Pet Cemetery - Strange Deaths in Louisiana Swamps

Pet Cemetery Deaths 
in the Swamps of a Louisiana 

1950, Toca, LA

Grace Thompson,  founded the "Azalea Original Pet Cemetery" around 1950, in Toca, St. Bernard, a tiny rural village, about a 20 minute drive southwest of New Orleans' French Quarter.

Dorothy 

daugter of Grace Thompson

Posing with the life-size statue 

Of a St. Bernard Dog

 that marked the cemetery's entrance

 off St. Bernard Hwy. 

The statue was created by Brandon Nodier - live-in groundskeeper.

The words carved into stone read,

Animals of every kind are buried here

from dogs and cats

to parakeets, rabbits

and even a boa constrictor

Red Line - Route from NOLA French Quarter to the Pet Cemetery

1975, Toca, LA
Grace's daughter,

 Dorothy Thompson,

  shot her husband to death

 on the pet cemetery property. 

Dorothy was never charged in the shooting because her husband had a history of physical abuse and that authorities believed she was defending herself.
Further information about that killing was lost due to flooding during Katrina.

1980's
Brandon Nodier, an Arabi, LA man (25 miles up-river from Toca) had worked as the live-in groundskeeper for Dorothy Thompson's Pet Cemetery.

He also cut and created tombstones for the deceased animals.

Nodier created a life-size statue of a St. Bernard Dog . The statue  marked the cemetery's entrance off St. Bernard Hwy.
The words carved into the stone read,

"Animals of every kind are buried here, 

from dogs and cats, 

to parakeets, rabbits, 

and even a boa constrictor". 

Some of the deceased were in tombs, others in urns.

1985, Toca, LA
35 years later, Grace's daughter, Dorothy Thompson, was killed by multiple blows with a "gravestone cutter" at her home on the night of April 13, 1985.

1985, Toca, LA
Nodier and his wife had attempted to purchase the pet cemetery property from Dorothy a few months before she was killed.

Dorothy sued the couple, alleging that the Nodiers had swindled her by convincing her to sign documents for that sale under false pretense.

Groundskeeper Nodier, had been embroiled in a lawsuit with Thompson over ownership of the 14-acre property, which cost $360,000 (adjusted for inflation).

1985, Mississippi River, LA

Ten days before she was scheduled to go to court in that law suit, Dorothy disappeared.
Nodier had placed her body into the waters on the east bank of the Mississippi, near the Plaquemines Parish ferry landing.

May 2, 1985
Fishermen found the body of Dorothy Thompson, 63, 3 weeks later, in the Mississippi, over 18 miles from where, it was later learned, that she was dumped at the Plaquemines Parish ferry landing.
Her partially nude body was wrapped in heavy chains, and a garbage bag was tied around her neck with electrical wire.

2009
St. Bernard Sheriff's Office was able to build a case against Nodier, and obtained an indictment that after 27 years. Nodier was arrested in the death of Dorothy and was booked with second-degree murder.



An autopsy found she died of suffocation, not drowning, before she was thrown into the river.
Fishermen discovered her 3 weeks later, in the river near Myrtle Grove.


After 1985
After Dorothy Thompson's death, the property was passed on to her heirs, who closed the cemetery business.
The land is now overgrown with weeds.





death of thompshon


Katrina, 2005
Further information about that killing Dorothy ,and other details about the Thompson and Nodier case were lost to flooding during Hurricane Katrina, 2005.

2009
People with information about the case began coming forward in 2009.

Chief of Detectives Col. Doran, "over time, life has a way of bringing witnesses forward. They start feeling their own mortality."

Witnesses who came forward in the Thompson case spoke of nightmares; others spoke of seeing "The Ghost of Dorothy Thompson".

Sheriff officials recalled stories that Dorothy Thompson's mother, Grace Thompson, buried money on the land, which encouraged local residents to trespass with their metal detectors.

---------------------

timeline of the cemetery's bizarre history, an ageless odyssey of killings, betrayal, buried treasure and intrigue, unearthed from historic court records, police reports, newspaper clippings and interviews by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune after Nodier's arrest on April 25, 2012.

To read the story on that murderous history - click here.

1779


Early St. Bernard Parish settlers arrive and establish settlements now known as St. Bernard and Toca villages, along the banks of Bayou Terre aux Bouefs, an abandoned channel of the Mississippi River.

March 22, 1845

Pillipe Toca, who inherited the Toca Plantation where the pet cemetery now sits, duels at 50 yards with Gilbert Leonard. Each load their guns with a single bullet but only Toca's shot lands, killing Leonard.

1909

St. Bernard Sheriff Albert Estopinal Jr. builds the classic Edwardian house that still sits, now derelict, in the middle of the pet cemetery.

July 1913

Grace Agnes Matt, the pet cemetery's founder, and John "Jack" Thompson, both then 22 years old, marry in Kansas City.

Dec. 1919

Grace and Jack Thompson divorce after she has an affair with Arthur Wynne. Grace and Arthur move to Oklahoma City and marry in January 1920.

Sept. 1, 1924

Dorothy is born. As a child, Dorothy calls Jack Thompson "Daddy Jack" and as an adult she uses the Thompson name.

1925

Although Jack Thompson remarried Mary L. Thompson, he frequently visits Grace in Oklahoma. Thompson has become "an influential politician, a successful operator of slot machines and a man of considerable means," according to later court testimony, and allegedly a leader in mafia-tied Tom Pendergast's political machine.

