Brandon Nodier: The Cold Case Murder of Dorothy Thompson

Brandon Nodier is a Louisiana man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2014 for the 1985 killing of Dorothy Thompson, the 61-year-old owner of the Azalea Original Pet Cemetery in St. Bernard Parish. He was sentenced to ten years in state prison, closing a cold case that had gone unsolved for nearly three decades.¹

The Property Dispute Behind the Killing

Nodier worked as a handyman and groundskeeper at Dorothy Thompson’s 14-acre pet cemetery in the Toca community of eastern St. Bernard Parish. In April 1984, Thompson signed the cemetery over to Brandon and Bonnie Nodier — divorced at the time but often living together — for a stated price of $20,000.¹

The check was never cashed and was never found by authorities. Thompson came to believe she had been swindled and filed a civil lawsuit in November 1984 to reclaim the property, alleging she had been “hoodwinked” into signing the sale papers.² A pretrial conference in that lawsuit was set for April 26, 1985.

The 1985 Murder

Thompson disappeared on April 13, 1985, ten days before her court date. On May 2, 1985, fishermen in Plaquemines Parish pulled her body from the Mississippi River. She was partially nude, weighted down with steel chains, and had a plastic garbage bag tied around her neck with metal wire.³

The coroner ruled the cause of death asphyxia.⁴ Investigators later determined Thompson had been smothered inside the main house at her pet cemetery, then transported to the river and dumped near the Scarsdale ferry landing.¹

Why the Case Went Cold

Sheriff Jack Stephens identified Nodier as a prime suspect from the start given the motive. Thompson was about to go to court to take her property back.⁵ But the murder happened in St. Bernard Parish while the body surfaced in Plaquemines Parish, and that jurisdictional split complicated the early work.³ The cemetery crime scene yielded few usable clues, and detectives lacked the circumstantial evidence to make an arrest.

Years later, Hurricane Katrina destroyed a number of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office case files. What survived, and what investigators eventually leaned on, was a Louisiana State Police file that Col. John Doran later described as a “bible of names and witnesses.”⁶

How the Case Broke Open

In 2009, Col. John Doran and Capt. Mark Jackson of the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office reopened the Thompson murder as part of a broader review of cold cases. Using the surviving State Police file, they began re-interviewing witnesses from the original investigation, including Nodier’s ex-wife Bonnie Nodier. Investigators said the renewed activity made Nodier nervous.⁶

The break came through James J. Tregler, an associate of Nodier who claimed he had been present the night of the killing, watching from Nodier’s truck outside the home. Tregler said he had kept quiet for nearly three decades because Nodier had threatened to kill him and his family.⁶

By 2012, Tregler was being held in the St. Tammany Parish jail on federal charges related to constructing a gasoline bomb. He had a prior 1990 guilty plea for possession and manufacture of a bomb, and a May 2011 arrest on similar charges. When Nodier heard detectives were re-interviewing witnesses, he visited Tregler in jail and, according to Tregler, said: “Oh, and by the way, I know where your wife lives.”¹

Tregler contacted authorities on March 15, 2012, and gave a detailed account of the killing that included specifics never released to the public.² He was granted immunity from prosecution for his knowledge of Thompson’s death and testified before a St. Bernard grand jury. As Col. Doran later put it: “If he doesn’t pay him that visit, I don’t know that this thing goes any further.”⁶

In April 2012, Nodier, then 58, surrendered to the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office and was booked into the parish jail.⁴ The grand jury indicted him for second-degree murder.

The Guilty Plea and Ten-Year Sentence

On July 11, 2014, Nodier appeared in the 34th Judicial District Court in Chalmette before State District Judge Perry Nicosia. He pleaded guilty to a single count of manslaughter, reduced from second-degree murder, and was sentenced to ten years in state prison. When Judge Nicosia questioned him at the hearing, Nodier confirmed he had committed the crime.¹

The reduction reflected how heavily the state’s case rested on a witness with a serious criminal record. Nodier’s defense attorney, Patrick Fanning, said flatly, “They didn’t have a great case,” and described Tregler as a “mad bomber” who would have been highly impeachable at trial. Fanning also conceded the weight of the motive, noting that in 30 years, investigators “haven’t had anybody else they think could have done it.” He called the ten-year sentence a “compromise reflecting the fragility of the state’s evidence” and said that under the parole rules in effect at the time of the 1985 killing, Nodier could expect to serve fewer than five years.⁶

What Happened to the Cemetery and the Case File

After the conviction, the Azalea Original Pet Cemetery sat abandoned and overgrown. Patricia Newman, a longtime friend of Thompson and executor of her estate, said in 2014 that she planned to renovate the property and reopen the cemetery.²

In June 2023, a public records requester obtained investigative documents from the case, including the original St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office report and two Louisiana State Police reports.⁷ No public reporting has confirmed Nodier’s release date or current status.

1
NOLA.com. St. Bernard Pet Cemetery Murder Defendant Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in 1985 Case
2
The Advocate. Guilty Plea Ends Bizarre Murder Saga in St. Bernard
3
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office News. St. Bernard Man Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in 29-Year-Old Murder
4
WDSU. St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office Make Arrest in 1985 Killing
5
FOX 8 Live. Suspect Charged In 1985 Killing
6
NOLA.com. Guilty Plea Ends Bizarre Murder Saga in St. Bernard
7
MuckRock. Brandon Nodier Police Investigative Report