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Clay Arceneaux: I became more and more frustrated with, how they were handling it as well as the other detectives at that agency. And I started speaking to them. And then we all started seeing that we were all on the same page, that this was not a suicide.

TJ (Donna’s brother): But she told me if anything ever happened to her, that a woman out there on 450 would have an SD card. It had all the pictures and the videos and everything on it.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Look, she was a beautiful woman. It’s just hard for me, you know? And, I don’t know, some of our, people think it was a homicide. Some of them thinks it was a suicide. My way of managing people is let the people that know what they’re doing do their job and get out of the way.

‘Something Strange’ by Tabitha Meeks: I’m feeling heavy. There’s a pounding in my chest. The shadows hiding But I see the silhouettes. Fear lives in the quiet. Whispers in the silence.

Tucker Simmons: I’m Tucker Simmons, and this is Freeze Frame, an investigation into the unsolved murder of Donna Arceneaux.

Tucker Simmons: We left off in episode four with Clay’s claims that Donna had a damning video she considered using to save her home and a lot of other dirty laundry involving employees of the sheriff’s office. I want to make clear again, though, I have not seen these videos or heard recordings, but I do know she had a history of collecting information. Like I said before, the claim alone, even if none of it existed, seems serious enough to put her in harm’s way. Clay suggests it’s all been destroyed, but I’m not accepting that. In the meantime, I wanted to know more about Clay’s recollection of the night Donna was found and the investigation.

Tucker Simmons: What was your last conversation with Donna like?

Clay Arceneaux: it was in the middle of the night. It was late. I don’t know exactly the time, but she called me very upset. the night, before she passed, she was crying and sounded winded, and first words out of her mouth was that she loved me. And I was like, love you, too. Like, you know what’s going on. I know for certain. She’d obviously just had an argument or a fight or something, because you don’t call in the middle of the night winded. and that emotion, m. She’d never done that before. She never called me crying like that, you know? She’d call me upset, pissed off, but just crying. And I was like, are you all right? And she said, I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. Not that I’m okay, but I’ll be fine.

Tucker Simmons: In retrospect, was that her in a depressed state, contemplating suicide, or was that her just venting to you?

Clay Arceneaux: That has been the turmoil for since this has happened. Was that the last call, or was that the huge fight that led up to this?

Tucker Simmons: Assuming this call did, in fact take place, Clay was the last person to speak to Donna that I know of. One of my theories is that Donna was killed long before this call. But getting my hands on her phone records has been difficult. And Clay no longer has access to his records from 2017, but claims he did provide them to state police. We shifted gears, and I wanted to know more about the night Donna was found.

Tucker Simmons: Were you on scene the night that she was found?

Clay Arceneaux: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I was woken up in the middle of the night and notified at my house by a sergeant with the police department. And Ellie was with me. So there was no going anywhere. There was no going to the scene. None of that. A bunch of people started reaching out to me, but I never left because I knew that I had to get my daughter to the worst news of her life when she woke up.

Tucker Simmons: Were you ever polygraphed?

Clay Arceneaux: Yes, I was. That came about after this had rocked on for weeks after her death, and nothing had come up. No. No one had hardly talked to me. No one had spoken to me. And I literally reached out to the sheriff’s office and was like, hey, I know my name’s probably on a board somewhere. We need to get this moving so y’all can zero in on this. And that’s when the whole they started railroading with the suicide thing the entire time. And so I literally began pestering them. And then I was called in for a polygraph.

Tucker Simmons: Were you ever trained to pass a polygraph?

Clay Arceneaux: No. No.

Tucker Simmons: Other than the polygraph, were you interrogated. Or did you ever feel like you. Were a suspect in an interview or…

Clay Arceneaux: No, the few interactions I had were by phone, I believe. I came in, I talked to, a detective by the name of Jimmy Seals. And then as the case went on, I became more and more frustrated with how they were handling it as well as the other detectives at that agency. And I started speaking to them. And then we all started seeing that we were all on the same page, that this was not a suicide.

Tucker Simmons: From your perspective, who should be held accountable for the Shortcomings of the investigation.

