In the winter of 1997, the body of a young man, 20-year-old Gary Pierre, was discovered in a wooded area of Montz, Louisiana. The grim discovery on December 14 on Vickers Lane marked the beginning of a homicide investigation. It was apparent to investigators that at some point, Pierre had been bound. An autopsy would later reveal that the cause of his death was strangulation.
At the time, authorities noted that Pierre, a resident of nearby Norco, was reportedly heavily involved with drugs and had last been seen in LaPlace.
For years, the case of who killed Gary Pierre remained unsolved, one of several mysterious deaths of men in the region. The initial investigation did not immediately lead to any arrests or publicly named suspects. His death was one of a series of slayings that would haunt southeastern Louisiana for nearly a decade. The victims were often found in desolate, remote locations like sugarcane fields, ditches, and bayous, leaving a trail of fear and unanswered questions across multiple parishes.
The resolution in Pierre's case would not come until years later, with the arrest of Ronald Joseph Dominique, a serial killer who came to be known as the Bayou Strangler. In a confession that brought a chilling clarity to numerous cold cases, Dominique admitted to the murders of at least 23 men and boys between 1997 and 2006. Gary Pierre was one of his victims. Dominique's method often involved luring men with promises of money, drugs, or alcohol before he would rape and strangle them. On September 23, 2008, Dominique was convicted and sentenced to multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole, finally bringing a measure of justice for the murder of Gary Pierre and the many other lives he had taken.
