CenLAw
Kellye, the true crime enthusiast, and Kyler, her willing partner, delve into intriguing cases from Central & Northeastern Louisiana.
From small-town cases to nationally known crimes, they bring you stories that hit close to home, always with that Louisiana connection.
Tune in bi-weekly for your true crime fix and support their show for a shout-out in the next episode.
Stay safe out there!
CenLAw
Echoes of Evil in Catahoula - Ponthieux/Adams - Part 1 of 4
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Uncover the chilling saga of the Catahoula Parish triple homicide with us as we guide you through a night that tore through the tranquility of a small community. On an ominous evening in 2012, a frantic 911 call set off a series of events that led to a grisly discovery and a manhunt that gripped the heart of Louisiana. Our podcast peels back the layers of this complex case, examining the evidence left behind in a tiny shed and the intriguing absence of a household member, that together, form a puzzle law enforcement are desperate to solve.
As the Moody Road narrative unfolds, you'll step into the shoes of the investigators as they navigate a crime scene fraught with perplexing clues—bloody footprints suggesting the terrifying possibility of multiple assailants and the haunting absence of shotgun shells that could have offered clear insights. We share how a community's shock turned to an all-consuming hunt for the man who vanished into the night, and the relentless efforts of multiple authorities to piece together the fractured timeline of a family's worst nightmare.
Our journey through Catahoula Parish reaches a fever pitch with a tip from local Scott Fields and the subsequent confrontation that had hearts racing across the parish. Experience the mix of relief and heartache that washes over a community as they face the man they believe shattered their sense of safety. This three-part series doesn't just recount a crime—it's a testament to the enduring pursuit of justice and the resilience of a shaken town, forever changed by one harrowing night.
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All🎶created by: Uncle Sawyer
On April 6, 2012,. Caterpillar Parish Sheriff's Office 911 dispatcher received a call around 8.20 pm from a female caller that said she needed the law there fast, at the address of 975 Moody Road. This was in the Larto Lake area and, as officers responded, they had no way of knowing that just four months later, this address would be the scene of arguably one of the most gruesome homicides anyone from this small community would ever see. They're ready to take a deep dive in this three-part series into the case that ignited the flame for this podcast's existence. Today we will discuss what happened in the investigation and the manhunt for the prime suspect, part 1 of 3, today on Episode 16 of CINLAW. Hello and welcome back to CINLAW. I'm Kelly.
Speaker 1:And I'm Kyler, and this is going to be a trip. We're going to pack every suitcase, we're going to pack extra. You know what? We're just going to rent and go to the laundromat while we're there, because this is going to be a while and when I win my money, I'm going to Disney World.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right.
Speaker 1:So basically, I can't tell you guys how excited I am and I know it's really weird to say about a case like this, because we're talking about a triple homicide and I'm telling you I'm excited to talk about it.
Speaker 2:She's alive.
Speaker 1:Well, because I've sat on this thing, I learned about this almost two years ago.
Speaker 2:They don't even know about the things you've sat on.
Speaker 1:And I've had to. I literally told, and I've talked to this about this case to everybody that would listen to me talk about it, because it's just, it's that interesting, it's that enthralling. There's so much going on, and that was the reason why I was like you know what, I should start a podcast, because this would make an amazing episode on a podcast. And I started a podcast, and then I didn't do this episode, I didn't tell this story Until now. You're welcome. So, basically, what we, what I've done, though, because, like I said, I've spent ridiculous amounts of time working on this and researching and digging into every nook and corner, nook and cranny, all of the things.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna get there, I'm tired, all right. So I have dug deep, deep, deep into this and I'm actually going to get even deeper into it in the following days here, but we'll get into that in the next episode. So, point being, I broke it down into three separate parts because that's literally how much of a volume this thing has and how much time it would actually take to explain. I think the last time and this is not the first time that we've recorded this episode Technically we've recorded it once before, but we had a lot going on my niece Peyton, who was also in another episode with me, the triple homicide familial, intergenerational homicide that we did, the Mark Morris case she was on that one with me and she was here and we recorded this episode. We had actually broken up into two parts the last time, but when I went back and tried to edit and see how that one went, it was kind of a train wreck that indeed didn't a dumpster fire.
Speaker 2:So she thinks that. I think it was wonderful.
Speaker 1:At some point here in the very near future hopefully by the end of January we will have a Patreon and that will be in the included list of things behind a paywall that, if you want to listen to it, you are more than welcome. I don't know why anyone would, but it'll be there. So it was fun. Yeah Well, when you have a drunk person popping in and out every 30 minutes or so of an episode, you know it keeps it interesting, keeps people on their toes, but it's not good for actual episodes. Neither is cats fighting, so I apologize if you guys heard that. So basically, that's it. I'm going to go ahead and get into the episode now, because there is a lot and this is about three minutes of intro, which is, I think, the longest non-episode start time that we've done in any episode so far. So, all of that aside, let's get into this holy mess. All right, so in the intro I was speaking about April 6th of 2012. So we're in 2012.
