Psychic Justice for Andre Daigle

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What would you do if your family member went missing and the police wouldn’t help you find them? Andre Daigle’s family reached out to a psychic medium for help, and her visions led them straight to Andre’s murderers. She even ended up testifying at trial, helping Andre’s family secure justice and preventing his killers from continuing their criminal plans. 

Today’s case begins in River Ridge, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish that some residents have called “a small slice of American pie type of community.” In the summer of 1987, River Ridge was home to about 15,000 residents, including 27-year-old home renovator Andre Daigle. Those who knew Andre remembered him as “a promising young man” and “wonderful guy” who was “hardworking,” “thoughtful, kind, [and] gentle,” “a great brother,” and “everyone’s best friend.”

On a Tuesday night, June 9, Andre and his friend, Nick Shelley, met up for dinner at the local Chi-Chi’s. Around 10:00pm, the two friends left the restaurant and drove to a nearby bar called Mitchell’s Lounge. They played pool and drank beers for about an hour before deciding to call it a night.

Each time Andre had gone up to the bar for his and Nick’s rounds, a woman at the bar named Thelma chatted him up. Thelma lived over in Kenner, New Orlean’s largest suburb and the largest city within Jefferson Parish. When Andre and Nick ordered their last two beers “for the road,” Andre introduced Nick to Thelma. Nick would later remember that he couldn’t get a good look at Thelma, and it seemed to him like she was trying to prevent him from seeing her face. Andre agreed to give Thelma a ride home. According to court documents, they had made plans to head to a nightclub called Bart’s afterward. Nick drove home by himself.

Missing and mobilizing

Andre came from a “close-knit family” and normally spoke to at least one of his family members “on a daily basis.” When Andre’s mother realized no one had heard from him by Friday morning, she called his brother, Chris Daigle. Chris shared his mother’s concerns and alerted police that Andre was missing. To the family’s dismay, police didn’t investigate right away since Andre was an adult and there were no apparent signs of foul play. Chris insisted that Andre wouldn’t leave without telling his family, and that he would never leave his pets behind uncared for.

Desperate to locate Andre and not yet receiving official help, Andre’s family in Louisiana began their own investigation. They talked to Andre’s friend Nick about the encounter with Thelma at Mitchell’s Lounge and spoke to witnesses at the bar but didn’t get much farther than developing a timeline. The Daigles split up from there and spent hours driving strategically through the greater New Orleans area searching for any sign of Andre.

Intuitive information

About 2,000 miles away in Fullerton, California, Andre’s sister, Elise McGinley, shared her family’s ordeal with a coworker. Her coworker suggested that Elise contact psychic Rosemarie Kerr. On Saturday, Elise drove two hours to Escondido, California to meet with Rosemarie. Elise told Rosemarie that her brother was missing and gave the psychic his photo, but no other information.

Rosemarie closed her eyes and placed her finger on Andre’s photo, quickly receiving a vision of Andre in a dark vehicle with a long-haired blonde man. Elise, unaware that Andre had recently purchased a dark blue truck, told Rosemarie she was wrong, that Andre had a white car. Rosemarie persisted and next moved her finger blindly on a map, only stopping when she felt “vibrations.” She stopped when her finger was near Slidell, Louisiana, in St. Tammany Parish. Rosemarie also sensed that Andre had already died, but she didn’t offer that information to Elise, and Elise never asked.

Chilling chase

After the meeting, Elise called her mother to share Rosemarie’s intuitions. Chris Daigle remembers the phone call and how he and his wife Virginia, desperate for any clue or sense of direction, immediately drove toward Slidell. As they travelled along Interstate 55 North around midnight, Chris spotted Andre’s 1980 Ford pickup on the road ahead of him, heading the same direction. The windows were tinted, but it matched what Chris knew of Andre’s vehicle otherwise. Chris pulled alongside the truck but didn’t recognize the driver.

