“How far would you go?” is the big, bold question emblazoned on a bookmark that came tucked inside the book “My Brother’s Keeper: A Thirty-Year Quest to Bring Two Killers to Justice.”

The question alludes to just how far Louisiana businessman Ted Kergan went to bring his brother Gary’s killers to justice after Gary was murdered in 1984.

“My Brother’s Keeper” is a true and at times gruesome Louisiana crime story by veteran journalist Chris Russo Blackwood with twists and turns that will likely keep you reading it into the wee hours of the night.

Basically, the story is this: In 1984, Ted Kergan and older brother Gary owned a large number of Sonic Drive-In restaurant franchises around the state. The two men were not only brothers and business partners, but best friends. They spoke with each other on the phone several times a day.

But Gary, who was married, had begun a secret life Ted knew nothing about. Gary was frequenting a strip club in north Baton Rouge, some 10 miles from his home, and was spending time with a 19-year-old dancer and prostitute, Leila Mulla, who worked at the club. Mulla was unusual in that she was a one-time honor student and violin prodigy and was the daughter of a physician. Mulla lived with an older male companion named Ronald Dunnagan.

For whatever reason, Mulla and Dunnagan decide to kill Gary, who they knew to be wealthy and who they referred to as “Sonic Gary.” Mulla writes of their plans to “get Gary” in a journal she keeps. Gary is killed one night during a visit to the apartment that Mulla and Dunnagan share, but no body is ever found. Only Gary’s car, with lots of blood in the trunk, is recovered. And Mulla’s journal. And the evidence of a bloody encounter in the couple’s apartment.

But with no body, there was no concrete proof, and the murderers eventually went free.

Ted never let his brother’s murder go. For 28 years, he used his own time and resources to keep tabs on where Mulla and Dunnagan were, and what they were up to, even after the couple went their separate ways.

In 2012, the cold case was reopened. Ted jumped right in, able to assist in the case with all the information he had accumulated throughout the years. This time, advances in forensic technology brought some closure to Ted and Gary’s family.

The killers are both in prison now, but Ted still wants to know where his brother’s remains are.

Under questioning, Mulla said that Gary drank wine laced with poison the night he was killed, and that Ronald Dunnagan then smothered him and dismembered the body. Gary’s dismembered body was then put in plastic trash bags and deposited in a number of commercial waste containers around the city, she said — hence, no body.

For reasons you’ll read about, Ted and others are never fully sold on this theory. So for Ted, even now, there are still unanswered questions. 

Former Assistant Calcasieu Parish District Attorney Premila “Prem” Burns, who retired from the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office in 2015, is mentioned in the book as being part of this case.

Baton Rouge author Chris Russo Blackwood worked in journalism for 40 years. She is a Louisiana Women in Media Lifetime Achievement Award winner. This is her first novel.

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“My Brother’s Keeper: A Thirty-Year Quest to Bring Two Killers to Justice,” by Chris Russo Blackwood is published by WildBlue Press. The 260-page paperback costs $10.99.

“My Brother’s Keeper: A Thirty-Year Quest to Bring Two Killers to Justice,” by Chris Russo Blackwood. 

Special to the American Press