Speaker 1:This is Catahoula Parish. It's actually the. I think it's the most southern part of Catahoula Parish. It's called the Larto Lake area. Larto Lake was a man-made lake. They put up a dam sometime in the past. I don't remember. I haven't done that stuff for the last time we recorded, but with all the other information I have to get you, you guys Google it. All right, thank you. So Larto Lake though when people refer to the different areas of Catahoula Parish, larto Lake is its own thing and everybody knows where it's at. It's just kind of there.
Speaker 1:So this happened at the property of Ms Annie Bell Adams. She is there, was at the time of this occurrence. She was 76 years old. She had seven kids total. Yeah, her husband's name was Otto. What was most from that generation we wanted to do? No, I have some of my family members, they have like 12. I get it Same age group area. Yeah, she was born actually in July, july 13th of 1936. So good, good number away A long time ago, and her husband, otto, and she owned that property and he had already passed away at the time that this happened. So, seven kids, they had 12 grandkids, 24 great grandkids, and this was just at the time that she passed away. So imagine now how much more that's spread out.
Speaker 1:So she lived there with her eldest daughter, who was Debbie Adams, and Debbie, at the time of this incident, was 57 and Debbie had a boyfriend, his English, Lee John, and his last name. I'm going to butcher Pawn, pawn, ponshey, pawn, ponshey, ponshey, ponshey. Don't have a freaking clue, but from here on out, in the next three episodes, we will refer to him as Lee John, and he was actually the junior, and I'm just gonna call him Lee John, though, because I'm gonna not butcher that 80 million times and have everyone Bleeding from their ears hearing me say it improperly so. So we've got Miss Annie Bell, 76, living at home, at her home that she owned, with her eldest daughter, debbie Adams, and her boyfriend, lee John, and also living on the same property, which, as I mentioned in the intro, was 975 Moody Road Also they live up to that too in a shed on the front side of the property.
Speaker 1:Also her daughter. I believe she was younger than Debbie, but not the youngest Daughter. Her name was Idris Eileen Ellard and her. I think she went by Eileen, though, so that's what we're gonna refer to her as as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's too close to Idris Elba.
Speaker 1:I don't like it. But don't you but I think it's an eye and a e, I think that's the difference. Anyway, she was 51 at the time of this occurrence and Her husband also lived with her on the shed in the shed on the property. His name was John D L R.
Speaker 1:I think he was a junior as well and his nickname don't laugh, it's not funny Bozo. So we've got Annie Bell, property owner the eldest, 76 year old, the mother of Debbie and Eileen. Debbie is the eldest daughter. She lived in the house with her mom and her boyfriend, lee John. Eileen and Bozo lived outside in a shed. Um, eileen was 51, bozo was 45, debbie 57, lee John 41 and miss Annie Bell was 76, like I said.
Speaker 1:So Now we have the five people that live on the property, that were living on the property at the time that this happened, and we are going to go with. The best way to do this is to go in the same way, chronologically, as things happened. Um, in real time for the, for the police, because I think that just that gets it to where I can lay things out and reveal things to you in the same way that they were revealed in the investigation. So I'm probably gonna give you guys a little bit more information. Just because I can't help it, I get excited, um, but other than that, we're gonna try to find all of this as chronologically as possible. All right, all right. So everybody got the five people. Did you grab your notepad? No, okay? Well, if you become a patreon subscriber here at the end of january, I'll send you one.
Speaker 1:Okay, so on august stickies to august 20th 2012, and this was the early morning hours. At 250 in the morning, the 911 dispatch Of catahoula pair sheriff's office got a call and it was from a mr Scott fields who said that debbie adams had just shown up to his house and she was all bent out of shape and something was going on here, talked to her, so he handed her the phone and then debbie proceeded hysterically to say that they were in an argument back at her mom's house and they just sent the cops out, because when she ran away To go to this neighbor's house, scott fields, that she was not calling 911. From that she heard two shotgun blasts and she wanted the police to go check and make sure that nobody was hurt. Now the Police they knew this address. This wasn't the first time. Like I said, they had had a call as uh, as recently as april of 2012 and, from what I gather, that was not the only one. Um, in the past like two, three years that that had happened, that they had had these occurrences where they had been called out to this address for different reasons, but the majority of them were either like deserving the peace, um, drunk and disorderly type situations, or, you know, just arguments that were getting out of hand and people get worried and yeah, so they get the call.