Chris followed the truck for about 30 minutes, into St. Tammany Parish, until it turned off the interstate and down a “pitch black” deserted side road in Pearl River. At the end of the road, the truck did a U-turn, turned off its headlights, and cut the engine. Chris and his wife were spooked, sure that whoever was driving the truck knew they were tailing him now. But the standoff didn’t last long – the truck restarted and drove past Chris’s vehicle slowly, then sped off.

It only took Chris about 30 seconds to collect himself, turn around, and pursue Andre’s truck back down the deserted road. On the way, he miraculously passed the only police cruiser patrolling the Pearl River area at the time. Chris paused to hurriedly explain the situation to the cruiser’s occupant, officer Thomas Corley. Corley said Virginia Daigle was “hysterical” while Chris shouted at him: “Get that truck! You gotta stop these guys!” Corley initiated a high-speed chase, reaching speeds of 100 mph, and called for backup.

Arrests

By 1:00am on Sunday, June 14, Officer Corley had managed to force the truck to pull over. David McKenzie arrived quickly to the scene to assist. The driver of the truck told officers that he was Charles Gervais, a 24-year-old from New Orleans. Gervais couldn’t produce a driver’s license or vehicle registration. His passenger was 21-year-old Michael Phillips of Kenner, a man with long blonde hair, like what Rosemarie Kerr had described. Officer McKenzie asked the two men to exit the vehicle and read them their Miranda rights while they stood near the back of the truck. Gervais asked for an attorney, but otherwise the men didn’t speak to police or each other at the scene.

Officer Corley walked around the truck with a flashlight looking for evidence of Andre Daigle and why the two men in his truck had fled from police. He discovered two handguns laying on the front passenger side floorboard of the truck – a semi-automatic pistol and a .44 magnum. When he called it in, he was advised that Charles Gervais already had a felony record.

Gervais was arrested for being a felon in possession of a fireman and a stolen vehicle belonging to a missing person. Michael Phillips was arrested on the stolen vehicle charge as well, and officers Corley and McKenzie transported them separately to the Pearl River Police Department. Later that day, Jack Cappell of New Orleans would report the theft of several guns, pieces of jewelry, and cash from his home. Two of the guns were the same ones found in Andre Daigle’s truck.

Quick confession

At the police station, Phillips signed a rights waiver and agreed to speak with Pearl River PD’s Chief Ben Raynor. Phillips explained that the truck belonged to Gervais’s employer and wasn’t stolen. Gervais picked Phillips up once he had the truck and headed toward St. Tammany Parish, where the pair was pulled over. Gervais, however, refused to speak with Chief Raynor or anyone else until he had an attorney. While Gervais waited for a public defender in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Phillips sat down at a desk nearby to record his written statement.

Gervais watched Phillips for a couple of minutes before summoning an officer. Now, Gervais wanted to sign his own rights waiver and speak to Chief Raynor. The chief was surprised, to say the least, when Gervais entered his office and said, “We did it. We killed him.” Pearl River police were investigating the case as a stolen vehicle incident, not a homicide. Now, Gervais wanted to confess to murder, saying he didn’t want “to take the rap.” Gervais had convinced himself that Phillips had already confessed and was attempting to place the blame on Gervais.

Chief Raynor started his tape recorder and read Gervais his Miranda rights again, which Gervais verbally waived before confessing to Andre Daigle’s murder. Afterward, Gervais led police to the apartment where he and Phillips murdered Andre, and then to a swampy area off exit 7 of Interstate 55 between Laplace and Manchac. Officers located Andre’s “beaten and strangled body” there, “stuffed inside a sofa.” Gervais “showed no remorse,” and it appeared to officers that his crimes “didn’t bother him.” Back at the station, Gervais wrote a nine-page statement. He and Phillips were charged with first degree murder and turned over to Jefferson Parish police.

