Saturday, November 2, 2024

The Eternal Appointment

 


Mr George (not his real name) met me at the door of the waiting room by the office. In his mid 70s, he moved deliberately, following me through the hallways to the garage in back of the building. He was a kind man, easy to talk to.

Outside, I had to face him and perform the unpleasant task of having him sign property form so I could turn his truck over to him. Once complete, I was free to return to my duties, but compassion is its own duty.

Mr George, I am very sorry about what happened to your grandson. I can’t imagine anything worse.”


Due to consequences beyond his control, Mr George took on the responsibility of raising his grandson when he was a child.

Things went well through high school, but as a young adult, the boy got off track. Sometimes God intervenes and rescues foolish people (like me for example), but this was not one of those times. Mr George’s grandson Tom had entered the status of forever young.   


“You won’t believe this, but he was a good boy…he really was. Things were great until the drugs came along, and once thegot a hold of him, I never got him back. Nonetheless, I still see him as my little boy who followed me everywhere. We had great fun together.”


Tears flowed freely down his face. 


“I’m sorry for the trouble he caused. Thank God no one else was hurt.”


Three days earlier Tom was pursued by deputies for multiple offenses. Those who use drugs are quickly used by drugs, and that was what happened to Tom George. Using became dealing, and when dealing did not produce the expected outcome, his restraints regarding all Ten Commandments were cast aside. Violating the eighth commandment became his occupation when he resorted to theft and burglary. Eventually his exploits made him a fugitive with warrants for his arrest, and he ended up in a high-speed chase with law enforcement


Deputies hemmed him up in a neighborhood where he abandoned his grandfather’s truck and fled. They cut off his escape, and he ran onto the front porch of a house. Deputies surrounded him, but before they could arrest him, Tom pulled out a knife. Showing great restraint, the deputies gave warning and backed away. In an impulse with eternal consequences, Tom drew a knife from his belt and momentarily held it to his neck before slitting his own throat. Moments later, he entered eternity. The effect was quick. He died within seconds.


There was nothing to say, so I listened to Mr George tell stories about the grandson who preceded him in death: picking him up from school, taking him on vacation, and caring for him as a good father. Like any parent, he would have eagerly taken his grandson’s place, but every good parent also knows things don’t work that way. Mr George was a broken man and would die that way. 


In my occupation, I have seen the horror of death and the unpleasant consequences proceeding it like grief, shock, and regret, but I have come to learn that death itself is not the worst part. It is the aftermath of death that is the far greater danger. The Bible provides all who will listen with a somber warning: “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.”


Judgment falls under the category of justice, and justice is good. It is synonymous with fairness and is in our headlines almost daily…justice for a victim, justice for a cause, justice for wrongs done in the past. All good people are pro-justice until they become the focus of it. When that happens, we enter the realm of solemn aloneness where the burden of proof, or worse, the burden of guilt rides solely on our shoulders: “…for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” 


Those we depend on and those who love us can’t help us in the realm of personal justice. We must establish our own innocence or face our guilt, and when it comes to ultimate justice after death, the consequences have an eternal effect because the prosecution has all the evidence against us at its disposal. According to true justice, a single violation of God’s law such as telling a lie is enough for us to receive an eternal life sentence of imprisonment in a prison that doubles as a bonfire. 


A dead man or woman can do nothing about the dilemma of death and judgment. However, for those who have life in their veins, a solemn warning is given: “God commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a time when he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained and given us assurance by raising him from the dead.” 


That man, of course, is Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and isn’t peace exactly what you and I need? If so, how can this peace be acquired?


Scripture requires of us total, unconditional surrender and faith in Christ alone. Here is what that looks like according to Jesus: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”


What each person must do, before it is too late, is to agree with God about our sin, declare spiritual bankruptcy, and trust Christ alone to be the righteousness we cannot be. 


“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”


Grace and peace to you…


References:


Hebrews 9:27

Romans 3:23

Acts 17:31-32

Matthew 13:44

2 Corinthians 5:22

Exodus 20:3-17



Monday, October 28, 2024

Tribute to Graham Keltner 10-27-24



The tears hit when I heard the news. 


I spoke to Graham two weeks ago and it seemed like there was hope…it appeared the worst was behind him even though his continued treatment was going to be challenging. He sounded good, and we talked about his favorite subject, Jesus Christ. Graham was content in the Lord with whatever his outcome would be. After all, eternal life is not a consolation prize.


I love Graham Keltner and always will. His childlike innocence and genuine affection for all of us will live on as an example of godly character. Though Graham and I were in different parts of the country for the past 40 years, I spoke to him often over the last five years and always smiled when he talked about his sinful days before Christ when he was 12 or so and causing mischief in his neighborhood, falling to peer pressure, and rebelliously disobeying his parents when told to go to bed. Young Graham was out of control.


