bayou.

At 27, a new woman

enters his life.

- Cochise and Lydia,

they met because me and

Lydia mama was friends.

Lydia was a good girl.

She was a good sweet girl.

His world was Lydia.

Cochise never let Lydia

go without anything.

It don't matter how he

got it, he got it for her.

That was her first boyfriend.

So you know when your

first love, that is a bond.

- [Narrator] By August of 1990,

Cochise is working as a roofer

as he and Lydia welcome a

son, Gerald, into the world.

- When she had the child,

Cochise would take the baby

for a walk in a stroller.

Cochise would feed the baby.

Cochise would change the baby.

That was Cochise's heart.

(train whistle blows)

- I've lived my whole

life in Iberville Parish.

My daddy was always

a public servant.

He worked as a detective.

He worked as a chief deputy.

Louisiana's known for three

of the top m*rder cities

in the United States.

Iberville is not one of 'em,

but you could get

yourself in some trouble.

As soon as the family said,

"No, there's something's

really wrong,"

we went out to try to

track his, his last day.

On March 4th, the

sheriff's office reached

back out to the family.

- The first thing you wanna

do is get the family members.

Nobody knows that person

better than a family member.

You wanna know who

they hang out with.

You want to know the

clothing they wear,

you know, if there's any mental

issues going on with them.

(thunder cracks)

When Cochise was last seen, he

was wearing gray sweatpants,

a white pullover shirt,

and he also had

on a blue jacket,

and he had an umbrella with him,

because it was

raining that night.

You go looking back

at the history,

is there anybody recently

or within the past made

any threats toward him?

(thunder cracks)

(quiet blues guitar)

- [Narrator] Investigators

also speak directly

to Cochise's girlfriend, Lydia.

- When somebody

comes up missing,

you certainly wanna speak

to their significant other,

because anything's possible.

- [Narrator] Detectives meet

with the young

mother in her home.

- She was crying, saying

her baby is gonna grow

up without her daddy.

- And Lydia said she received

a phone call from him,

but that phone call he made

was made from a payphone,

which was located

outside of a store called

National Food Store.

That's where he went to go

buy the items for the kid,

'cause back in the early '90s,

there was no cellphones

in this area.

But, there was a payphone,

and I remember it specifically,

'cause I've used that phone

myself in the early '90s.

(coin jingles)

- [Narrator] Lydia tells police

that there was nothing

unusual about the phone call.

Investigators, however,

learn about another call

from Cochise.

- They needed to know, did

somebody want to hurt him?

- Cochise made a

phone call to my mama

from the grocery store.

- Cochise told that family,

if anything ever

happened to me,

go find Tommy.

(phone rings)

(thunder claps)

(quiet blues guitar)

- The family already

had informed us

that Cochise had told them,

"If something happens to

me, y'all need to know

Tommy was the one who did it."

(train whistle blows)

- Tommy Francise come from

a very wealthy family.

Tommy had family that

were elected officials.

I knew him, knew him well.

I didn't go to school with him,

but I remember Tommy Francise

was very athletic in running.

(starter g*n fires)

Tommy still, to this

day, holds a record

at Louisiana State University

for track, running the mile.

- Once he got into the

real world and was working,

he built homes, he

built different homes.

Tommy Francise

built my first home.

- Tommy also owned

a ice business,

but Tommy was very

manipulative, very conniving.

He could sell, you

know, a burning man gas.

You know, just the

type of person he was.

But Tommy also had some

problems with domestic violence.

Tommy knew who he could pick on.

Tommy picked out a

certain group of people

that he would control and

and threaten and abuse.

(ominous music)

Tommy puts Cochise to

work just doing odd jobs.

You know, just blue collar work.

Just get out there and with

a shovel and dig a ditch.

Cochise's family knew that Tommy

could be a volatile person.

- The sheriff's office learned

that Cochise had been making

some calls trying

to get some funds.

And we speculated that he

had contacted his boss,

Tommy Francise.

And he was trying to get some

money to go make that run

for the baby.

(owl hoots)

The trail left us

with Cochise missing

and Tommy Francise, one of

the last people that saw him.

(train whistle blows)

- That's when they really said,

"Holy (bleep),

we need to dig into

this a little further."