Listeners beware! More than one source, including TV documentary coverage of this case, claims that Michael Phillips also confessed to Andre’s murder the night he and Charles Gervais were arrested. This is not true. Only Gervais confessed, mistakenly thinking that Phillips already had. 

Accomplice

In his confession, Gervais named 22-year-old Thelma Horne as an accomplice. This was the same Thelma who Andre left the bar with the night he disappeared. Gervais, Phillips, and Horne shared a two-bedroom apartment on Idaho Street in Kenner. Horne and Phillips shared one of the bedrooms, and it appears that they were dating, but I couldn’t find a good source to confirm this. The trio had already been warned of an impending eviction and had no way to make rent. Between the three of them, they had only one vehicle and it ran poorly.

To solve their financial problems, Gervais and Phillips hatched a plan to rob and kill someone, and they enlisted Horne to seduce a man back to their apartment for that purpose. But their plan didn’t stop there – after killing their victim, they would use his money to buy guns and then drive to Texas in his vehicle. There, the two men planned to “take over a prostitution ring and possibly join the Mafia.” Gervais said that the crime was more of a “test of nerves.” He said, “We used the excuse of money, but Andre really didn’t have any money. I think the reason was so that Mike and I could prove to each other that we could do it.”

Plan into action

Tammy Slaughter, a friend and neighbor of Gervais, Phillips, and Horne, recalled the events around the time of Andre’s murder for investigators. On Tuesday, June 9, Tammy spent the day with her three friends watching television at their apartment. All of them went to Tammy’s nearby apartment, which Tammy shared with her mother and sister, for dinner.

At about 6:00pm, Horne borrowed some clothing from Tammy’s sister and went out. At about 9:30pm, Horne returned and had a private conversation with Phillips outside, after which they left together. Authorities believe that’s when Phillips drove Horne to Mitchell’s Lounge, where she encountered and then left with Andre Daigle. At 10:00pm, Gervais left Tammy’s apartment for his own, following her mother’s curfew for guests. A little after midnight, Horne returned to Tammy’s apartment once again, this time asking to use her telephone. Tammy told Horne no because of her mother’s rules about visitors after 10:00pm, and Horne left without argument.

Gervais and Phillips murdered Andre Daigle in their apartment sometime that night by hitting him in the head several times with a claw hammer they found in a toolbox in Andre’s truck. After that, they strangled him with multiple items from around their apartment, including a wire coat hanger, an electrical cord from a lighting fixture, and a vacuum cord, which they “twisted around his throat until he finally died.”

Next, Gervais and Phillips wrapped Andre’s body in a curtain and placed him inside their maroon-colored sofa, which they had already hollowed out for that purpose. They nailed wooden slats across to keep Andre’s body inside, pushed the sofa against a wall, and turned their air conditioning down low to reduce any detectable odor from decomposition.

When investigators pulled Andre’s body from the sofa that Gervais and Phillips dumped in the swamp, he was still wrapped in a curtain and wearing the same clothes he had on when he was last seen at Mitchell’s Lounge. Autopsy results confirmed that Andre had died from being beaten in the head at least 10 times with a blunt object and strangled.

Suspicious activity

At about 10:00am the next morning, Tammy Slaughter returned to her friends’ apartment. She noticed that it was very cold inside the apartment, but Gervais explained that they were “checking the antifreeze.” Tammy noticed their sofa had been moved as well, but she didn’t mention it. Gervais and Tammy sat on the sofa to watch television together for about 15 minutes before Phillips and Horne came downstairs to join them. Only Tammy was unaware that she was sitting on top of a dead body. She left the apartment about 45 minutes later.

Timothy Kerns, the apartment manager and maintenance man, also paid a visit to Gervais, Phillips, and Horne’s unit the morning of June 10. The apartment owner told Tim that the unit was vacant and sent him to clean and paint it. When Tim noticed Phillips’s car parked out front, he knocked on the door, but then let himself in when no one answered.

