Paul Montgomery died on April 1, 1980 as the result of a gunshot wound. He was 22 years old and he was my brother. I was 10 years old at the time. It was originally classified as a suicide and then changed to undetermined cause of death. My mom tried to investigate and get the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office to investigate for years and even hired private detectives. My parents also appeared on the CBS Evening News about the case. If I recall correctly, the episode also addressed the shooting death of NOPD officer Greg Neupert, who happened to be in my brother's class in school, but the cases were completely unrelated. Other siblings have met with FBI agents and private investigators, all to no avail. I was watching Into the Fire - The Lost Daughter on Netflix the other night and they mentioned Websleuths helping with cold cases, so I thought I'd see if anyone would be interested in reviewing it. I don't have much hope after over 46 years of living with not knowing what happened, but thought I'd give this a try. I am attaching a summary of the case that I drafted. The worst thing about this, that makes it less likely that it will be solved, is that the police simply took his ex-girlfriend's word that it was a suicide at the time and didn't do any investigation. That's another thing that caught me in The Lost Daughter is when the biological mom said something like "this isn't a cold case, it's an uninvestigated case." That's the situation with my brother's case. I realize I am biased because he was my brother, but some conflicts in witness statements and the police report bother me. For example, at one point the ex girlfriend told the police she had put his gun on the dresser, then said she didn't know how it got there and that it could have been there all night for all she knew. The police report also said there was no sign of a struggle, but there was a broken bottle in the bathtub and a trash can knocked over, not to mention his aquarium was shot. The summary I drafted is attached and I have police reports and other reports I can attach if anyone is interested.
Last edited:
I do not know how to help you with all of this, but I am hopeful that some other people who know more ins/outs with cold case investigations and protocol will chime in and offer some assistance. The documentation you prepared was very easy for me to read and understand, and to me seems to be comprehensive "enough" to warrant further review and investigation by the mentioned authorities.
