Episode 15: Deadly Vengeance: The Abduction of Jody Plauché
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In February 1984, an 11-year-old boy was abducted from his Baton Rouge home by a trusted family friend. To authorities, it seemed that the pair had vanished without a trace. A week later, a phone call provided a vital clue to the boy’s whereabouts. No one could have predicted the extraordinary circumstances that would lead one father to exact his own brand of vigilante justice. This is the case of the abduction of Jody Plauché.
The Airport
Gary Plauché stood at a row of payphones at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport. He clutched the phone receiver in one hand, and a concealed weapon in the other. His back was turned to the news media waiting in anticipation behind him, news cameras prepped, lights flashing.
A crowd had gathered behind the news crew, wondering if a celebrity was due to arrive. Only it wasn’t a celebrity who was touching down on the tarmac, but a child predator, waiting to stand trial. Gary blended into the background. No one noticed him. He wore a striped t-shirt with jeans, and a baseball cap with dark glasses. He didn’t turn around when the camera lights began flashing but knew from the commotion that his target had arrived.
He warned the man on the phone that he would soon hear a gunshot. He turned on a swivel, still holding the receiver in one hand, and in the other, a gun. Gary Plauché aimed his gun at a handcuffed man being escorted by an armed member of law enforcement. The cameras were rolling, and without hesitation, Gary pulled the trigger.
Jody Plauché’s Background
Jody Plauché was born in 1972 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to parents Gary and June Plauché. One of four children, Jody had an older and younger brother and a sister. Jody was an energetic child and was heavily involved in sports. He played football or soccer, American football, softball, and basketball. In early 1983, when Jody was 10, he, along with his two brothers, took up karate under the instruction of 24-year-old Jeff Doucet.
Gary and June Plauché separated in August 1983, and were in the middle of a divorce. After Gary moved out, Jeff Doucet swooped in to fill the now vacant role of family patriarch. He spent more and more time with the children and became an emotional support to June. A Washington Post article states that June began an intimate relationship with Jeff after Gary had left the family home.
Jeff Doucet’s Background
Jeffrey Paul Doucet was born in February 1959, in Port Arthur, Texas. He was one of seven children. His mother continued to live in Port Arthur, a tiny city near the Texas/Louisiana border. His father, a service station owner, and at least one brother, a carpet fitter, had relocated to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, approximately 300 kilometres or 185 miles from Port Arthur.
He admitted to being abused as a child. As a teenager, he transitioned from victim to abuser, and began to abuse other children. Jeff Doucet was opportunistic and admitted that he had lost track of all of the boys he had abused. He was an ex-marine, who was extremely fit.
By 1982, Jeff Doucet was working as a karate instructor. More specifically, teaching Hapkido, a Korean martial art with some similarities to karate. He lived at the karate studio, and his day job was working as a carpet fitter for his brother’s business. Although, those around him noticed that he was spending an increasing amount of time on karate, rather than fitting carpets.
Doucet ingratiated himself with the parents of his karate students. He was frequently invited to family dinners, games nights and other events. He often spent the night in the homes of his students, sleeping on the couch. The parents viewed him as a kind of ‘big brother’ to the boys he taught karate to.
The Plauché’s were one such family who welcomed this young man without a family of his own into their home. Doucet would often spend Saturday nights at the Plauché’s, eating dinner and playing rounds of Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit. He also didn’t have a car, so relied on the kindness of his karate student’s parents to drive him from place to place.
Psychologist and author, Dr Anna Salter, who specialises in studying and understanding sexual predators, refers to the likeability factor in these kinds of offenders. She says that ‘these guys are likeable. You don’t get very far as a sex offender if you’re not likeable. Not the grooming type’. She adds that it’s not just about building likeability with the child and potential victim, but also with that child’s parents.
The Grooming Process
According to Jody, Jeff Doucet was an experienced groomer. He groomed both his victims and their families. He positioned himself so that when he spent time with his victims, or was physically close to them, it didn’t register as being something out of the ordinary, or something that they should monitor.
