School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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On November fifth, two thousand and five, a jogger found the body of thirty two year old mother of three, Brandy Renee Dyson, floating in a lake behind the Lake Charles Civic Center. Brandy had been struggling with mental health issues and with addiction.
For a while.
She seemed to be doing well and settled into an apartment, but then she lost her apartment after taking refugees in from Hurricane Katrina. She then moved into the Civic Center in Lake Charles with a lot of other evacuees from the storm. After that, Brandy was caught drinking that broke the rules of the Red Cross, the organization that was running things at the Civic Center, so Brandy was asked to leave there. This seemed to start what would turn
out to be her final downward spiral. Police believed she set up a camp on a pier near the Civic Center and had been living there for a few weeks when the next massive hurricane, Hurricane Rita, hit and devastated the state. Sometime in the midst of all this storm chaos, Brandy was brutally murdered. The bruising on her neck was so bad that her own father said she had to
be buried in a turtle neck sweaters. Almost twenty years since Brandy was murdered, the person who was arrested and at first charged with her murder has been released, and no new suspects have come forward, But this unsolved case still seems to be on the minds of the detectives at the Lake Charles Police Department Down there. Brandy's family tells me they have a nickname for Brandy Dyson. They call her the Lady in the Lake. I'm Catherine Townsend.
Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one
four or five. That's six seven eight seven four four six ' one four or five. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Brandy's family described her as a kind person, a mother who loved her three children, But, as we said last week in Part one, Brandy battleddiction to alcohol and struggled with mental health issues, includings get So Effective disorder. Detectives told Brandy's family they believed that she was brutally beaten, strangled,
and dumped into the lake. Brandy had been spending time with a man named Jeremiah Salazar, who was six feet tall and at the time had shoulder linked hair. Witnesses said they saw Brandy with a man matching that description outside the civic Center and later at a bar. They arrested Jeremiah Salazar, but he was later released when the DNA taken from Brandy's body was found not to be a match for him.
Since then, the.
Case has gone cold and no new suspects have ever been arrested, so we were trying to figure out why the police were so focused on jeremiahs and if there could be other potential suspects out there. Last week, we talked to Brandy's sister Miranda and daughter Holly. We've been trying to find out more about the condition of Brandy's body, but our Foyer request was denied and Holly has not yet been able to get a copy of the autopsy report.
But it turns out that Brandy's family does have some information about the condition of Brandy's body, which may be able to give us some clues that could help identify her killer. We also talked last week about possible similarities to other cases, including the eight women who were murdered in Jefferson Davis Parish between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine. These women were all found in the region of Jennings Louisiana, and all were sex workers
or had ties to sex work in some way. These victims have been called the Jeff Davies eight, and even though the cases don't appear to be connected by a single serial killer, the murders have unearthed allegations of potential cover ups by certain members of law enforcement, as well as allegations that members of law enforcement may be behind or have knowledge of some of the murders. And these cases have definitely highlighted systemic failures in the Louisiana criminal
justice system. So is Brandy's case out all similar to any of those cases. Brandy was found in Calcashu Parish, which is a little over thirty minutes away from Jennings where the other victims were found. Like some of the
other victims, Brandy was found in water. Many of the Jeff Davis eight victims were believed to have been killed by exphyxiation, the same cause of death that suspected in Brandy's case, though in the Jeff Davis eight cases, many of the victims were too decomposed for detectives to know for sure what killed them. We talked to Miranda about Brandy's past. She told us that She believed that it was possible that Brandy, because of her addictions in transient lifestyle,
may have turned to sex work at some point. Brandy had been strangled several times in the past on separate occasions. She said that during the time when Brandy was living in New York City, Brandy was apparently involved in some type of relationship with someone who abused her and strangled her. Brandy survived, but Miranda said she will never forget getting those frantic calls from the hospital emergency room about her sister.
I've never told Holly this, but one time the guy strangled her. He thought she was dead, but she wasn't. But they called me one time and they were like, can you come get your sister from New York? And I said, do you know how long it would take me to get there? And they're like, what do you mean? And I said, do you realize where you called? And they were like, no, your sister gave us your number, like you're around the corner. It was like, ma'am, you called the Louisiana.
Brandy's family saw that she was battling her addictions and mental health issues, including unmedicated Schitzo effective disorder. They tried to help her when she left New York and returned to Louisiana.
