(gentle music)
- I used to drink coffee with brenda every morning.
Brenda had something good, every day, cooked.
Yes, indeed.
They had so many questions.
They were asking, "who you think did it?"
They asked me, "did you have anything to do with it?"
How, why would I kill my little sister?
She had been stabbed in the head 10 or more times.
It was a horrible death.
I went to her casket, I told brenda,
Before I die, I'm gonna solve this murder.
And I planned to do just that.
(dramatic music)
- Opelousas used to be a very good place to live in.
When I first started here, it was 1977.
I enjoyed the people that I met in the street,
As an officer in the city,
And the people that I worked with.
You didn't have many homicides.
Things started to change in the town.
As the years went on, it got worse.
(police sirens blaring)
(gentle music)
- On the morning of may 20th,
Brenda came to my house.
I was graduating, getting my ged.
And brenda came and started helping me make finger foods,
Cookies, sandwiches and stuff
For the little party after my graduation.
And brenda stayed at my house until,
I'm sure about 8:30 or nine o'clock that night.
And then it started raining real hard, lightning.
I mean, the lightning was so bright,
You would think it was sunshine outside.
It was raining really hard.
Brenda went back to her apartment.
She said she was gonna go in for the night.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] 29-year-old brenda dupont
Rents a small apartment behind her sister linda's home.
- I used to drink coffee with brenda every morning.
And the next morning I sent lee herbert, my son,
To go get brenda to come eat breakfast.
But brenda didn't answer the door.
And then finally after about the third or fourth time,
I went to my landlord's house
And asked her if I could use her phone to call the police,
'cause I knew something was wrong,
Brenda would've let us in by now.
- [narrator] police arrived to find a locked front door.
The officer knocks but brenda doesn't answer.
(gentle music)
- The first officer that arrived on the scene
Observed a window in the back that was open.
And when she looked through the window,
From her vantage point, she observed brenda's body.
- [narrator] the officer now has to
Get inside brenda's house, any way she can.
- When the policewoman kicked the door in,
I saw the mattress was kind of slanted against the bed frame
And I saw brenda's body in the fetal position.
Her eyes were open,
But I knew she wasn't alive.
When I saw brenda's body on the floor,
And I saw all the blood, I started screaming.
And it was hard because I had to call my family
And tell 'em that brenda was gone.
It was really hard.
(gentle music)
- Brenda was the youngest girl in 12 children.
We were six girls and six boys,
And brenda was the baby girl.
Brenda was my godchild.
My mother chose me to be her godmother.
My dad was a sharecropper.
We had to miss the first six weeks of school
To help my daddy harvest crops.
- They were raised in a little country town
On the bayou.
Very poor people, like many, many families are
From this area.
Her dad fed his family catfish from bayou teche
And they lived a very, very loving life in that family.
- I would've done anything for my little sister, brenda,
We all had a share in spoiling brenda.
We called it in french, gateau chaud.
She was my little hot cake.
I spoiled her a lot.
But mom and dad made sure we went to church,
We had catechism once a week,
Like on Saturday mornings.
- Brenda didn't wanna be dressy, dressy all the time.
She wanted to be in her jeans sometimes,
Her little tank tops.
But mom and dad always told brenda,
"you can't wear just anything at church."
- [narrator] when brenda is 18-years-old,
She gives birth to a daughter of her own, monica.
- I do believe she was a little bit nervous
When she found out she was pregnant
'cause she was young.
But brenda was a very good mother.
- She started dating when her mother and father let her go.
And she married a young man she was in love with.
And that didn't last very long.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] the breakup is hard on brenda.
- For she had no income.
Brenda was really depressed then.
That's when the cps got involved.
And then that's how she lost custody of monica.
(gentle music)
- Brenda was depressed after they took monica away from her.
- And they told her, you know,
"the only way you get monica back
"is for you to do what the doctors tell you to do, brenda."