- On March 5th, the

sheriff's office decided

it was time to talk to Tommy.

And we had brought Tommy

in. Then he told 'em,

"I saw Cochise earlier that day.

He hadn't been here

in a little while.

He wanted to borrow

some money from me."

- He was very cooperative.

As a matter of fact,

they did a search

warrant on the place.

They found nothing.

They couldn't find anything

they could hang their hat on.

He walked around with 'em,

and he said, "Oh yeah,

check this, check that.

I got nothing to hide.

I didn't do anything

wrong." You know.

- [Narrator] After coming

up empty with Tommy,

investigators go back

to the streets to find

any clues they can.

- Cochise was not

the type of person

that a lot of people knew.

I mean, he ran in

a small circle.

I think they had

exhausted everything.

Nothing came in.

No more new leads.

I think at that point in time

they were at a standstill.

- We have no body.

We've run down all the leads,

and we have a

grieving family, but

we don't have

a lot of direction

for the law

enforcement to go in.

- [Narrator] By the

summer of 1991,

leads have vanished,

and the Cochise case goes

as cold as the blood

of a bayou alligator.

(somber music)

- It was hard not knowing where

my brother Cochise was at.

It was not sleeping,

waiting for to see if

Cochise gonna call or come home.

It was hard to feel

normal without Cochise

because a piece was missing.

- I can't imagine,

you know, look,

I got three kids of my own.

And I have four grandkids,

and I can't even imagine

getting a phone call

that any one of my

kids or grandkids

or my wife or anybody

would come up missing.

It'd be total panic for me.

- Cochise case being left open

is disturbing to the family.

But, in those years

they had other murders.

We had bodies,

We had trials.

And even though Cochise's

case was always right there,

it just wasn't on

the top burner.

(dark mysterious music)

On March 9th, sheriff's

office received a call

from a woman and she

said that she had

some information about

the Cochise case.

- She had a beauty shop

and this guy would just drop in

at any given time, day or night,

and he would call her and

make threats toward her.

- And, she said,

he talked about how

he might have k*lled Cochise.

(ominous music)

(frogs croak) (birds squawk)

(country guitar music)

- I lived in Plaquemine

my whole life.

This was back when I was

cheerful and happy and no fear.

No fear.

I heard about the Cochise

case just being a local

in this area.

Everybody was talking

about it and knew about it.

I wish I could go back to

the day I never met this guy.

(train on tracks)

- The sheriff's office received

a call from De Ette

Himel saying that

she knew who harmed

Cochise or k*lled him.

- And she said that,

lemme tell you,

Tommy Francise had

something to do

with Cochise's

coming up missing.

- When I first met Tommy,

he was very kind, gentle,

soft spoken, very helpful.

And I was going through a

divorce with my ex-husband.

I was a single mom,

and Tommy would always show up

at my beauty shop to stop in

and say, "Hello."

He would come in and,

"Let me help you."

For instance, my grass

was not getting cut.

My house was for sale.

My ex-husband wasn't

helping me to cut the grass.

I was at work all the

time, cutting hair.

And Tommy was there

to offer that.

And then, one time,

I started to notice

that I had thought I had

seen somebody in my window.

And it kind of startled me.

I don't know if that was

him or not in my window,

but I'm kind of getting worried,

because he's

starting to show up,

and I knew he was stalking me.

I realized that

while I was at work,

he was inside my house going

through my things, stalking.

I didn't confront Tommy,

because I was

beginning to be fearful.

- [Narrator] Despite

her concerns, De Ette is

too afraid to cut off contact.

As Tommy becomes more

comfortable with her,

he begins exposing a much

darker side of himself.

- When Tommy started revealing

himself to me and telling me

these stories of how

he m*rder*d somebody,

I definitely knew Tommy's

telling the truth.

- [Narrator] De Ette

finally works up the courage

to call authorities.

(dark pulsing music)

In the hopes of getting Francise

to admit k*lling Cochise,

De Ette agrees to wear a wire.

- I was beginning to get

scared, really scared,

and I wanted him caught.

So they sent a female

officer in with me,

and they put a white

wire in my bra,

and they had a little

thing in my ear.

I was told to invite him

over, cooked a gumbo.

The police officers are

sitting in my attic.

