Photographs key in Louisiana household’s quest to show Megan Parra’s loss of life was a murder

On a steamy summer time morning in 2014 within the tiny Southern city of Cottonport, Louisiana, Steve and Missy Ducote confronted the unthinkable.

Steve Ducote: I would not know the way to let you know. I’ve by no means felt like that earlier than or since.

The couple discovered their youngest daughter Megan Parra mendacity on the ground of her front room.

Missy Ducote: I had no thought what was to turn into of all this.

The 29-year-old mom of two appeared to have been shot within the head.

Steve Ducote: It was a 357 magnum gun with the 38 caliber bullet..

Simply at some point earlier, Megan’s mother and father and her husband, then-30-year-old Dustin Parra, had been coping with the aftermath of a automobile crash.

Missy Ducote: Dustin known as … and stated that Megan had been in an accident.

Megan was alone driving down a stretch of street not removed from house when she someway careened off the street and hit a tree. Dustin grabbed their two younger sons and rushed to the scene. So did Steve and Missy Ducote.

Steve Ducote: Cop stated she was going about 45 miles an hour, wasn’t on her telephone. Had her seatbelt on.

Megan had solely minor accidents. However a state trooper was troubled by the actual fact that there have been no skid marks.

Missy Ducote: He stated that … she had not utilized the brakes.

Steve Ducote:  Cop got here, and he requested me, “would your daughter need to attempt to harm herself?” I stated, “No, I do not suppose so.”

Nevertheless it was not clear whether or not Megan truly tried to cease the automobile. Missy Ducote says Megan instructed her she was distracted.

Missy Ducote: She stated she had misplaced focus.

However Steve Ducote says Megan instructed him that the brakes did not work, and that she hit that tree to keep away from the river. Nevertheless, the brakes have been by no means examined. On the Avoyelles Parish Hospital the place Dustin labored as a nurse, Megan was handled for a minimize to her proper hand. As soon as launched, Dustin took his spouse house, whereas Missy and Steve Ducote stored their boys in a single day. The subsequent morning, round 7 a.m., Megan despatched her mom a textual content.

Missy Ducote: “Hello mother. Are — are the boys OK? … are you all OK?”  … I known as her. … And … I instructed her that, um when the youngsters would rise up and I had fastened breakfast, we’d … deliver her breakfast and go test on her.

David Begnaud: Something sound uncommon?

Missy Ducote: In no way.

About an hour later, Missy Ducote says Dustin known as her to say that Megan was going to take a shower whereas he went out to fill a prescription for her on the native Walmart.

Missy Ducote: He stated he would … decide up the youngsters on the best way again. … Nicely, an hour has handed by and he is nonetheless not right here. … after which I stated … let’s go, we — we have to go.

It was near 10 a.m. when Steve and Missy Ducote arrived at their daughter’s home with their grandchildren in tow. There they found Megan mendacity on the ground with blood pooling round her head.

Missy Ducote: She was nonetheless within the paper shirt from the hospital … and … underwear.

Steve Ducote: I grabbed the oldest boy. And after I leaned over to choose him up … I noticed the gun sort of tucked towards her leg.

Missy Ducote known as her mother and father to choose up the youngsters. Steve Ducote known as 911. Missy, a nurse practitioner, knelt beside her daughter and realized she nonetheless had a pulse.

Missy Ducote: She was respiration … simply barely although.

Steve Ducote known as Dustin.

Steve Ducote: I can not keep in mind precisely if I instructed him Megan killed herself or Megan shot … herself.

Steve Ducote: And I stated, “the place are you?” He stated, “I am in Mansoura. I simply got here via the … four-way cease signal.”

Dave Blanchard was the primary officer on the scene.

Dave Blanchard: I entered the home, noticed the sufferer on the ground … Mrs. Ducote … was administering first support to the pinnacle space.

Dustin Parra arrived about 10 minutes later.

Steve Ducote: He comes working in … and he slides, and he simply catches the top of the blood.

Missy Ducote: After … he slid … He bought up, he pushed the gun away.

Missy Ducote says Dustin then reached right into a pocket in Megan’s paper shirt.

Missy Ducote: And he pulled out an image.