I’ve known Graham since grade school, and I never saw him as anything but a Christian…a rare gem of fallen humanity who followed the Savior as a child. There was Daniel, Shadrach, Meschack, Ebednego, Samuel, David, and Graham. Graham’s salvation was so real that I sometimes avoided him because his presence convicted me.


But Graham did not see himself the way I did. Graham saw himself as a sinner saved by grace. He often spoke of the Prodigal Son and the love of a father who came running to embrace his rebellious son who humbled himself and returned home. Graham spoke of Jesus, not as an example of good behavior, but as righteousness personified, of holiness in the form of man, and as peace in the battle of our will against God’s. 


This morning I sat outside as the sun came up and read posts about my old friend. I wept, but I didn’t cry for Graham, I cried for you and me. Our friend, our rock, and our compass always pointing to Christ is gone, and it hurts. There is a void. There is an open wound, but if Graham was right (and I believe with my whole heart he is) there is a God who is concerned about the plight of his children. There is a God who left the comfort and majesty of heaven to be one of us, and he lived as a man, he died as God, and he rose from the dead so that you and I can rise from death to be with him and be reunited with his sheep. And that’s where Graham is right now, and I can see him in my mind’s eye entering the gates of heaven as Jesus meets him, embraces him, and kisses him: “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”


‘Rest In Peace’ is an ancient and trite saying which refers to any person’s death regardless of their behavior, moral character, or spiritual condition, but when it comes to Graham Keltner, resting in peace is a perfect description. He was a man who spent his entire adult life resting in the peace of Christ, and now he rests there forever.


In addition to his great salvation, God gave Graham a beautiful woman to be the wife of his youth. Michelle and Graham were born to be together, and they always were. Michelle, I am heartbroken for you, yet I know you would not have changed a thing if you could have foreseen this day. Just as I admire Graham, I admire you greatly as a godly example and faithful wife. May the peace of God fill you forever.


Graham…I miss you terribly brother, but I’ll see you again soon…


“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:21

Saturday, October 19, 2024

The Origin of the Scam


Scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation. (Merriam-Webster)

In 1973, the first Friday in September was declared a holiday, and every student in the Shelby County school system received a free ticket to the Mid South Fair. Never one to pass up a good deal, I arrived at the fair with my friends just before lunch. The four of us waited in line, handed over our tickets, and went through a row of turnstiles that opened up to the sights, sounds, and smells of the fair. We didn’t know it then, but it was the most wonderful existence a kid could have.

I had eight dollars in my wallet, five of which my dad gave me that morning along with two dimes for phone calls. He warned me to keep my wallet in my front pocket to protect it from pickpockets and to call home if I had any problems. I was ready for all the dangers the Fair had to offer, or at least I thought I was…

We waded through the crowds at the entrance where we were met with a variety of carnival games, each one operated by carnys challenging us to show off our shooting, throwing, and balancing skills to win coveted prizes which were mostly ugly, stuffed animals or cheap toys. We ignored the badgering and sales pitches because we were on our way to see the military display of tanks, jeeps, weapons, and  planes. Besides that, the Army recruiters always had plenty of free stuff to give away.

We took a short cut through an alley to avoid the crowd leading to the midway. There were fewer games, but one of them got my attention. It was an open air booth operated by a young guy wearing jeans and a pullover who had a bucket of softballs and three wicker baskets. He was different than the others. As we passed, he effortlessly flipped one of the balls into a bushel basket. It was a simple toss, and he did it over and over, never missing. I slowed down and watched.

“Three tosses for a dollar my man. All you have to do is get the ball in the basket twice and you get a prize. See how easy it is?” He tossed another softball, and like the others, it landed perfectly in the basket. His prizes seemed bigger and better than the ones in the main thoroughfare. He promised me a long blue stuffed snake if I dropped two balls in the basket. The odds were good, but my friends told me come on.

“Hold on guys…this is easy.”

They kept going.

I got three tosses for a dollar. The distance was short, and there was no way I could miss. I hit the middle of the bushel every time, but the ball bounced out every time. In less than three seconds my dollar and snake were gone.

“Aw-w-w man…you almost had it. That snake was almost yours. Just think how good you would look walking down the Midway with that snake your shoulders. All the girls will know how skilled you are” 

The second time was a replay of the first.

“You’ve got a spring in the bottom of that crate!”

“No buddy…it just takes a gentle touch and some skill. Watch…”

With a spin of his hand, he instantly put three balls in the bushel. Something primal inside me took over. I didn’t really want the snake, but I thought it was worth more than the money I had in my front pocket, and I wanted to win.

The third time I mimicked the tossing technique the carney showed me, but I missed the bushel completely on my first and second tosses. The third ball hit the bushel dead center but bounced out. 

I was a three time looser, but it wasn’t enough for the carny. He desperately wanted to help me, so he once again demonstrated how easy it was by dropping three balls in the basket.

“I think you’ve almost got it.”

