Back in the 1980s, Jody Plauché, who was just an elementary school student at the time, became the target of grooming and sexual abuse by his karate instructor, Jeffrey Doucet.
In February 1984, Doucet went a step further by kidnapping Jody and taking him across state lines to a motel located in Anaheim, California.
After that call, Jody was finally reunited with his family. Doucet, on the other hand, was taken into police custody and was on his way back to Louisiana to be tried for the serious crimes he was accused of committing.
But Doucet would never stand trial in a courtroom.
It was Gary Plauché, Jody’s father, who pulled the trigger. At the time, the scene was being filmed by the local news station WBRZ, which had cameras rolling during Doucet’s arrival.
Gary had positioned himself in the airport, blending in with the crowd. He wore a cap and pretended to be using a payphone. That’s when the cameras captured the exact moment he fired at Doucet.
Mikey wrote: “The cool thing about that is my father. My brother was the one kidnapped, but my father used to work for the same TV station.”
“He was cameraman so he knew when the camera came on he followed the light from the camera so he just followed the light that’s when he knew when to turn around and shoot.”
He was originally charged with second-degree murder, but ended up taking a plea deal. As part of that agreement, he entered a no contest plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
The court gave him a suspended sentence of seven years, along with five years of probation and 300 hours of community service.
Meanwhile, Jody opened up last year in an interview with the Mirror, where he reflected on how life has been since enduring such a traumatic chapter in his childhood.
“I wouldn’t trade my life.” he shared in the interview. “Knowing how it turned out, I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.”