Brandon Nodier: Where is the Killer Now?

Dorothy Lou Thompson was reported missing within hours of when she was last seen in her secluded home in Toca Village outside New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 13, 1985. However, despite the authorities’ best efforts, it wasn’t until nearly 3 weeks later that the 61-year-old’s remains were found in the Mississippi River – she had strangled, her head was covered in plastic, and she was weighed down by chains. What’s worse, though, as explored in HBO’s ‘The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story,’ is that it took another three decades for her assailant, Brandon Nodier, to finally be identified and brought to justice.

Brandon Nodier Was Dorothy Lou Thompson’s Employee Back in the Mid-1980s

It was around 1954 when Brandon Nodier was born in the greater New Orleans area of Louisiana to Rita Nodier Smith and Germain Nodier as one of their six children. He had one brother called Germain “Jimmy” Nodier Jr., and 4 sisters named Cydney Nodier, Ingrid Rillieux, Camilla Nodier, and Marye Nodier. The patriarch sadly passed away at the young age of 38 in 1961, but the family reportedly managed to survive by being there for one another in their loss and grief. They were thus a very tight-knit group, with Henry Smith later also joining their unit as a stepfather and treating the children like his own.

Brandon’s early years were relatively comfortable, enabling him to pursue his own path without any fears after he grew up because he had the unwavering support of his loved ones. He even tied the knot with a woman he believed to be the love of his life, Bonnie Nodier, with whom he began leading a rather nomadic/transient lifestyle until the early 1980s came around. That’s when he was hired by Dorothy Lou Thompson to serve as a caretaker and groundskeeper of the Azalea Original Pet Cemetery, which she had owned and operated alongside her mother since 1952.

Brandon Nodier Was Hoping to Take Over Dorothy Lou Thompson’s Business and Property

When Dorothy disappeared from her secluded home on April 13, 1985, and authorities began their investigations, they quickly learned that she had been struggling for the past few years. She was depressed and heavily medicated after losing her mother to natural causes at the age of 88 on August 6, 1979. In fact, she had reportedly even started spending a little recklessly and hiring a lot of transient individuals to help operate the 14-acre pet cemetery she and her mother had established. Investigators also uncovered that she and a strange man had gone to the bank just a day before she went missing, following which she gave him $100 for his help maintaining the grounds.

When questioned about the same, the stranger admitted that Dorothy had indeed paid him the rather excessive sum, but it was for a legitimate job and nothing else. It was then that Brandon Nodier’s name came up, with locals painting him in a negative light during official interviews as they deemed him an intimidating con man who seemed to be taking advantage of Dorothy. When detectives looked into the matter, they learned that he was indeed exploiting the 61-year-old in her old age, her grief, and her medicated state. According to police records, Brandon had managed to trick Dorothy into signing over the 14-acre property to him in 1984 while she was heavily medicated.

As if that’s not enough, three years before that, he had also manipulated her into agreeing to a 99-year lease on the cemetery through a company he’d created for just $20 a month. Since he lived on the estate alongside his wife as the caretaker and groundskeeper, he was well aware of her state and what was happening with the business, so he decided to take advantage of it. However, once Dorothy became aware of his actions and fraud, she decided to file a civil lawsuit against him and his then-wife in November 1984. The case was scheduled for a hearing just 10 days after the 61-year-old suddenly disappeared, so detectives suspected them to be involved from quite early on. However, since they could never find any concrete evidence to back their hypothesis, the disappearance turned murder case went cold.

Brandon Nodier Was Incriminated By Witnesses More Than 2 Decades After the Crime

While authorities wanted to solve Dorothy’s case as quickly as possible, they had no real leads until 2009 came around, and a witness unexpectedly came forward to claim he knew who killed her. More than 24 years after her homicide, the witness told investigators through an anonymous call that he was being haunted by the elder woman’s ghost and had to come forward to help her attain justice. He told them that Brandon had confessed to him back in the 1980s, but he was scared to say anything before because he, too, deemed the groundskeeper to be intimidating. However, now, he was stating that the then-31-year-old had not only confessed to the murder but also bragged about dumping her body in the river.

That’s when officials formally reopened the case for good, leading to another witness coming forward three years later in early 2012. A man named James Tregler, who was in prison at the time for unrelated reasons, contacted officials to claim that he was Brandon’s assistant back in 1985 and had actually witnessed Dorothy’s murder. As per police records, he gave them details of the case that had never been made public before, and alleged that Brandon had once even visited him in prison to threaten him to ensure he stays quiet about the murder. Nevertheless, he stated he felt compelled to finally share the truth because Dorothy’s ghost had started haunting him and his dreams.

After Serving Time in Prison for Manslaughter, Brandon Nodier Prefers to Lead a Quiet Life

In the end, Brandon was arrested on the charge of second-degree murder on April 12, 2012. He was later released on a $300,000 bond, but remanded back to St. Bernard Parish Prison by state District Judge Perry Nicosia. A little more than 2 years later, in July 2014, he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter in exchange for a sentence of 10 years in prison, with credit for time served. The Sheriff’s Office Colonel John Doran said at the time that prosecutors were wary of a trial because of the loss of evidence, such as crime scene photos, due to Hurricane Katrina, and because the eyewitnesses were reluctant to testify.

Therefore, the plea deal was a compromise they were willing to make to ensure justice was served. Since then, from what we can tell, Brandon has served his time behind bars and was released around the early 2020s. Now, it appears as if the Louisiana native prefers to lead a life well away from the limelight while surrounded by his remaining family. We say remaining because his mother passed away at the age of 92, a few months before his plea deal on April 7, 2014, and his youngest sister, Marye Nodier Salvage, died after a 3-year battle with cancer on March 28, 2025. It’s imperative to note that James Tregler was never charged or convicted in this matter – he was granted immunity for his cooperation in the investigation.

Read More: Bonnie Nodier: Where is Brandon Nodier’s Ex-Wife Now?