According to Ducet, he had encountered the four men on the afternoon of March 15th, 2014 while he was moving through the forest near one of his usual hunting spots.

He claimed that the men were loud and disrespectful, that they were trampling through areas he had marked as offlimits, and that when he confronted them, they had laughed at him and told him he had no authority to tell them where they could or could not go.

He said the confrontation escalated and that one of the men, he could not or would not say which one, had pushed him.

Dusk claimed that he felt threatened and that he had reacted in self-defense.

He admitted to using his bow and said that he had shot one of the men, later identified as Andrew Finch, because he believed his life was in danger.

He described the shot as instinctive, fired from a distance of roughly 20 yards, and said that the man had fallen immediately.

When asked what happened to the other three men, Ducet became evasive.

He said he did not remember clearly that everything had happened quickly and that he had panicked.

He insisted that he had not intended to kill anyone and that the situation had spiraled out of his control.

He refused to provide specifics about how the other men had died or what he had done with their bodies.

He would only say that they were gone and that no one would find them.

The detectives pressed him for details, but Ducet shut down, repeating that he wanted a lawyer and would say nothing more.

The interrogation was concluded and Ducet was formally charged with the murder of Andrew Finch.

Additional charges related to the deaths of Colin Hayes, Derek Pullman, and Justin Lamb were anticipated, but without bodies or further evidence, prosecutors knew that building those cases would be more difficult.

In the days following Raymond Ducet’s arrest, investigators returned to his property to conduct a more thorough and methodical search.

This time, they were armed with specific questions.

If Ducid had killed all four men as the evidence strongly suggested, then where were the remains of Colin Hayes, Derek Pullman, and Justin Lamb? The search teams expanded their efforts using cadaavver dogs to cover every square foot of the 40 acre property and the surrounding forest.

They brought in ground penetrating radar equipment to scan beneath the soil in areas that seemed disturbed or unnatural.

They drained a small pond located on the eastern edge of Ducit’s land to check for submerged remains.

They examined old fire pits, compost heaps, and refuse areas where organic material might have been disposed of.

Despite these exhaustive efforts, no additional human remains were discovered.

The investigation turned to other aspects of Ducid’s life and activities.

Detectives obtained records of his financial transactions, limited as they were, and found that he rarely used banks or credit cards, preferring to deal in cash.

They reviewed his phone records and discovered that he had virtually no contacts, no friends, no regular communication with anyone.

He was, by all accounts, a man who lived in near total isolation.

Investigators also interviewed people who had encountered Ducid over the years.

A gas station attendant recalled that he would occasionally come in to fill Jerry with fuel, always paying in cash and never engaging in conversation.

A clerk at a hardware store remembered him buying tarps, rope, and plastic sheeting on multiple occasions.

Purchases that now seemed ominous in hindsight.

A wildlife officer recounted an incident in which Ducet had been caught setting illegal snares and had responded with thinly veiled threats, saying that people who interfered in his business had a way of disappearing.

At the time, the comment had been dismissed as bluster, but now it took on a far more sinister meaning.

One of the most chilling discoveries came from a journal found inside Dit’s cabin during the initial search.

The journal was a worn notebook filled with handwritten entries dating back more than a decade.

Most of the entries were mundane notes about weather, hunting observations, and maintenance tasks around the property.

But scattered throughout were passages that revealed a deeply troubled mind.

In one entry from 2011, Ducet wrote about his resentment toward outsiders who treated the forest like a playground, trampling through areas he had claimed as his own and showing no respect for the land or for those who truly understood it.

In another entry from 2013, he described an encounter with a group of hikers who had camped near one of his hunting blinds.

He wrote that he had watched them from a distance and imagined what he would do if they refused to leave.

The entry ended with the phrase, “The forest protects its own.

” There was no explicit confession in the journal, but the tone and content painted a picture of a man who saw himself as a guardian of the wilderness and who viewed intruders as threats to be eliminated.

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The most damning entry was dated March 16th, 2014, the day after the four men had disappeared.

It was brief and cryptic, but its implications were unmistakable.

Ducid had written, “Four came where they didn’t belong.

The forest is quiet again.

It will keep the secret.

” When this entry was presented to prosecutors, they recognized it as a near admission of guilt.

a statement that strongly suggested Ducid had been involved in the deaths of all four men, not just Andrew Finch.

The entry was entered into evidence and would become a key component of the case against him.

As the investigation continued, forensic experts re-examined the area where Andrew Finch’s skull had been found, hoping to uncover additional clues that might lead to the other bodies.

They expanded the search radius and paid particular attention to areas with natural features that could conceal remains, dense thickets, rocky outcrops, sinkholes, and submerged sections of the bayou.

Divers were sent into deeper water, and sonar equipment was used to scan the bottom of larger pools and channels.

One area of focus was a section of wetland located approximately half a mile from the original burial site.

The terrain there was treacherous, a mix of shallow water, thick mud, and tangled vegetation that made movement difficult even for experienced searchers.