It was an image of their boys.

Dustin and Missy, each medically educated, labored to avoid wasting Megan. Minutes later, paramedics arrived. That is when Blanchard started documenting the scene.

Dave Blanchard: I did not need to intrude in them giving the primary support.

Megan was airlifted to a trauma heart in Lafayette. The mayor of Cottonport drove Steve and Missy Ducote and Dustin in his automobile. Again on the Parra house, Blanchard continued to doc the scene and acquire proof — together with that gun, which belonged to Dustin; Dustin’s shorts, which have been bloodied from that slide; and a notice, which was found on the kitchen counter.

Steve Ducote: It says, “inform the boys I really like them. I am sorry.” That was it.

The morning after the capturing — as her mother and father struggled with how Megan may have taken her personal life — medical doctors instructed the household that they had finished all they may. That’s when the choice was made to take her off life assist.

The subsequent morning, Megan’s organs have been donated. Her physique was transported to the health worker’s workplace for an post-mortem. That is when Dustin and the Ducotes headed for the Cottonport Police Division, to satisfy with lead detective Christopher Knight.

Steve Ducote: Nicely, Dustin went in first … he got here again out, and he raised his fingers and stated, “I am not a suspect.” … it was sort of stunning. … Then Missy and I’m going in. And, you realize, Chris did not ask us a complete lot. Wasn’t a lot of an interview.

Steve and Missy Ducote say it was that day after they started to query every part concerning the investigation into their daughter’s loss of life. Particularly when Knight handed Dustin that notice, presumably left behind by Megan, and Dustin debated what to do with it.

Missy Ducote: He stated, “I do not know what I am gonna do with it. I believe I am simply gonna throw it away.” I stated, “No, do not throw it away. We would want it afterward.”

The very subsequent day, Steve Ducote says Knight confirmed up at his house. He had some information for him.

Steve Ducote: He says, “Mr. Steve, Megan’s fingerprints have been everywhere in the gun. Dustin’s have been too, but it surely’s his gun.”

Steve Ducote’s brother-in-law Luke Welch was there.

Luke Welch: Steve repeated to him. “So, the one fingerprints on the gun have been from Megan and Dustin.” And he stated, “That is it. That is the one ones. Finish of story.”

Steve Ducote: I stated, “Nicely, she should have shot herself, then.”

However Steve Ducote would quickly be taught that what he says Det. Knight instructed him was not true. The gun that killed Megan had not been examined in any respect.

David Begnaud: That was a serious flip within the story.

Luke Welch: Sure. That is one of many main turns. This … factor goes 360 levels rather a lot.

QUESTIONING THE INVESTIGATION

Three weeks after Megan Parra’s loss of life, an post-mortem report declared her reason behind loss of life to be “a gunshot wound to the pinnacle.” The way of loss of life was “suicide.” The report stated Megan examined detrimental for sedatives, and that the gun was in direct contact together with her temple when it went off.

Betsy Jeansonne (crying): A lot life to stay and love to offer.

Megan’s uncle Luke Welch says the health worker confirmed Knight’s concept that Megan had shot herself. As a result of keep in mind, in keeping with Knight, Megan’s fingerprints have been discovered throughout that gun.

Luke Welch: With that data coming from Chris, I believe there is not any doubt it is a suicide.

Knight denies ever saying he examined that gun, and simply 4 days after the capturing, he closed his investigation and summarized it in a one-page report.

David Begnaud (studying Knight’s report): “In line with the proof, collected statements from household and the physician’s report, this investigation reveals … Megan Parra did in reality commit suicide.”

Betsy Jeansonne: The one physician’s stories we had have been Lafayette Normal.

David Begnaud: Yeah, however Lafayette Normal was not doing any sort of forensic examination on her.

Betsy Jeansonne: No, no.

Jeansonne, who was pregnant together with her first little one on the time, says Megan had been planning her child bathe.

Betsy Jeansonne: Two days earlier than she died, she requested me what shade balloons I needed.

Megan was additionally simply months away from getting a grasp’s diploma. She had her eye on changing into a college principal. Steve Ducote says the extra he considered his daughter’s loss of life, the much less it made sense.