She started taking her medications
And she was abiding by it.
Brenda moved next door to me
And she was getting on her feet.
(gentle music)
Brenda would do what she had to do to get her daughter.
Brenda was doing very well.
(gentle music)
- I received a call to proceed to the intersection
Of church and railroad.
Did know brenda.
Brenda's sister, linda, lived adjacent to her.
And I knew that she had a daughter.
Brenda was very easy going.
Brenda was funny.
She didn't bother anybody.
- I was working as a patrolman on that particular day.
I knew brenda lived at that residence.
I knew linda, her sister.
I knew all of the people that lived in the house.
This wasn't a big city at the time.
I remember, I passed by the crime scene,
There was a lot of people out there.
- [narrator] opelousas police videotape
The gruesome crime scene.
- Going into the crime scene
And observing brenda's body lying there,
It was an overkill, you know, it was blood everywhere.
It was an efficiency home that brenda lived in.
It was a one bedroom, kitchen.
(gentle music)
The thing that stood out to me was the multiple stab wounds.
And the bite marks, that in particular stood out to me.
She had no clothes on, that stuck out to me
That we would have to request, you know,
A sexual assault kit be administered during the autopsy.
I was perplexed and angry at the same time.
Angry because, who in the world would do this to brenda?
When we were going through the crime scene,
We were looking for any possible weapons,
Anything that the suspect could have left behind
At that crime scene.
We found no weapons in brenda's house,
That could have caused this or that was even linked to this.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] detective victorian zeros in
On the locked door and open window.
- You don't enter a person's house
And then leave out the window.
You know, you come out the same door that they let you in.
The theory at the beginning of brenda's murder
Was that whoever killed her, she let him in.
She knew him.
Because the door was locked.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] detectives focus on the people
Living closest to brenda.
Her sister, linda and linda's boyfriend dicker chavis.
(gentle music)
- They started questioning me.
They had so many questions.
They were asking, "who do you think did it,
"did you have anything to do with it?
How, why would I kill my little sister?
I was angry with the police
Because they were looking directly at us.
Nobody in my house did this.
So if y'all want to find the true murderer,
Go out and find the true murderer.
(gentle music)
- The chief of police at the time,
Summoned all, the entire investigative division
Into going in to canvasing the area.
Sometimes people don't want to come forward right away.
People see things that they don't think
Are important to investigators.
A canvas is done to hopefully seek out someone
Who has information relative to the crime.
But the initial canvas on that day,
Revealed no new information relative to brenda's death.
It was extremely rare for this kind of murder,
Something like we had never seen before
And we were at a loss.
We just, this was brutal.
- [narrator] adding to police pressure,
People in the small community are scared
That the killer isn't finished.
- I was very paranoid after my sister was murdered.
I wonder if that's the one killed my sister.
I wonder if he's gonna come after me.
- A lot of people were concerned
Because that person who did commit that crime
Is still out there.
And he's probably gonna kill again.
(dramatic music)
- The first thing I was afraid of is that
Whoever killed brenda would come back
And I was afraid of that.
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)
- [narrator] police process the crime scene
And the medical examiner takes brenda's body
To a funeral home.
- It wasn't until I could get to the funeral home
Where we could do a thorough examination
In the presence of the coroner.
- I first became familiar with the brenda dupont case
When I was working
At the louisiana state police crime lab in 1988.
There were over 75 items of evidence
That were submitted to the louisiana state police lab.
I was able to look at the items from the sexual assault kit,
Such as the vaginal washings and the vaginal swabs.
We were able to identify seminal fluid
And actually visually identified spermatozoa.
So we knew that there was a sexual element
Involved to the case.
- [narrator] investigators might have the killer's dna,
But there isn't much they can do with it.
- Well, back in 1988, forensic dna analysis
Was in its infancy.
It just wasn't as precise and accurate
And as widely available as we needed.
There weren't really any workable databases back then
To compare things to.