1931 to 1934

Grace moves back to Kansas City with Dorothy and divorces Arthur Wynne. She lives in the Pickwick Hotel, with Thompson paying her bills and supplying her with money.

Sept. 13, 1934

Grace ambushes Mary Thompson, shooting her five times with a .25-caliber pistol, as Mary and Jack Thompson return to their Kansas City home after a vacation. A witness later testifies that Grace said, "It is all fixed. They won't do anything to me."


Nov. 19, 1934

Grace is found insane and committed to an asylum in St. Joseph, Mo.

July 11, 1935

Grace is given a leave to visit her mother in a St. Joseph hotel and flees to New Orleans with her mother and daughter, Dorothy, then 11 years old.

Dec. 3, 1935

Jack Thompson, 43, dies under suspicious circumstances in the Jung Hotel in New Orleans. It is ruled a heart attack. Grace, who denies having seen him that night, claims he was killed for his "hidden (gambling) fortune" of $400,000 to $500,000, a fortune that she alleges never was found.

Between 1935 and 1939

Going by the last name Thompson, Grace opens the Cottage Flower Shop at 4609 Freret St. and becomes an organist at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, where she composes a number of hymns about which she writes a book published in 1939.

July 27, 1940

Grace is arrested at her Freret flower shop. A Kansas City police woman tracked her whereabouts through the church hymn book.

June 15, 1941

Louisiana Gov. Sam Jones orders Grace's extradition to Kansas City for the murder charge. At extradition hearing, Grace argues that Missouri authorities weren't really interested in the murder charge, but instead in finding the location of her former husband's $400,000 to $500,000 hidden gambling fortune.

Jan. 2, 1942

Grace, then 51, is convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Sept. 5, 1944

The Missouri Supreme Court orders a retrial because of a technicality. The case is reset for an Oct. 16, 1944 trial, and Grace is released on bond. She flees again to New Orleans.

Feb. 9, 1945

During an extradition hearing before Louisiana Gov. Jimmie H. Davis, Grace and her attorneys allege that enemies of the Pendergast machine want to return her to Kansas City and grill her about the fortune.


Feb. 19, 1945

Davis denies the extradition request. "We held a lengthy hearing in this case and learned that it had many ramifications," was Davis' public explanation.

September 1945

A federal grand jury in Kansas City indicts her for flight to avoid prosecution on the murder charge, making her a federal fugitive.

July 2, 1946

Grace, her mother, Emma Matt, then 76, and Dorothy, then 21, move to the Toca Plantation, paying about $8,000 for the house built by Sheriff Estopinal in 1909 and the surrounding land, which they convert from an abandoned sugar cane field into a pet cemetery.

April 4, 1947

Unable to find her, federal authorities inexplicably dismiss charges against Grace in connection with the Kansas City murder.

1947

Grace publishes a book, "Garden Book of Old New Orleans."

1952

Grace begins operating the pet cemetery full time.

July 25, 1961

Seven-year-old Brandon Nodier, who is later arrested in the 1985 murder of Dorothy, watches as a former mental patient fatally shoots his father in their Esplanade apartment by firing three shots into his head as the father slept.

Nov. 26, 1970

Dorothy fatally shoots her first husband, Logan Banks, 41, after a "domestic squabble" in the rear of the pet cemetery. Dorothy and her mother claimed that Banks was intoxicated and threatening to kill them with a large knife. St. Bernard sheriff's officials determine the killing was in self defense.

Nov. 10, 1971

Grace transfers the pet cemetery property's title to her daughter, Dorothy.

March 1972

Brandon Nodier, now 18, is convicted of burglary in New Orleans and receives five years of probation.

Dec. 27, 1976

Dorothy marries Donald Eugene Robinson.

Dec. 30, 1976

Brandon Nodier marries Bonnie Bonnet.

July 28, 1978

Donald Robinson, 46, is fatally shot at the pet cemetery. Dorothy calls police and says she found him dead. No charges are filed.

August 1979

Grace Wynne dies at 88 years old.

1980

Brandon Nodier, then 26, arrives at the pet cemetery to help Dorothy with house repairs and never leaves. He arrives with his first son, Brandon "Sonny Boy" Nodier, then about 2 years old. He claims in a 1981 newspaper story that he'd had a dream about living in a cemetery.

Dec, 1, 1981

Brandon Nodier, through his company Brandon's Renovations Inc., signs a 99-year lease for the cemetery, agreeing to pay Dorothy $20 a month.

Dec. 29, 1981

Brandon Nodier divorces his wife, Bonnie.

April 20, 1984

Brandon and Bonnie Nodier swindle Dorothy into signing away the cemetery for $20,000, although whether a $20,000 check ever was handed over is unclear. It was never cashed.

Nov. 27, 1984

Dorothy files suit against the Nodiers, alleging she was hoodwinked.

April 13, 1985

Dorothy disappears.

May 2, 1985

Fishers discover Dorothy's partially nude body in the Mississippi River.

Nov. 16, 1988

The civil suit is finally resolved with a St. Bernard judge ruling that Dorothy's heirs own the pet cemetery property. Patricia Newman, who had known Thompson since 1980, becomes the executor of the estate.

1992-95

Newman begins a process to try to sell the property.

April 25, 2012

St. Bernard sheriff's detectives arrest Brandon Nodier for killing Dorothy in the house on the pet cemetery property.


Source: Historic court records, police reports, newspaper clippings, biographies, interviews, marriage, divorce, birth and death certificates.



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