Clay Arceneaux: I think a lot of people need to be held accountable. They ran with the narrative that they did everything they could to control the narrative of this from the minute it happened. I don’t want to point my fingers at just one person here, and I don’t want to cast blame of the entire incident on Tom Anderson. You know, I think that’s unfair to just point out one person. A lot of people saw the institution as a whole not in a good place. That’s why you’re running the story you’re running. That’s why I am where I am. That’s why my child has no closure. Everyone with a clear perspective who’s looked at this has said the same thing. How was this allowed to happen? How were there no checks and balances in the process? Why did the investigation have to be pushed by outsiders to continue? that’s just my two cents on it. The institution as a whole failed, and it failed Donna, and it failed my daughter.

Tucker Simmons: I’ll be honest. I suspected Clay could have been involved early on. But based on the information I have today and many conversations with him for more than a year, I feel comfortable moving on for now. And that’s exactly what I told him. Clay’s biggest revelation was the claim of a video in Donna’s possession. But locating it and confirming if this was a possible motive wasn’t going to be easy. I called Donna’s brother TJ to see what he knew. He was hesitant, but didn’t disappoint. I’ll reiterate, I do not have personal knowledge of the incident. He details. This is his own recollection of what happened.

TJ (Donna’s brother): I mean, if you want the truth, I mean, I ain’t gonna sit here and lie to you, man. I’m the type of guy, if I don’t get asked, I don’t get no information. But if I get asked then that volunteers me that I gotta, I gotta, I gotta tell you, you know what I’m saying she had something on another guy, and I hate to even bring his name up, but in this case, every scenario needs to be pulled up. Every stone needs to be turned. You know what I mean? She called me up one night, and she was panicking. She said, T, she said, somebody is at the edge of my woodline, she says, and they’re watching me. She said, I need to know if you can come over here. And it’s been different years and years ago. It’s been years back. So I get over there and, I check it out, and you can actually see Footprints where somebody had been walking the edge of the woodline. And I told her, I said, Donna, I said, what’s going on? And, she looked at me and she said, I’d rather not tell you because I’d rather not get you involved in it. I said, well, you already got me involved in it because. Because you’re my sister. So I gotta. I mean, you know. Anyway, she told me. She said, look, she says, I got videotape of me, going to the airport about 2:00 one morning. And I said, Donna, said, what are y’all doing at the airport, 2:00 in the morning? She said, well, she said him and about five or six more was unloading a bunch of cocaine off the airplane at the. At the airport. She said, I got on video. I said, oh, my God. I said, Donna, I said, things like that get people killed. I said, you need to not tell nobody about that. And I told her, I said, Donna, I said, [bleep] ain’t somebody you want to play with, and they’re not. And I said, that’s probably the reason people’s watching you right now, to be honest with you. But she told me if anything ever happened to her that a woman out there on 450 would have an SD card. It had all the pictures and the videos and everything on it that we could deal with her, and she would have it.

Tucker Simmons: Although this incident took place years before Donna’s death, maybe this same woman has other videos Donna gave her. I was back in town a few weeks later, so TJ and I took a ride out to Highway 450. He couldn’t explain where we were going, but he knew he’d recognize her road when he saw it. We knocked on doors for a while with no luck. And this is not for drama. The very last house we stopped at was key.

Neighbor: Hey, boss. How’s it going man?

TJ (Donna’s brother): Tim. Hey. We looking for a lady. Who’s name is [bleep]

Neighbor: She lived at the end of this road. She don’t live there. I think she’s been gone a while.

Tucker Simmons: She’s an older woman.

Neighbor: Yeah.

TJ (Donna’s brother): She was it.

Tucker Simmons: Yeah, I think she may have passed.

Neighbor: Oh, did she?

Tucker Simmons: She had two daughters.

Tucker Simmons: That’s the same person?

Tucker Simmons: Yeah.

Tucker Simmons: She had two daughters. Yeah.

Neighbor: Yeah, yeah. And what did you say her last name was?