- [narrator] during the autopsy,
The coroner finds bite marks and 31 stab wounds.
- First thing that popped on me is
If this was, you know,
Certainly this was a crime of passion.
- You want to talk to the people who live close.
You want to talk to people who had knowledge of who she was
And what she did.
The investigators, they talked to several people
Who lived in the neighborhood,
In reference to the murder of brenda dupont.
And you do want to talk to the family members.
The sister lived right in front of brenda dupont.
(gentle music)
- They wanted to take me to baton rouge
To take a lie detector test.
And I was willing.
They did the test, said I passed it.
They didn't have to worry about me.
So they continued and continued testing other people
That they thought would've done it.
- [jude] her friend dicker chavis was present.
- Dicker was my boyfriend at the time.
Yeah, he lived in the home with me.
He was a working man
And he tried to do everything he could
For me and my children.
And would help brenda too,
Brenda and monica, if they needed.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] the attack on brenda was brutal
And investigators believe brenda's sister
Or her sister's boyfriend would've heard her screaming.
- I believe they questioned dicker a good bit
Because here was dicker, I mean, right next door.
- Initially, we thought that linda and dicker's proximity
And such a horrible and violent crime,
That they didn't hear anything.
You know, we all, investigators talked about that.
(thunder rumbling)
- [narrator] both linda and dicker
Claimed the thunderstorm that night
Must have drowned out brenda's screams.
- [jude] they just didn't hear it.
They just didn't, they heard nothing.
- I know if linda would've heard anything,
Linda would have gone out.
I know linda, linda would've gone out
And faced the killer, no doubt.
- [narrator] while questioning family,
Detectives also discovered that brenda
Had been dating two men named david.
- We learned that brenda was dating both of 'em
During the same time
And we needed to find out if one found one another,
They both got mad at one another,
If this was a revenge killing.
So certainly we had to pick up those two and interview 'em.
- When you get this kind of information,
You try to find that person and talk to 'em
And you know, see, where were they at the time?
What were they doing?
What was going on with them?
And like all other people,
The investigators talked to them about this crime.
- It was later ruled out that they had nothing to do
And were not affiliated with the death of brenda dupont.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] as detectives continue their search
For brenda's killer, her family gathers for her funeral.
11-year-old monica will face life without a mother.
- The whole family was devastated.
I had donated my plot in the cemetery.
My little brother made her headstone,
A beautiful headstone.
(birds chirping)
(gentle music)
- [narrator] the family buries brenda,
With her maiden name, bergeron.
(gentle music)
- It was only the immediate family could view her body
Because it was so badly messed up.
(gentle music)
And when I went to her casket,
I told brenda, before I die, I'm gonna solve this murder.
And I meant that.
- [narrator] one person missing from the funeral
Is brenda's estranged husband, jerry.
- After he found out brenda was murdered,
He never came around.
My mom even offered him to be a pallbearer.
He said, yes, and he didn't show up.
But you don't come to your own wife's funeral, come on now.
We thought jerry could be involved in it
Because you know, he didn't want her anymore.
He put her and her little girl out.
And he left brenda for another woman.
- Just a few weeks before she got killed,
She had gone and met up with that woman
That her husband jerry was messing with.
They got into an argument.
And the lady was bigger than her,
But brenda did not back down.
We mentioned everything to the cops.
We told 'em about that.
- Well, we always gonna pick up
And talk to the estranged person.
We have to rule him out as a suspect.
Detectives contact the estrange spouse
To see if it was a revenge killing
And to see if you know there was any culpability.
(gentle music)
- They did question jerry thoroughly
About what happened that night
When brenda and that woman got into an argument.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] police checked jerry
And his girlfriend's alibis and they both hold up.
They're checked off the suspect list.
(gentle music)
- We interviewed, had to be, hundreds of people.
It was an exhaustive list of people that were interviewed.
- [narrator] police have no witnesses,
No solid suspects and no new leads.