She was living with me when she came back, and she started drinking and doing drips and I have kids, and I tell her, you can't do that and live in my house. And she said, you're not going to let it be, so you got to go. So she went to live with my brother. Same thing happened there, so he had to make her go too well. She sort of staying at the Lifehouse Mission and that's where throughout herself together, she was doing good.
It's obvious from talking to Brandy's family that they wanted to help her. They wanted to give her somewhere to stay, but at the same time, it seems like they had to make sure that their own families were safe. This can feel like an impossible choice, and it's one that a lot of people are dealing with. After that, Brandy went to the Late Charles Civic Center, where she would die weeks later. Miranda said after that hurricane hit, the
entire family had to evacuate to different locations. Brandy ended up the Civic Center in Lake Charles, and Miranda said that it was in Lake Charles where Brandy met then
thirty five year old Jeremiah Salazar. Brandy's family doesn't know much about Jeremiah's how they met, how long they had been in a relationship, or even what the exact nature of that relationship was, because the contact with Brandy was irregular in the first place, and then after the storm hit, in that chaos, Brandy's family were pretty much completely cut off from Brandy or anything that was going on with her life.
The only things that I know about him is what the detective toldn Like, we didn't know him. We were all displaced, we were all homeless. I was living in Alabama when she died. I know what he looks like only because the picture. You know what I'm saying, Like, we didn't know him. We just know what they said or what they've speculated. So there's so many even nineteen years later, there's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for.
Even though some people thought there could be a connection between Brandy and the Jeff Davis eight, there are some major differences between these cases. For one thing, many of the Jeff Davis victims had ties to each other, two were cousins and there's no indication from what we know so far, that Brandy was connected to any of those victims. Jennings, where most of the Jeff Davis eight were found, is
just over a thirty minute drive from Lake Charles. Many of the Jeff Davis eight victims had faces that were unrecognizable, either because they had been beaten or because they were so badly decomposed.
This was not the case with Brandy.
In fact, one of the major things that is different about Brandy's case from the Jeff Davis case is the amount of time that Brandy was in the water. Brandy was found almost immediately, and she was not hard to id. Detectives were able to take usable fingerprints and get Brandy's identification very quickly because the Prince matched fingerprints from one of Brandy's recent arrests. Again, according to Brandy's family, she was apparently seen between twelve am and two am on
the morning of November fifth in the bar Crystals. Her body was found the next morning by the jogger, meaning that her body was only in the water for a few hours. Miranda said that the district attorney and detectives were very blunt when they talked to her about the condition of her sister's body and how quickly it had been found.
He said, Branda, I don't want you to think I'm being mean, and I'm like, okay. He said, you grew up in southwest Louisiana. I say, yes, sir. He said, you know what Christ does to a body, They go for the eyes and no. You know, she said she didn't have one crab owner. That feels me. She was found very soon. Her body was in this white piget to safe had been in there a terribly long time. You know. That's because I grew up in Louisiana. People would drown if they were in there in the water
too long. That salt water, and that water eats the body it, you know.
Miranda said that Brandy did have water in her lungs, but she was told by police that it was a very small amount. A lot of people think that water can't enter the lungs after death, that any amount of water in the lungs means that the person was still breathing when they hit the water, But actually that's not true. A small amount of water can enter the lungs even post mortem. So we can't tell from current information if Brandy was alive or not when she hit that water.
She may have been taking her last breath when she was dumped, or she could have breathed in the water sometime during the struggle. If she was being choked in or around a body of water, that's another question. Where was the actual primary crime scene. Was it where Brandy was dumped in the lake or somewhere else. The body of water where Brandy was found was within a few feet of where she had set up camp in the
back of the civic center. Brandy's family say detectives were in regular contact with them in the months after the murder. They seemed super focused on their suspect, Jeremiah Salazar. They even went all the way to Tacoma, Washington, got him arrested, and got him extradited back to Louisiana, where he was
held on a million dollar bail. The grand jury voted to indict him, but then they got DNA results back from Brandy's body, and those results changed everything because, according to the district attorney, who spoke to a reporter from American Press in twenty eleven and also talked to Brandy's family, the DNA taken from Brandy's body was not a match to Jeremiah's.
If demy case to go back in front of the Green jury, They're gonna want to know why you already got an indictment. Why would you even do that? You know, I've never understood why would you even do that? You know? But it was the assistant DA that did that. His name was Paul Raggie.
