THE PET CEMETERY MURDERS: A GHOST STORY

The Pet Cemetery Murders Unearths a Mystery That Refused to Stay Buried

It began with the murder of a woman who owned a pet cemetery.

Decades later, investigators would hear an even stranger story:

Her ghost wanted the case solved.

The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story is a three-part HBO documentary series exploring the 1985 disappearance and murder of Dorothy Lou Thompson in the rural bayou outside New Orleans.

Dorothy owned a pet cemetery built on land that local stories had long claimed was cursed.

Then she disappeared.

Her body was eventually discovered wrapped in chains in the Mississippi River, but investigators lacked the evidence needed to determine who killed her, and the case went cold.

More than two decades later, Detective John Doran reopened the investigation.

That's when things became considerably stranger.

A witness came forward claiming he'd experienced a terrifying encounter with Dorothy's ghost, which compelled him to reveal information about her death. Years later, another person reported being haunted by Dorothy and believed she was seeking vengeance.

Those accounts helped lead investigators deeper into Dorothy's past where they uncovered disturbing family secrets, multiple deaths and questions surrounding the history of the cemetery itself.

The investigation also reaches further back into the community, examining generations of violence and tragedy in a Louisiana landscape already steeped in supernatural folklore.

Featuring interviews with neighbors, law enforcement officials, journalists and scholars, The Pet Cemetery Murders explores the uncomfortable space between true crime and ghost story.

Maybe the dead can't speak.

But in this case, some people believe Dorothy found another way to be heard.

The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story premieres Sunday, October 11 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max, with new episodes arriving Sundays.