Cold Case Files: Murder in the Bayou (2024) s01e06 Episode Script

(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 murder, 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 murder 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 gun 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 killed 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 killed 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 murdered 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 killing 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 kill 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 kill Cochise
in self-defense.
(relaxed blues music)
- So Tommy says, Cochise
actually shows up to the house,
comes in the house and
pulls a gun on him.
(intense music)
- [Narrator] Six years
after admitting to the shooting
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 rifle.
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 killed 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 kill 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 gunshot
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 killed 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
killed his second victim."
(phone ringing)
They're waiting on
fingerprint analysis
from the light bulb,
waiting on ballistics,
wanted to find a gun that
may have shot the bullet,
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 killed 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 murder 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 murder 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 murder
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 murder.
(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