Showtime Documentary Films released the trailer for “Murder in the Bayou,” its first true-crime docuseries.
Inspired by Ethan Brown’s best-selling novel of the same name, the five-part docuseries investigates the unsolved murders of eight women whose bodies were discovered between 2005 and 2009 in drainage canals and on back roads in and around the town of Jennings, Louisiana, in rural Jefferson Davis Parish.
“Jennings puts a curse on you. Either you gon’ make it, or you gon’ fall into that grave,” a woman says in the opening of the trailer, which you can watch above, and was revealed at the Television Critics Association’s Summer Press Tour on Friday. “The girls, they didn’t deserve what the hell they got.”
“What the f— is really going on in this town?” another woman asks.
Showtime describes the series as examining the lives of the young female victims — and the violent sex and drug trade they were a part of — to uncover the secrets of this troubled town lurking just below the surface. These discoveries lead to even more shocking revelations in the “Jeff Davis 8” case, exposing corruption, bad actors and institutional injustices that have left the citizens of Jennings still searching for the truth.
“‘Murder in the Bayou’ chronicles one of the most shocking and gruesome series of killings in America that went virtually unnoticed until a proper investigation almost a decade later,” Vinnie Malhotra, executive vice president of nonfiction programming at Showtime, said. “Sadly, the context of this case has much to say about the perils of the disenfranchised in our society.”
Matthew Galkin (“Kevorkian”) directs and executive produces along with Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn and Ethan Brown. Joshua Levine is a producer. The series is a co-production of Fairhaven and Motto Pictures for Showtime.
“Murder in the Bayou” premieres September 13 at 9/8c on Showtime.