New Orleans Unsolved

When each victim of the rope murders was found, investigators didn’t make any public mention of a serial pattern or perpetrator. But, within a month after the discovery of John Doe’s body in St. Helena Parish, at least one newspaper ran a story about the boys being “male hustlers” who may have been stalked by a “sex killer”. The hustling scene in the French Quarter of New Orleans has been a real thing for decades. Whether these victims were part of that scene is far less certain, but the stigma it placed on the cases was hard to deny. What was it like in the Quarter when the murders took place? We take a journey back to a time full of nostalgia, but also violence.  

In 1979, Jack Foster was assigned the case of a teenaged boy who had been ritualistically tied up, murdered and left at a local garbage site in St. Helena Parish.  Foster was a self-taught detective working part time with the sheriff’s office. He was described as determined and thorough. But, those qualities wouldn’t be enough to find out the boy's true identity, let alone the person responsible for killing him. The case was a local mystery. When Foster fell into a bizarre coma during the investigation, it only added to that mystery.    

On November 12, 1979, the tiny sheriff’s department in St. Helena Parish was just beginning its investigation of a body that had been ritualistically tied-up and left at a garbage dumpsite. The body was decomposing. Identifying the victim was difficult. What authorities could say definitively was that it appeared to be the body of a teenage boy. In an attempt to identify that boy, the sheriff’s grandson says he was taken to the scene. What he and the deputies saw that day would stick with them for decades to come.

Following a coroner’s inquest jury in Harrison County, it was determined that Mark Richardson’s death was the result of a homicide. The coroner presumed Richardson died from a possible overdose of injected drugs, but the actual cause of death was undetermined. No explanation or theory was offered about the fact that Richardson was found with his hands and feet tied behind him. How was Richardson killed? What did the ropes have to do with his death? More than a year later, similar questions would be asked when the body of another victim was found tied up and left in Greensburg, La. 

Two days after a tied-up body was found in a wooded area near coastal Mississippi, a family from Biloxi believed it was that of their teenage son. Only weeks separated the discoveries of his body and Dennis Turcotte’s. The fact that both victims had been ritualistically bound would seem to show a strong connection between the cases, but early in the Mississippi investigation, authorities were grappling with a basic but crucial question: who is the victim? 

Soon after Dennis Turcotte’s body was discovered, the working theories about his death and disappearance revolved around New Orleans’ French Quarter. A New Orleans bellhop was said to be the last person who saw Turcotte alive. In this episode, Turcotte’s brother details what Dennis was doing before he went missing. In neighboring Mississippi, a second investigation begins after the body of another teenager is found.

After Dennis Turcotte’s body was discovered bound and dumped in 1978, New Orleans Police Detective Frank Weicks traveled out of his jurisdiction to the rural area of Talisheek to assist in the case. The working theory was Turcotte had spent time in New Orleans French Quarter and was possibly kidnapped from there. But once at the crime scene, Weicks found some pressing and practical problems. In this episode, Weicks explains his concerns about the integrity of the investigation. And a suspect emerges. Who is he? How did he know Dennis Turcotte?   

The creators of New Orleans Unsolved are finally back with their second season. This time, they’re investigating a set of truly mysterious murders. In 1978, hunters found the body of a teenager in a rural area of Louisiana. His hands and feet were ritualistically tied, the rope was connected to his neck. Some described the way the victim was bound as “hogtied”. A veteran New Orleans Police detective was quickly called in to assist in the investigation. When he arrived at the location, he couldn’t believe how the crime scene was handled. Little did he know, there would be more scenes like it, and more victims. In the Rope Murders, Anna and Thanh follow the trail of a suspected serial killer. 

Investigative producer Anna Christie and veteran journalist Thanh Truong are back with the second season of their independent true crime podcast. Season 2 of New Orleans Unsolved, The Rope Murders, begins October 11th, 2023.

A man who says he was one of Eddie Wells’ best friends cautiously shares what he knows of a fateful day in 1982.  He claims he was with Eddie the day he disappeared.  To get his story, we go inside a parish jail.