Speaker 1:The only officer that's on duty, yes, one officer for the entire parish. Yes, because this is a very, very, very, very small community. Yes, we have been over this before. Anyway, they call him and he's okay. So we're large.
Speaker 1:Oh, lake is in the bottom south Corner of a kind of little parish. He was actually in a more northeastern Part of the parish, so they tell him and he was about to get off work. That's why he was up there, because he lived up there. But he takes off, he's coming down towards the Lartel Lake area. They also call another deputy at deputy who is off duty at the time, but he actually lived on the same road, on moody road, so they called him, got him to.
Speaker 1:You know, wake up, put clothes on, wait for the other deputy to arrive. So they actually, um were dispatched. Or the officer that was in sicily island. He was dispatched at 253, uh, at 319. They got another phone call to 9-1-1 from Debbie, again from scott fields house, asking if the officers had made it to the house. Yet if they knew what was going on. She said she was really worried about her dog. They might, you know, accidentally hurt the dog and enter him and the dispatch, you know, was like no, they're on their way, they're almost there, but you stay there because we need to make sure that you stay safe and that one of the officers will come and get your statement and do what needs to be done. You just wait there. Okay, so that was at 327 at 340. Uh, I'm sorry, that was at 319 at 327, deputy wiley, and hold on, there's another deputy and coyote, so I think it was detective wiley and jackson, but Investigator wiley was the one.
Speaker 1:He was a wiley one that lived on moody road and he uh testified later at the trial. But anyway, wiley Sorry, and the other officer, they get there and they are arriving at 327, so fairly quickly. Honestly, it was about 30 minutes for him to get down there from Uh, 35 minutes for him to get down there from sissley island to larger lake, which is Impressive. Um, google it again because it's one of those things that I think we went into that on the last time we recorded and it's just, it's a lot, it's a pretty good distance is all I'm saying. Um, um, normal people time. He was making good driving about 45 minutes, maybe an hour, just because of the different grind you of the roads and all the things.
Speaker 1:You're talking about people that aren't from here because you have to go through jonesville and then you have to come down and around and it's the whole thing Anyway. So they get there and because the reason that they had to have two officers and that the one from sissley island couldn't go by himself, it was because of the shots fired. Now they didn't know if that meant that somebody was there and there was a weapon and actively being used or whatever, because the way that debbie explained it was she just heard two shotgun blasts. She didn't know what actually happened. So they get there. And again, deputy wiley, he is Familiar with this address, he's familiar with the people. He knows that there's at least four other people that should be on this property or that that have been living there.
Speaker 2:So Interesting case. You're wondering if, if ever you're only uh, you're one police officer for your county or you're parish. In this case, uh Knows well your family. It's probably not a good thing.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean probably not a good thing if you think about it, though, because of how small our our community is Like, I'm sure that the Sheriff's office knows how many people we got here, or at least they have a decent guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're in a village, it's different.
Speaker 1:Right, but the same stuff. So I'm saying anyway, my point, my point being, is you know they, they know most of these people. They've grown up with most of these people most of their life, and they know what's going on. They know the people. So, especially out here in the middle of nowhere, a lot of times, you know we don't lock our doors, you know that's just not a thing.
Speaker 2:Unless it's to keep the other door from opening right.
Speaker 1:But you know, we leave our doors open, our windows open, even though fresh air is for dead people. I mean, it's one of those things that we don't have as much of a security worry when it comes down to it. So the same thing with them out there in the middle of nowhere. So these officers get there and they're doing the call, waiting for a response. They're not getting any answers from anybody, it is silent, and they go up onto the porch where they know the front door access or what, that the entry way to the house is, because, like I said, they've been there before. So it's not the actual front door, is the guest side, porch side door that everybody uses, because out here usually you need one door to a house. Don't ask me why, it's just a thing. So they go and they're knocking on the door with their police. Knock that, the one that wakes up the dead. Still nothing. And they know, of all people that should actually be there at you know 3, 30 in the morning, miss Annie Bell, who they know to be, you know, poor in health, should be there. If she's there, she should be in bed sleeping, because it's 3, 30 in the morning, right?
Speaker 1:So when they still get no answer. They try the door it's unlocked. They continue in and still calling. You know, hey, please make yourself known. We're here trying to make sure, but it's okay. Well, fair check. Yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 1:And they hear Miss Annie's oxygen tank Because she is on oxygen all hours of the day, 24 hours a day as most theater on oxygen and they follow the oxygen Tooming all the way into Miss Annie's bedroom, which is immediately off of the living room from where they entered into the living room from the door. They entered in and they see Miss Annie Bell laying on her right side, and they continue into the room, still talking and trying to get a response. They get none, and then Within seconds they realize that she is completely Covered in blood. From her neck area there is a wound that is so Vicious and bloody that it looks like she possibly could have been shot. So they immediately up their ante.