The grooming process began by testing boundaries, and then moving those boundaries further and further away, until there was no going back. Jody says that the grooming had begun in early 1983 during karate training. Doucet normalised touching Jody in the thigh and groin areas during karate practice. He told Jody that his inner thighs were tight and needed to be stretched and would then help to place him in stretching positions.
Prior to starting karate instruction, Jody had been heavily involved in many different sports. After taking karate for a few months, Jeff began pressuring Jody to drop all other sports, so that he would have more time to concentrate on karate. In reality, this would mean that Jeff would have greater access to Jody.
According to Jody, predators ‘are good at what they do’, And Jeff Doucet knew exactly what he was doing. Jody also felt that he couldn’t tell anyone what was happening to him, as the abuse progressed. He felt that Jeff was worshipped by those around him, and he didn’t want to get him into trouble, or to be in trouble himself.
The Abduction
The 19th of February 1984 was a Sunday. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 11-year-old Jody Plauché was home with his family, when his karate instructor, Jeff Doucet arrived asking if he could borrow Jody’s mother’s car.
Doucet’s brother dropped him at the Plauché home. Once inside, Doucet asked June if he could take Jody with him for a few hours. He explained that his brother had to leave, and his father was building a new home and needed help installing carpet. He then asked if he could also borrow June’s car. June agreed to the request, but only if Doucet assured her that he would return Jody that evening. Doucet assured her that he would be back before nightfall, but this would not come to pass.
Unbeknownst to the Plauché family, Doucet had an upcoming court date for passing bad cheques and had incurred significant debt. He had decided to go on the run, and intended to take Jody, who he had been grooming and abusing for almost a year, along for the ride. Jody later described the logic from Doucet’s perspective, as him skipping town and taking his ‘love interest’, Jody, with him.
Once in the car with Doucet, Jody realised that something was not quite right. First, Doucet drove Jody to his brother’s home in Gonzalez, southeast of Baton Rouge. Here, he gathered some belongings and got back in the car. Then, he drove his captive across state lines to his mother’s home in Port Arthur. He concocted a story to his mother that he was going to New York City for work and needed to borrow money for a bus ticket. Doucet’s mother asked him about Jody, worrying how he would get home if Doucet was travelling to NYC. He assured her that he was travelling via Baton Rouge and would drop the child to his parent’s home on the way. This was another lie.
By the next morning, they were on the road again, heading west. First to Vinton, a small town in Louisiana, where Doucet’s uncle lived, and next to the border town of Orange. At some point on the second day, June’s car was abandoned, and Doucet and Jody boarded several busses through New Mexico and Arizona, before arriving in Los Angeles, more than a week later.
While they travelled, Doucet dyed Jody’s hair from light to dark, using black hair dye. He told people they met along the way that Jody was his son. He took Jody to some tourist attractions, perpetuating the idea he had that they were two lovers who had run away together, rather than an abducted and abused child who had been snatched from their home by a prolific offender.
The Investigation
Back in Baton Rouge, as darkness fell, June Plauché began to worry. Jeff Doucet, a trusted family friend had taken her son to run errands. They should have been back hours ago, but there was no sign of them. She couldn’t even drive around to look for them, as Jeff had borrowed her car earlier in the day. She called family members and all of Jody’s friends. No one had seen her son that day. Soon, June couldn’t contain her anxiety that something was seriously wrong and notified the authorities.
The Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office knew that tracing Jeff Doucet was the key to finding Jody. They checked with Doucet’s family members, including his mother in Texas. This is when she confirmed that her son and Jody had been to her home, the FBI was called in, as Doucet had taken Jody across state lines, making this a federal crime. Authorities tried to retrace Doucet’s steps but could only do that to a certain point before the trail went cold.
The Phone Call
On Wednesday the 29th of February 1984, June received a collect call from Jody. He told her that he was safe and in California. He had been missing for ten full days. After a minute or so, the voice on the phone changed. It was Jeff Doucet. He instructed June to gather her other three children, and to meet him the following morning in California. June tried to reason with Doucet and told him that Gary might try to use the fact that he had taken Jody out of state to gain custody of him. This was something that had been agreed upon with the police after Jody was reported missing, as a reason that he would have to be returned home. Eventually, June agreed to this proposal, desperate to keep her son safe.