- We got to that point where we just
Couldn't do anymore with it until the case evolved.
And I always say about this case is,
This is a case that the evidence
Had to wait for the technology to catch up with it.
- It was very, very frustrating
Because we kept running into dead ends.
- [narrator] police in opelousas were still trying
To catch brenda's killer,
When the town is rocked by another murder.
(dramatic music)
- We had a report of a shooting,
Approximately three or four city blocks
From brenda's homicide.
- A lot of people were concerned
Because it was a pretty shocking thing for 'em
To know that something like this had happened in the city.
- Because of the proximity of the crimes,
We thought that it could be our guy.
(gentle music)
- There was an individual, clint thompson,
Who was a person of interest.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] opelousas police looked for connections
Between clint thompson and brenda's murder.
- He was chasing female into a home, apparently to hurt her.
There was individual, a man, who was at the home
And shot and killed him.
(dramatic music)
- His case had some similarities to brenda's crime
Because he was trying to get into a house,
You know, there was a lady there.
You know, we thought that, hey, that was the big break,
This was it.
It was very, very urgent.
Either we have our man who committed this
Horrible crime at brenda's house,
Or we still have a killer out on the loose.
- [narrator] the dead man may just be the killer,
They've been hunting.
Aiming to link thompson to brenda's murder,
Detective victorian turns to a new forensic technique.
- Forensic odontology, what's called pattern matching
Was touted as being almost as good as fingerprints
By a lot of their experts.
- They knew that there was bite marks
On one of brenda's breasts.
(gentle music)
- The marks was so identifiable on her
That, you know, we had good pictures,
Good pictures to scale.
And we were gonna solve this case.
(gentle music)
My partner and I, at the time,
Went to hattiesburg, mississippi,
Where we met with a forensic odontologist there
Who was sort of world renowned, he had a reputation.
I remember my partner and I sitting down
With this pathologist.
After talking to him, we was just, I mean,
I was just confident that the bite mark
Was gonna bring us to where we needed to be.
(dramatic music)
We needed exemplars of thompson's teeth.
And the coroner did the impressions
And obtained the exemplars we needed.
At that time, we had been in consultation
With a second forensic odontologist,
He was in washington, d.C. At the fbi headquarters.
He advised me if I could get over there,
He would be more than happy to make some determinations.
And you know, at that point I got on the next fight out
To washington, d.C. With the exemplars
And met the forensic pathologists at the fbi academy.
So, it was urgent that we get somebody
To examine those exemplars
So that we can move on with our investigation.
- [narrator] detective victorian still has his suspicions
About linda's boyfriend, dicker chavis.
He tests bite samples from both chavis and thompson.
- The exemplars, the forensic odontologist examined
Definitely ruled out dicker ray chavis as a suspect.
However, clint thompson's exemplars
Bared some similarities.
I was confident on my way back,
After obtaining that information,
I was hopeful that we had our suspect.
- [narrator] since their prime suspect
Is already dead, investigators can't use
Their usual tactics.
- If this man would've been alive,
We'd make an arrest on him and you put him in jail.
- Certainly you can't talk to him, you can't interview him.
There were things we would like to have known,
A lot of unanswered questions.
(dramatic music)
- The chief of police typed up a statement
That there was a similarity to the bite marks
And sent it to the louisiana state police crime lab.
- Once we had learned that back in 1989,
That a bite mark had been identified,
We'd considered the case solved
Based on the information we had at the time.
- So, most of the people are not even looking at it again.
- When the police came home and mentioned
Clint thompson may have done this to brenda.
I didn't go for it.
I didn't know clint thompson,
But I don't think clint thompson did this to brenda.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] when the pathologist takes a closer look,
He determines that clint thompson
Couldn't have left those bite marks on brenda.
Investigators are right back to square one.
- I felt frustrated, you know, it was sad
Because we couldn't put our hands on the suspect.
