New Orleans unsolved is a podcast that began in 2020 examining the unsolved murder of a young boy, Eddie Wells, in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans during the 1980s. Eddie's life was full of hardships, and when his body was pulled from the Mississippi river, he was depicted as a "hustler," or male prostitute in the French Quarter, despite only being 17 years old at the time of his death. However, the term "hustler," downplays the reality that Eddie was a victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking starting at an early age.
What began as a podcast about one unsolved case soon turned into a podcast about several similar cases which could all be linked back to one man, former NOPD child abuse detective, Stanley Burkhardt.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/new-orleans-stanley-burkhardt-bail-reduction-denied
https://www.scsaorg.org/stanley_burkhardt
Recently, stories about the payouts to survivors of sexual abuse by the New Orleans Archdiocese, and documentaries, such as Scout's Honor, have touch on some of the overlap between victims of these child abuse networks. However, their connection to Burkhardt, as well as many of the details uncovered by the podcast have received frustratingly little attention.
Despite the clear danger of doing so, Burkhardt was released from prison in 2024, and recently re-arrested for once again violating his parole this past summer. To my own horror, despite listening to this podcast for the past few years, and following updates about Burkhardt, I learned after the fact, that before he was re-arrested, Burkhardt had been working at the local grocery store in my neighborhood.
Had I known this, I definitely would have taken more precautions considering my own child frequently visited the store while he was working there. However, it turns out when Burkhardt's own coworkers were asked if they had been informed about his dangerous history with children and his abuse of his position of authority, even they were completely unaware.
The podcast has been self-funded by the host and donations from listeners throughout its entirety, and somehow, despite all the evidence uncovered by local journalists and the host of the podcast, as well as the wild twists and turns she's discovered while investigating these murders, such as the undeniable overlap between the plot of the TV show True Detective and several cases related to Burkhardt, (It turns out, in addition to being a narcissist and a pedophile, writings left behind in Burkhardt's prison cell after his release in 2024, indicated he also enjoyed writing "fiction." However, in his fictionalized version of events, the detective was usually the hero who made the big break and saved the day.), it remains relatively unknown.
It's a bit convoluted trying to re-explain how eerily so many details behind decades of forgotten cold cases line up with a "fictional" TV show that aired years ago, but I highly recommend listening to this podcast (as a warning, some of the content is very graphic and very upsetting to hear). Much of the information uncovered has been added the long list of evidence against Burkhardt, but it still continues to receive very little attention, even at a local or state level. However, it's important to note, even when these crimes were being actively committed, many attempts to seek justice by survivors of Burkhardt's abuse and family members of the deceased victims, led to dismissal by authorities (often due to stigma at the time regarding sexual abuse and rumors which may have intentionally been spread about the lifestyles of the murder victims), missing evidence, and several other mysterious dead ends.
To give you an example of how unknown this podcast and the very serious charges against Burkhardt have somehow remained even at the most local level, I mentioned it while getting a haircut a few months ago when Burkhardt was most recently re-arrested. The lady cutting my hair had never heard of the podcast, or the connection between the murders, but she had grown up in the same neighborhood outside of the French Quarter, and actually knew Stanley Burkhardt when he was a detective working the Quarter.
That's just to say, please feel free to share the podcast, and information about these murders and Stanley Burkhardt, wherever you feel is appropriate. The victims and their families deserve justice. Even if Burkhardt is finally locked away for good this time, and unable to hurt anymore children, there seems to be no reason to believe that all the powerful networks he was involved with ever stopped commiting crimes. More likely they've just gotten better at hiding in plain sight.
Absolutely devastated. I'm sorry your mom got angry with you when you asked her. I don't know her, so I don't say this to try and excuse her behavior, but a lot of times people react in defensive and inappropriate ways when they hear something that's truly scary and they don't want to allow themselves to even think about it. Or it could be she worries about how it reflects on her.
I had a similar relationship with my mom when I was younger, and when I told her stuff like that, she usually also got mad at me and didn't believe me/thought I was being dramatic. I didn't realize it at the time, but she was a big part of why I ever felt that way to begin with.
I hope you can remember your own value isn't implicitly tied to her (or anyone's) opinion of you, and that your feelings are always valid. Sometimes it can be hard to really sort through and process your feelings and emotions, especially when the person that's supposed to teach you how to do that, isn't really setting the best example.
I find it helpful to just take some time (maybe 10 mins) every day or a few times a week, and just write in a notepad all your feelings. Just let them come forward without censoring yourself or worrying about how it sounds. You don't have to go back and read it, and it doesn't have to make sense. You can delete it as soon as you're done and it's just a way to let it out and label your emotions when you can't verbally express how you feel.
If you find yourself activated or really upset after writing (or anytime) and you're willing to give it a try, there are a lot of somatic breathing and stretching videos that can help calm your nervous system down when you're in an activated state.
https://youtu.be/5XntUJOVZfc
It can feel kinda silly and woo woo at first, but it can be pretty surprisingly helpful.