The Murderer Next Door

The best thing that could have possibly happened to me finally happened! I’d been waiting for this day to come for so long now and let me tell you when it did I could hardly contain my excitement.

I probably looked like a little girl who just got told that unicorns were real and she was getting one.  Allow me explain, for those of you who don’t know I’m a huge fan of true crime murder type stuff; shows, podcasts, documentaries you name it that’s my jam.  I’m an avid listener to a podcast that is basically two girls who recount stories of murder and abduction.  I’ve seen pretty much every main stream true crime murder documentary out there and a ton of not so mainstream productions that I’m sure no one’s ever heard of.  I have a deck of cards from the 70’s that’s basically serial killer baseball cards…so let’s just say I’m somewhat interested in things of that sort.

So today when one of the straights (straights-a tawnyism to describe straight laced folk) that I work with heard me gushing about the murder podcast I listen to turned to me and said “you know I lived next to a murdered once” I LOST MY SHIT!

That’s right baby! Finally! I’ve been hoping and wishing that someday someone I know personally would tell me a story like the one I was told today and now here I am!

Now I’m going to tell you the story…..You’re welcome.

So this lady friend of mine said she lived next to a man who killed his wife.  She lived in Monahan’s, TX on a quiet street populated mostly by families with small children.  The house she lived next to must have been a parish for the Lutheran church in town.  Rev. Joseph Loduca jr. and his family moved into the house July 5^th and within a week his wife was dead leaving their two young children (5 and 7 I think) without a mother.  My lady friend said that she rarely saw the family outside and on the rare occasion she did the children always seemed to be clutching to their mothers leg, staying very close to her.  She never saw the kids playing in yard, not the front or back.

There was one day that my lady friends husband was mowing the lawn and Mary (Mary Helen Loduca) came over to ask if he would kill a tarantula on the wall on the outside of her house.  My lady friends husband came back and told his wife that Mary had her clothes on inside out and there was just something not right about her.  On the day of Mary’s death my lady friend can remember hearing and then seeing the ambulance pull up and then roll out a body on a gurney. Joseph said that his wife had committed suicide and my lady friend, being the good Christian woman she is, felt horrible for this poor family who just lost a wife and a mother.  So she did what most people do in times like these when condolences are only words that fall flat on mourning ears, she began to bring her neighbor food trying to ease the burden on this now single father of two.

She, being a very touchy feely type person, would pat him on the arm and offer her deepest sympathy, saying that if he ever needed anything, help with the kids ect…that she was right next door and would be more than willing to help in any way she could.  My friends husband got a phone call a few days after Mary’s death from police saying that they had seen my friend bringing food on several occasions and considering Mr. Loduca was under surveillance for the suspected murder of his wife that it would be best he told his wife to refrain any further contact with Mr. Loduca.

Mary was found in her bed with a trash bag pulled tightly around her head.  Her husband told police that she had committed suicide, saying that she had become despondent in the last few weeks.

Mary’s family pressed Clayton police (the loducas were lifelong residents of St. Louis and had lived in Clayton MO) for help saying that Mary would never commit suicide because of her religious beliefs.

The real kick start to the investigation was when the children were interviewed and said they heard their mom screaming on the day of her death.  Mary died on July 12^th 1986 and less than a few weeks later her husband was confessing to her murder as reported by The Galveston Daily News on August 3^rd 1986.

So yeah, my friend not only lived next to a murderer but she also went as far as to bring him casseroles, because we all know how hungry murders can get right?

Anybody else have any local stories of murders or missing persons? I would love to hear them!