Steve Ducote: By no means shot a gun. By no means fooled with a gun. Would not have recognized the way to maintain a gun.

He says there was additionally no manner that Megan would have shot herself understanding that he, Missy and her boys would uncover her that manner.

Steve Ducote: She’d by no means do one thing like that.

However Megan was discovered behind locked doorways, there was no proof of pressured entry. So, if she did not kill herself, who pulled the set off?

David Begnaud: Did you begin to imagine that Dustin shot her?

Betsy Jeansonne: Sure.

David Begnaud: And tried to cowl it up.

Betsy Jeansonne: Sure.

There have been questions on Dustin’s alibi. Jeansonne says he instructed three totally different tales to 3 totally different individuals about the place he was when Steve Ducote known as him, however in keeping with Megan’s household, Knight by no means resolved these conflicting tales.

Betsy Jeansonne: There have been so many issues that weren’t finished.

Knight additionally by no means adopted up on stories that Dustin might have been having an affair.

David Begnaud: Did Megan ever speak to you about hassle they have been having within the marriage?

Betsy Jeansonne: She did not.

David Begnaud: Did you ever ask her?

Betsy Jeansonne: I did not. … And I really feel like that is one among my largest regrets.

Steve Ducote fears that within the days main as much as Megan’s loss of life, the couple might have been combating. And one thing within the post-mortem report haunted him.

Steve Ducote: It indicated she had some bruises within the stomach and chest space.

David Begnaud: What do you suppose occurred that morning she was shot?

Betsy Jeansonne: I believe she was leaving him.

Ducote says across the time he was changing into more and more involved about Knight’s investigation, an investigator for the District Legal professional’s Workplace instructed him there was no manner Knight had fingerprinted that gun in simply two days.

Steve Ducote: “Uh-uh Steve. It takes me, with a rush on it, about 14 days.” … Then I knew.

David Begnaud: Knew what?

Steve Ducote: I knew she hadn’t killed herself then.

However by then, the gun was now not in proof. With Knight’s permission, it had been returned to Dustin.

Steve Ducote: They gave him the gun again … earlier than the coroner ever dominated.

Ducote says he begged native authorities to simply hear him out, however nobody would hear. Till 4 months later, when a neighborhood choose agreed to assist.

Dan Schaub: Steve Ducote … satisfied the choose that there was one thing to have a look at.

Dan Schaub was commander of the Prison Investigations Unit on the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Workplace. That choose requested Schaub himself to assessment the case.

Dan Schaub: Very first thing I did was uh, you realize, speak to uh, Steve, see what his considerations have been.

Steve Ducote: We began engaged on issues. And, boy, he was working.

Sadly, says Schaub, there wasn’t a lot to work with.

Dan Schaub: Right here there was not even primary Detective 101 that was finished by Chris Knight.

Schaub says his fingers have been additionally considerably tied by Steve Ducote, who prevented him from accessing sure proof, like Megan’s cellphone.

Dan Schaub: At that time … Dustin had the cellphone, and he didn’t need to ask Dustin … for her cellphone.

In line with Ducote, Dustin and the boys have been residing in Steve and Missy’s home on the time —and he did not need his son-in-law understanding they have been investigating him. So, Ducote says he requested Schaub to not speak to Dustin till that they had extra proof.

Steve Ducote: I needed to make sure.

David Begnaud: Why not at the least name the husband — to not go after him, however to say, hey, hear, simply need to ask some questions so I can button some issues up.

Dan Schaub: That is actual simple. I — I did it out of respect for — for the Ducote household.

Reasonably than go towards Steve Ducote, Schaub steered away from Dustin Parra. As a substitute, he reviewed Chris Knight’s one-page report – examined 115 pictures taken by Officer Dave Blanchard, and he talked with two witnesses who had not been interviewed — neighbors, who every thought they heard what appeared like a gunshot that morning, however at two totally different occasions. The neighbor on the proper instructed Schaub she heard a really loud “increase” a bit after 7 a.m.. However the neighbor to the left instructed Schaub he was sure he heard a gunshot about two hours later.

Dan Schaub: He was nonetheless in mattress, and he wasn’t positive of the time. He supposed at round 9:15.

