Retired Detective Rodie Sanchez and Detective Aubrey St. Angelo are the focus of the Discovery documentary series, Killing Fields. The show follows their real-life attempt to solve a cold case in Iberville Parish, Louisiana.
Were other people in your families in law enforcement?
Rodie Sanchez: No ma’am. Probably most of my family was in the penitentiary, locked up in jail. I’ve always spoken the truth on that. I think I had one cousin who was in the NOPD and a cousin who was a state trooper, but immediate family? No, never. I was the first. I’m the black sheep of the family!
Aubrey St. Angelo: I understand that I’m third generation. My dad told me that my great, great grandfather or great, great, great grandfather was a city police officer.
Aubrey, on the show you mentioned that you wanted to purse a career in medicine. How do you feel about being a detective?
St. Angelo: I don’t have any regrets. None at all about my decision. The reason I wanted to go into medicine is because cancer took my mom from me and my brother at a young age. So, I was a bright-eyed kid who wanted to go cure cancer. How do you cure this evil disease that takes loved ones from people? But I don’t come from a prominent family and university finances weren’t available, so I needed to get a job.
Sanchez: I know he had to go through losing a mother so young and he practically had to raise his brother and take care of him, too. I’ve had my family, it’s a tremendous big family. A lot of them have had trouble and gone in the wrong direction, but my family is the most lovable thing in my heart. I put some in jail myself, but I still love them dearly, and they love me. I think.
The unsolved case that’s followed on this show weighs heavily on both of you. Are all cases like this?
Sanchez: All homicides are important to me, because it’s someone’s family members lying out there. Once you watch this show, you’ll see why Aubrey and I put our hearts into it.
What if your son or grandson came to you and said, “I want to be a detective”?
St. Angelo: You don’t want to be like me. That’s what I tell him. To do our job, it’s not your 9 to 5. You digest so much and see so much, that wears on your body. You try to put it in a little filing cabinet in the back of your head, but that filing cabinet overloads after a while and gets left open sometimes if you don’t close it all the way. My son wants to play professional baseball or be a Navy SEAL. I’d love for him to be a Navy SEAL.
Sanchez: I don’t think my grandson will ever want to be like me. His dad is a fanatic with 18-wheelers, and that’s his job. He runs a trucking company. I don’t know what he wants to do, but right now he’s so proud of his dad, he wants to be like his dad. But whatever he does, I’ll back him up. But would I like to see him come to law enforcement? No.
How do you think people back home in Louisiana will react to you being on television?
Sanchez: I know me and I know Aubrey. I don’t want to go back home and be famous. Tell me I did a good job and let me go back to work and do what I need to do.
St. Angelo: I think people will say, saw the show. Good job.
As detectives, what has been the most important lesson you’ve learned?
St. Angelo: Trust. You learn you cannot trust everybody. You learn that trust is an issue. You talk to people and they lie to your face. I’m not a human lie detector, but I’m very proud of the fact I study everybody and see how nervous they are when they talk to me. I put my training to work.
Sanchez: Life. How important life is, because you see death in our line of business. We rarely see anything good, and when you go out to a crime scene, it makes you want people to see that, because life is the most important gift God gave us. It shows you how important life is.
St. Angelo: I carry two things with me every day. One is my little boy’s information, and one is [a tag that reads] life is certain and death is not. It’s a saying. I picked it up somewhere and I carry with me.
Sanchez: I don’t want to be anything but a flat foot cop. All I want to do is help people. I think this is the best way I could ever do it — getting a job and being a detective.
Killing Fields goes inside a real-life case that went cold nearly two decades ago in the small community of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, just 15 miles from the state capitol, Baton Rouge. Detective Rodie Sanchez made the decision to come out of retirement to re-open the case and partnered with Detective Aubrey St. Angelo. The two are joined by top-notch detectives at the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s office. For more information, visit www.discovery.com
