MrBallen

Bernard clearly gossiped a lot about Dorothy, it seemed like that would mean basically everyone in town was a suspect.

But without any forensic evidence or witnesses, Vallelongo didn't see how they would ever be able to connect anybody to this crime.

Still, he and Strada got back in the cruiser and headed back to the station to keep at it.

The investigative team kept working this case diligently for weeks and then months, interviewing and re-interviewing suspects and speaking to people who knew Dorothy.

They even met with a psychic who claimed she knew who the killer was.

And some people even called in with tips that they had seen Dorothy's ghost in the area and they would even go follow up in case maybe Dorothy was there.

But none of that went anywhere.

None of it amounted to any new meaningful evidence that the police could actually use to bring somebody to court.

And as time went on, Dorothy's case changed hands multiple times before finally going cold.

24 years later, on a Thursday afternoon in late September of 2009, Detective John Duran sat at his desk in the St.

Bernard's Police Precinct doing some paperwork.

And he just put his pen down and leaned back in his chair to take a break when another detective poked his head in and told Duran, hey, the caller was on the phone.

And Duran knew exactly who he was talking about.

A few days ago, an anonymous caller had put in a tip to say he had information about an old cold case from 1985, the murder of the lady who owned that pet cemetery, and Duran had known immediately that the caller was talking about Dorothy Thompson.

Duran had actually used to cut the grass at the pet cemetery when he was 15 years old, and so he and his friends knew all about Dorothy, how she was, you know, this eccentric recluse who potentially murdered people and who turned up dead one day.

But during the first call, this tipster had gotten spooked and hung up without giving his name.

And as soon as Duran picked up the phone to speak to the caller, he immediately said, whoever this is, you're not going to get in any trouble here.

We just want your name and your location.

I want to come talk to you and just hear what you know.

You're not going to get in any trouble.