Schaub says the neighbor to the proper wasn’t positive if what she heard at round 7 a.m. was truly a gunshot—so he created a timeline primarily based on what the opposite neighbor reported listening to. Then, the query turned may Dustin have even been house at 9:15 a.m.?

David Begnaud: Dustin arrives at Walmart – 

Dan Schaub: Sure.

David Begnaud: — at 8:53 a.m.

A state trooper instructed Commander Schaub that he noticed Dustin at an intersection not removed from that Walmart, simply earlier than 9 a.m. Knight by no means had Walmart’s surveillance footage subpoenaed to confirm Dustin’s alibi, however Schaub discovered the subsequent greatest proof: a time-stamped receipt.

David Begnaud: Dustin indicators for scripts at Walmart at 9:43 a.m.

Dan Schaub: OK, yeah.

David Begnaud: So primarily based on this timeline from you, there is not any manner Dustin may have been on the home when the shot was fired?

Dan Schaub: That is a — uh, uh, uh, an affordable conclusion, sure.

On Jan. 15, 2015, Dan Schaub launched his eight-page report, additionally concluding that Megan “died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

Ducote didn’t purchase Dan Schaub’s timeline, which he had primarily based on the neighbor who reported listening to a gunshot round 9:15 am. However Schaub’s report ended up being a present. Ducote now had these 115 pictures taken the morning of Megan’s capturing—and his investigation was about to ramp up.

Steve Ducote (displaying Begnaud a photograph): This, you realize, caught everyone’s consideration.

THE FAMILY FINDS CLUES IN THE PHOTOS

Commander Dan Schaub’s conclusion that Megan Parra probably shot herself, was yet one more blow to the Ducote household’s concept that she might have been murdered by her husband, Dustin Parra. However Schaub’s report did present some invaluable clues, says Steve Ducote.

Steve Ducote: That report got here with some blurred footage.

So Steve Ducote tracked down the officer who took the pictures, Dave Blanchard, and it seems he nonetheless had the originals. He by no means deleted them from his digicam.

David Begnaud: Why did you save them?

David Blanchard: As a result of it was proof. … I do not know. It caught out. … Suspicious.

Charles Riddle: He thought that there have been some issues that weren’t resolved within the investigation.

Blanchard gave the digital photos to Avoyelles Parish District Legal professional Charles Riddle, and Riddle shared them with an insistent Steve Ducote.

Steve Ducote: I stated … “I am not leaving with out these footage.”

David Begnaud: Did you undergo all of the … pictures?

Betsy Jeansonne: Sure.

Steve Ducote and his daughter Betsy Jeansonne started learning these 115 pictures from the day Megan was shot.

Betsy Jeansonne: And I’ve had lots of people ask me … how may you have a look at these crime scene pictures of your sister?

David Begnaud:  Yeah.

Betsy Jeansonne:  And I would say, she’d have finished it for me.

Jeansonne says she additionally spent hours on the web learning blood spatter patterns, as a result of one thing concerning the blood round Megan simply did not look proper to her.

Betsy Jeansonne: You possibly can see the blood spatter the place it ought to have been on the exit wound aspect.

Steve Ducote: Mm-hmm.

Betsy Jeansonne: It is truly on the doorway wound aspect. And there is not any spatter on the exit wound.

Steve Ducote: There’s at all times extra exit wound blood than entry wound blood.

Steve Ducote was starting to imagine that his daughter had been rolled over, after she was shot. Additionally troubling to him was that seemingly clear gun—Dustin Parra’s gun, which Ducote says ought to have had blood on it.

To Ducote, it appeared that the gun had been cleaned. Then there was that image of Megan’s boys, that Dustin found in her pocket. Ducote believes it was Dustin who put it there within the first place.

Steve Ducote: When you gonna make it seem like suicide, you are going to do issues like that.

Ducote additionally thinks Dustin planted the alleged suicide notice, and firmly believes it was not even written by his daughter.

Steve Ducote: She by no means wrote in stable print. She’d write blended, print, script, print, in the identical phrase.

A number of the pictures revealed clues of a wrestle says Steve. Like a wine rack discovered behind a chair, and this guitar mendacity on the ground.