When Doucet hung up the phone, he couldn’t have known that the FBI had wire-tapped the Plauché’s landline phone, or that a Baton Rouge Deputy Sheriff had been listening to the entire conversation. The deputy sprang into action, demanding that the telephone operator give him the location that the call had originated from.
Within minutes the call had been traced to the Samoa Motel in Anaheim in California, not far from Disneyland. Soon after, Anaheim police broke down the motel room door and rescued Jody. Jeff Doucet was arrested and held for questioning, while Jody was returned to his family in Louisiana. Doucet admitted to having had a relationship with Jody’s mother June, and said that he had not abducted the child, and that June had intended to join him in California with her other children.
The Extradition
The Plauché family were coming to terms with what had happened to Jody during his abduction, and also the fact that his prolonged abuse had begun a full year earlier. Gary and June came together for the sake of their children to support them through the difficult process. But Gary was also working through his own demons. He was angry and felt immense guilt at the fact that he had been swayed by Doucet’s manipulation and grooming, and that his son had been harmed in the process.
While Jody reconnected with his family back home, Jeff Doucet remained in custody in California, pending an extradition order to Louisiana. Eventually, he was charged with aggravated kidnapping, and on the 16th of March 1984 was flown back to Louisiana to prepare for trial.
Earlier that day, Gary had been drinking in a local bar, The Cotton Club, when he struck up a conversation with an executive from a local ABC affiliate news station, WBRZ-TV. Gary was a salesperson but had previously worked as a TV camera operator for the same company. The executive told Gary that Jeff Doucet, the man who had abducted and abused his son, Jody, would be arriving at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport that evening. The flight was due to land at 9:08pm.
With that key piece of information, Gary excused himself, retrieved a .38 calibre revolver, and headed to the airport to wait. This was decades before airport security was as comprehensive as it is now. People who were not flying could walk directly into most airports and accompany their loved ones right up to the gate. Or simply wander in from the street and watch planes take off and land. There had been some acts of airline terrorism in the past, but these were viewed as once-off events, and were not factored into airport security concerns.
Gary Plauché was easily able to slip into the airport unnoticed by anyone. He made his way to arrivals, and positioned himself close to the news crew that were setting up their equipment. After a few minutes, he wandered over to a row of payphones near the arrivals gate. Here, he would have a good view of all incoming passengers and would have the opportunity to do what he came there to do.
When Jeff Doucet was led into the airport, Gary didn’t immediately turn around. He knew that several members of the local police would recognise him from his son’s recent case. Instead, he stayed on the phone with a friend, only revealing himself at the last possible moment. At 9:30pm, Doucet was let through the gate, with his hands cuffed behind his back, flanked on one side by an armed police officer. This is when Gary spun around and shot him point blank in the head, shocking onlookers.
The entire scene was caught on camera. Many sources have since claimed that the shooting happened on live TV, but this wasn’t entirely true. The event was recorded live, and the recording was rushed to the news station to appear on the 10 o’clock news that night. This was the closest to live-streaming that they could get in the mid-eighties.
Doucet collapsed on the ground, and as soon as police realised what had happened, rushed to apprehend the shooter. One of the officers, Deputy Mike Barnett, a family friend, and an investigator on the case, realised that the shooter was Gary, and subdued him with a bear hug. Another officer removed the weapon from his hand. Deputy Barnett could be heard on camera, asking, ‘Why, Gary, Why?’ Gary replied, that ‘if somebody did it to your kid, you’d do it too’. Gary Plauché was arrested and taken into custody, while Jeff Doucet was rushed to hospital. He remained in a coma throughout the night and died of his injuries the next morning.