I pulled out my forth dollar without thinking. Victory was within my grasp. My first toss stayed in the basket, but I missed the other two. I realized that half my money was gone. I was desperate. 

“I believe you got it now. Just one more time…”

Having failed on eleven attempts, I decided to change my strategy by throwing the balls at the bushel as hard as I could hoping to break out the bottom of the bushel. It didn’t work.

With my five dollars gone, I thought of my dad. I had squandered the hard earned money he gave me, and that thought caused me to realize the carny was really not looking out for my best interest at all. I thought he wanted me to win, but now I knew better. The game was rigged. The sole purpose of the Carnival man was to take money from unsuspecting boys like me. What a fool I had been.

I turned my back on him and walked away. He pleaded with me. He told me I was getting close to winning. 

“Don’t quit now you’ve almost got it.”

But it didn’t matter. I was done, and he knew it, so he showed his true character by mocking me.

“The simplest game at the Fair…too bad that young man was unskilled…and a quitter…he almost had it. How about you my friend? How about taking a shot to win this massive stuffed animal…”

I had been scammed.

The history of scamming goes back to the very beginning, the Garden of Eden. There was Adam, Eve, and God in a perfect environment where there was work to be done, animals to be named, and food for the picking. Our first parents had all they wanted and needed with just one restriction: God told them not to eat fruit from a tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of God and Evil. All other fruits in the garden were good for food, but if the ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, there were serious consequences. God told them they would, “…surely die.”

Things went well for awhile, but there was another creature in the Garden named the Serpent. The Serpent was not a hideous monster like we think. He was pleasant and likable. His nickname was Angel of Light. 

One perfectly beautiful day in the Garden, Eve was hanging out with the Serpent by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Serpent asked her, “Has God really said you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?”

It seemed like a legitimate question from one of God’s creatures who was looking out for the best interest of mankind, but in his dialogue with Eve, the Serpent questioned God’s word. He cast doubt on the legitimacy of God, and it was a scam. The first scam in history, and it set a precedent for every scam that has ever occurred because scams always question what we know to be true and right by promising something better.

You know the rest of the story, and you are familiar with the Serpent’s other nicknames like Satan, the Devil, the Dragon. Satan is the father of lies, deception, and scams. What we often forget is that Satan left an indelible imprint on the children of Adam. Satan, the deceiver, left all of Adam’s children a heritage: deceptive hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us: “The heart (of man) is deceptive above all things and desperately sick: who can know it?”

When you combine the deception of the satanic world with the deceptive nature of human beings, the result is people who deceive and are easily deceived. The deception is so thorough, that human beings often deceive themselves. This gives us a world of people who question God’s word, his goodness, and his character. The reality of this fact is bad news. It means that Satan and his army of demons use their skills to scam every human being who themselves are preprogrammed to deceive others and themselves, and the program of deception will succeed totally unless someone perfectly good, righteous, holy, and honest intervenes.

Just when Satan rewrote the entire course of human history, God intervened. Hebrews 2:2-4 says it like this: “For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”

 The horrible bad news of an entire human race being overcome by a scam is erased with the Good News of redemption (being bought back) given only by God through Christ alone to all who believe that Christ is who he claims to be and rewards those who diligently seek him through repentance and faith giving them this great hope: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Notice this great hope is not in anything you and I could possibly do, it is in what Christ has done in his perfect obedience to the Father: active obedience to God’s commands, passive obedience by dying for the sins of his people, rising again on the third day, and ascending into heaven to intervene for his sheep. It is Christ’s righteous that satisfies the Father (not ours). It is Christ’s sacrifice that pays the just penalty for our sin, and it is Christ’s righteous which guarantees eternal life for all those who believe in Christ alone.

Don’t be scammed. Grace, peace, and hope are found in Christ alone.

Solus Christus



Thursday, June 8, 2023

The Man Inside the Bundle

 February 29 sneaks in every 1,460 days and gives us an extra day. In 2020, It landed on Saturday. Rather than celebrating my extra twenty four hours of life, I spent my day like every other Saturday, working on hobbies which included raking leaves, trimming branches, and tilling the garden in preparation for spring. I worked until late and sat down to dinner with Colleen just before 6 when the phone rang. 


In my job, there is no such thing as solace or inconvenience. Grief and mayhem are always one phone call away. 


I answered the phone to the voice of my sergeant, Jay Morgan. Morgan told me about a body Patrol found in Cameron Park at the end of Wallace Lake Road in south Caddo Parish. A dead body could mean a lot of different things: suicide, drowning, medical problem, or murder, and it was our job to figure out which one applied to the current situation. I was still in my work clothes from celebrating Leap Year, so I jumped in the shower, then threw on my call out shirt and some jeans. When I got in my car, I called Dispatch to find out what was going on. Dispatcher Joyce Terry told me some kids called in about a suspicious looking bundle of laundry at the park, and when patrol got there, they found a body wrapped inside the bundle. CSI, the Coroner and my captain were already there. 


