Reverend Julian L. Brandon Jr., a 68-year-old retired minister who continued pastoral work with seniors, was found dead at his home on Primitive Baptist Church Road in Blanchard, just outside Shreveport. Deputies responded to the residence on the evening of January 5, 2003, and discovered Reverend Brandon deceased by the front door. His wife, Alice Brandon, was found in a bedroom with two gunshot wounds to the head but still alive.

Investigators identified three people connected to the home invasion and murder: Brandy Holmes, Robert Coleman, and Donny Williams. Holmes later confessed to involvement in Reverend Brandon’s murder and implicated the others; Coleman was arrested and charged and denied involvement, and Williams was taken into custody on an unrelated outstanding warrant as accusations about multiple murders emerged. Trials followed: Coleman was convicted of first-degree murder in February 2005 and sentenced to death; Holmes was convicted in February 2006 and also sentenced to death. Coleman was granted a new trial in January 2012, again convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. In 2016 the death sentences for Holmes and Coleman were commuted and both are now serving life sentences for Brandon’s murder.

Did anyone living in or near Blanchard in early January 2003 notice anything unusual around Primitive Baptist Church Road?