Sometimes now I can still hear her laugh. She had this laugh that, you know, even when
I look at her picture over there, I can hear her laugh, you know, her laugh. And she would
do silly things, put lizards on her ears, you know. I see these things, you know, when
I think about her. And I have a kid that does the same thing, and I'm like, it makes me
think of her, you know.
On November 5th, 2005, Lake Charles police pulled the body of Brandy Dyson, a 32-year-old
kinder woman from the lake behind the Civic Center. The investigation that ensued led
family members on a journey to find closure and justice that still continues today. Exactly
one month after Dyson's body was found, Lake Charles detectives arrested a man in Tacoma,
Washington, who they thought was responsible for Dyson's death. Jeremiah Salazar was then
extradited to Calcasieu Parish, where a Calcasieu Parish grand jury indicted him on one count
of second-degree murder. When new evidence surfaced that excluded Salazar as a suspect,
Dyson's family was left with more questions than answers, and Lake Charles detectives
were left with a case that has since gone cold.
My family is all from Cameron. Hurricane Rita Hits, we all lose our home. My sister at the
time was living in Kinder in her own place, and she took in some evacuees from New Orleans,
and because she did that, she was kicked out of her apartment. So then she started staying
in the shelter of the Civic Center. While she was there, she gets drunk, she gets kicked
out. So she's living off one of the piers. And I mean, that part of it, we really don't
know a lot about. We just know they believe she was living off one of the piers with a
guy who they think did what they did to her. I was living in Alabama. My mom was in Arkansas.
My dad was here in Westlake. We were all displaced all over, and then we get a call.
My brother's at the Civic Center. He's having to identify her body, and because of her men
arrested, they were able to find out who she was by fingerprints.
What do you think about the investigation as a whole? How long did the investigation
last? Which agency investigated it? The late Charles Police Department did. I had weekly
contact with them from November when it happened until July the 12th of 07 when they let him
go. I would call and say, okay, what's going on? Well, we're just waiting. We have the
grand jury indictment, and then they call and say, we don't know why, but the DA's going
back in front of the grand jury. Did you have any contact with anybody from the DA's office?
We did a couple of times, but they weren't. They really didn't. I mean, they couldn't,
I guess, tell us what was going on, being that the way things were going. So, I mean,
we really didn't know. We just knew, okay, they're going back in front of the grand jury.
Did you feel confident after the first indictment that they had the person and that this was
going to be over? Yes. And what about when he was, when the grand jury failed to re-indict
in the second time, how did you find out about that? What was that like? Actually, the DA,
who was handling the case called me and told me that the grand jury decided that it would
be no true deal for the second indictment. I always thought once you got an indictment,
you didn't go back in front. But for some reason, he felt that he had to. Do you think
they're, as far as the police go, they're trying to keep things a little, I guess, close
to the vest because they don't want to let a lot of details out in case they do. They're
trying to protect the case. Yes. And I'm thankful for that because the only person that would
know what happened would be the person who did it. You know, it was a homicide. It wasn't
just, you know, it wasn't like, okay, he got a gun and he shot her. It wasn't anything
like that. It was a violent death. It wasn't just, you know, okay, I can shoot you and
you die. You know, it wasn't anything like that. It was very violent. We didn't know
that much. It was very violent. You said that you feel like you don't really know what the
next step is now to talk to me a little bit about that.
There's no, I know of no one that tells you, okay, this is the steps that you have to do
to get your case going again. You know, there's people that's out there for the accused. But
these victims and their families have nobody really, you know, okay, this is what you do.
This is how you get it going. This is how you find the information out. You know, so
it's like, okay, what do you do next? You know, do you sit and you wait for somebody
to call you? Or do you keep calling them? Or do you get the media involved? You know,
what do you do?
Well he was initially indicted and as the case flowed on, DNA testing was done because
we did in fact have DNA samples from the victim's body and it was determined that the DNA excluded
Salazar as a potential defendant. So it was brought back to the grand jury. That new evidence
was presented along with the rest of the evidence and the grand jury returned in no true bill.
And that was the end of the case for that time. Understand that one of the reasons that
we sometimes do that is so that we don't leave the case open with no progress. If we
do that our prescriptive, if we do that our prescriptive period runs and can toll which
means that the case is then over and cannot be refiled. Once it is dismissed as we did
in this case, if we obtain additional evidence, new evidence that we can utilize to prosecute
this defendant or any other defendant, then we can re-indite. We can re-indite the same
defendant simply with the additional evidence and the prescription does not run in that case.
So that's why we do this kind of thing.
So just because the grand jury did return in no true bill, it doesn't mean the case is over?
It does not. It means that at that time the grand jury felt like there was not sufficient
probable cause to go forward. And remember that even though the grand jury only needs
probable cause, which I will categorize as in terms of 0 to 100%, maybe a 30 or 35% requirement
that we have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. So we have to actually go a lot farther
than that to prove to a jury that this defendant, this particular defendant, is guilty beyond
a reasonable doubt. And that's why there's such a big discrepancy.
So the case is now not pending, but at the same time law enforcement is ever vigilant
that if something comes up in this case or if they can turn over some new evidence that
will re-enliven this case, then we will take another look at it and bring it back to the
grand jury and re-indite or indict the proper individual.
No, we did speak to Brandy Dyson's sister and one of her main concerns was she felt
like she didn't know where to go from this point in case she characterized it as a cold
case. She said she really didn't know what her next steps were. I mean, is there something
that the families at this point should be doing or is it just totally in the hands of
law enforcement?
I think law enforcement is going to have to take the next step. And I know that they continue
to look into these things, particularly this case because I've talked to them about it
in the past. But any further activity is going to have to be generated by law enforcement.
Frustrating though it may be, and I can certainly understand that for any family that's had
this kind of event take place, there is nothing for them to do at this point relative to the
prosecution of this case. We have to just get more evidence or get some significant
evidence that will enable us to go back to the grand jury with it.
Thank you.