I totally get why this would be traumatic for a family to hear. But if it's true that the DNA excluded JEREMIAHS as a contributor, I also understand the district attorney's decision. In a later interview, he explained that if they had gone to trial and it had been revealed the DNA was not a match, JEREMIAHS would have been acquitted.
By not going to trial, they believed they would have the opportunity to retry him later if new evidence resurfaced, But it's unclear what police detective's plan was next after that. In my opinion, one of two things should have happened. Either they needed to find more evidence against their suspect, JEREMIAHS, if in fact they still believed he could be the killer, or they needed to find other potential suspects. After the grand jury came back with no bill, Brandy's family said
there were a few possibilities in their minds. They considered the possibility that jeremiahs could have attacked Brandy because she had sex with someone else, or that the person who had sex with Brandy had killed her. There's also still the question of whether or not that sex was consensual. Detectives told Brandy's family there were no signs of sexual assault, but with the information that we have access to, it's
just impossible to know for sure. There's another possibility that Brandy was killed by someone else entirely, or maybe more than one person. Unfortunately, after Jeremias was released, the family said they pretty much lost contact with the DA and
with the detectives. Some of Brandy's family members felt that police seemed to stop looking and that Brandy was not a priority, and because no one has been caught, Brandy's family has had to scour their minds for any detail well that could give them that crucial clue that could help get justice, even when those details are horrific to relive, like the nightmarish conversation with the funeral home that Miranda says happened when Brandy's family was trying to figure out
if they could have her in an open casket, something that no family should ever have to experience.
There were stipulations to even have an open task to female. You know, her net has to be covered, she had to have a band on to hold her risk in the right place because it was just broken and her neck it couldn't have been any darker. And we were not supposed to look, and I did, and I wish it would have never done it because it shows how violent it was.
And there was something else that Miranda mentioned. Brandy wore a choker necklace which was actually a dog.
Collar Brandy or a dog choke chain as a necklace, and it was she used so he could have walked up on her bracker. And you know, if you grabbed somebody from a coach chain, it's going to do some major damage.
Could the dog collar choke chain be a clue?
Could it mean that Brandy was in some sort of dominant submissive relationship with jeremiahs or with someone else. Then again, the necklace could have nothing to do with anything. The necklace could be a simple fashion choice. Was her killer using the choke chain to abuse Brandy making some kind of a statement, or was it just something that they grabbed at because it was convenient. Miranda made the point that the killer may not have known Brandy at all.
If it was a stranger, If someone saw Brandy walking around late at night in that area behind the civic Center in a vulnerable state, they could have grabbed her by that choker. The choker could have made her an easier target for someone wanting to hurt her. It's just one of many details that keeps Brandy's family members and
me to be honest up at night. Another question that Miranda has if detectives believed that Brandy had consensual sex with someone and that it wasn't sexual assault, then why were they so focused on the DNA that was taken from Brandy's vagina.
Would there not be DNA elsewhere.
On her body that could be important, especially if the killing was violent and apparently she put up a fight from what detectives have told her, Miranda believes that there may have been an opportunity lost in checking Brandy's body for fingerprints.
Miranda said that one of the original.
Detectives on the case, Detective McCullough said that he had recently attended the FBI Crime Lab school, and there they told him what you do in cases like Brandy's is let the body air dry and then check the body for fingerprints. So that's what he told the crime lab when they received Brandy's body. However, the detective later told Brandy's family he was overruled. Miranda said the lab did not check for fingerprints around Brandy's neck.
I think if they would have done that, they may have gotten a fingerprint.
A reason why they might not have tested is because they might have thought that her body was too wet to get accurate fingerprints. I did some research into this, and apparently in order to get fingerprints on bodies that get pulled out of the water, crime scene analysts use a method called small particle reagent, which means they spray a solution onto the wet skin and then this specialized solution binds to the oils and the fingerprints, and that
process makes the fingerprints visible. But it's a delicate science, and if the body is too wet, prints can wash off. Four years after the charges against Jeremiah were dropped in two thousand and seven, Miranda said she and her family heard nothing from detective and then in twenty nineteen, investigators called Miranda out of the blue. In twenty nineteen, Brandy's sister, Miranda got a call from the police.