Speaker 1:They know that this is no longer just a welfare check this is a crime scene, homicide, but they potentially a homicide, but it doesn't look like she had done this to herself. They do a quick clear of the house, make sure nobody is in there and they fall back to their vehicles, which they had parked side by side in the driveway. Now this is about 345 ish in the morning, so it's still dark as all hell and they can't see. There are nothing but woods Around this property, around this house. It's like a circle driveway that goes around the house and the sheds and Nothing but trees, and then the river is on the other side of the three sides that it has. So you've got the driveway comes in would wood. Backside of the house is the river. So they're back out to their vehicles because at this point they don't know if there is a Suspect or perpetrator somewhere still on the property that is watching them going to come and attack them. Maybe they have a gun or something in the wood line and they're watching, you know. So they fall back to their vehicles and they cover each other. After they call for backup, they cover each other to let each put on their bulletproof vest and to wait back up, and they literally stand back to back for the next 30 minutes waiting for some, maybe waiting for backup, to get there. So at about 345 they call into dispatch and let them know that they need backup and Send an ambulance, but make sure the ambulance doesn't come down here. We've got to get the scene secure.
Speaker 1:And then they wake up, the chief Deputy, which is mr Tony Edwards, and then another deputy that they send out there. They also wake up and another one of the investigators, mr Bubba Roy. That's not his God-given name, but the, that's what everybody calls him, that's what he's referred to. No, I think it seems like Eldred Eldred. Anyway, they call him Bubba Roy and he is dispatched as well. But his First stop is supposed to be at the address of mr Scott fields, to not detain but to scoop up Debbie and take her as a witness and, you know, make sure she's secure and safe. So he's going that way.
Speaker 1:Tony and the other deputy are heading towards the scene. They arrive at the scene at about 340 I'm sorry about 415 and the roughly the same time. I think within about 410, 415, bubba Roy actually gets to Scott fields house and picks up Debbie Adams there and takes her in the patrol car with him. Now Tony and them get there about 415, and they, at this point, talk to the two officers that were there that had covered each other for the last 30 minutes or so, and the two officers related then the information that, hey, as we were backing out of the house, we saw two more bodies in the front yard. But we couldn't go check because we didn't have backup and we didn't want to get shot because we didn't know if we were safe. Yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 1:So now at this point Tony rolls up to the scene.
Speaker 1:He has no idea that there's more than one person to be found, like he thought they were going out for Miss Annie Bell and that was it.
Speaker 1:And then he arrives on scene and realizes he's got three bodies. So they go. They didn't even do sign of life for the two when they saw them when they came out of the house because they Couldn't risk their own safety to go check, but when they went over to To do a full clearing of the scene and to make sure everything was safe that way, and then, once they did that, they went to the two bodies in the front yard and they were identified as Eileen Ellord and Bozo Ellord, so husband and wife that lived in the shed of which they were now Deceased in front of, within a few feet of they look. Both of them look like they have been shot for sure Bozo, because the entire top of his skull is missing and it was scattered so Far and in so many pieces that they actually made a GPS coordinate Not to be able to identify where they were all over the yard.
Speaker 2:This is a rare occasion that I do in fact feel bad for laughing. I just find that somewhat amusing that that had to be necessary well, because, yeah, because they couldn't that the, the, the distance and oh no, I understand it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:I had never heard of, I think this is the first time I've ever heard it, and then after that, of course, I heard it like three more times in other episodes but this is the first time I ever heard it when I read this two years ago. So, and then, eileen, she had such a deep gash gaping wound on her neck area that if they thought that she also had been shot. Now, peculiarly enough, the shed that they lived in she should.
Speaker 1:They noticed that there was Look like shotgun pellets had hit the roof and busted out a light bulb, and there were bloody footprints inside the shed, like on top of the comforter and inside the shed door. And now the shed that I keep saying and I referring to that Eileen and Bozo lived in. This was a literal glorified Not even efficiency.
Speaker 2:It was like a tool shed that they had turned into a quote-unquote apartment bed area from the video it looks like it was probably eight by eight or ten by ten, something like that literally they could fit a mattress in it and the mattress touched both walls, both side of each side of the wall.