Steve Ducote: I believe they have been combating.

A number of months later, Steve Ducote circled again to District Legal professional Riddle and confirmed him a number of the pictures that involved him.

Charles Riddle: And as I checked out it, I stored saying … “this cannot be what was discovered to be a suicide.”

Riddle says he tried to get the sheriff’s workplace to take one other have a look at the case, however they refused.

Charles Riddle: The native police division actually did not have the capability. So, we tried to get state police to look into it and so they did not appear to be .

So, Riddle went to then-Avoyelles Parish coroner Dr. L. J. Mayeux — who had issued Megan’s loss of life certificates. Based mostly on the health worker’s report, Mayeux had labeled Megan’s loss of life a “suicide.” Riddle tried to get him to alter it to “undetermined.”

David Begnaud: Why did you need that?

Charles Riddle: In order that we may open up an investigation. … And we began displaying him a number of the pictures … And, uh, he stated, “hey, I am satisfied that we — it should be reopened.”

Mayeux reviewed Knight’s one-page report.

David Begnaud: What are you aware about Chris Knight’s investigation of this loss of life?

L.J. Mayeux: Sloppy and really questionable.

Mayeux says he came upon that Knight had not even attended Megan’s post-mortem. However the former nook admits that his workplace additionally didn’t conduct a lot of an investigation.

David Begnaud: Did you ever interview the husband?

L.J. Mayeux: No, sir.

David Begnaud: Why not?

L.J. Mayeux: We could not discover him.

David Begnaud: Did you attempt calling him?

L.J. Mayeux: Sure. No reply.

In 2017, Riddle despatched a letter written by Mayeux to the Louisiana State Police, requesting a assessment of the case. Within the letter, Mayeux wrote, “I used to be knowledgeable that there have been pictures … which I had not seen …” and “many questions are unanswered.”  The state police did agree to have a look at the case.

David Begnaud: What got here of that?

L.J. Mayeux: The state police discovered no proof to overturn the preliminary findings.

By now, Dustin Parra had moved on. He married his second spouse, and so they have been elevating Megan’s sons. However Steve Ducote couldn’t transfer on, and he known as an outdated highschool buddy for assist: David Lemoine, a extremely revered FBI agent who was now retired and residing in Nebraska.

David Begnaud: What’d you inform him?

Steve Ducote: I stated I would like some assist. … I would like to seek out out who did it.

In 2018, greater than 4 years after Megan was shot, David Lemoine flew to Cottonport to spend time together with his brother, Peter Lemoine, and to take a gathering with Steve Ducote.

Steve Ducote requested his outdated good friend to assessment a binder crammed with pictures and paperwork, says Peter Lemoine.

Peter Lemoine: He got here to my home that night time, spent hours and hours simply sifting via the proof. And by the subsequent morning, he went to Steve’s home and stated … “Your daughter was murdered.”

FORMER FBI AGENTS TAKE A NEW LOOK AT THE CASE

Peter Lemoine: I would at all times inform Steve … “so long as my brother is on this case, you are going to be OK.”

Peter Lemoine remembers the day in 2019 when his brother, former FBI agent David Lemoine got here out of retirement, decided to assist Steve Ducote resolve his daughter Megan’s loss of life.

Peter Lemoine: As soon as David Lemoine knew that that woman was killed, nothing was going to cease him.

Zack Shelton: He was fired up when he known as me.

Zack Shelton bought a name from his good friend and fellow retired FBI agent asking for assist.

Zack Shelton: And after I reviewed the file … there was one thing there. There was little question in my thoughts that we have been headed in the proper route.

Steve Ducote: I had no assist. Little or no assist. … Then, I had one of the best I may ever get.

However to dig into the case, the previous FBI brokers wanted new badges. So, they turned to one of many solely native regulation enforcement officers keen to assist. On the time, Earnest Anderson was Cottonport’s police chief. He agreed to reopen the case, and to deputize David Lemoine and Zack Shelton.

Zack Shelton: And he swore us in as Cottonport … law enforcement officials. And that gave us the authority to look into it.