Tucker Simmons: Our conversation with her neighbor was brief, but he provided the names and details we needed. Later that day, I spoke to the woman’s daughter. She confirmed Donna and her mom were very close and that when they cleaned out her home, they did find a safe. It’s been several years, and she couldn’t remember SD cards or tapes specifically, but assured me she would get in touch if she found anything. My last option was to locate the SD cards found in Donna’s bedroom. I’ve heard multiple stories about what happened to him and who had them. I narrowed it down to Donna’s son, Brennan. He lives out of state, but put me in touch with his grandma, his father’s mom. He remembered having a container of electronics stored at his grandma’s SD cards and possibly a hard drive included. When I spoke to her, she was cordial and said investigators had reviewed everything. She wouldn’t commit to setting a time for me to come by, and I got the sense she was getting annoyed by my questions. Her parting words were that she was just ready for all this to go away and move on for Brennan’s sake. I acknowledge how invasive what I’m asking for must feel, but I’m still holding out hope that she’ll have a change heart.

Tucker Simmons: The most challenging part of this investigation has been getting people to talk. Given the public’s distrust of law enforcement in Washington Parish for so long after the newspaper came out claiming Donna committed suicide, many people gave up and forgot about it. Those involved in her death and those with information have stayed silent, many of them out of fear. I’ve made a ton of progress, but tracking down key players who I believe know what happened to Donna and convincing them to share what they knew just wasn’t working. It was becoming clear that they weren’t going to open up after all these years to some random guy poking around. But having grown up there, I had no doubt in my mind if we could get people’s attention in a big way, someone would talk. But in the last few days of my anonymity, there were several people I needed to approach one last time. My first call was to the captain of the Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division. I was told by an off the record source that Donna’s case was, quote, on a shelf with no assigned detective. So was it?

Louisiana State Police Representative: You know, we’ve got limited manpower resources, and so, you know, a cold case homicide, like this, you know, sometimes has to be put on the lower priority list. But that’s not saying we’re not continuing to investigate it. So we have made progress. I’ve been privy to this investigation from the time we adopted it, and we had some different detectives look at it. But, we took over the investigation from the sheriff’s department. A lot of things were done, not the way we would have liked them to be done, just because that’s their protocol and not ours. But we inherit investigations all the time. Can’t go back in time and change things. So there was a lot of stuff we had to redo and, reinvestigate. So that’s why it’s been such a timely endeavor.

Tucker Simmons: I’m no expert, but I took that as a yes. It was a lesser priority due to a lack of resources, and that’s not the fault of the captain himself, but it was disheartening. Our call was brief, and towards the end, he did say they were waiting on more data to come in. I have to imagine after five years with state police, they would have everything. But maybe not. My next call was to Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal, who often goes by the nickname country Sheriff. Seal was elected assessor of Washington Parish in 1994. He held that office until he was elected Sheriff in 2012. My parents and grandparents have known him for as long as I can remember. I was a few years younger than his kids, but knew them well. My brother dated his daughter at some point and played baseball with his son. Our first call was, as you’d expect, pretty normal.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Hey, Tucker.

Tucker Simmons: Hey, Sheriff, how are you? This is Tucker Simmons. It’s been a long time.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Hey, Tucker. Fine. How you doing?

Tucker Simmons: I can’t complain. I’m working on a project about the murder of Donna Arceneaux. I was hoping to talk to you about it. If you had some time sometime I could come in maybe or.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Yeah, but you probably do better talk to, my investigator because they know more about it than I do.

Tucker Simmons: Perfect.

Sheriff Randy Seal: You know, I’ll be glad. Tell you what I know. But, you know, we’ve had. We investigated. We had state police look at it, and it’s a tough, tough case.

Tucker Simmons: Do you remember who was lead on that case in terms of investigating back then?

Sheriff Randy Seal: I don’t know. It could have been, the guy over investigations, which is. He just retired. Shoot. I’m having a senior moment. Tucker. Tom Anderson.

Tucker Simmons: Gotcha. Okay. Oh, so he’s retired now? He doesn’t. He doesn’t work there anymore.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Yeah, he still works for part time for Gotcha. Well, he’ll be glad to talk to you about.