Speaker 1:They had enough room to hang clothes. On one side they had like a little TV, the one light and the all the electricity that ran to that shed was from an extension cord that was run from the main house. Yeah, so Basically this thing was just like I said. It's a glorified efficiency apartment but it didn't have bad. It didn't have running water, it didn't even have its own electricity, it was just a electrical like. It was just the extension cord.
Speaker 1:So they had that out there and the. There were four concrete steps up to the door. But when they looked inside, like I said, they saw and pellets of a shotgun look like a shotgun have been shot through either into it or up through it and the light bulb had burst. Like I said, with the comforter and stuff on the on the on the bed, but there weren't any like big blood spot, it was just the bloody footprints on top of the comforter and they could see distinct patterns and a couple of them, but there were two different ones actually. I saw that mentioned. And Outside of the shed they had the four steps on the bottom step.
Speaker 2:There are two different ones. There were two different distinct patterns, I thought two different types, two different types of footprints.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh.
Speaker 2:Shu droite. Okay, I thought you're still talking about Show patterns.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know just the one that I could see and then the one that I mentioned. Now, for whatever reason, and from court documents and the police Reports, they said that they thought there were four shots discharged. But I don't and I can get more into that later, but they said something about four shots. I don't know for sure about the four shot thing, but it seemed like because of the the shell casings, I think, is where they got that from, because there were spent shells that they found outside the door of the shed and then one Further away from this bottom step outside, and then I think they had one other one closer To the bodies. I'm really not sure, but I know that they had. They found the empty shell casings, so they assumed that there were that many shots and they didn't find any shell casings in the house. They found an empty box that would hold shells on top of the fridge, on top in the port, on the porch. They also found the wallet for Lee John on the porch and that was pretty much it at that time.
Speaker 1:Now it started raining as soon as within a, within a couple minutes of the chief deputy or the chief investigator of Tony Edwards when he got there about 415.
Speaker 1:Within the next three, four minutes it started pouring rain, which made it really difficult for them to get an accurate Assessment or especially not to document an accurate depiction of the scene, because once it started raining it started washing away the blood that was on the bottom step, which I think Tony later testified that it was thick, it was a massive amount of blood and it had coagulated and it was just.
Speaker 1:There was a ton, and he believed that that was where Eileen had actually Die, was right there, either she'd either been attacked and like laid there and then they moved her. That was his opinion as far as I could gather. So, but from the pictures in the videos you it doesn't look like as much and that's because it's been waterlogged. So they got to working the scene as fast as they could. But the Roy actually picked up Debbie and brought her back to the scene at about 420 and he actually pulled in behind the shed where the bodies were on the other side in front of it, so that she couldn't see the actual scene of what was happening. But he pulled in and left her in his patrol car while he went to the go help process the scene because everybody was scrambling at this point Trying to get everything documented and get as much evidence as they could preserved because it started pouring.
Speaker 1:So Probably not in the proper protocol to take a witness slash unknown To the crime scene, especially when you saw family when you still haven't caught the well as a caught, you haven't located the fifth member of this household when you don't know and like he's the only one missing. Lee John is the only one who hasn't been made contact with and they still don't know when he is at this time. But they brought her back and put her in a patrol car at the scene and then bubble Roy went to go help process the scene. So, like I said, probably change protocol after that happened.
Speaker 1:But you know, maybe, maybe, because usually in my, in my mind, I would think that they would take the witness or whoever back to the station, like that would be your first move to who? To someone that's working there, that to the jay Park. That's supposed to be there 24 hours a day, or their deputy that's there, yeah, so anyway, they're sitting there at 420, the pull-in, and he, like I said, he helps Process the scene. He actually takes the video that was the documentation of the crime scene video and you know they did the best that they could for the time and then at about 506, about 40 minutes later, 506 ish he gets back into the car with Debbie and does a quote-unquote interview, just like a quick thing. He was just this recorder from the back of his car that he keeps with him and he's talking to her about.
Speaker 1:You know what had happened that night, where it were. You know the only person that wasn't there was Lee John Does. She know where he would go, and so on and so forth. And it comes to the question of you know how would he have left? Are there any vehicles missing? And she said, well, my mom's car, my car looks like bozos motorcycles missing.
Speaker 1:And At that point they put out a bow low for bozo for the motorcycle which I think was like black and had flames on it, and they're still processing the scene and I think if I don't, if I remember correctly, I think they took Debbie at that point back to Station to get a another recorded interview just to keep her out. There was safe. Because at this point now they have Prime suspect Lee John has taken off on a motorcycle. They didn't find the shotgun at the scene. So they don't know for sure what's going on. You know, they just don't. They don't have a shotgun, they have shotgun shells. They have three people dead, one person missing. He's a prime suspect, for no other reason than to see what his story is, you know, because they didn't find him dead and they haven't seen hide, no hair of him, and so that's, that's that's where they're at right now. They take Debbie back to the station, they continue to process the scene and At about 7 30 as they're wrapping up the scene because they're they've called in other law enforcement agencies to help them in the look or in the manhunt of the search for Lee John.