Cameron Park consists of a boat ramp and a parking lot with a couple of picnic tables along the edge of Wallace Lake, a small rural lake between Caddo and DeSoto Parishes in the Red River floodplain. It is a destination for fishermen, high school kids with nothing to do, and people who want to picnic by the lake and not be bothered.

In 1996, a woman named Cindy Cathey was found murdered in the parking lot at Cameron Park. Her case was never solved, and the detectives who investigated her murder have long since retired. Those detectives developed a suspect in Cindy’s murder, and he lived in a working class neighborhood just down the road from the park. They were confident of his guilt, but there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest him. Now it was twenty four years later, and I didn’t want another unsolved homicide. On the way to the scene, I spoke to the only person who could help, “Lord... please help us catch whoever did this.”

When I got to the end of Wallace Lake Road, I parked outside the tape, so I didn’t get blocked by a dozen other cars. I went under the yellow tape and spoke to Deputy Matt Henry. He put my name on the list of everyone who entered the scene. I walked a hundred yards to a crowd of people, mostly deputies, looking at a bundle of laundry sitting 15 feet from the edge of the pavement and twenty feet from the lake. The outer layer of the bundle was a white comforter with black flowers outlined on it.

2019 had been a dry fall for north Louisiana, but January 2020 ushered in twice the rain as normal. Three days earlier, 5 inches of rain fell, swelling Wallace Lake within a few feet of the parking lot. Now there was a water line where the lake had been, and just beyond the line sat  the bundle. When the rain stopped that Wednesday before, temperatures plunged into the twenties. Leap Year Saturday was the first pleasant day in sometime with temperatures in the mid-sixties.

Justin Sundquist was the first deputy on scene. He talked to the teens, and they told him they  thought there was a body wrapped up in the bundle. Justin took plenty of pictures before cutting through the sheets and blankets to find a hand. He stopped what he was doing, backed away and called detectives. Justin said most of the fingers on the hand had rings on them, including the thumb. Due to the rings, he thought the victim could have been a woman.

The sun had been down for over an hour, but when it was up, the bundle was conspicuous sitting near the picnic tables. If it had been a garbage bag, it would have made more sense, but a comforter tied in a knot seemed like something more than illegal dumping. Its presence at the park on Saturday afternoon suggested it had not been there long. 


A nearby resident who saw the police cars called Dispatch and said a white van backed up near the lake around 3 pm. The caller thought whoever was in the van may have dumped the bundle off. We spent hours looking for the nondescript white van, but it was just a distraction.


A Sheriff’s Office truck and box trailer backed up near the bundle, and deputies unloaded a generator, flood lights, and frames to drape the scene. When the drapes were set and the flood lights on, three Deputy Coroners and CSI John McCain went to work cutting through the layers of the bundle while the rest of us looked on. They cut through two comforters, some sheets, and a mattress cover to reveal a man. The white male was dressed for cold weather in a hood, jacket, several shirts, a pair of pants under overalls, and heavy boots. A single brown gardener’s glove was stuck to his back. He had a goatee, and his head was covered in blood. When they cut his clothes away, they found a one inch wound in his upper left chest and an exit wound in his back. Morgan suggested a sword. Captain said a spear. McCain thought it could have come from an arrow. The victim had tattoos on his arms and all over his body. Along with his rings, he wore several necklaces, one being a pentagram. His hair was shaved on both sides of his head but long in the middle.

A detective’s first task at a homicide scene is to identify the victim. The Deputy Coroners emptied the man’s many pockets. An ID or driver’s license would have made things easier, but he didn’t even have a wallet. 


Matt Lucky was the lead detective. He had a knack for matching criminals to crimes. I looked over his shoulder and took notes as one of the Deputy Coroners showed him a pocket knife taken from the dead man’s pants. Etched on the blade was “Tritta did it”. We had to look twice to get the spelling right. With that tiny piece of information, I called Dispatch and spoke to Joyce Terry again. I asked Joyce if she could run the nickname Tritta for me. In seconds, she came back with the name Rodney Christopher Nordby. A minute later, she sent his photograph to my phone. While we were still trying to figure out if Nordby was the victim, Detective Jeremy Prudhome arrived and recognized Nordby.

Prudhome was patient, thorough, and not easily distracted. He used those qualities with his partner Lucky, and the two of them attacked areas of high crime in Caddo Parish with overtime and surveillance. Over the last two years, their efforts made neighborhoods safer places to live. Now the two were teamed up to catch a killer. Several years earlier, Prudhome worked in Corrections and was assigned to the Re-Entry Program. That’s how he knew Rodney Nordby. 


Joyce gave me Nordby’s last known address which was his parent’s house in the city. I asked her for a list of people who visited him in jail. She gave me six names, all of whom were members of his family. Joyce checked further and came up with a victim’s notification form for a man who was the victim of a battery by Rodney Nordby in 2017. She gave me his name and cell phone number. 