They did call me in twenty nineteen. They lift my number up online and they said we need you to come in and we need to talk to you.
According to Miranda, the police detectives told her that DNA technology had improved and that they wanted to do some more testing with DNA in regards to Brandy's case. Miranda wasn't sure exactly what they were testing, if it was just the DNA found in Brandy's vagina, or if something else, possibly the Halloween mask that was found near Brandy's body, could be tested for DNA.
That's when they tell me they're going to run some things throes. I think, I'm not I'm sure if it's the FBI or PS. But it was in northern Louisiana. They were going to send some things and brunt it through CODIS because everything has changed.
So CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, is a computer program that searches the databases of DNA profiles around the country. COTIS contains DNA profiles from convicted offenders and from crime scene evidence. But CODIS isn't a magic bullet, and there are a lot of reasons why COTIS might not get.
A hit on someone.
If there's no match, that could potentially mean it was someone with no criminal record or who's not in the system for other reasons. Now, in the past, only state crime labs could access CODIS, which meant that investigators had to wait weeks, months, or even years to get results. But now, using rapid DNA testing machines, this process happens fast. Louisiana got their first rapid DNA testing in twenty twenty two.
Now this means instead.
Of having to take a cheek swab and send it to the lab and wait weeks or months, they can run a program on site at the police station and get a result in an hour and a half. Now, there have been a lot of concerns raised about this technology, including privacy concerns and the fact that everything is evolving so fast, but Louisiana was one of the first in the nation to have this technology option. Because of their laws, Louisiana allows DNA collection from suspects when they are booked.
Some states don't allow DNA collection at all. Other states only allow it once there's probable cause, but Louisiana lets detectives take DNA as soon as the booking happens. Miranda said she wishes she knew what DNA testing was done and if the DNA did go through CODIS. She wonders if there was a match, even knowing that there was
no match would be some type of information. But it seems like even though detectives did tell her that they were looking into Brandy's case again in twenty nineteen, which was before rapid DNA machines were available outside crime labs, she wonders if they actually did send that material out for testing, because when Holly talked to detectives at around that same time period, they told her the same thing.
If they told Holly this same exact thing, so that heals me they haven't even sent that step And what year was that they told maybe twenty nineteen, because by now you would have gotten it back, you would have at least gotten a DNA profile, not saying you would have got a hit, but you would at least have a profile. But they told Holly the same thing, then they were going to be sending sets why haven't you seen it yet?
So, in the absence of more information, we find ourselves pouring over tiny details from Brandy's family, details that could help lead to the missing piece. In this case, we have gotten a few more details about Brandy's belongings. We know, for example, Brandy's purse was found near her body, but the purse did not have her ID in it. It turns out that Brandy's ID her driver's license, was found somewhere else, somewhere completely different, at the Isle of Capri Casino.
The Isle of Capri Casino closed after the COVID nineteen pandemic. It reopened in twenty twenty two and is now called the Horseshoe Lake Charles Casino. It's located about four and a half miles from the spot behind the Civic Center where Brandy's body was found.
To get there, you have to cross a bridge.
The casino is in the neighboring city of Westlake, and that's across the IT Freeway, the same freeway that in the past has been a major route for drug trafficking. It's also the highway the Jeff Davis A and many other vulnerable victims have been found dump near So was Brandy at the Isle of Capri Casino? If she was, was it that night or a different night? Was she seen on any surveillance video there? Did the police ever
go to that casino and talk to people there? Also, how did she get to the casinos several miles away if she was there at all, Because from what we understand, Brandy did not have access to a car, and getting to the casino involved driving several miles along a freeway. It's not an obvious path to walk. Was Brandy at that casino or did someone take her ID and use it there?
And if so, who is that person?
It doesn't seem like robbery was the motive in Brandy's case, because, from what we understand, the rest of her stuff was still there inside her purse, only her ID was missing. Miranda said, over the years, detectives have given her more information that they've collected about the night that Brandy was murdered, But again, this is just speculation.
These are theories that detectives were exploring.
Miranda's frustration comes from the fact she doesn't know if these theories are ones that police have investigated and ruled out, if there's still considering suspects or even which witnesses they talked to. She also doesn't know if there was any surveillance footage from that bar from the night Brandy disappeared, because detectives have mentioned to Brandy's family the possibility that Brandy may have been flirting with someone else at that bar.