They're sitting in a

van down the street.

- I'd be scared to death to send

somebody with a wire,

because you can't just sit

in the living room and say,

"Talk in this microphone."

She needed to get

up close to him.

- I had to be brave.

I had no other choice.

(Tommy laughs)

- I mean, he was

actually laughing.

He was talking about

how they would never

be able to connect him.

- He told me the whole

damn story of what he did,

word for word, gruesome detail.

I felt nauseated.

I felt paralyzed, like

I couldn't even move.

- [Narrator] Despite having

a full confession from Francise,

authorities make the

decision not to arrest.

- They didn't have a body.

I mean, up until lately,

you hadn't seen a

crime without a body

even being attempted to be

prosecuted in the deep south.

No body, no crime.

- They told me if I did this,

they would be able to put him

behind bars fairly quickly.

And I kept waiting.

I kept waiting.

I kept questioning the cops.

I kept saying, "What's it

gonna take? What else?"

I was always looking over my

shoulder, constantly worried,

a nervous wreck.

He was wanting more

from the relationship,

and I wasn't willing

to give more.

(glass breaking)

And he got mad,

and he vandalized and

tore up my entire shop.

I was so mentally broken

at that time thinking,

this man is gonna k*ll me.

This man is coming after me.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] Six long

years go by.

Then, the police get

a possible break.

(siren blares)

- In 2001, Tommy was arrested

and brought into the

Iberville Parish jail

where he was booked in

a felony theft charge.

And he actually had to

do some amount of time

while he was incarcerated.

And the pressure mounted on him.

- And then lo and behold,

he gave a full-fledged

admission to what he had done.

- And this time, he turned

the tables a little bit

from the story he had told.

He had to k*ll Cochise

in self-defense.

(relaxed blues music)

- So Tommy says, Cochise

actually shows up to the house,

comes in the house and

pulls a g*n on him.

(intense music)

- [Narrator] Six years

after admitting to the sh**ting

of Curtis Cochise Smith on

a secret wire recording,

Tommy Francise is now

telling investigators

that he had no choice.

- Tommy at that time is

now claiming self-defense,

but Tommy had enough time

to retreat to the bedroom,

come out with a r*fle.

So that didn't even make sense.

(thunder cracks)

- Part of the

confession was you have to

show us what you did

and where you did.

And Tommy brought law

enforcement officials

out there to the scene.

(birds squawk)

- This is Bayou Pigeon.

And we'll be pulling

up on Francise's camp

right here, up on the right.

Look like it's abandoned now.

But, this is where he

told the detectives

that he dropped off

Cochise in the barrel.

(birds squawk)

- Tommy brought the

barrel to Bayou Pigeon

and eased it out in the water.

- And he said he watched it

go to about midway of the bayou.

- Just a eerie feeling to know

that this guy would commit

a heinous crimes like this

and dump somebody's

body in a drum.

Just throw it off in

that bayou right there.

- Dive team goes down,

cadaver dogs, sonar,

looking for the barrel,

looking for anything

that they could find

at the Pigeon location.

And nothing was able to

be found at that time.

- [Police] He's up.

- I think it was

a game with Tommy.

Tommy loved the challenge

of, you can't catch me.

- When they told us that

he made a confession

that he k*lled Cochise,

that's enough evidence for me.

- [Narrator] With no

body, however,

Francise is ultimately

released from prison.

- And for years I awaited for

this arrest that never came.

(eerie dark music)

And I would wake

up with nightmares

that, you know, he's

coming after me.

He's going to k*ll my child.

He's gonna do something.

It was just, it was a nightmare.

(dog barking)

- [Narrator] Less than a

year after Francise's release,

tragedy strikes

Plaquemine once more.

(ominous music)

- Plaquemine City

Police received a call

from a woman who

said she hadn't heard

from George Barrett

since the 2nd of March.

She sent her 15 year old

son out to look for him.

- I was at home and

my sister called

and said that I would need

to go to my dad's house.

Something was wrong.

And he went in the house

and came back out and said,

"Mom, grandpa not responding."

- George Barrett was

found laying on the floor

with a single g*nsh*t

wound to the head.

- My dad was known

to the community.

He was a carpenter, a handyman,

somebody they can trust.