I sent my guys to Nordby’s home to make notification, but Captain Herring stopped me. 


“Wait until CSI confirms his identity from his thumb print.”

“But we’re wasting time...”

“Wait.”

We waited.

Bobby Herring made his career with diligence, personality, and fortitude. In 2007, I was his sergeant when he was a detective in the Financial Crimes Task Force, working scams, check and credit card schemes, and bank frauds. His work ethic and arrest rate at the task force have never been duplicated. Now I worked for him and was glad to be doing being so. Most captains make an appearance at the scene, go home and wait for updates, but Bobby was there for the long haul.


CSI positively identified Rodney Nordby at 9:30 pm. Sergeant Morgan and Lucky left to make notification. Before he was promoted, Jay Morgan and Matt Lucky were partners, and the two were close. With over twenty years as a detective, Morgan had more experience than anyone at the scene. His skill and common sense approach were the glue that held the Persons and Property detectives together. Morgan and Lucky found Nordby’s mother home alone. His father was working out of town.


Notifications are the hardest part of a detective’s job. Mrs. Nordby was heart broken. Though her son was troubled, she never gave up hope that he would find his way. Morgan and Lucky asked her delicate questions, but she didn’t know all the people he ran around with. She asked the detectives about Rodney’s motorcycle. Up to that moment, no one knew he had a motorcycle. The motorcycle gave us something else to look for, and explained why he was dressed the way he was.

Prudhome went to the office and got on the computer to find names of people who were close to Nordby. I drove through neighborhoods near the crime scene looking for the white van reported earlier and saw many that fit the description. I imagined all kinds of scenarios, but without more information, it meant nothing.

I met Morgan and Lucky coming out of Nordby’s house. We left there and went to several homes in Shreveport looking for his friends but didn’t find any. We were running out of leads, so I called the man Dispatcher Joyce Terry told me about when we were at Cameron Park. The number was from a phone he owned two years earlier, and it rang repeatedly. Just when I thought voice mail would pick up, he answered. 


I called him by name. It was the right number. I told him about Nordby’s murder, but he already knew about it. He was talking to someone from the family before I called. Though Nordby was arrested for committing a battery on him two years earlier, they were still friends. He told me Nordby was a good dude, but he had a drug problem. I asked him about places Nordby bought drugs, and he told me about a house near the airport. He said he would find the address for the house and call me back.

Captain Herring, Sergeant Morgan, Matt Lucky, and I went to a house off Jewella Avenue near Westwood School where Nordby’s old girlfriend lived. It was a dead end street. We knocked at a house, but no one answered. Bobby went next door and spoke to the neighbors. They told him the woman we were looking for lived on the street, but she stayed in the house next door to the one we knocked on. We went to the house and walked around it. There were no motorcycles. We knocked on doors and windows repeatedly, but other than a barking dog inside, there was no response. Lucky left and went to the office to see if he and Prudhome could generate a lead. The investigation had reached a stand still.


The quarter moon shone under a clear sky. A gentle breeze was blowing. The temperature was perfect. Midnight was near. It was the kind of night you would never know about unless you are doing something out of the ordinary. A night like this wouldn’t happen again for 1460 days, and the uncommon task of cleaning up society’s messes had brought us together in a moment of peace to remind us of God’s glory. We stood beside our cars and talked about our options. It looked like our best option was to go home and wait until someone came forward with information.


I remembered the victim I spoke to earlier and wondered if he found the address he told me about. I looked at my phone and noticed two missed calls from him. I called him back and reminded him who I was. He didn’t have the address I asked for, but he had an idea.


“I been thinking about this. Tritta’s been hanging around with a guy who just got out of jail. I went to high school with him, and he’s a bad dude. His name is Daniel Haire. You need to check him out.”


It was a long shot, but we were at the end of our rope. I called Joyce and told her about my conversation with the victim. She gave me Daniel Haire’s address, checked her map, and told me Haire lived just off East King’s Highway near the duck pond.


“Hey Morg...my man just called and told me Nordby has been hanging around a guy named Daniel Haire who lives off East Kings. You want to go check him out?”


“Hell yeah. We got nowhere else to go.”


When I pulled up to Haire’s house, Bobby and Morgan were out of their cars. It was a nice neighborhood that had been a hallmark of Shreveport for years. Unlike the new neighborhoods, there were tall oak trees, live oaks, and magnolias in yards. I knocked on the door under the carport so I could see someone coming to the door through the window over the kitchen sink. I knocked loudly and repeatedly. When I stopped, I heard someone fumbling with the door in front. I walked around as an elderly man opened the door. He was in his underwear with one leg in his pants clearly startled at the late disruption.


“Sorry to bother you. I’m Detective Lieutenant Mickey McDaniel with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. We’re looking for Daniel Haire.”


“He’s-s-s not here.”