- I asked him, what's going on with brenda's murder,
Are y'all still working it?
City court gave me custody of brenda's daughter.
And it was hard,
Because monica's only thing was, "who killed my momma."
And we couldn't answer that.
We couldn't answer it.
What do you tell her?
- [narrator] determined to keep the case alive,
Linda remembers the vow she made on brenda's casket.
- And I said, no, in my book,
It'll never be a cold case file. Never will be,
That's my baby sister,
And I promised her I was gonna solve it,
And I planned to do just that.
(dramatic music)
(traffic noise)
(gentle music)
I keep brenda's pictures in my den on the piano.
And I have some on a bookshelf.
And just remember things that she and I did together.
(gentle music)
I said, brenda, I promised you I was gonna solve this case.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] one year after the murder,
Detectives still have no idea who killed brenda dupont.
- You certainly get tips that you had to follow up on.
It's just that all of it just wasn't turning up anything.
We just didn't have anything solid to go with.
- They didn't wanna tell me,
They had made it a cold case file.
(thunder rumbling)
- [narrator] with the passage of time,
Leads in the case vanish like a flash of lightning
In the louisiana night.
(thunder rumbling)
And the case goes cold.
(dramatic music)
(thunder rumbling)
In 1995, 7 years after the murder,
Detective victorian leaves the department.
- Leaving the department and the suspect
Is still running around,
You know, it certainly frustrates you.
And you think about, did we miss out on anything?
Did we leave something behind?
(gentle music)
You know, having to pass in front of that house,
Passing that area at different times,
Certainly triggered certain emotions.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] the now 18-year-old daughter,
Brenda left behind, is haunted by her mother's murder.
- It was hard to see that child
Not being raised by her mother.
Linda loved her dearly and did everything she could
For the child.
But we could tell the child longed for her mother.
- Monica wouldn't stay home.
She got to drinking.
She started drugging.
She wasn't taking good care of herself.
She had friends that didn't care about her.
- [narrator] monica moves to georgia to start over.
Linda, meanwhile, never gives up
On getting justice for brenda.
- Linda's persistence, her bravery,
Her love for her sister kept this hope alive.
But she stayed on them.
And she called the police officer and said,
Please help us find the killer.
After spending 28 years as state police,
I was elected sheriff of st. Landry parish in 2006.
I've been sheriff ever since.
When I first got elected sheriff, in fact,
Linda said, "okay, big boy, we wanna close this case."
She was not a pain, but she would call me routinely.
And she'd called the chief of police at that time
And say, "please help us find the killer."
And when another chief came along, mr. Gallow,
He was hounded, rightfully so, by linda.
(dramatic music)
- I decided to run a campaign for the elected position
Of chief of police.
And during the course of that campaigning,
I came across family members
Who expressed an interest in solving cases
That had gone dormant or cold.
And one family in particular was linda,
Who asked me to please have someone look into this,
Her sister's case.
And I assured her that I would.
- [narrator] when gallow becomes police chief,
He makes good on that promise.
In 2012, the opelousas police department
Starts a new cold case unit.
- I knew the perfect person to look at these cases.
And that individual of course, was dwain grimmet.
It's safe to say that there are certain investigators
Who have a better working relationships with crime labs.
And dwain grimmet is one of those guys.
- When you start working a case like this,
You have to make sure that you have everything
That either the crime lab has or that your office has,
Or had they kept it.
There was a lot of paperwork that I had to regenerate,
Far as getting it from the crime lab,
Or witnesses, you had to find the witnesses and talk to them
And get statements from them again.
- It was obviously, to us, through experience,
That the person that did this knew brenda,
Because of the violence that took place inside the home.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] when speaking to previous witnesses,
They even bring in dicker chavis,
Who was once a person of interest.
- [narrator] during the interview,
Chavis mentions a name
That had come up early in the investigation,
A boyfriend of brenda's.
- This is someone that knew this victim.
