Cold Case Files: Murder in the Bayou

- My mom said she was going to Louisiana.

And next thing you know, she was gone.

The east side of Lafayette

is a very remote area, very desolate.

Someone could really do some heinous things in those areas.

- There are gators, water moccasins.

It's not all fun and games when you get lost.

In trouble quick.

- This was probably one of the bloodiest scenes

that I had seen.

Her neck was cut very deep, and possibly multiple times.

This was pure evil.

Somebody that had no regards for life, whatsoever.

- I told them, you treat this like this was your mother.

Because I want answers.

- Lafayette's located in south central Louisiana,

about 50 miles west of the Mississippi River,

20, 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.

It's an entertainment hub.

- Lafayette is its own little bitty piece of Louisiana.

It's really small, it has its own little flavor.

The Cajun culture is everywhere.

I mean, it's in the food,

it's in the way that people live their lives.

I don't think I went to as many festivals

and celebrations as I've ever been

in any other place that I've lived.

I felt like I could connect to people a little bit better

because they're so welcoming.

I still love it very much.

It's still very much home for me.

(music and whistling in distance)

- Just a few miles from Lafayette's city center

lie the murky depths of the bayou.

- As soon as you leave the city limits,

you're in an area where there's no lights,

there's no houses, buildings, or any kind of structures.

The majority of that area is very desolate, very remote.

You're in swampland, you're in a marshland.

- You end up in bayous and bring your hip boots

'cause you're gonna be in mud and water.

There are gators,

water moccasins.

It's not all fun and games when you get lost.

In trouble quick.

- Someone could really do some heinous things

in those areas.

On Saturday, December 6th, 2008,

it was a typical cool morning.

The Cajun Country Marathon, at the time,

was a half on, half off-road marathon

that was taking place in Lafayette.

A runner was warming up prior to the event

and had stepped off of one of the trails

to relieve himself.

And, when doing so, he located a female,

obviously deceased,

and he notified the local sheriff's deputies

that were working the race off duty.

- Sergeant Bajat makes his way to the crime scene

just off Lajaunie Road, an area surrounded by

thick southern oak and cypress.

- The body of the victim was about 20 yards inside the woods

from the roadway.

The victim was a white female.

She was in her mid-40s.

Her arms were above her head and

there was a significant amount of blood in the area.

The most obvious injury that we were able to tell

was that her neck had been cut.

Very deep and possibly multiple times.

She was still fully clothed.

Her pants were unbuttoned,

but it didn't appear that the victim had been

sexually assaulted.

- Her killer leaves behind

one identifying and vicious piece of evidence.

- We located a boot print in blood on her chest,

which would've been caused after the stabbing occurred,

because she was found lying on her back.

That made it look like there was anger involved

and that it was a personal attack on her.

At the time that this occurred,

I was on the force for nearly eight years

and this was probably one of

the bloodiest scenes that I had seen.

- Since the body was found with no animal activity

or no kind of decomposition,

which happens very fast here in south Louisiana,

it led us to believe that she had not been there very long.

- We were unable to find any identification,

any type of purse, any type of personal belongings.

There was only one thing that was located in her pocket

and that was a room key to a local hotel.

- The key belongs to room 46 at the Regency Inn.

As the crow flies,

it's located five miles from the crime scene.

- When detectives arrived at the Regency Inn,

using the key and the room number,

we went and knocked on the door

to see if there were any associates

that would help us identify the victim.

We were able to locate a female who said that

her friend Bonnie Ruphard had not returned

from the evening before.

We learned that Bonnie Ruphard was in her late 40s.

She wasn't a resident of this area.

She was from Illinois.

With the hotel key and the statement that we obtained

from the friend that we interviewed,

we were fairly confident that Bonnie was the individual

that we found off of Lajaunie Road.

- Fingerprints confirmed the victim

as 47-year-old Bonnie Faye Ruphard.

Detectives reach out to her daughter up north in Illinois

to break the news.

- I got off of work, I was in IGA.

It was me and my daughter's father,

and my grandma called.

She said, "Hey girl, are you off work?"

I said, "Yeah."

I remember her saying,

"They found your mama dead today."

I said, "Huh?"

She said, "Yeah.

They found your mama dead today."

And I remember falling

in the middle of the store

and my daughter's father looked at me

and he said, "I know that,

I know that scream."

He said, "Is Bonnie Faye okay?"

I said, "No."

My mom was from Broughton, Illinois.

My mother went through some horrible things

that had happened to her by her grandfather

and at age 14, my mom decided to leave Broughton

and she came to Champaign, Illinois

and she met my father.

I was born but my mom was my mom, I mean...

She just had a tough fight in this world.

She had really bad depression and anxiety

and she was bipolar.

And I think instead of her taking her meds,

she would turn to the drugs and that would help numb her.

But when that high came down,

those problems were still there.

- As Bonnie struggles with addiction,

she parts ways with Nichole's father.

In 1981, Nichole's grandmother steps in to adopt her,

while free-spirited Bonnie takes to the road.

My mom was a worldly woman.

She was 5'11", beautiful.

She had these olive skin tones

and she had the most beautiful-est hair

and the most bubbliest personality.

And she just traveled.

She would be in California, Texas, Massachusetts.

All I could say is she traveled very well.

Two decades pass.

Nichole is in her mid-20s and a mother herself

when Bonnie returns.

She's welcomed with open arms

and once again makes Illinois her home.

- When Grandma Bonnie came into my life,

I was about six or seven.

She was a lively woman.

She always kept herself up, jewelry,

purses, her hair done.

She taught me how to do a inside-out French braid,

how to take care of my hair,

and she was excited about it.

She was happy to be a part of her grandkids' life.

It was a good moment,

because now I had another grandma to spoil me.

- In 2007, Bonnie's wanderlust kicks in again.

- I came to visit my mom one day and she told me she was leaving.

She said, "I met this cool man."

I didn't even know his name.

And she said she was going to Louisiana.

I said, "You know what you doing?"

She told me, "Yeah."

And next thing you know, she was gone.

- Police discover Bonnie is part

of a traveling group.

She's been sharing a room