Tucker Simmons: Yeah, I’d love to sit down with him and just kind of get his version of what he saw firsthand, because, you know, it’s a story that’s close to home. You know, Donna was married to my uncle Bubba. So when I had the opportunity to take on a new project, this one was pretty important, you know, it was a puzzling case.

Sheriff Randy Seal: And, you Know, we do have a, Where she said she was going to commit suicide. Look, she was a beautiful woman. It’s just hard for me, you know? And, I don’t know, some of our, people thinks it was a homicide. Some of them thinks it was a suicide. My way of managing people and let the people that know what they’re doing do their job and get out of the way. Have you been able to talk to her boyfriend?

Tucker Simmons: I haven’t reached out to him yet. And that’s, you know, sort of strategic on my part. But, you know, I’ll be the first to admit, you know, Donna was definitely struggling with depression and had used suicide as a form of seeking attention, from what I’m told. But, you know, it just. It doesn’t sit right with me that she was so. I mean, for lack of a better term, she was so vain, and the way she looked was everything to her. And I just don’t see how she would have shot herself in the breast with no clothes on and not left a note for her daughter. You know, just. There’s so many things that just don’t add up, so I’m just curious. I’m sure there’s a lot that I don’t know.

Sheriff Randy Seal: You, want me to. I’ll give you Tom Anderson thumb, and you can reach out to him and. Of course, I’ll let you know. You gonna be calling or something?

Tucker Simmons: Yeah, if you don’t mind. Yeah, that’d be great.

Sheriff Randy Seal: All right, hold on. 515 [bleep]

Tucker Simmons: Perfect.

Sheriff Randy Seal: 335 [bleep] And let me give you his house in the country. You’ll probably have better luck on the house. Summer. Eight, four, eight. [bleep]

Tucker Simmons: Perfect. Got them all.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Yeah. Okay, buddy. Good to hear from you.

Tucker Simmons: You too. Have a great weekend.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Bye bye.

Tucker Simmons: I didn’t expect the Sheriff to remember all the case details, so I appreciated him giving me Captain Anderson’s numbers. And you guessed it, he was my next call.

Tom Anderson’s Voice Mail: Leave brief message. I’ll call you right back. Thank you.

Tom Anderson’s Voice Mail: At the tone, please record your message. When you’ve finished recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options.

Tucker Simmons: Hey, Tom, this is Tucker Simmons calling. I just got off the phone with the Sheriff and just wanted to chat. With you real quick.

Tucker Simmons: I’m working on a story, and, the Sheriff thought I should give you a call since you were chief investigator at the time of the incident. You can give me a ring back here. Thanks so much.

Tucker Simmons: The next day, I tried again.

Tom Anderson’s Voice Mail: Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system. Tom, Anderson is not Available. The mailbox is full and cannot accept any messages at this time. Goodbye.

Tucker Simmons: A week later, I tried again.

Tom Anderson: Hello? Who is this?

Tucker Simmons: Hi there. I’m calling for Tom Anderson.

Tucker Simmons: This is Tucker. Oh, did I lose you? Before hanging up on me again, the muffled audio sounded a lot like it’s that fucking journalist calling again. I was in town at the time, so I called Sheriff Seal back and asked to meet.

Tucker Simmons: I just got off the phone with the Sheriff. He told me to come in and see him.

WPSO Receptionist: What’s your name?

Tucker Simmons: Tucker.

WPSO Receptionist: You said Tucker, what?

Tucker Simmons: Tucker Simmons.

WPSO Receptionist: Oh, okay.

Tucker Simmons: Yes, ma’am.

WPSO Receptionist: Okay, Come on in.

Tucker Simmons: Thank you.

WPSO Receptionist: You’re welcome.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Hey, Tucker. How you doing?

Tucker Simmons: We sat at the conference table in the middle of his office, which was full of accolades from throughout his career. His desk was stacked with obituaries waiting to be laminated. Sheriff Seale’s bookmark style obituaries have become a staple when a resident passes away. I think he even hand delivered a stack to Mimi, my grandma, who you heard from in episode one. When my grandfather passed away a couple years ago, we had spoken on the phone twice and ran into each other at several campaign forums throughout Washington Parish. But this was our first time meeting about Donna’s case.