Then-Assistant Police Chief Justin Chenevert requested to be assigned to the case. He strapped on his bodycam, and helped two seasoned investigators interview witnesses.

On Jan. 15, 2019, the unique detective on the case agreed to speak. By then a police officer in a neighboring city, Chris Knight stated that on the day of the capturing he felt overwhelmed and known as for backup. Amongst others, Chad Jeansonne, a well known detective and blood spatter professional confirmed up, and Knight says Chad Jeansonne instructed him it was clear, Megan had shot herself.

CHRIS KNIGHT (police interview): The best way the physique was positioned and the blood splatter and the gun that it truly was a suicide.

However on a recorded interview, Chad Jeansonne disputed Knight’s account.

CHAD JEANSONNE: What Detective Knight principally needed to know was … may I decide if this was a suicide or not? I stated, no, it is not that easy.

Chad Jeansonne says he instructed Knight that the scene was badly contaminated — and he suggested Knight to research carefully, till he may rule out murder. However Knight admits he by no means even despatched the gun out for testing:

DAVID LEMOINE: Why not?

CHRIS KNIGHT: I do not know.

And Knight stated he had by no means totally examined the proof:

CHRIS KNIGHT: As a result of I checked out it as a suicide and never murder. …

CHRIS KNIGHT: If I botched this, you realize, then I imply, I am going to take the butt — my fault, you realize? However was it finished — however was it finished on function? Completely not.

Knight repeatedly refused “48 Hours”‘ requests for an interview, however did ship a written assertion, which reads partly: “I used to be a younger, inexperienced investigator,” and “Would I do some issues in another way at the moment? With the coaching and expertise I now have, completely.”  Shelton and David Lemoine have been now working arduous to do higher—and did one thing Knight by no means had.

JUSTIN CHENEVERT: Go forward and state your identify for me.

DUSTIN PARRA: Dustin Parra.

They questioned Dustin Parra extensively, for greater than an hour.

ZACK SHELTON: Was there any arguing happening, any combating happening?

DUSTIN PARRA: Not in — not something {that a} regular married couple would undergo.

Dustin stated that within the weeks main as much as her loss of life, his spouse had appeared depressed, and obsessive about the query of the place younger kids go after they die.

DUSTIN PARRA: In the course of the night time, she’d come wake me up. I can not cease considering that my children would not go to heaven if one thing occurred to them.

Steve Ducote: Dustin’s the one one who stated that. … She by no means talked about it to anyone.

Zack Shelton: What by no means made sense to me is, if he thought she was going to commit suicide … it was no manner he would have left his spouse alone to go to Walmart.

And what about these rumors of infidelity?

ZACK SHELTON: Did you’ve got affairs?

DUSTIN PARRA: Sure …

ZACK SHELTON: Did she find out about it?

DUSTIN PARRA: To my data, no, as a result of she did not query me.

Additionally troubling to David Lemoine and Zack Shelton was the best way Steve Ducote described Dustin sliding into Megan’s blood.

Steve Ducote: He got here working in from the storage door … he will get in a baseball slide place, and he slides.

DUSTIN PARRA: I slipped in a pool of blood at her — at round her head.

Dustin stated it was an accident. However Shelton didn’t purchase that.

Zack Shelton: What higher factor to slip in, proper within the blood. And disrupt the crime scene.

Dustin was additionally requested concerning the alleged suicide notice, which Lemoine and Shelton have been now satisfied had been planted by Dustin himself.

DAVID LEMOINE: Someone planted this notice after she died, who may which have been?

DUSTIN PARRA: I actually do not know.

Dustin repeatedly denied having something to do with Megan’s loss of life, or any kind of coverup:

DUSTIN PARRA: I really feel like y’all attempting to incriminate me.

DAVID LEMOINE: You must come clear, and you want to say, we bought in a combat and perhaps she grabbed the gun first …

ZACK SHELTON: Possibly she shot herself in entrance of you. I do not know, however you have been there.

DUSTIN PARRA: When she was shot, I used to be not there.

David Lemoine pushed so arduous that Dustin abruptly ended the interview:

DUSTIN PARRA: All proper, I am finished guys.

Zack Shelton: In that second … I am considering he is undoubtedly concerned. … See, that is early on.