- I was determined to find out what took place
In that house with brenda dupont in 1988.
(dramatic music)
Brenda dupont lived in a home by herself
And someone went inside that home raped
And stabbed her numerous times.
I was trying to find out who it was
That had committed this crime.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] as soon as he hears brenda's boyfriend's name,
Lieutenant grimmet follows up.
- He was dating brenda dupont at the time,
This incident happened with her.
Dicker chavis told me that they thought
That david was involved in this crime.
- [narrator] but the tip from chavis leads nowhere.
- I found out that they were no longer living.
Of course you can't talk to a dead person.
And it's hard to find statements that they had left.
- [narrator] not all hope is lost, however.
Police still have the dna samples taken in 1988.
- Dwain grimmet was saying, "look, we really need
"to look at this evidence again.
"and whatever technologies that be have improved,
"let's do our best to close this out.
"help me to get to the bottom of this."
- So I asked george if he could run swabs,
The breast swabs and the vaginal swabs,
You know, just, 'cause they were
Running a bunch of 'em at the time, they had old cold cases.
(dramatic music)
- It wasn't until 2012 that we actually
Were able to take those vaginal swabs
And test them and get a result.
Normally, we look at 16 genetic markers on the dna molecule.
We got 12 of the 16.
But it was still good enough
That we could get it into a database.
- [perry] so he ran it and he got a hit on it.
- Well, when I called dwain grimmet
And I gave him the name joenell rubin,
His jaw dropped.
It didn't have significance to me,
But to him it definitely had some sort of significance.
- I immediately went to the evidence room
And started searching for brenda's case.
And when I pulled the case out,
There's a bag of eight millimeter tapes
And I grabbed the bag and I start going through it.
And the first person that I come across is joenell rubin.
- [narrator] joenell rubin was 18 when brenda was killed.
Police had questioned him at the time
Because he had a connection to linda's children.
- Joenell was a, don't give a damm about nothing, person.
He was getting arrested a lot.
God, he didn't have a good record.
- Lieutenant grimmet was already familiar
With joenell rubin.
(dramatic music)
- I had known him through my job as a police officer,
Joenell and I had had a couple of encounters,
As me as a police officer in the neighborhood.
He'd get in trouble from time to time.
And I go to the evidence room
And I listen to the tapes
And that's when I find out, pretty much,
That he had scratches on his neck.
Brenda dupont had cuts all over her body,
So the person that was responsible for this
May have had some type of wound on him also.
- Joenell explained he had another girlfriend
And he had gotten to an argument
And she scratched him on his neck.
And that was the reason why he had these marks on his neck.
And so I'm looking for a tape with her and I can't find it.
- [narrator] in 1988, joenell gave police an alibi,
But they never verified it.
Grimmet immediately brings in the woman,
Joenell said could vouch for him, stephanie keys.
- [narrator] linda remembers it differently.
She says rubin was at her home
Right before brenda was killed.
She also recalls another important detail.
She gave us a statement about joenell,
About how joenell was there
The night before this incident happened,
And he was playing with a knife.
(dramatic music)
- And then I learned that joenell rubin
Had been arrested on a domestic abuse charge.
So went to opelousas police department
And I got him outta jail, brought him to my office,
Sat down and started talking to him, to joenell,
In reference to the murder of brenda dupont.
I mean, you still have a lot, you gotta finish the case.
You wanna make sure that the person
That you fixing to put in jail
Is the right person that committed this crime.
(dramatic music)
Once he was placed in the jail,
He was right there in my fingertips.
All I had to go over there and get him
And bring him back to the office and talk to him.
(dramatic music)
I remember walking into this interview room in 2012,
Talking to joenell rubin, knowing that I had dna evidence,
Dna hit on him.
I wasn't sure that he was gonna give me the information
That I was looking for,
But it felt good to have him in that room.
And if you can see that he's crossing his arms.