Tucker Simmons: I’m perplexed and I just want to get your thoughts honestly. In general, do investigators accept the findings of an autopsy? If the coroner’s office rules homicide or suicide. Is that typically what’s accepted?

Sheriff Randy Seal: Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Tucker Simmons: So on October 23, Donna’s body was found. On the 24th, most the investigation took place. The 25th was the autopsy in Saint Tammany. The pathologist found homicide in his autopsy, but then on the 26th, he wanted to see the scene because Tom was telling him that it was suicide. And the pathologist said, no, her body shows homicide. It’s highly unusual for him to come to Washington Parish, but you guys accommodated. Everyone knew why he was coming. So what I don’t really understand is why then three months later in February, did the department give a statement to the air leader saying that it was officially a suicide?

Sheriff Randy Seal: That talked Chief Haley about that.

Tucker Simmons: Because if it was just a mistake, I would imagine you guys would have corrected the record, right?

Sheriff Randy Seal: Of course we want the truth.

Tucker Simmons: From what the family says, they reached out to the ear leader and you guys saying, what the hell? Where did this, you know, the statement come from? They didn’t really get much of a response, and the ear leader told them without something new from you guys, that they couldn’t release a correction. So factually, it was never ruled A suicide. So I’m sure you can understand why the family feels like whether it was a cover up or Tom had a lapse of judgment or something.

Sheriff Randy Seal: But. What. What family are you talking about?

Tucker Simmons: Donna’s, family.

Sheriff Randy Seal: As in on her side, the family, or.

Tucker Simmons: I mean, I’ve spoken to just about all of them.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Okay.

Tucker Simmons: They, just want to know why that statement was released, and then interest in the case just went away. Because you guys were actively investigating it as a homicide when that statement was released to the newspaper. It’s confusing, right?

Sheriff Randy Seal: Yeah, it is. you know, of course, I let my people do their job. And I, do know that they worked real, real hard on that, but other than that, you know, I can’t go into any of that. And look, I know that family. They’re good people, and, they’re my friends, and they know me very, very well and have a lot of confidence that we’re going to do the right thing.

Tucker Simmons: Their perception is it wasn’t handled properly. And it wasn’t until they threatened to go public that your department handed over to the state police.

Sheriff Randy Seal: If that’s true. I don’t know that.

Tucker Simmons: So when we first spoke, you kind of alluded the ruling. The autopsy said homicide, but the detective still questioned it. And then at the there in Franklinton women’s forum, you mentioned the one unsolved murder. I assume you were talking about Donna.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Yeah.

Tucker Simmons: So is it, do you now agree with the autopsy that it is homicide?

Sheriff Randy Seal: I, I don’t know which it is. I don’t know.

Tucker Simmons: The problem with the only. With it being the only one that’s unsolved. I mean, I guess that’s debatable, but it’s the one with the most questionable circumstances around it because there was so much controversy. Did you ever go to Tom or anyone and say, like, what the hell’s going on? Like, let me see for myself.

Sheriff Randy Seal: I let my investigators do their job.

Tucker Simmons: Have you ever seen the crime scene photos? I think you would be surprised that anyone believed it was suicide if you saw those. I mean, we’ve spoken to independent investigators to get a third party opinion, and not m. A single one sees those photos and thinks this is a suicide, Whether it’s a cover up or not or just a hard case to solve. What would your response be to people who suggest that, yes, you hire people that are capable, but you should make sure that those people are operating in an ethical manner?

Sheriff Randy Seal: Well, they better be. I hadn’t stayed in office for 30 years to have a dark car. I do Know, I’m smart enough to know that the buck stops here because I am the Sheriff. There might have been some poor police work, there may have been some mistake, I don’t know. But I don’t like it was done on purpose.

Tucker Simmons: the elected chief law enforcement officer in the Parish never thought to look at one of the most, if not the most controversial cases in his Parish. Even if for political reasons or his own self preservation. Whatever the motive, why not get eyes on it? I knew going in Sheriff Seal wouldn’t share details of the case. But I have to say I definitely didn’t expect his reasoning to be that he just didn’t know. Before we wrapped up, I wanted to address rumors that Sheriff Seal was very unhappy with me and had suggested internally that my investigation was a political stunt. For the record, there are much easier and more effective ways to harm a political campaign, if that’s your thing. Trying to solve your aunt’s murder ain’t on the list. One alleged comment that got back to me was pretty vulgar, but I couldn’t resist asking.

