Parents in Louisiana who discovered their daughter lying in a pool of her own blood managed to find major clues in crime scene photos which proved her death was not a suicide.
Steve and Missy Ducote found their daughter Megan Parra, 29, bleeding out on her living room floor in Cottonport on June 28, 2014, after suffering a gunshot wound to the head.
Missy, who is a nurse practitioner, attempted to save Megan’s life before her husband Dustin Parra, also a nurse, tried to help and stained his shorts after slipping on her blood.
The mother-of-two was airlifted to a trauma center in Lafayette but died a day later from her injuries. Her death was ruled as a suicide in a one-page police report as well as an autopsy.
But her parents Steve and Missy began questioning aspects of the investigation and demanded the case be reopened before charges were eventually brought over Megan’s death in October 2021.
Louisiana parents Steve (left) and Missy Ducote who discovered their daughter Megan Parra (right) lying in a pool of her own blood managed to find major clues in crime scene photos which proved it was not a suicide
Steve and Missy found Megan, 29, bleeding out on her living room floor in Cottonport on June 28, 2014, after suffering a gunshot wound to the head
Officer David Blanchard first arrived at the scene of the shooting and took over 100 photos, including one of a gun near Megan which belonged to her husband Dustin.
A note was also found on the kitchen counter which appeared to be from the mother to her two sons aged four and 18 months.
But her father Steve insisted it did not look like her handwriting and believed someone else wrote it.
He claimed lead detective Christopher Knight told him he had tested the gun responsible for Megan’s death and it had her fingerprints all over it. However Knight denied telling him he had tested the gun.
Steve and Missy then grew suspicious of their son-in-law Dustin who claimed he was at Walmart on the morning Megan was shot.
The family claimed he told them different stories of where he was when Steve called to tell him about the incident.
Dustin showed up after several minutes and did something strange, according to Megan’s father.
‘He comes running in… and he slides, and he just catches the end of the blood,’ he told CBS’s 48 hours.
Steve added it looked like Dustin was doing a ‘baseball slide’ in his wife’s blood.
Desperate for answers, the heartbroken dad convinced a local judge that the investigation into his daughter’s death should be reopened four months later.
Commander Dan Schaub of the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Office was asked to look into it and he looked at the crime scene photos as well as Knight’s one-page report.
He spoke with a neighbor who said he heard a gunshot around 9.15am and began to question whether Dustin could have been home at the time of the shooting.
Dustin had claimed he was picking up prescriptions at Walmart and Schaub found a receipt time-stamped at 9.43am.
The investigator concluded that he was not at home when his wife shot herself.
Steve was disappointed but the reopening of the case but it allowed him access to the crime-scene photos which he and his eldest daughter Betsy Jeansonne studied closely.
They believed that several pictures showed sign of a struggle, for example a wine rack which was out of place behind a chair.
The mother of two was airlifted to a trauma center in Lafayette but died a day later from her injuries. Her death was ruled as a suicide in a one-page police report as well as an autopsy
A note was also found on the kitchen counter which appeared to be from the mother to her two sons aged four and 18 months. But her father Steve insisted it did not look like her handwriting and believed someone else wrote it
Steve hired independent crime scene analyst Eric Richardson in April 2021 who was intrigued by a photo of the shorts Dustin wore on the day of the shooting. He noticed a fine mist of blood near one of the pockets which he claimed can only be caused by high velocity blood spatter
Megan’s autopsy said the gun was directly on her temple when it went off but Steve noticed the weapon was clean and could have been wiped after the shooting.
Her parents remembered that Dustin slid in his wife’s blood, reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture of their sons.
Steve believed that he had planted the photo and said: ‘If you gonna make it look like suicide, you’re going to do things like that.’
Megan’s family spent years looking for answers but were unsuccessful until her father got in touch with retired FBI agent David Lemoine in 2018.
He flew to Cottonport, spoke with Steve and spent the night looking at a folder of evidence before he came to the conclusion the mother of two was murdered.
Lemoine enlisted the help of fellow retired FBI agent Zack Shelton and they were deputized as police officers by the Cottonport police chief which allowed them to interview witnesses and record them on bodycams.
The former special agents interviewed Detective Knight on January 15, 2019 and he admitted he should have investigated more before pointing to his lack of experience at the time.
‘If I botched this, you know, then I mean… my fault, you know. But was it done — but was it done on purpose? Absolutely not,’ Knight told them.
Lemoine and Shelton later questioned Dustin for more than an hour where he admitted to have been having an affair before Megan’s death.
But he claimed he didn’t think she knew and insisted he was not involved in his wife’s death.
Steve and his eldest daughter Betsy Jeansonne (pictured) studied the crime scene photos closely and came to the conclusion there was a struggle before Megan was shot in the head
Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle sent the case to a grand jury on October 13, 2021 and it came back with a charge of second-degree murder for Dustin who was arrested and pleaded not guilty
Dustin (center) pleaded no contest to negligent homicide in Megan’s death on March 26 and during a plea hearing admitted he had the gun in his hand during a struggle before it went off and fired into her head
‘Maybe she shot herself in front of you. I don’t know, but you were there,’ Shelton said. ‘When she was shot, I was not there,’ Dustin replied.
Lemoine worked on the case for another two years but died on December 28 in 2020 after contracting Covid.
Steve decided to hire independent crime scene analyst Eric Richardson in April 2021 who was particularly intrigued by a photo of the shorts Dustin wore on the day of the shooting.
He noticed a fine mist of blood near one of the pockets which he claimed to his knowledge can only be caused by high velocity blood spatter.
Richardson believes that Dustin had to be there when the gun went off.
Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle sent the case to a grand jury on October 13, 2021 and it came back with a charge of second-degree murder for Dustin who was arrested and pleaded not guilty.
Just three days before the trial was set to start, Dustin’s attorney offered a deal on March 24, 2023.
The district attorney spoke with Steve and Missy about the options before they later accepted the conditions.
Megan’s father Steve said: ‘To us, as a family, him admitting to that, that was huge’
Dustin pleaded no contest to negligent homicide in Megan’s death on March 26 and during a plea hearing admitted he had the gun in his hand during a struggle before it went off and fired into her head.
‘To us, as a family, him admitting to that, that was huge,’ Steve said. But the family said life without Megan will never be the same.
‘Megan… was one of the most charitable people I knew,’ her sister Betsy said.
‘She was always so giving of herself… She was the most amazing mother… She was my little sister … but I really looked up to her.’
Dustin was sentenced to five years in prison but will likely serve just 18 months before being released on parole.
His sons had been living with him ever since their mother died but Steve and Missy were granted full custody of them on April 20.
Steve was asked what Megan would say to him and he said: ‘Take care of those boys, and probably say thanks for not giving up.’