Gary Plauche’s son Jody was just 11 years old when he was stolen by his karate master Jeff Doucet, who, like many molesters, pushed the boundaries with Jody, preparing him for abuse. Doucet assaulted the youngster repeatedly before grabbing him and bringing him to Disneyland.
Jody was abused when he was just ten years old. Jody’s hand flew up when Doucet asked which of his young athletes wished to learn to drive. Jody found himself seated on Doucet’s lap, piloting a 280Z. “But suddenly his hands were on Jody’s lap,” Jody said afterwards. Wondering to himself, “What’s going on here?”‘ Maybe it was an accident? As a result, Jody said nothing. But now he sees that his karate master was pushing the boundaries. Pedophilia as taught at school: They’re all pushing the limits.
The abuse escalated from there. Doucet would call a halt to practice and send the other kids to 7-Eleven for food. “I need to do some extra work with you, He’d then lead Jody into his rear room when the coast was clear.
Jody, afraid to tell anybody, would make up all sorts of reasons why he didn’t wish to attend his karate lesson instead. Doucet, on the other hand, would come up to Jody’s house and pull him away. June, Jody’s mother, feeling that coaches know best and believing Doucet, would allow her son to leave with the guy, never suspecting that her kid was being assaulted.
Suddenly, the unthinkable occurred. Jody was missing for ten days after Doucet put him on a bus from Port Arthur, Texas, to Los Angeles, California. When Doucet eventually allowed Jody to phone his mother on his own, the cops traced the connection to an Anaheim hotel. Jody was finally returned to his parents, but his father, Gary, was devastated when he discovered what had happened to his kid. Doucet sodomized Jody when he had him in Anaheim, according to a rape kit. This was too much for the dad to bear. So he devised a strategy to get revenge on his son.
Doucet went off an aircraft and entered the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, airport with a sheriff escorting him and television cameras filming as he was being extradited. Gary Plauche stood near a bank of payphones, holding a.38-caliber snub-nosed pistol in his right boot. Gary was conversing on the phone while facing the wall. “Here he comes,” Gary said quietly to Jimmy, his closest buddy. “A shot is going to be fired.” The dramatic tableau that followed was recorded by the rolling news cameras.
Gary Plauche wasn’t faking it. From only three feet away, he grabbed for his revolver, swung around, and shot a hollow-point bullet into Jeff Doucet’s head. He then put his pistol down and hung up the phone. “An unidentified individual shot Jeff Doucet at the airport,” the news announcer said as Gary’s wife June switched on the television at the Plauche home. June had no clue what her husband was up to that day, but after hearing those remarks, she had a fair notion. Her knees weakened, and she collapsed onto the carpet.
Doucet was dead in 24 hours, and Gary was in jail—but not for long. Fortunately for Gary, and maybe unexpectedly for the rest of us, a court determined that Gary posed no danger to the community, and his sentence reflected that. Gary Plauche was released from prison. He got a suspended sentence of seven years, five years of probation, and 300 hours of community service at his local church, largely mowing the lawn. His family’s response to what he had done was arguably worse than any term in prison.
“You realize you’re going to hell for this, right?” June told her husband about the moment she saw him behind bars after he shot Doucet. Gary merely said that he understood. Gary’s kid was also enraged—at his father. Jody Plauche subsequently stated that he didn’t want him dead. All he wished was for him to stop. Jody went on to be a four-sport letterman in high school, but his most significant accomplishment is teaching parents how to protect their children from pedophiles like Doucet via his work at a victims’ assistance center in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
He had a letter once from a mom who said that she told her daughter that if anybody ever touches her improperly, it’s not murder. It’s even more heinous than murder. That destroys a child’s spirit. So, what should that little girl say if she is ever molested? Jody Plauche posed a rhetorical question. She does not want her soul to perish. As a result, she doesn’t inform anybody. Jody claims that his father made the same error. He was too terrified to notify his father about the abuse, as he was worried his father would murder the guy.
Jody added that his father was just too severe. He used to say that if someone ever hurts his baby, he’ll murder him. He wasn’t joking; Jody knew. That is why Jody was unable to tell anybody. And that’s just what he did, he continued. His father went to the airport expecting to die, as Jody revealed. He said that either Jeff or him will die that night. As a result, Jody Plauche, as an adult, talks often about child sexual abuse and advises parents not to use excessive language when discussing sexual abuse. It’s not right to take someone’s life, Jody said, but when someone’s that awful a person, it doesn’t upset one that much in the long run.
June, his mother, has a different perspective. “Are you serious?” “Do you know how many children were not abused because he is no longer alive?” she inquired. Gary, on the other hand, didn’t say anything until the very end after having a stroke. He has since passed away, yet he remembered right up until the end. Gary Plauche and his son were traveling along about a year after killing his son’s rapist when Jody began to shake. He’d just seen a guy who looked just like Jeff Doucet. Shaken, he informed his father that he really believed it was his abuser. “He knew it wasn’t,” his father said bluntly after a little pause.