He wants to listen to what I have to say,
But he doesn't want to give me any information.
- I knew I had dna evidence, a vaginal swab,
So I knew he knew her a lot better
Than what he was telling me.
And he was trying to avoid that question.
- [narrator] to strengthen his case against rubin,
Lieutenant grimmet will need to run a second dna test.
- The thing about getting a hit in the database,
We have to then get a reference sample
Directly from that individual and test it
To confirm the results,
Make sure there wasn't a sample switch in the database
Or something along those lines.
- Joenell had given his dna in texas,
In a case that he was involved in there.
That's how they got the hit.
So we had to do another swab on him
Where we could run it again.
And we were able to get another dna hit on him.
(gentle music)
- Dwain grimmet went to a judge,
Informed him of what he had.
And of course the judge saw probable cause
To sign an arrest warrant.
(gentle music)
- So I brought joenell rubin back to the police department
And I started talking to him again,
As it relates to the murder of brenda dupont.
And he kept kind of pushing my button.
- I, you know, tried to get him to tell me
What had taken place there and he wouldn't budge.
So I told him I had a warrant for his arrest.
I said, I have a vaginal swab
That was taken from brenda dupont that matches you.
- [narrator] joenell rubin is charged
With first degree murder and aggravated rape.
- I was outside sweeping my car ports
And perry gallow called my house and he said,
"I wanna meet you at my office at 12
"'cause we made an arrest."
He said, "we arrested joenell rubin."
I said after 24 years, y'all finally got him.
(gentle music)
- But the uncertainty of a jury trial
And regardless of what evidence
And how much evidence you have,
There's potential for an acquittal.
(dramatic music)
- [linda] when I walked into the courtroom
And I saw joenell rubin, he was full of smiles.
- [narrator] the defense argues that the prosecution
Can't place rubin in the house
Based on the evidence.
Grimmet tells a difference story.
(thunder rumbling)
- Joenell rubin came through the back window
On the south side of the house,
Possibly using that ladder to get into that window
And surprise brenda.
He sexually assaulted her, he stabbed her a number of times,
Probably with the knife that he was carrying.
And he got out of the window.
- I believe it's because brenda
Was sort of defenseless, you know.
He figured, "well she's small, she won't defend herself."
I believe that's what happened.
(dramatic music)
- During the trial, you know, I'm sitting there
And listening to all this evidence
And I'm know what I have.
My heart is pounding, just, you know,
Waiting to hear this verdict.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] the jury gets the case on January 27th, 2016.
After deliberating for two hours,
They find joenell rubin guilty of first degree murder.
(dramatic music)
- When that verdict come in, that he was guilty.
And then at that time, you saw where it really got to him
And he was taken away.
- And the newspaper man took a picture of,
You could see tears in his face.
Oh god, he just thought he was gonna be found not guilty,
After all these years.
- [narrator] 22 days after he's convicted,
A judge sentences joenell rubin to life in prison.
- It's so much relief, I'm sure not only for me,
The department that was working this case
And also the family, you know,
I know that they were relieved that brenda dupont's killer
Was now going to jail for the rest of his life.
(gentle music)
- [narrator] just two months after rubin is sentenced,
Brenda's daughter, monica passes away at the age of 39.
- Now I know her little girl would still be alive,
If my sister would be alive.
You cannot come to terms
With something like that, that happens.
(gentle music)
Every October we have a day, it's called all saints day.
Once a year, we clean our loved one's graves
And we put them fresh new flowers.
(gentle music)
I like to tell her everything's gonna be okay now.
(gentle music)
You will always be my little gateau chaud.
I love you dearly.
(gentle music)
- I did visit brenda's grave after he was found guilty.
And I told brenda, I was gonna solve this.
And it was,
Like I had did my work.
And there it is.
(gentle music)
And it's like I could feel her, you know,
I could feel her around me.
(gentle music)
Yes, indeed.
(gentle music)