Double Homicide
Murderers, Dominique Smith (pictured left) & Trendall Matthews
The details of the double murder at the BREC park were made public Tuesday. They describe Monday’s double murder as a “love triangle gone very wrong.”
Investigators say a complicated love triangle led to the killings of a Baker woman and her three-year-old son at a BREC park in Zachary. The victims have been identified as 23-year-old Jessica Johnson Palmer and her son, Juan Palmer, Jr. Her two daughters were also injured, but survived.
Johnson’s former boyfriend, Dominique Dantoni Smith of Zachary, and his current girlfriend, Trendall Lashel Matthews of Jackson, Louisiana were arrested overnight. Matthews is a second-cousin of the victim, according to relatives.
Both are charged with two counts of first degree murder and two counts of attempted first degree murder. “They actually lured Jessica to the park along with her children, where the killings took place,” said sheriff’s department spokeswoman Casey Hicks.
Detectives believe the killings took place sometime Sunday evening at Doyle’s Bayou Park on Pride-Port Hudson Road.
After the killings took place, the two young girls spent the evening in the park. They were discovered Monday afternoon by a BREC working cutting grass in. Johnson and her son were found in wooded area of the park.
Deputies are praising a four-year-old with saving another life. Four-year-old Lindsay Paige Johnson is being considered a hero. According to investigators, after the murders, the four-year-old, whose own throat had been cut, saved her baby sister.
“If you can imagine a little 4-year-old, who had been cut, pick up her 6-month-old infant sister and carrying her out of those woods and get as far as she did to the front of the park. That’s just a miracle,” Sheriff Sid Gautreaux says.
May 11, 2008 at 4:40 am
It’s amazing how a girl so young can save her little sister.
May 11, 2008 at 11:32 am
Wow.. That is serious..
My prayers to the families
May 11, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Wow, I can’t believe that. Such a courageous little girl.
May 11, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I’m so glad you posted this one. I hadn’t gotten around to sending it to you, but it was on my mind to pass it on.
May 12, 2008 at 2:49 pm
This is a terrible story all the way around, but that poor little girl and the memories she will have to live with for the rest of her life are horrific!
May 12, 2008 at 8:07 pm
That’s just sad. What a world we live in.
May 12, 2008 at 8:48 pm
The truly sad part is, is that the four year old girl was the man’s daughter! The little girl’s story coincedes with his by saying that the woman was the one who actually committed the crime. But yet and still, how could you sit back and watch someone slash your own child’s throat?
May 14, 2008 at 10:21 am
Wow! That is amazing how someone can be so cruel. My prayers are with Jessica Johnson Palmer and her son. They are definitely in a better place now. Lindsay Paige Johnson is a hero, may God bless her soul. I hope the suspects of such a despicable crime fry in hell.
May 20, 2008 at 1:56 pm
This is disgusting and that what that little angel did to save her baby sister is beyond imagination. I don’t think I’d be able to do that after suffering that kind of trauma.
May 20, 2008 at 3:44 pm
First of all I would like to say that my heart goes out to the family of the victims of that terrible crime.It just amazes that some people were born into this without a heart.To have the heart to commit such a crime as they did just goes to show that really they don’t have one. I am fortunate that I can share the memories of Jessica and “J.P.”.I’ve known them for quite some time.Jessica was a very outspoken and versatile woman,and there was nothing that she couldn’t or wouldn’t do for her children.She was God-fearing and she loved her family.She was very ambitious,and her smile was infectious.”J.P.”,as he was affectionately called, was the sweetest little boy you’d ever want to meet.His eyes would just hypnotize you.He loved to go to church and he let everybody know that he was not ashamed to know God.I am glad to have met them.I know in my heart that Jessica and “J.P.” are having a good time in heaven singing, dancing,and Jessica is probably reciting her poems to the angels.May they both rest in peace.