Like Tammy, Tim noticed that the apartment was “rather chilly.” Horne came downstairs shortly after Tim entered the apartment, rushing Tim back out saying she also had to leave. Horne explained that Phillips was in court and would have the rent payment when he returned.

In fact, Phillips and Gervais were driving around to different pawn shops in Andre’s truck attempting to sell off his tools for cash. When they returned later, they asked to be allowed to stay in the apartment until Friday, June 12.

Tammy returned between 6:00 and 7:00pm that night, noting that the apartment was still freezing cold. Gervais, Phillips, and Horne were getting dressed to go out. All four friends left together, with Tammy in her own vehicle, and the other three in a Ford pickup truck that Tammy didn’t recognize. When she asked about it, Horne told Tammy that they were borrowing it from a friend.

Tammy was back at the apartment around midday on June 11. Horne was the only one home and told Tammy that they were being evicted. Tammy noticed that the temperature in the apartment was back to normal, but their sofa was gone and there was a red spot on the carpet under where it had been. Tim Kerns also returned to the apartment on June 11, when he saw Gervais and Phillips moving furniture out of the apartment using a pickup truck. Later, Tim would find a lamp they had left behind with an electrical cord missing.

Unique justice

Having already confessed, and having his motion to suppress his taped and written confessions denied, Charles Gervais entered a guilty plea and received a sentence of life in prison. At his arraignment, Gervais “repeatedly shouted obscenities” at court officials and had to be removed from the courtroom.  Prior to sentencing, Gervais filed an unsuccessful lawsuit arguing that authorities were denying his rights to religious freedom. Specifically, Gervais claimed that he was prevented from conducting Satanic rituals in his jail cell.

Meanwhile, Michael Phillips and Thelma Horne entered not guilty pleas and headed to court together. While preparing for trial, investigators contacted Rosemarie Kerr, the psychic who provided Andre Daigle’s family with information that led them to drive toward Slidell and encounter Gervais and Phillips in Andre’s truck, leading to their arrest and Andre’s discovery.

Rosemarie provided investigators with details they say weren’t in the public record that she couldn’t have known at the time, describing his head injuries and specifics about the area where he was found. District Attorney W. J. LeBlanc interviewed Rosemarie as well. He determined that Rosemarie was a compelling fact witness whose evidence needed to be presented to the jury. She testified on February 4, 1988 – it was her first time in New Orleans and the first time in US history that a psychic took the stand. I couldn’t find another example of this – listeners let us know if you know any others, but Rosemarie may be the first and ONLY psychic to have testified in court.

The trial ended the next day. Phillips changed his plea to guilty to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. The jury of nine women and three men returned a guilty verdict for Horne. She had been indicted for first degree murder but only convicted of second degree and received a life sentence.

Unsuccessful appeals

Gervais’s first appeal was denied in January 1989. He argued that Pearl River police “tricked him into violating his right to remain silent.” Gervais claimed that officers told him Phillips was confessing to Andre Daigle’s murder and placing the blame entirely on Gervais. Out of fear, Gervais waived his rights and confessed.

However, officers say they didn’t interrogate Gervais after he requested an attorney or use “compelling influence” to manipulate him into waiving his rights or confessing. In fact, police didn’t even know there was a murder for him to confess to, and Phillips never mentioned Andre Daigle or a murder in his statements to police that first night. Officers did ask Phillips sit at the desk to write his statement, in view of Gervais, but the court couldn’t classify that as police interrogation, therefore, it didn’t violate Gervais’s Miranda rights. No one told Gervais what Phillips told police, and Gervais “intelligently and knowingly relinquished his rights.”

In June of 1989, one year after the murder, Gervais would have his second appeal denied, this one filed along with Phillips and a third defendant, Thomas Ponder. This appeal was related to the robbery of Jack Cappell’s home in New Orleans, during which the three men stole guns, jewelry, and cash. Two of the stolen guns were located with Gervais and Phillips in Andre Daigle’s truck when they were arrested.

