Most parents will do everything to provide their children with a better life. Today, the worst downside of parenthood is sending our children into the world because we have to worry about bullies and predators.
Back in February 1984, karate teacher Jeffrey Doucet abducted 11-year-old Jody Plauché, driving him from Louisiana to a motel in California.
According to reports, the abuse began when Jody was just 10. Doucet asked which of his young athletes wanted to learn to drive, and Jody’s hand shot up. The next thing Jody knew, he was sitting on Doucet’s lap, steering a 280Z. “But then his hands were in my lap,” Jody recalled many years later. “I’m thinking, ‘What’s going on here? Maybe it’s an accident?’ So I didn’t say anything. But, now, I know he was testing the boundaries. Textbook pedophilia. They all test boundaries.”
Taphaps reported that the abuse escalated from there:
Doucet would stop practicing and send the rest of the kids to 7-Eleven for snacks. “Not you, Jody,” he’d quickly add. “I need to do some extra work with you,” he’d claim. Then, when the coast was clear, he’d shepherd Jody into his back room.
Afraid to tell anyone, Jody would come up with all kinds of excuses why he didn’t want to go to his karate class instead. But, Doucet would show up at Jody’s house anyway and drag him off. Jody’s mom June, believing coaches know best and trusting Doucet, would let her son go with the man, never thinking for one minute that her boy was being molested.
There, the pedophile continually raped and abused Jody, and he was only caught after allowing the child to make a collect call to his mom.
Jody went missing for 10 days and was returned to his family and on 16 March Doucet, 25, was flown into Baton Rouge Airport in Louisiana, where he was escorted by police. News crews were waiting for Doucet – as was Jody’s dad, Gary, who was lurking by a telephone wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses.
That’s when the desperate dad, Gary Plauche, decided to take brutal revenge on his son’s rapist. As viewers watched on at home, Gary stepped out and shot Doucet in the head from three feet away.
As he was pinned by police, one officer pleaded: “Why, Gary, why?”
Those words stuck with Jody – who watched footage of the killing ‘over and over’ – and they eventually formed the title of his memoir.
Doucet fell into a coma and died the next day, and Gary spent a weekend in prison over the killing but ended up getting a suspended sentence for manslaughter, as well as probation and community service.
Now, the adult Jody Plauche speaks often about child sexual abuse and encourages parents to not talk about sexual abuse in extreme terms:
“My dad was absolutely too extreme. He used to tell people, ‘If anybody ever touches my kid, I’ll kill him.’ I knew he wasn’t kidding. That’s why I couldn’t tell anybody. And, that’s exactly what he ended up doing. My dad went to the airport figuring he was going to die,” Jody explained.
“He said either Jeff or him was gonna die that night. It’s not right to take someone’s life,but when someone’s that bad a person, it doesn’t bother you much in the long run.”
Watch it here: MurderWasTheCase/Youtube
