Who Was Dorothy Thompson?
Thompson owned the Azalea Original Pet Cemetery located in the Toca area of St. Bernard Parish, just outside of New Orleans. Her mother, Grace, opened it around 1950. Nodier began working for Thompson in 1980. One neighbor claimed that Nodier and his family lived with Thompson.
“His wife and the kids lived with her for a while, took care of her and he moved in, and I think one day she told him to leave and he didn’t want to leave,” Robert Graf told Fox 8. Graf also did some occasional work in the cemetery and said Thompson’s business was successful.
Thompson disappeared in the middle of April 1985 and was last seen at a local bank. Days after she vanished, she was scheduled to appear in court for a lawsuit over her property, which involved Nodier, who wanted to possess her land.
“He and his wife apparently hatched a scheme to coerce Ms. Thompson out of her land,” Doran told Fox 8. “They coerced her into what we believe was a fraudulent act of sale. When she realized what had happened, she filed a lawsuit against the Nodiers to get her land back, and 10 days prior to it going to trial, she disappeared; that was the motive.”
On May 2, 1985, Thompson’s body was discovered by fishermen in the Mississippi River on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish. She was chained up with a bag over her head, tied down by wire around her neck. Police said the coroner ruled that her cause of death was asphyxia.
Investigators also weren’t sure where the killing took place: her property or Plaquemines Parish. However, police consulted a psychic in an attempt to help solve the case, who claimed Thompson was killed in the cemetery, according to WDSU.
While Nodier was the main suspect in the murder case, detectives didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him until the case was reopened by Doran in 2009.
How Was the Dorothy Thompson Cold Case Reopened?
As the investigation continued, Doran and his team interviewed other people, including police who worked on the original case and potential witnesses. An eyewitness who came forward in 2009 claimed to police that Thompson was haunting his dreams after Thompson confessed to the killing, causing a break in the case.
Three years later, another person, who was serving time in prison and previously worked as Nodier’s assistant groundskeeper, alleged he witnessed Thompson’s killing. He told investigators that he saw the murder but remained silent for nearly three decades out of fear of Nodier.
The witness also told investigators that when the case was reopened, Nodier went to visit him in jail and told him to stay quiet about the murder and how he knew where his wife lived.
What Happened to Brandon Nodier?
Nodier was arrested in April 2012, when he was 58 years old. He was indicted on second-degree murder charges after surrendering to police on April 25, 2012. For two years, he remained out of prison on a $300,000 bond.
In July 2014, Nodier pleaded guilty to manslaughter as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors were hesitant to take Nodier’s case to trial because key evidence was lost in Hurricane Katrina and the eyewitness was hesitant to testify, Doran noted.
“When you commit a murder in Saint Bernard, our motto is you can't get away with it, and we keep working, and we keep working,” Jack Stephens, who was sheriff at the time of Thompson’s death, said to Fox 8, “and at the end of the day, as bizarre as they are sometimes, things fall into place."
HBO Max revisits the case in the docuseries The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story.