The Fallout From the Airport Shooting
On the day of the airport shooting, Jody and his siblings were staying with their grandparents. June Plauché had been playing dominos at her sister’s and had returned home to an empty house that evening. She switched the TV on and set about tidying and resetting the house. This is when she saw a teaser for the 10 o’clock local news that said something along the lines of, ‘unknown assailant guns down alleged kidnapper’. She crumpled to the floor, knowing exactly who the players in the story would be. Neighbours heard June screaming and came running to assist her.
By the next day, June had composed herself enough to share the news of what had happened with her children. At first, Jody says that he was very angry. He had wanted Doucet to go to prison, but he hadn’t wanted him to die. And he certainly didn’t want his father to go to prison. More than that, he hadn’t wanted the world to know what Doucet had done to him. He hadn’t publicly disclosed his abuse, and now family, neighbours and everyone he went to school with would know specifically what had happened to him.
Gary spent a total of three nights in jail. He was taken to a cell on Friday night and released the following Monday. He was charged with second-degree murder. This was later dropped to manslaughter in a plea deal. Gary was sentenced to seven years in prison. This sentence was suspended, and he was given five years’ probation and an order of 300 hours of community service. The judge in the case said that ‘prison would serve no useful purpose’. While many people understood Gary’s actions, and even applauded them, others, including Doucet’s family, believed that the sentence was too lenient. Ultimately, nothing came of these complaints, and Gary did not serve any jail time for killing Doucet, other that the initial weekend spent in lockup.
Jody’s anger at his father’s actions had dissipated by late summer that year, and as he began to heal, he also began to understand why his father had taken the action that he had that night at the airport. Jody graduated with a degree in General Studies from Louisiana State University. In 1991, he appeared on a television talk show, sharing his story publicly for the first time.
Soon after this appearance, he was contacted by a local police officer, who informed that a boy had seen his interview, and had come forward to disclose his own abuse at the hand of a pastor, who was subsequently arrested. This inspired Jody to become a victim’s advocate and continue to share his story with the world.
Jody later said that it was after this appearance that he decided on a career in public speaking and advocacy. After graduation, he moved to Pennsylvania to work as a counsellor and risk prevention educator. In 2019, Jody released a book telling his story, titled, Why, Gary, Why? His message for survivors of child abuse is that, with the correct support, you can get your life back on track.
He tells survivors that: ‘You’re not scarred for life. You’re not damaged goods. Your innocence – that may have been taken, but for the most part, you’re going to be OK’. Gary Plauché suffered a stroke and died in October 2014. Jody describes him as being ‘the greatest dad of all time’. Speaking to ESPN, Jody acknowledged that it’s wrong to take someone’s life, but added that ‘when someone’s that bad a person, it doesn’t bother you too much in the long run’.
Sources:
‘Anna Salter’, Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Salter
Brinkhof, Tim, ‘Gary Plauché, The Louisiana Dad Who Took Deadly Revenge On His Son’s Rapist On Live Television’, All That’s Interesting, 30th January 2024.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/gary-plauche
Fraga, Kaleena, ‘Jody Plauché Was Sexually Assaulted – Then His Father Killed His abuser’, All That’s Interesting, 18th January 2024.
‘Gary Plauché’, Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Plauch%C3%A9
Harris, Art, ‘What Price Vengeance? A Louisiana Town Weighs the Issue In Slaying of Accused Kidnaper’, Washington Post, 29th March 1984.
Hassell, Jeremiah, ‘My Life is Great 40 Years After My Dad Killed My Rapist on Live TV – I Wouldn’t Change a Thing’, Mirror, 15th March 2024.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/this-life-40-years-after-32291020
‘Jeff Doucet’, Criminal Minds Wiki.
https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Jeff_Doucet
‘Jody Plauche’s incredible story of surviving abuse, kidnapping and more – The Interview Room’, The Interview Room, February 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TqVCFm0p-A
Morris, George, ‘Molested, abducted as a child in infamous Baton Rouge case, Jody Plauché wants his story to help others’, The Advocate, 9th November, 2019.
Plauché, Jody, Why, Gary, Why?, Inspired Forever Publishing.