Shelton and David Lemoine additionally interviewed Anne Guillory, the neighbor who thought she might have heard a gunshot early that morning:

ANN GUILLORY: Just a little after 7 a.m., I heard a increase (claps fingers), a loud increase.

DAVID LEMOINE: And also you clearly heard it?

ANN GUILLORY: Oh, sure, it was very loud ‘trigger I stated to myself, “Oh my gosh, that was a loud noise.”

Zack Shelton: We even have a man on the left aspect that stated he had heard a gunshot round 9:20 … however he wasn’t positive if it was a gunshot.

Zack Shelton and David Lemoine have been satisfied, that Anne Guillory, the neighbor to the proper, heard the shot that killed Megan a bit after 7 a.m., leaving Dustin loads of time to shoot his spouse and canopy up his crime, then drive to Walmart. However their case was purely circumstantial, till a forensic professional employed by Steve Ducote found what he believes to be the bodily proof connecting Dustin Parra to the capturing.

Missy Ducote: Places him there. Places him there when my daughter was shot.

AN EXPERT DISCOVERS KEY EVIDENCE

It was now 2020, and Zack Shelton and David Lemoine have been feeling assured concerning the case they have been constructing towards Dustin Parra. Then, says Peter Lemoine, as COVID-19 hit the U.S., the lethal virus killed his brother David Lemoine on Dec. 28, 2020.

Peter Lemoine: I made up my thoughts at that very time that, I used to be going to complete what he began.

Betsy Jeansonne: Mr. Peter simply actually picked up the place Mr. David left off.

Zack Shelton and Steve Ducote now had a brand new associate, a extremely revered native legal professional.

Steve Ducote: Went to work on it as arduous as any human may have labored on it, you realize.

Peter Lemoine says his major job was to maintain their case in entrance of District Legal professional Charles Riddle.

Peter Lemoine: In an effort to be sure that it was aggressively prosecuted. … What he instructed me was … we’d like extra.

So, Steve Ducote requested the Jefferson Parish Crime Lab to look at the proof and test for suspicious blood spatter on Dustin’s clothes. The lab discovered no proof of homicide, or any proof Dustin was there when the gun went off. However Ducote was nonetheless satisfied that Dustin had shot Megan and had purposely slid into her blood to cowl up any incriminating spatter. So, in April 2021, Ducote employed an unbiased crime scene analyst named Eric Richardson.

David Begnaud: Are you able to present me the blood spatter?

Eric Richardson: Yeah. … OK. So, once you look shut, you see these very, very small misting sample proper right here.

Richardson examined pictures of the shorts worn by Dustin Parra—and he homed in on a positive mist of blood proper beneath a pocket flap. It is a sample he says can solely be attributable to excessive velocity blood spatter from a gunshot wound.

Eric Richardson: It instructed me that Dustin was there when that gun was discharged into Megan’s head.

David Begnaud: You positive?

Eric Richardson: Constructive.

Betsy Jeansonne: It was concrete, concrete proof.

Peter Lemoine (to Shelton): We proved he was within the room subsequent to her. We all know that it was his gun.

Zack Shelton: The one clarification is that he killed her.

Eric Richardson additionally agreed that the gun seemed prefer it had been cleaned. On Oct. 13, 2021, Riddle took the case to a grand jury.

David Begnaud: Six minutes after you current it to the grand jury, they arrive again with a cost of?

Charles Riddle: Second-degree homicide.

Dustin was arrested, pleaded not responsible, and was launched on bond. Based mostly on the blood spatter that Richardson discovered on Dustin’s shorts and the costs, the health worker revised Megan’s post-mortem report, and altered the way of loss of life from “suicide” to “undetermined.” Riddle ready for a now almost nine-year-old case to go to trial.

Charles Riddle: We imagine she was shot about 7:30.

David Begnaud: You suppose he left her there whereas she was nonetheless alive?

Charles Riddle: Oh, I do know he did. Yeah.

