Some murders bring empathy, others do not

Throughout September, two deaths mesmerized our media. Following long periods of waiting and wondering, this week law enforcement officials issued an arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie and confirmed that the DNA in the belly of a 12-foot alligator belonged to Timothy Satterlee of Slidell.

As the events saw some resolution, I thought of the televised pursuit of O. J. Simpson and his subsequent trial. I decided public empathy had drawn the public’s attention to these cases, but then I remembered the 2018 murders of a mother and her 13-year-old son murdered in Independence. Even with Crime Stoppers offering a $25,000 reward, the case drew little public attention. The double homicide remains a mystery today.

Why do some cases win our hearts while others fall on deaf ears?

On August 30, the Monday morning following the overnight landfall of Hurricane Ida, Sandy Satterlee, Timothy Satterlee’s wife, told police her husband ascended the steps below their raised home on Avery Drive to check the fuel line to their generator. Later, she stepped outside and saw her husband “in a death roll” with what she estimated to be a 7-foot alligator.

According to Sandy, the reptile abandoned its prey, allowing the 63-year-old woman to drag her husband onto the steps. She took a boat to a neighbor’s house to call 9-1-1, leaving her now one-armed husband bleeding on the steps. When she returned, Timothy Satterlee had vanished.

Soon after, authorities captured and executed a 12-foot alligator, and last Thursday, the St. Tammany Parish coroner reported, they have evidence of the reptile’s guilt.

If this horror happened in a movie, a murder mystery, and some evil-doer killed a man and fed him to a monster while his wife sought help, movie-goers would be less trusting of law enforcement and some hero would prevent the real killer from getting away with murder.

In the real world, however, we read of this happy couple and sleep better knowing the alligator returned and attacked Timothy a second time.

The other big true crime event this month followed another happy couple.

Wednesday, a New Orleans woman named Nina Angelo told reporters that she and her boyfriend witnessed an argument between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie as they left a Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming. By Friday, the manager of The Merry Piglets café confirmed Angelo’s story.

Angelo, who came west to attend a wedding, said that Brian Laundrie’s body language seemed aggressive. She remembered him walking in and out of the restaurant several times. “They left abruptly,” she remembered, “and [Petito] was standing on the sidewalk crying and [Laundrie] walked back in and was, like, screaming at the hostess and then walked back out … And then he walked back in, like, four more times to talk to the manager and to, like, tell the hostess off.”

Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie had traveled across the country, capturing their adventure on video and sharing via social media. To everyone watching, the couple appeared happily in love. But on the day of the restaurant incident, August 27, Gabby sent a cryptic text message to her mother: “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.”

According to Gabby’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, “Stan” referred to Gabby’s grandfather, but Gabby never called him by his first name. This set off alarm bells with Gabby’s family.

Finding Gabby’s body in the wilderness of a national park, Police believe someone killed her within days of the restaurant incident. Brian Laundrie has since vanished and Police have issued a warrant for his arrest.

This week, the public continues to follow the case, on the edge of their seats and biting their nails. However, few recall a more gruesome murder taking place in Tangipahoa Parish. The murders of 42-year-old Daytra Miller and her 13-year-old son, Robert West, Jr. are all but forgotten.

This horror began two days before Christmas 2018.

At 6:30 PM, Sunday, December 23, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s deputies answered a 911 call reporting gunshots at the intersection of Labruzza Lane and Fontana Road, west of Independence. Inside the small wooden house on that corner, they found the bodies of the mother and son.

Robert West, Sr. told reporters that Daytra Miller had sent him a text saying she had been packing to bring Robert, Jr. to stay with him for the holiday, but Christmas Eve morning, he said, instead of watching his son opening gifts, he watched coroner’s office personnel carry his son from the home in a body bag.

Daytra Miller and Robert West, Sr. once worked together at the Southeast Area Health Education Center, assisting people in getting health insurance. West said Daytra left that job and managed some rental properties the two owned jointly. He said the two were no longer a couple but remained close. They lived together for over 15 years.

“I lost my best friend, and I lost my son,” he said.

In the month following the murders, TPSO’s Chief Information Officer, Dawn Panepinto, said investigators believe the victims may have known the person who committed the “heinous crime” since there had been no sign of forced entry at the home.

Sheriff Daniel Edwards told reporters, “We hope that someone with relevant information will step up and help put those responsible for this horrific crime behind bars. One thing we know is that there are people out there who have information about these murders. We want that information or anything that will lead us toward the shooters.”

Anyone able to help may collect the $25,000 in rewards anonymously through Crime Stoppers of Tangipahoa by calling 800-554-5245. Crime Stoppers is a non-profit organization of citizens against crime. When someone calls, an automated system assigns him or her a unique code number to ensure anonymity.

Let’s give this case the attention these others have received.