Tucker Simmons: People tell me that you’re very unhappy with me. And I can understand, but I don’t. But someone. Well, someone also told me, that. That you made the comment that my dad should have jerked off in an ant bed.

Sheriff Randy Seal: I’ve never said that. But we love the Moseleys. You know, Heck, Lee dated. Your first cousin.

Tucker Simmons: I think Adam dated Sarah too. Yeah, for a little while. Yeah.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Well, you do know it’s election year though.

Tucker Simmons: Yeah. Yeah, I noticed that.

Sheriff Randy Seal: People say things that are doing nothing but trying to make a hurt people tell lies in an election to hurt one candidate or the other. Look, I’m the Sheriff and I understand that. You know, ain’t nobody sitting here but me and, And there’s three guys that want it. One of them just don’t want me to have your m. Young man, that’s the oldest trick in politics is trying to cross friends up. I’ve never made a statement like that. I have never said that about you.

Tucker Simmons: Have you said that statement before, though?

Sheriff Randy Seal: Go ask the guy told you that. Asked him if I’ve ever said it before. And there’s your answer. All right, Excellent.

Tucker Simmons: Well, I appreciate it.

Sheriff Randy Seal: All right, buddy. Nice seeing you again. You too.

Tucker Simmons: I’ll see you around.

Sheriff Randy Seal: All right. I’m sorry you were told that, but that’s just not so. Hey, it’s politics, man. Politics.

Tucker Simmons: See, a lot worse things have been said anyway.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Hell on me. I chase women. You know, I wouldn’t do anything like.

Tucker Simmons: That maybe in your old days, huh?

Sheriff Randy Seal: All right, buddy. Have a good one.

Tucker Simmons: You too.

Sheriff Randy Seal: Thank you.

Tucker Simmons: I don’t know what to make of it and I don’t really care, but I have to say, as one liners go, that’s pretty damn funny. I left the meeting with mixed emotions. On one hand, I was grateful for the sheriff’s time and the acknowledgement of his hands off approach, which explained a lot. But frankly, I was pissed off. Catching Donna’s killer is most important. But if even a fraction of the allegations against the initial investigation are true, the citizens of Washington Parish deserve accountability. The Sheriff has had years to look at the case and perform a review of his employees. He acknowledged the possibility of poor police work. So why a review hasn’t happened after all this time and constant speculation is beyond me. As I was leaving, I saw my brother pass by the sheriff’s office. It was time to go straight to the source.

Tucker Simmons: Yo, what’s up?

Tucker’s brother: Yeah, just got off work, headed to the house.

Tucker Simmons: I just left a meeting with Randy. And there weren’t very many details.

Tucker’s brother: Oh wow.

Tucker Simmons: So, Tom. Yeah, since Tom won’t answer the phone, you want to ride out there with me and knock on his door? Hell yeah.

Tucker’s brother: Meet me. Meet me at the house. I’ll ride.

Tucker Simmons: All right, cool. I’m pulling out now, so I’ll be right behind you.

‘Something Strange’ by Tabitha Meeks: There’s Something Strange in the air tonight.

Tucker Simmons: I hope you enjoyed episode five. There’s a whole lot more to come as my investigation unravels in episode six. My brother and I take that drive to Tom’s and we finally go public in a big way. I’ll see you then. Make sure you follow rate and review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you’re listening. It’s a huge help in spreading the word about Donna’s case. Then head over to freezeframepodcast.com for behind the scenes details on the investigation and follow us on socials at. Freeze Frame Pod for exclusive content. Freeze Frame is a But Why Media production. It’s written and produced by me, Tucker Simmons, editing and post production by Evan Dezonier, narration by Greg Gehringer and Kerry Lauren and our original music is Something Strange by Tabitha Meeks.

‘Something Strange’ by Tabitha Meeks: Something strange, Something strange. You can’t hide forever.