It was the kind of place that few people would venture into, and it seemed like a plausible location for disposing of bodies.

Search teams waited through the muck, probing the mud with poles and using trained dogs to detect the scent of decomposition.

On May 22nd, one of the cadaver dogs alerted near a cluster of submerged logs at the edge of a stagnant pool.

The handlers marked the location and called in a dive team.

The divers worked carefully, feeling their way through the murky water and thick sediment.

After nearly an hour of searching, one of the divers surfaced and signaled that he had found something.

It was not a body, but it was significant.

Buried in the mud beneath the logs was a canvas backpack, heavily degraded and covered in algae, but still largely intact.

The backpack was carefully extracted and brought to the surface.

When it was opened, investigators found items that had been protected from complete decay by the waterlogged environment.

Inside were a waterproof pouch containing a soggy notebook, a pocketk knife, a small first aid kit, and a laminated emergency contact card.

The card bore the name Derek Pullman and listed his girlfriend’s phone number.

The discovery confirmed that Derek Pullman had been in this area and the condition of the backpack suggested it had been submerged for years, likely since the time of his disappearance.

The notebook inside the waterproof pouch was partially legible.

Forensic document examiners were able to recover some of the writing, which appeared to be notes related to the camping trip.

One entry dated March 15th, 2014 described the group’s arrival at the forest and their plan to explore some of the unofficial trails in the area.

Another entry mentioned that they had encountered a man in the woods who had been unfriendly and told them to stay away from certain areas.

The entry ended mid-sentence, suggesting that Dererick had stopped writing abruptly, possibly because of an interruption or because something had happened.

This notebook entry was significant because it corroborated Ducit’s claim that he had confronted the men, though it contradicted his assertion that the encounter had been entirely their fault.

According to Derek’s notes, the group had been going about their business when Ducet had approached them and made threats.

This painted a picture of Ducet as the aggressor, not the victim defending himself as he had tried to claim.

The search of the wetland area continued for several more days, but no human remains were found.

The lack of bodies remained the most frustrating aspect of the investigation.

Prosecutors knew that proving murder without a body was difficult, though not impossible, especially given the strength of the circumstantial evidence, and Ducid’s own statements.

They had the journal entry, the personal belongings of the victims, the partial confession, and the physical evidence linking Ducet to the death of Andrew Finch.

It was enough to proceed, but the absence of the other three bodies left a gap that the defense would certainly try to exploit.

Raymond Ducet’s legal team, a pair of public defenders assigned to his case, began building their defense strategy.

They did not deny that Ducet had encountered the four men in the forest.

Nor did they dispute that he had taken their belongings.

Instead, they focused on the argument that Ducet had acted in self-defense and that any deaths that occurred had been the result of a confrontation initiated by the victims.

They pointed to the lack of remains for three of the men and suggested that without bodies, there was no proof that those men were even dead, let alone that Dissid had killed them.

This argument was legally precarious, but it was the best option available to them.

The prosecution countered by presenting the totality of the evidence.

They argued that the presence of personal items belonging to all four men combined with Ducet’s own statements and the journal entry established that he had killed them and disposed of their bodies in a manner intended to prevent discovery.

They emphasized the brutality of Andrew Finch’s death, shot through the skull with an arrow from behind, and argued that this was not the action of a man defending himself, but the action of a predator eliminating a threat.

The case moved slowly through the legal system over the following months.

Ducet remained in custody, held without bail due to the severity of the charges and the risk that he might flee.

His demeanor in court was sullen and uncooperative.

He rarely spoke and showed no visible emotion, even when evidence was presented that detailed the suffering of the victims and the anguish of their families.

In September of 2018, additional evidence came to light that further strengthened the prosecution’s case.

A hiker exploring a remote section of the national forest several miles from Ducit’s property discovered a small clearing that appeared to have been used as a campsite.

Among the debris left behind were several items that forensic teams later identified as belonging to the missing men.

There was a tent stake with markings consistent with the brand used by Colin Hayes, a plastic water bottle with a label that matched those purchased by Justin Lamb at the gas station on the day of the trip.

and a pair of sunglasses that Andrew Finch’s brother confirmed were [clears throat] identical to a pair his brother had owned.

These items suggested that the men had at some point set up camp in this area, or at least passed through it before something went wrong.

The location of the clearing was significant because it was situated along a narrow trail that led directly toward the area where Ducet had been known to hunt.

It supported the theory that the men had inadvertently wandered into territory that Ducet considered his own and that this had triggered the violent confrontation.

By late 2018, the prosecution felt confident that they had assembled a compelling case.

They had physical evidence, witness statements, forensic analysis, and Ducid’s own words, all pointing to the same conclusion.

Raymond Ducet had murdered four men in the forest, buried one of them, and concealed the others so well that they might never be found.

The trial of Raymond Ducet began on January 14th, 2019 in the 10th Judicial District Court in Nacadesh Parish.

