MrBallen

Can you do that?

There was a pause.

And then the caller reluctantly agreed.

Later that day, Duran and another detective sat in the living room of a New Orleans home, right across from a very fidgety-looking older man.

The man's eyes kept darting all around the room, and periodically he kept looking over his shoulder like somebody was going to, you know, jump out at him.

And it occurred to Duran as he was watching this guy that he didn't just seem nervous, you know, about the information he was going to spill to them.

He actually seemed pretty genuinely terrified.

But finally, the man took a steadying breath and said...

He knew who killed Dorothy, and he had known for years.

Now, the guilt of knowing was haunting him.

Literally.

He told the detectives that he had been seeing Dorothy's ghost, covered in chains and asking him to come forward.

Now, at this, Duran raised his eyebrows skeptically, but didn't say anything.

You know, this was a pretty crazy start to the story and pretty hard to believe.

But at the same time, it didn't really matter what, you know, prompted this guy to come forward.

It mattered what he had to say.

And so, with an open mind, Duran, along with his partner, just sat there and waited.

And eventually, the old man, despite being very scared and timid, finally did just come out and say what he knew.

Based on a decades-long investigation and multiple confessions, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Dorothy Thompson on the night of April 13th, 1985.

Sometime after 9 p.m.