“We’re working a missing person case on a friend of his.”

We were at the right place. The man was Daniel’s father. He struggled with his pants while talking through the storm door. There was a woman behind him, peeking over his shoulder, who looked to be in her thirties. I asked if we could come in, and he opened the door. Morgan spoke to the father while Bobby and I spoke to the woman, Daniel’s sister. She was frightened. When we asked her why, she said she was afraid of Daniel. We asked if she knew Rodney Nordby.


“Why? Is he dead?”


“As a matter of fact he is.”


“Oh, Lord I knew it!”


“How’d you know it?”


“I heard a noise the other night.”


“A noise? What do you mean?”


“I don’t know, just a loud noise like a thud.”


“What happened?”


“I came out of my room, and Daniel was there. I asked him what happened, and he told me everything was alright, and I needed to go back in my room.”


“Where’s your room?”


She showed us.


“Where’s Daniel’s room?”


Daniel’s room was next to hers. She opened the door, and there were two twin sized beds side by side with no sheets or covers on them. There was an arrow with a target tip on top of one of the mattresses. Bobby and I looked at each other. There were holes in the wall where someone had target practice with a bow.


Bobby asked her why the beds were bare. She took us to a linen closet between the bedrooms and opened the door. On the bottom shelf, there were shams that matched the pattern of the outer comforter Rodney Nordby was wrapped in. There were also sheets on the shelves that matched the other bedding around his body. 


I showed her a picture of the bundle I took at the scene and asked her if the outer comforter looked familiar. She gasped and said it was Daniel’s comforter.


She took us to the front living room and showed us some smears on the floor where Daniel had mopped something up a few days earlier. She said she asked Daniel what he was doing, and he told her, “Cleaning up some blood.” She said his friend Dillon Brown came by late Thursday night and helped him load a trash can in the back of his black Chevy pickup truck. Dillon lived a street over from Daniel.


We knew we were at the crime scene, so we all stepped outside. We called Lucky to the house and told Jeremy Prudhome to start writing a search warrant. Morgan talked to Daniel’s dad. Mr Haire told him his crossbow was missing. The arrow we saw in Daniel’s room was actually a bolt for a crossbow. 


Thirty minutes earlier the case consisted of a dump site and a body. We had no idea where the man had been murdered, and our leads were exhausted. All we knew for sure was that he was killed somewhere else. Now we had the crime scene and a suspect. Things were coming together, all thanks to Joyce Terry our dispatcher.


At midnight, February 29 became March 1st. On the same day 32 years earlier, I raised my right hand before Sheriff Don Hathaway and swore to enforce the laws of Louisiana.


Detective Lucky was good at talking to people. He arrived from the office and made recorded interviews with Daniel’s dad and sister. He left Detective Prudhome at the office to write the search warrant for the house and an arrest warrant for Daniel Haire. 


Morgan called Detective Nathan Everett to meet us at the house. Everett was a skilled carpenter and tactical shooter before he became a deputy. He and I drove around the corner and found Dillon Brown’s house and his grandfather’s pickup out front. We knocked on the front door and spoke to his grandmother. Dillon was not there, and she did not know Rodney  Nordby. She told us Dillon and Daniel Haire left her house three hours earlier with Dillon’s girlfriend. We asked her if we could look in her backyard. She went with us, and we saw Nordby’s motorcycle in her shop through a glass door. It had been painted blue with a can of spray paint. We had a patrolman watch the house while we went back to Haire’s house and called Prudhome to write another warrant for the Brown home.


We weren’t sure if Dillon Brown had anything to do with the murder, but we knew he helped Daniel Haire hide Nordby’s body. Patrol went to the casino parking lots in Shreveport and Bossier looking for Brown’s girlfriend’s car, but they didn’t find it. Brown and Haire were fugitives, but they didn’t know we were after them. They could show up at Dillon or Daniel’s house at any moment.


We sent Daniel’s father and sister away from the house, so we could search. Prudhome woke up the Assistant District Attorney and Judge on call. Just after 2 am, he had the warrants. While waiting for them to be delivered to Daniel’s house and begin the search, I heard Patrol Sergeant Matt Cowden on the radio initiating a traffic stop on Dillon’s girlfriend’s car on the same street Dillon lived. When I got there, the car was pulled in at his grandmother’s house. Patrolmen had Dillon and Daniel lying in the driveway at gunpoint. I was grateful for the unexpected apprehension because I knew a manhunt or chase could have ended badly. Cowden and his patrolmen handcuffed the trio. Dillon’s girlfriend yelled constantly and demanded to be released. We detained her because we believed she was an accessory after the fact to murder. I looked in the back seat of her car and saw a large crossbow and a .22 rifle. We later learned that Dillon and Daniel were showing off the weapons, as well as a flare gun, everywhere they went. We put them in three different patrol cars and took them to the office.