The courtroom was filled with family members of the victims, journalists, and local residents who had followed the case closely since the discovery of Andrew Finch’s skull 9 months earlier.

The proceedings were expected to last several weeks given the volume of evidence and the complexity of the charges.

Ducet was charged with four counts of seconddegree murder, one for each of the missing men.

The prosecution was led by assistant district attorney Laura Brennan, a seasoned prosecutor with a reputation for handling difficult cases involving circumstantial evidence.

The defense was represented by public defenders Gregory Hol and Nina Castillo.

Both experienced attorneys who understood the uphill battle they faced.

In her opening statement, Brennan laid out the timeline of events and the evidence that connected Raymond Ducet to the deaths of Colin Hayes, Derek Pullman, Justin Lamb, and Andrew Finch.

She described the men as friends who had simply wanted to enjoy a weekend in the forest.

Men who had done nothing wrong and had paid for that innocent decision with their lives.

She walked the jury through the discovery of Andrew Finch’s skull, the rusted arrow embedded in the bone, and the forensic analysis that linked the weapon to Ducet.

She presented the personal belongings found in Ducet’s shed, the journal entries that revealed his mindset, and the partial confession he had given during interrogation.

She argued that the evidence taken together painted an undeniable picture of a man who had killed four people and tried to erase them from existence.

The defense in their opening statement acknowledged that Raymond Ducid had encountered the four men and that a confrontation had occurred.

However, they framed the incident as a tragic misunderstanding that had escalated beyond anyone’s control.

They argued that Ducet, a man who had lived alone in the wilderness for decades, had felt genuinely threatened when the men refused to leave an area he considered dangerous.

They suggested that the death of Andrew Finch had been an accident, the result of a panicked reaction, and that there was no evidence to prove that the other three men were even dead.

They pointed out that no bodies had been found for Colin Hayes, Derek Pullman, or Justin Lamb.

And they argued that without bodies, the prosecution could not meet the burden of proof required for a murder conviction.

It was a risky strategy, but it was the only defense available given the circumstances.

The prosecution began presenting its case by calling witnesses who could establish the timeline and the character of the victims.

Family members testified about the men’s plans for the trip, their experience in the outdoors, and the fact that they had been excited and wellprepared.

Amanda Hayes, the wife of Colin Hayes, testified through tears about the last conversation she had with her husband, in which he had promised to bring her back photographs of the forest.

Derek Pullman’s girlfriend described the watch that had been found in Ducit’s possession, confirming that it had been a gift and that Dererick had never taken it off.

Justin Lamb’s mother spoke about the notebook her son always carried, the same notebook that had been found in the submerged backpack and how he had loved documenting his adventures.

These testimonies were emotional and effective, humanizing the victims and reminding the jury that these were real people with families who loved them.

Next, the prosecution called the forensic experts.

Dr.

Eric Pollson, the forensic pathologist who had examined Andrew Finch’s skull, testified about the nature of the injury.

He explained that the arrow had penetrated the skull from behind, entering at the base of the occipital bone and exiting through the frontal region above the eye socket.

He described the angle of entry and the force required to achieve such penetration.

And he stated unequivocally that the injury would have been immediately fatal.

He also testified that the wound was inconsistent with an accidental discharge or a defensive shot and that the positioning suggested the victim had been struck from behind, possibly while unaware of the danger.

The fingerprint expert testified about the partial print recovered from the arrowhead and explained the process used to match it to Raymond Ducet.

While he acknowledged that the print was not complete, he stated that the points of comparison were sufficient to establish a high degree of certainty that Ducid had handled the weapon.

The metallurgist who had analyzed the arrow head testified about the construction and materials, confirming that it matched the type of arrow heads found on Ducett’s property and that the design was consistent with handmade traditional hunting arrows.

The prosecution also called the detectives who had investigated the case.

Detective Benjamin Carter testified about the search efforts, the discovery of the victim’s personal belongings, and the interrogation of Raymond Ducet.

He read portions of the interrogation transcript aloud, including Ducet’s statement that the men shouldn’t have been there and his refusal to explain what had happened to the other three victims.

Carter also testified about the journal found in Ducet’s cabin, and the entry dated March 16th, 2014, was entered into evidence and displayed on a screen for the jury to read.

Four came where they didn’t belong.

The forest is quiet again.

It will keep the secret.

The impact of those words on the courtroom was palpable.

Several jurors leaned forward to read the entry more closely and family members of the victims visibly reacted, some covering their faces, others shaking their heads in disbelief.

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The defense attempted to undermine the prosecution’s case by questioning the reliability of the evidence.

During cross-examination, they pressed the forensic experts on the limitations of their findings.

They pointed out that the fingerprint was only partial and that there was a margin of error in the comparison.

They questioned whether the journal entry could be interpreted in other ways, suggesting that it might have been a metaphorical reflection rather than a literal admission of guilt.

They challenged the detectives on the thoroughess of the search efforts, asking why, if Ducid had killed all four men.

Only one body had been found.

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