That's the kind

of guy my dad was.

(siren blares)

- When you walk

into the residence,

there was a living room.

To the immediate

right was his bedroom.

I see a half eaten

sandwich, and the TV was on.

- And they found a shell casing.

- [Ronnie] It was a

small caliber, you know, 22.

- [Narrator] Searching the home,

investigators make

a curious discovery.

- The light bulb in the

bedroom was unscrewed.

They had a pull cord

to turn the light on

and turn it off instead

of a wall switch.

There was no forced entry.

There was nothing outta place.

George knew who k*lled him.

And I think that George Barrett

came in, made his sandwich,

sit down to eat his

sandwich, turned the TV on,

went into the bedroom.

He reached to turn

on that light.

When he did, pow!

It was a setup.

(police radio chatter)

- And then it was learned

through that investigation

that he too was an

employee of Tommy Francise.

- You know, hey, if

it walked like a duck,

and it quacked like

a duck, it's a duck.

- It didn't take long for

one and two to add up.

And they said, "Tommy has

k*lled his second victim."

(phone ringing)

They're waiting on

fingerprint analysis

from the light bulb,

waiting on ballistics,

wanted to find a g*n that

may have shot the b*llet,

but they couldn't

locate anything.

- [Narrator] 13 years pass

before a random encounter

reignites the Cochise case.

- We learned that a

barrel was discovered

in the parish of Natchitoches.

A fishermen had been

fishing and noticed

that the barrel was starting

to decompose itself.

That fisherman reported

that he had seen

what appeared to be human

remains exposed in the barrel.

(country guitar music)

- Tommy had made the statement

that he had put

Cochise in a barrel.

And somebody called and says,

"Look, there's a barrel

washed up on a riverbank

in the bayou.

And we thinking, oh,

(bleep) this may be the one.

- I became involved

with the investigation

of Curtis Cochise Smith

when it was told to us

that we would be reopening

the investigation.

- There was a lot of

people definitely afraid

of Tommy Francise.

People that I know of was

scared to death of him.

It was time to figure

out how to get him.

Tommy, he traveled.

He's a truck driver,

and lo and behold,

Tommy had a friend who

had a camp up there

in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

So, we thinking, holy crap.

He could have told De Ette

he dropped his body off

in Bayou Pigeon, but he

may have dropped him off

in Natchitoches.

(police radio chatter)

- That person that they found

in the barrel was

determined to be

of African-American descent.

- I was at work and I got the

call, and they was, you know,

the police found a barrel.

It could have been Cochise,

but there was a possibility

that it wasn't Cochise.

- [Narrator] Plaquemine PD

wastes no time sending

a team of investigators

to Natchitoches.

- It was a metal barrel,

which was consistent

with what Tommy Francise had

allegedly put Curtis Smith in.

- That body was

encased in concrete.

- [Aubrey] There were

some jagged fibers

attached to the concrete.

It was a bluish,

greenish looking fabric.

- When Cochise was last seen,

he was wearing a blue jacket.

- We extracted some

of the dental remains,

and we had the tooth grinded up

and sent to a lab to be

compared against familial DNA.

- The police called

me to come up

to the courthouse to take a DNA

and they asked me, do I

know where his son is,

and I said, "Yes."

So me and his son went

to the police station,

and they took DNA

of me and Gerald.

- [Narrator] While

investigators wait

for the DNA results,

they comb through reports

searching for something

they may have missed.

- We went through

all these statements.

We started finding these people

and find out who's still living,

and then we'd bring

them in and say,

"Okay, well we'd like

to re-interview you."

We did a bunch of interviews,

and I talked to Arlene.

- Arlene Randall was

a lady who Tommy had

a relationship with.

Tommy ultimately

told Arlene Randall

that he had k*lled Curtis

over a stolen air compressor,

and that he was

pretty angry about it.

And that's how he was

gonna get his justice.

He was gonna be the judge.

And Arlene knew that George

Barrett was taking Tommy

to court.

- [Narrator] Arlene

agrees to come in

and speak with detectives.

- Tommy told her, he's

not gonna come to court.

He's not gonna make it.

- [Arlene] I talked

to George, and I say,

"Please be careful,

you don't know who

you're dealing with."

