Town note
Originally called Port du Lafitte, for the pirate Jean Lafitte.
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FILE 578 / 8 March 2025 / 72 MIN / express
We're going down to Louisiana this week, Lake Charles, Louisiana. about 0:03:23
Originally called Port du Lafitte, for the pirate Jean Lafitte.
about 0:05:42First incorporated in 1857 as Charleston, after an early settler named Charles Salier.
about 0:05:55Reincorporated as the city of Lake Charles on March 16th, 1867.
about 0:06:03In 1910 a great fire devastated the whole city; it was rebuilt and expanded.
about 0:06:10Originally called Port du Lafitte, for the pirate Jean Lafitte.
about 0:05:42First incorporated in 1857 as Charleston, after an early settler named Charles Salier.
about 0:05:55Reincorporated as the city of Lake Charles on March 16th, 1867.
about 0:06:03In 1910 a great fire devastated the whole city; it was rebuilt and expanded.
about 0:06:10The Charleston Hotel was built in 1929.
about 0:06:27Industrial growth after the Second World War came with the petrochemical refineries.
about 0:06:33Damaged badly by Hurricane Rita in 2005.
about 0:06:52Battered in 2020 by two category four hurricanes, Laura and Delta.
about 0:07:02The southern part of the city was damaged by an EF2 tornado in 2021.
about 0:07:23"83,444"
Comparison: "about 70,000 when the murder happened". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:04:12
"$49,913"
Comparison: "national average of $69,000". No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:04:26
"$179,400"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:04:46
"$40,300"
No direction stated.
As told in 2025 about 0:19:05
"$30,000"
Comparison: "worth more than his house". Direction: above.
As told in 2025 about 0:40:19
2.3 / 5 · average of 3
“The sportsman's paradise, with great food and great people and something for everyone; the only thing missing is a Dave & Buster's or a skating rink.”about 0:08:16
“Written by a ten-year-old: the city sucks, the crime rate is horrible and all there is to do is go to a crappy casino.”about 0:08:43
“A city of scumbags, low lives and thieves; the reviewer does not like Lake Charlesians and says the schoolchildren are among the meanest in the country.”about 0:09:14
Brian Davis was born on July 9th, 1969, in New Orleans and grew up in Independence, Louisiana, just outside the city. By 2000 he was working as a sales manager for the Union National Life Insurance Company, collecting premiums door to door, and he had three children, Douglas, Danielle and Darla, from an earlier marriage. She spent the money on a Chevrolet Trailblazer, a new boat for Brian and renovations to the trailer, and she and Brian married soon afterwards.
Brian was a keen fisherman and target shooter who carried a Springfield XD 9mm handgun, and he was addicted to video poker. From 2009 his gambling grew worse.
He never came home. A Lake Charles police officer, Mark Chapman, took her missing-person report at 4.30 p.m. on June 30th, recording that Brian had been heading for Beaumont in the Honda.
On July 1st an ATV rider reported a car parked at the end of Wagon Wheel Lane, a dirt track off Big Lake Road near Calcasieu Point Landing. Brian's body lay some distance away. He had been dead for a couple of days in the Louisiana heat and was identified by dental records and tattoos. The coroner put his death after noon on June 29th: four gunshot wounds, three to the torso and one to the head, fired from behind as he ran. His shoes were off and his belt loosened. His valuable ring was still on his hand, but his Springfield handgun, GPS and laptop were gone. The tyre was later examined at Southern Tire Mart and found to have no defects. The prosecution's case was that it had simply been let down to lure him out there.
Neither woman implicated the other. She played video poker on the afternoon of his funeral.
There was no murder weapon, no DNA and no eyewitness. The state relied on the phone towers, the staged tyre and the lies. Brian's insurance money went to his mother, who campaigned to have his body moved from the mausoleum in Lake Charles to Independence. Both women have always maintained their innocence.
June 29th, 2009 / the end of Wagon Wheel Lane, off Big Lake Road, Lake Charles
As told in the episode, on 8 March 2025.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
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