Three people were in custody, and there were two houses and two vehicles to search and a motorcycle to recover. We were stretched thin. Lucky and I met the patrolmen at the office. Prudhome was already there. Everett stayed behind with Morgan and the Captain to conduct the searches. 


We separated the suspects in three different rooms and interviewed them according to culpability. Lucky and Prudhome interviewed the woman first. She was angry that we handcuffed her and put her in a patrol car. We knew she didn’t have anything to do with Nordby’s murder, but she was chauffeuring the murderer and his accomplice all over town, and she couldn’t have missed the crossbow and rifle sitting on her backseat. It appeared she knew about the murder and even helped Daniel try to sell his crossbow, but she denied it. The detectives could have arrested her, but they had more important things to do. They held on to her car and cell phone and cut her loose.


Dillon Brown was next. He admitted to helping Daniel take out his trash, but that was all until he found out the detectives knew more than he thought. As they suspected, he had nothing to do with the murder, but he knew there was a human being in Daniel’s trash can. He told detectives Daniel called him in the middle of the night and needed help, so he went to Daniel’s house and he helped him load a garbage can in the back of Dillon’s truck. Normal people don’t leave their family in the middle of the night to help a friend take out the garbage, but Dillon did. 


The two men dumped the garbage can in a dumpster behind a business just down the road and went back to Daniel’s house, but when they got there, Daniel panicked and told Dillon they had to go back and get the bundle. They returned, climbed into the dumpster, and picked up the bundle, and Dillon told the detectives he saw the silhouette of a man inside the bundle, but instead of leaving and calling the police, he helped Daniel put the bundle back in the trash can, and they took it to Cameron Park at the end of Wallace Lake Road. He said he was deathly afraid when a police car followed them for a couple of miles, but it finally turned off. When they got to the park, they backed up to the edge of the lake, dumped the body in the water and took off.


Perhaps they thought the bundle would float out into the lake and sink, but it didn’t. Two days later, the lake receded, and the bundle remained where it was dumped for two full days before anyone noticed it.


It was hard to believe Dillon didn’t know Daniel murdered Tritta, or that he was naive enough not to know there was a body in the trash can they dumped in the dumpster. Ultimately, it didn’t matter when or how Dillon found out he was dumping a human body, just that he knew and did not report it. He also said he did not know how Tritta died, but that was also unlikely due to the way he had been behaving, and the fact that Tritta’s motorcycle was at his house, hid in the shed. Daniel probably told him about the murder, but Dillon didn’t gave him up. Lucky arrested Dillon for accessory after the fact to second degree murder. Dillon broke down and wept. The next day, Lucky added a charge of felon in possession of a firearm.


Lucky and Prudhome interviewed Daniel Haire. Daniel didn’t look like a criminal. He was tall, well dressed, had a nice haircut, and unlike his co-defendants, he was calm and cool. Most suspects in his shoes would tell detectives Nordby’s death was self-defense or accidental. Maybe he dropped a loaded cross bow and it went off, or maybe Nordby got angry and came at him with a knife, and it was the only way to stop him, and once he was dead, he panicked and got rid of the body to save his family the pain of having a person killed in their home, but Daniel didn’t say any of that. It didn’t occurred to him to offer a reasonable defense until much later.


Prudhome developed rapport and read him his rights. Daniel dutifully signed the form. The detective was patient and empathetic, a combination that can elicit cooperation from the most difficult of people. Haire listened with his elbows on his knees and his hands up in a steeple position resting against his chin in a display of confidence. Those who commit horrible crimes try to be confident, but their body language betrays them with crossed arms, crossed legs, blank stares, and nonchalance. They are anything but eager, but Daniel was the exception.


Prudhome told him they were working a homicide. He paused and asked Daniel if he had anything to do with it. Daniel dropped his hands and began talking as if he had been waiting for this opportunity to explain himself.




Daniel told the detectives he was being threatened and made four or five reports with the Shreveport Police Department, but since he had a record, no one took him seriously. Daniel never explained what kind of threats were made or who made them, he just wanted them to know he was a victim, and his father was the victim of theft. He said someone was stealing his dad’s tools, and his dad was mad at him about it, so he decided to do something about it.


On Thursday night around 10 pm, Daniel heard something on his back porch. He looked outside and saw his buddy Tritta Nordby. Tritta and Daniel once shared a cell at Caddo Correction Center. Both were drug addicts. Both were on parole and unemployed, and both were caught in a state of perpetual adolescence. Daniel said his father was angry with him about the missing tools, and he imagined Tritta was the one stealing the tools; however, it seemed more likely that Daniel was the one taking the tools. He didn’t deny killing Tritta, he merely told the detectives why he did, expecting them to see the murder as reasonable.


In the dark of night, Daniel saw his old cell mate on his back porch. Tritta had parked his motorcycle in the carport and walked around to the back door. Daniel opened the door, raised the crossbow, and shot the unsuspecting biker in the center of his chest. The crossbow was his father’s, but he took it as his own because it wasn’t illegal for a convicted felon to have one. 