I say, "I'm

telling you, George,

please don't turn your back."

- Uncovering that information

during Arlene's interview

was very powerful,

because it gave us a motive.

Tommy Francise, he would have

a motive to m*rder George,

because he didn't want

to have to pay George.

- [Narrator] Investigators

continue

to re-interview witnesses

and find that Arlene

is not the only woman

in Tommy's life

who's ready to talk.

- We was able to establish

the fact that Tommy had

another mistress by the

name of Molina Goche.

He had told her what

he had did to George,

and how he went through a back

window, and he laid and wait.

He had unscrewed a light bulb.

The investigators had found

that the light bulb was

loose making the house dark

for when George came home.

The light bulb information

had never been released

to the public.

- So the only person

would've known that would be

the person who unscrewed

that light bulb.

And that would've

been Tommy Francise.

(ominous music)

(gentle music)

- Tommy told her how he did it,

that he unscrewed the light

bulb, and he shot him.

And it all added up.

I mean, everything she told us,

the scene that we saw

was exactly what she said

Tommy told her.

- [Narrator] 25 Years

after the m*rder investigation

of Curtis Cochise Smith began,

investigators have zeroed in

on one suspect involving

two murders, Tommy Francise.

Then news arrives that

threatens to derail the case.

- The barrel that was located

in Natchitoches, Louisiana,

the DNA was tested against that

of family members

of Curtis Smith,

and the DNA returned

negative results

of that being any way

related to Curtis Smith.

(light pensive music)

- It was like a

punch in the guts.

We need some closure.

Me and my family, we need

some closure for Cochise.

- [Narrator] Despite

the devastating news,

investigators and the

Iberville Parish DA close in

on Francise.

- We sat down with the

District Attorney's Office,

and we laid this whole case out.

We felt it was enough

evidence to go forth

with a charge of

second degree m*rder

for Cochise and

for George Barrett.

We learned Tommy

was outta state.

Tommy was driving a 18-wheeler.

We knew he was in Texas.

So we started pinging the phone,

and we was watching him.

He crosses the Louisiana border.

We pull up and Tommy's

in the truck parked.

He had a little shades pulled.

So we get on the horn

start to holler to him,

"Get out, get out,

get out, get out."

And he gets out.

And there was no

confrontation, nothing.

So I get him in my unit,

and I read him his rights.

And that's when I

tell Tommy, I say,

"Tommy, you do realize

today was the last day

of freedom for you, right?"

(ominous guitar music)

- 25 years after

Cochise's disappearance,

Tommy Francise was

charged with two counts

of second degree m*rder.

(contemplative music)

- We got a phone call

from the police saying

they had arrested

Tommy Francise.

It was a weight,

a big weight off my shoulder

that he had been arrested.

- [Narrator] While in

jail awaiting trial,

Tommy Francise is

diagnosed with cancer.

- He was brought to Hunts

Correctional Center,

because they have a

medical facility there.

They have a hospice center.

(jail door slams)

(insects whir)

- I remember getting the call,

and the fact that he

passed away in prison,

and it was kind of

like, you know what?

Look, you was gonna have to

face judgment day anyway.

(cat meows)

(dog barks)

- No. Dying of cancer was not

enough for this creature.

He was evil. He was evil.

Dying was a blessing for him.

He tortured people.

He tortured people for years.

(contemplative music)

- I miss my dad a lot,

particularly when, say,

when I'm around my male buddies.

They talk about the

different things

that they go and

do with their dad.

And I'm the only

one in the crowd

that my dad is not here

to do those things with.

- My mother died without knowing

what happened to her son.

Her baby, Cochise.

She never found him.

(sad music)

(Chrisanne cries)

- If I had, I give

him all my money.

I'd give him my life

just to have him here.

I wish he could walk

through that door

and say, "Here I am, Sis.

You don't have to

worry no more."

(choir singing spiritual music)

- I don't know if

I would be around,

but I hope that whoever takes

my place in the department

in the coming years are

able to locate Cochise.

I can imagine that would

be the greatest feeling

in the world for the family.

They can now have a

proper burial for him.

I think that would be awesome.

You sell me your sorrow

Girl I don't know the rain

Don't tell me that tomorrow

You chose another day

Ooh

ooh