Where did that theory come from? Did it come from other witnesses or from something Jeremiah said to them.
He wanted to leave, he less he stayed. Well, then after that part of it, it's all speculation, like face to stay because of the semen that he called her having stakes with somebody and she was drunk. She probably did, you know, so that would explain the violence. Maybe I don't. I don't know. I don't even know why somebody would do something like even you know, in the heat of the moment. It's just extreme.
Miranda said that when she talked to detectives, they told her that they were waiting to get more information. She believe that they were still focused on jeremiahs and she wonders why, given the fact the DNA wasn't a match to him when.
We met with them in twenty nineteen, they are there's those waiting to get something new to get after him again.
But in my opinion, the obvious missing piece in this case is the DNA, because they do have DNA, and that DNA, the district attorney has publicly stated, is not a match to JEREMIAHS. So, whoever that person is, even if they did have consensual sex with Brandy and had nothing to do with her murder, they could potentially have answers about what happened on the night of November fourth and in the early morning hours of November fifth, two thousand and five.
Brandy's family wants to find that man.
Yeah, sure would be nice if they could find who she was having consensual effects with. You know, maybe that person could say what happened.
Another question is what really happened between Brandy and JEREMIAHS on the night of November fourth. We know they'd been hanging out together near Brandy's makeshift home on the pier, and detectives have told Brandy's family that they found Brandy's bus ticket because there was a previous arrest they were both on the same ticket. They determined she had been planning to go to Tacoma, Washington with JEREMIAHS. We have
been trying to find Jeremiah Salazar. He had an arrest in twenty fifteen, and then after that we can't find anything until another arrest in twenty twenty three. He seems to be living largely off the grid. And again, since the grand jury returned that no True bill in two thousand and seven, JEREMIAHS has never been re indicted or charged with anything in connection to Brandy's murder. We did text his daughter and other members of his family. None
of them have heard from JEREMIAHS in several years. They were completely unaware of Brandy's murder or of his alleged involvement with her. His daughter said that he had mental health issues as well as outbursts of violence. But even if he was violent with Brandy, which we don't know, that does not mean.
That he killed her.
Holly told us that she has spoken to Late Charles police detectives recently. She asked for access to Brandy's case file. She pointed out it's been twenty years and that the case is still unsolved. She says detectives told her normally they would give the case file back after this amount of time, including Brandy's personal items. However, they said they feel that this case is still solvable. My question is, are they still focused on Jeremiah's suspect. Do they believe
he was kind of the one that got away? Are they still trying to build some sort of a case against him, because that's definitely the impression that Brandy's family seems to have, or are they potentially looking.
For other suspects.
Holly and Miranda would love to know what happened after detectives said they were sending in materials to test in twenty nineteen. They want to know if genetic material was sent through to Codis, what genetic material it was, and
what happened with it. And even though Miranda said she understands the Lake Charles Police Department is probably understaffed under a lot of pressure, she still feels like Brandy's case has been forgotten partially because of Brandy's lifestyle and to her family, that is heartbreaking.
I feel all these years that because of her lifestyle that they really didn't care even to even try. And it doesn't matter. She was steal somebody's mother, she was steal somebody's daughter. Who is steal somebody's.
None of Jeremiah's family members who we spoke to have any idea where he may be today. Miranda said, the fact that there are still no arrests and no justice, and that there is still potentially a killer out there walking the streets, it's something she thinks about all the time. In fact, she wonders if even speaking out could put her and her family in potential danger, and it's something she said she has brought up with the Lake Charles Police in the.
Past, and after Brandy's death, I did a please with the media for if anybody had any information, And when I asked the detective, I said, should I be scared? And he's told me he said, do I think he'll come after? You know? He said, but always be aware and surrounded, so he sometimes it does happen.
We are going to keep pushing to see if we can get access to any part of Brandy's case file or her autopsy report. We are going to keep trying to help her family get answers. In the meantime, since this case started, I've gotten a lot of messages about unsolved cases in Louisiana, in and around.
Calcaush you perish.
So next week we're going to take a look at a triple homicide, one of the most notorious unsolved cases in Louisiana. We're going to go back to nineteen ninety seven, when three bodies were found inside a freezer at a convenience store called Kk's Corners.
I'm Catherine Townsend.
This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance. Noah Kamer mix and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C.
Crowley.
Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonpott. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helengong Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
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