A bolt from a crossbow can penetrate a bullet proof vest, and a bolt equipped with a broad head which is essentially a four sided razor blade can drop a grizzly bear at close range, and Tritta was no grizzly. The projectile entered his chest and went out his back. He stumbled into the house through the kitchen near the living room and collapsed on the floor as blood filled his lungs and drained from his body. He was drowning in his own blood. With only seconds left to live, he wondered what happened. What did his friend do to him? A pressure bandage to his chest, and a call to 911may have saved him, but Daniel didn’t care.


Momentum carried Nordby into the house as if he was desperately seeking safety and security  inside the warm home, but he was offered nothing of comfort. He fell to the ground in shock and slowly bled out on the living room floor. Haire scrambled to conceal his deed from his slumbering family. Both father and sister were awakened by the commotion, but he assured them everything was alright. With them assuaged, he pressed the dead man into the fetal position, wrapped him a bundle of bed coverings he stripped from his bed, and threw his friend into the garbage can. All that was left was to mop up the warm blood of the man he just murdered, but he couldn’t hide the blood trail. The detectives at the scene saw it clearly with a flashlight, and when CSI showed up and sprayed luminal, the single family dwelling looked like a slaughter house.


Daniel told his story without guilt as if those listening had his same sociopathic outlook. Of course drugs were a factor, but they only highlighted the evil in his heart.


Daniel and his buddy Dillon, thinking no one would notice the dead man’s motorcycle missing, decided to capitalize on it by selling it to a friend who shared their aimless lifestyle of unemployment, drugs, and living off parents. Their mechanically inclined friend put a new coil on the motorcycle and painted it blue. On Friday night at 1 am, twenty four hours after the murder, Dillon and Daniel went to the mechanic’s house and walked into his bedroom like soldiers ready for war. Dillon carried a .22 rifle, and Daniel toted a cocked and loaded crossbow which had already killed one man. The mechanic somehow lived to tell the story two days later. Why he did not call the police immediately after his encounter is a testimony to the mind altering effects of drugs.

I watched the interview from the media room and thanked God for answering prayer. It was our first homicide of 2020, but ironically, it wasn’t ours at all. The murder occurred inside the city limits and Nordby’s body was dumped in the parish. 


Shortly after sunrise on March 1st, Daniel Haire was in jail for second degree murder. Over the next few days, the detectives found out Daniel confronted Nordby about stealing from him and  invited him to come over to his house on Thursday night to talk about it, but when Nordby arrived, there was no conversation. 


If Daniel would have left Norby’s body at the first place he dumped it, he may have gotten away with murder. When Lucky and Prudhome checked the dumpster behind the business on Sunday morning after booking Daniel, they didn’t find any evidence, but they found three bags of dead crawfish someone had discarded. The odor was overwhelming and enough to mask the odor coming from a dead man in a bundle of laundry until it was hauled off to the landfill.

Theologian Louis Berkhof said, “The crime of murder owes its enormity to the fact that it is an attack on the image of God.” (Systematic Theology, p. 204) Because of that enormity, we intrinsically know murder is wrong, and those who commit it know it is wrong as well. That is why they try to hide what they’ve done.


A month before the murder, Jim Fortson, a local attorney and Reserve Deputy, asked me to teach an adult Sunday School class at First Methodist Church in downtown Shreveport. I’m not sure why he asked a Baptist to teach his group, but I was honored to have the opportunity. 


After a 13 hour investigation, I finished at the office. It was 7:30, and I was scheduled to be at First Methodist in two hours. I drove to the church, slept in my car until 9:15, changed clothes, and went inside. The class was filled with close to a hundred people, and I did what Baptists do, I spoke on the penal, substitutionary atonement of Christ from 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God through him.” The men and women at FMC were kind and welcoming. I spoke to an old friend, Shreveport attorney Steve Glassell, before I left. 


I saw Steve Glassell two years later in May 2022 at Daniel Haire’s second-degree murder trial. Steve was Daniel’s defense attorney. When I was on the stand answering his questions, I made eye contact with the jurors. Some were enthralled. Others seemed disinterested. When the trial was over, they decided Daniel was not guilty of second degree murder, but they found him guilty of manslaughter. Due to Daniel being a habitual offender, he was sentenced to 70 years.


Some cases are broken with evidence, others with confessions and information. This case was broken by the diligence of a dispatcher who noticed a piece important information and passed it on…




                                      Dillon C. Brown



                                        Daniel Haire


https://www.ktbs.com/news/haire-convicted-in-2020-crossbow-slaying/article_181f4044-d2d8-11ec-8f0b-3732334539d0.html


https://710keel.com/shreveport-crossbow-killer-sentenced-to-70-years-in-prison/#:~:text=After being found guilty on,year-old Rodney Christopher Norbdy.