Speaker 1:At this point I think they called the saw and Concordia parish Sheriff's office to try to come out and help in the search because this is a very small department. We've talked about this many times, cat of a parish, especially so. They've got all these different agencies out looking and they're wrapping up the scene around 7, 30 that morning and they've got the bodies taken out, debbie's taken out, and as they're about to leave the scene they had a call From, I believe it was and his name is Johnny Adams, but I don't think he was related. He was like the, the teacher for the middle school out there or something, and he called and said hey, there's a motorcycle out here at the end of moody road where it intersects with the road that the Scott fields. The house for Debbie went to that intersection right there. That's where the motorcycle was crashed in the ditch. Did y'all know that? And they're like oh no, thank you.
Speaker 1:And then you know they finish up at the scene and between 7, 30, 7, 35 ish they, everybody, all of the team that was there at the scene that was processing, left so zero police presence at the scene of a triple homicide that has just happened. There's no one there, no one, well, that they know of. So they go out to where the motorcycle is and, yep, that's bozo. They actually run the registration it's not even in his name and they come to find out later. He was actually just like quote-unquote, test driving it because he had planned to be buying it From the other guy that was still registered. It was, yeah, so technically what his bike. But they found out that a way that it was actually the bike that bozo was in Possession of that had been driven from the house to there and they could tell night in slow they could tell from the trail and track that whoever was driving this motorcycle had Swerved, feared off, lost control and it, you know, slid, crashed into the ditch.
Speaker 1:And as they're doing this and as they're as they're going processing this, they've still got all the other agencies and Officers out looking for him. They kind of tighten their circle down because now they think he's probably in this area. They get another little tidbit that comes in on the wire, that Lee John's sister, miss Shelley Cole. She calls in and says Are you also looking for my brother? Because he just called me and said that he's gonna kill himself, but he wants to see me first and he doesn't know if he can do it. But he did something really bad and mentioned something about killing them people. And they're like oh my god, was he? Where was he? Did you tell you where he was? And sisters like yeah, he's at Annie's house, he's at Miss Annie Bell's house.
Speaker 1:They're like well how do you know? We were just there because he called from the landline. The landline Come to find out. He was just hanging out in the woods watching the police process the scene and do everything and once they took off he just kind of rolled back up, went back in the house. Later he said that he went in, changed his shirt, grabbed some more beer, grabbed some more shotgun shells. He planned on killing himself and then decided he should talk to his sister before he did that because apparently they were. They were close, and so he got the house phone, called his sister, talked to her for a little bit and then, like I said, got some more beer and then took off back off into the woods. He didn't even bother putting the phone back. Rude they actually. Later they they located the phone and I'll tell you about that here in just a minute.
Speaker 1:So once they get this information from Miss Shelley, they realized that he's back at the freaking house on the landline, right. So they're like oh great, okay, so this is what we need to do. We got to get another search warrant because at this point they have already left the scene. They have no right to go back, except for the fact that they think he's in there, but the probable cause that they have to think he's in there still needs a search warrant to be signed by a judge before they get into that house. So they get the Louisiana State Police actually to do and submit the warrant, and Judge Leo Booth ends up signing that a little bit later. But it takes a little bit of time. But in the meantime they get everybody that they can to go back to the house. They even call in the Rapid SWAT team to go back to this house and set up a perimeter. They actually set up a command center at the end of the driveway. Okay, so they got the command center at the end of the driveway. They're setting up a perimeter around this house and they're yelling at him like, hey, give yourself up, come on out.
Speaker 1:And when they finally do get the search warrant, the Rapid SWAT team actually has a robot because they're worried right, they're worried that he's got this shotgun and he's sitting up in there waiting to shoot any police officer that comes through the door. So this ended in the little robot, poor little guy. He would run. They run him through there, into every room. They find no one. They obviously he's not there.
Speaker 1:I already told you guys that, by the way. So robot goes in, nobody's there. They go, pull the robot out, they check and sweep the scene further and just make sure no shotgun. And it's testified to you later that they didn't notice a bloody shirt or anything different at the house and a couple of balls I feel like were dropped. But I still feel like they did a pretty decent job for what they were working with and the amount of experience that is not usually had, especially in a case like this. There was a lot of moving parts to this and I'm still impressed that all of these agencies that came together to work together worked together as well as they did. So who knows to then.