All three had plead guilty to the burglary, but Phillips now argued that police had no reasonable cause to stop the truck that night and no cause to search it. Gervais argued that the confession and evidence he provided later that night were fruits of an illegal stop and search. Of course, we already know how Pearl River police officer Thomas Corley came upon the truck, how Gervais engaged Corley in a high-speed chase, and how Corley easily spotted the two handguns sitting on the passenger floorboard of the truck because Phillips left the passenger door open while exiting.   

Thelma Horne filed an appeal in 1989 as well. Like Gervais and Phillips, she had been given a life sentence of hard labor with no possibility of parole. Horne argued that there was not enough evidence to justify her guilty verdict and was seeking a new trial. Her chief contention was the fact that Gervais and Phillips plead guilty and agreed to testify against Horne to avoid the death penalty, but they refused to answer questions on the stand.

Regardless, the court determined there was enough evidence from other witnesses, like her friend Tammy Slaughter and Andre’s friend Nick Shelley, to prove Horne participated in the robbery that resulted in Andre’s murder, and that she “knowingly [and] willingly provided Phillips and Gervais with their victim.” Further, Horne’s actions aided and abetted Andre’s murder, even though she didn’t physically kill him herself, making her guilty of his murder on principal.

Horne also argued that a new trial was needed because District Attorney W. J. LeBlanc had prejudiced the jury, particularly in his opening statements when he described Andre’s murder in brutal detail and said that Horne was the one who picked Andre out to die. The court wasn’t convinced that a new trial would result in a different outcome regardless of the DA’s choice of words, noting that the evidence that ultimately convicted Horne would remain the same. Horne died in 2011, at age 46, after serving a little more than 20 years of her sentence.

Reformed?

In 1999, the National Catholic Register ran an odd article spotlighting Charles Gervais for his religious artwork. The man who had once sued the state of Louisiana over his right to conduct Satanic rituals had apparently “embraced the Catholic faith in prison.” He painted a 6 ½ foot by 4 ½ image of Our Lady of Fatima from his jail cell, an image that some church officials praised because it “calls on people to reform their lives” and is proof of “conversion and penance.” A Catholic organization honored Gervais by displaying his painting at one of their shrines in New Jersey.  

Gervais was interviewed when his painting was presented to the organization, and he shared that he had a 15-year-old son. If that’s true, that means Gervais had a three-year-old son when he murdered Andre Daigle with plans to relocate to Texas and make a living by robbing people and pimping women. Gervais told the interviewer that his life of crime started when he ran away at 12 years old. He was “cared for by prostitutes” and developed an interest in the occult. Gervais claimed that his interest led to him starting his own cult, and that “he and his followers murdered a boy,” quite a different version from how he really ended up in prison for life.  

Lingering impact

Today, 36 years since the murder, Charles Gervais is 60 years old and still serving out his lifetime prison sentence in Louisiana. So is Michael Phillips, now 57 years old. If Andre Daigle had lived, he would be about 63 by now, and his family and friends have missed him dearly since the day he was taken from them. While his brother Chris had hoped to find Andre alive, he is satisfied that “at least we were able to find him and find the people who committed the crime.”

The Daigles and Louisiana law enforcement credited psychic Rosemarie Kerr with providing crucial information early in the investigation that prevented Andre’s case from becoming cold and unsolved. The investigators closest to the case believed in Rosemarie’s abilities and spoke highly of her contributions.

Rosemarie stayed in touch with Andre’s family and claimed that his spirit communicated with her several times over the years since she first made contact. Rosemarie passed away in 2015 at age 80. Whether our listeners believe in her psychic abilities or not, endless condolence posts on her online obituary speak to how many people she helped through her life’s work. In the end, just like the investigators on the case and Andre’s family, we can’t deny that she made a difference.

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