Nevertheless it was not an open-and-shut case says Riddle. He says consultants from the State Police and the Jefferson Parish crime labs have been going to be known as by the protection and instructed him they’d be testifying that the blood spatter on Dustin’s shorts didn’t show he was current when the gun went off. After which there was Megan’s notice to her sons. A handwriting professional employed by Steve Ducote was going to testify that it was more than likely written by Megan. However Riddle says he was ready to argue that it was not a suicide notice.

Charles Riddle: I assumed that she was simply leaving him.

There was additionally the issue of proving what time Megan was shot, the place Dustin was when it occurred and the way lengthy Megan may had been mendacity on the ground earlier than Steve and Missy Ducote found her nonetheless alive.

David Begnaud: the injury it did to her mind, proper?

Charles Riddle: Oh, God, sure. … I am shocked she was nonetheless alive. Yeah.

David Begnaud: What may you see the protection making hay of efficiently?

Zack Shelton: They have been gonna make hay over the accident the night time earlier than. … they have been gonna say that she tried to commit suicide the night time earlier than.

On Friday, March 24, 2023, simply three days earlier than Dustin Parra’s homicide trial was set to start, Riddle says his telephone rang.

Charles Riddle: I get a name from the protection legal professional. … He stated, effectively, “I need to provide a plea. … Negligent murder.”

Negligent murder within the State of Louisiana will not be outlined as a criminal offense of violence, and solely carries a sentence of as much as five-years.

Peter Lemoine: David, it was an terrible deal. If all you gonna get is negligent murder, you are not risking a lot in any respect by going to trial.

Steve Ducote: I used to be involved that he may … stroll away a free man. By no means clear her identify for these boys … and so they by no means know the reality.

The Ducotes stated they’d conform to a deal, however provided that Dustin answered some very particular questions. On March 26, 2023, Dustin Parra pleaded nolo contendere or no contest to negligent murder, and Riddle bought to query him on the stand. Riddle learn to “48 Hours” from the file.

CHARLES RIDDLE (studying): “Your marriage to her was a wrestle for the final couple of months of her life, appropriate?” Reply by Parra, “sure, sir.”  “On the morning of June twenty eighth, 2014, you and her have been arguing and she or he threatened to depart, appropriate?” Parra, “sure. I am not contesting this a part of the nolo contendere plea.” … “You had a pistol in your hand and within the wrestle, the gun went off firing into her head, appropriate?” Reply, “sure. I am not contesting this a part of the nolo contendere plea.”

Charles Riddle: We needed to be sure that he admitted that he shot her, and it was not suicide.

Steve Ducote: To us, as a household, him admitting to that, that was big.

David Begnaud: You all weren’t finished. What was the final and subsequent factor you needed to do?

Missy Ducote: Get these boys.

Dustin had full custody of his and Megan’s sons—and he’d had it for almost 9 years. They lived with him and his new spouse.

David Begnaud: You needed full custody?

Missy Ducote: Full custody.

David Begnaud: Stripping him of his rights?

Missy Ducote: Full custody.

David Begnaud: And you bought it.

Missy Ducote: And we bought it.

On April 20, 2023, Missy and Steve Ducote have been granted full custody. 

Seven days later, “48 Hours” was there when Dustin and his spouse arrived on the sheriff’s workplace in order that Dustin may flip himself in.

David Begnaud: Dustin, we tried to achieve you. I needed to get your aspect. I needed to listen to from you. … Persons are going to observe this and so they see your silence. … Silence is all you are leaving us with.

Dustin by no means stated a phrase.

David Begnaud: I do marvel what you suppose Megan would say to you on the conclusion of all of this if she may.

Steve Ducote (emotional): She’d say, maintain these boys, and doubtless say thanks for not giving up.

Missy Ducote: God blesses those that starvation and thirst for justice, for they are going to be happy. Am I happy? … If I do know Meg’s OK up there alongside Jesus and all of the angels … However in my coronary heart … she’ll be eternally 29.

Megan Parra’s loss of life certificates now lists her method of loss of life as murder.

Dustin Parra will probably serve 18 months in jail and the rest of his five-year sentence out on parole. His nursing license has been completely revoked.

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Produced by Judy Rybak. Emily Wichick Hourihane is the sphere producer. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Shaheen Tokhi is the affiliate producer. Jud Johnson and Grayce Arlotta-Berner are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.