Speaker 1:So now that they realize that he's on in the house, someone by the command center realizes that they can see something off on the tree line and they walk up and realize that it's the freaking house phone in the tree line. So now they have reason to believe and to suspect that he has gone back into the woods and they're worried that he might be trying to finish the job off or what have you.
Speaker 1:So they make sure that they be safe. And then they again all points bulletin. They're trying to find this guy. Everybody be on the lookout, everybody. You know they're patrolling different areas, they take shifts and they rotate around trying to make sure that everybody is keeping their eye out for this guy. And they don't. They don't have a lot of lot of you know places to look or things to. You know they don't have any information as to where he might have gone, where he might be. They've got search dogs, they've got hounds that are walking through the woods trying to pick up his scent. But again, heavy, heavy, heavy rain, and if you roll it around in the dirt long enough you're gonna smell like the rest of the woods anyway. So they keep doing this and it turns into afternoon and they're still looking and they really don't have any. You know a reason to believe he'd still be in the area, except for, maybe, the fact that he would, you know, either want to talk to Debbie or want to come back and finish her off, because they don't know the situation yet. So they eventually get a call, and this is when it's already late, late evening almost at mom's get like 9, 30, 10 o'clock at night that they get a call from so late.
Speaker 1:Once again, scott Fields, and going on to Scott's fields house right now is they've got a bunch of family over there. That is morning and drinking, because obviously by this point they've already notified the family and let them know what had happened or what they believed to have happened, at least, that their family members were deceased and that there was an investigation. They were still on the look for him. And so they're over there drinking their sorrows away. And there's a big group, I think.
Speaker 1:If I remember correctly, I think the testimony was that it was like 10 to 15 people at least that they noticed. Um, anyway, when Scott calls 911 and let them know like hey, um, I see him. He's hanging out on a fence post in my backyard back here drinking a beer, leaning on the fence post, drinking a beer. So when the officers get there, the ones that are closest by, because there were people, there were officers real close by and I believe this was Chris Bath, bath, bath that um ended up on the scene first, or him and another deputy at the same time, and when they went to go check out the spot where he had been seen, they actually saw like an unopened beer can and empty beer cans right there in that area. So like, okay, this is a you know a good lead.
Speaker 1:They, uh, they're walking. There's a fence line right there. Like I said, he was leaning against the fence post. So they're walking the fence line. And the other officer, I think he's going through a gate Bath, I believe he just crawled to the fence, I'm not sure. But as he's going to investigate and he's just looking around, he hears a twig snap off to the side and he looks, pulls out his weapon and he's looking and he takes a couple steps closer and as he gets closer he trains his light on him because it's dark. Remember, we're talking.
Speaker 1:This is now, I believe, after midnight, at the time that they're. They're walking out there with flashlights and looking and he sees Lee John Laying down and as soon as the light hits him, the flashlight hits him, he jumps up to his knees and puts his hands up and at that same time the officer notices the shotgun directly in front of Lee John. So you want to talk about anxiety, repetition, scared to deafness, because all he has to do is lean down, turn and shoot with that shotgun and that there's not a whole lot of best can do for you.
Speaker 2:Lean down, turn and nothing, you just.
Speaker 1:Well, anyway, the good news is there was none of that. He started to make commands very loudly to Lee John to put his hands up, put his hands behind his head, stand up, don't lean forward, don't make any sudden movements. And he's doing this very clear, very loud, so that all of his other people that are there and arriving Can hear him and hear what he's saying. That way they are aware that he has found him. The way he doesn't waste any time trying to tell them. He's doing double work by yelling at him as loud as he can To make sure everybody else around knows the situation was going down. So no issues, though.
Speaker 1:They get him in handcuffs, they pick up and what they find on him and on his person? They find the shotgun that had a live round in it, I believe, and then he had shotgun shells in his pockets as well as a Gerber folding pocket knife and a lighter, and Think that was everything. I don't think he had any beer or anything on him at that point. I think he left it by the fence, so in his belly. So they take him and, as they're walking back, the family that is at the house of Scott Fields when, right next to where they have cat, like you know got him in custody. They see that they have him and they start mob approaching right Because they realize that they've now got the guy that they think has murdered their, the three family members, their loved family members, and the officers actually testify about this too.
Speaker 1:They were very concerned for not just his safety but their safety because they didn't want to get lynched in in in the scuffle. So they quickly get him into the vehicle, they quickly get him out of there and take him to the Cadajula pair sheriff's office to be processed and booked and put in the jail. And that was at, I want to say, one, 130 something in the morning. 132 was when he called and said he had the suspect in custody and they got him back to the sheriff's office and and got in process and everybody could take a deep breath and Go take a nap because some of these guys had been working on two or three hours of sleep, even though they were rotating. It wasn't a lot, and I mean when you know somebody out there or when you believe someone is out there that is capable of killing three human beings that Supposedly they looked either with or around and had been around for three, three years.
Speaker 1:Especially such a manner is this especially the 76 year old Annie Bell that was damn near helpless to Any kind of attack in her general direction, like if you could do that to her. There is no telling and no into your limitation of what you can do so.
Speaker 2:They get back, or there is a lot of limitation because you chose the weakest.
Speaker 1:Right was what I'm saying, like there is no limit to what you can, what you're capable of, because if you can do that to someone, that I know which I would choose, that I just did it anyway. So everybody can now take a deep breath, take a nap and Let the jailer deal with him for the time being, and Then they don't actually Do an interview with him until that same day, but much later in the afternoon, almost evening fun drinking game for this, for this three-part special.
Speaker 2:Anytime you hear they don't actually take a shot.
Speaker 1:They don't actually. Well now, if I don't want to do that cuz.
Speaker 2:I, because you won't make it look, I live in this parish. I live in catapult of parish and I love some constructive criticism and they didn't do very well on that and they know that and they know that.
Speaker 1:You can tell by the testimony. They know that. But again, I'm gonna give credit recorders to do. They understood that they knew they were over their heads. They were in over their heads, they were in a position and in a situation to Of which they had not been in before and that they did not have any experience in. If they did, it was very little and they knew they needed help. So they did the right thing. They immediately contacted other agencies and, again to their amazing credit, they worked very well together. There was no dick measuring, there was no like Jurisdictional stuff. This was just catch this bad guy, get this stuff done and let's try to do it as best we can, and I think that they for for what they had. I think they did a decent enough job. There absolutely is room for improvement and you guys know that as well as I do, and so I don't think we should say it or Rub any baddies knows in it, and I'm definitely not saying about them at all.
Speaker 2:Absolutely right, I I have immense respect for people that are able to lay down their pride and actually work with others to get shit done right, because you know that is.
Speaker 1:That is a complaint. That happens a lot in these scenarios where the police or the investigators of different Departments or whatever they can get their shit together and it caused the family more pain and more Unnecessary you know, frustration and terminal and all of the thing, all of the things, because it wasn't necessary. They could have got things done in process faster or they could have solved something, and now you know it. Just there, a lot of, a lot of more, a lot more could have gone wrong. That didn't. They did a good job for what they did Mostly. But again, yeah, nobody can look at anybody's situation, any situation on the planet, and be like, oh well, I see what you did wrong there. It's easy to look back now and say that when you're in a situation like that, it's really hard to To think and to get things right, perfect, perfectly every time. Nobody is ever going to. That's why we have a court to be able to Describe and just focus the camera.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, until we see that. So, but that is where part one is gonna end, guys, that's what we're gonna leave you, with him sitting in jail waiting to be interviewed, and I'm gonna tell you, the first interviews that they do opens a whole New bag of worms, a whole new thing it blows out everything we already thought we knew. And it's can't warms bucket of bag of worms.
Speaker 2:Bucket it bucket of fish and it's a bad thing bucket of Bitches.
Speaker 1:no, that's not it Okay. Also bag of wieners.
Speaker 2:You want.
Speaker 1:Also I don't know. Okay, so next episode we're gonna get more into that. We're gonna go through Lee John and his statements that he gives, statements plural that he gives to police. We're going to get into some of the background of His life and cover that and then, and yeah, yeah, that's been, that's been a, that's been a thing. That was the only things that we haven't talked about that.
Speaker 1:I haven't talked to anybody back because I didn't know much about it last time was recorded. So I, like I said, I've gone, I've gone pretty deep into this one and We'll get into that and talk more about his trial and things of that nature once we, once we get there. So thank you guys for listening. We hope you have a wonderful and if you listen to this on Christmas, bless you, merry Christmas. I nobody sneezed, I just said bless you, but you'll have a wonderful Christmas. I have a wonderful New Year's if you don't listen to this till way later. Happy holidays of all the things, and I just hope you're happy in general and the things are going well and we will see you guys Well next week. I'm at least I'm releasing this every Monday.
Speaker 2:Reconvene and meet back up the next part. Right, right, right, whenever you, I mean like we might hear.
Speaker 1:You might hear us in the night 12 seconds after. This is Do how you do one time take, take quick break, kitchen food.
Speaker 2:Good person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because this next part is gonna be rough, because we're gonna get into how they died and everything like that. It's gonna be pretty rough guys. So there's gonna be an extra warning at the beginning yeah, all right. Well, y'all be y'all, be good, stay safe and take care out there. See you next time.
