Deputy Benton Paul Bordelon, 25, of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana was shot and killed on April 16, 1977, in Fort Bend County, Texas. He was working a narcotics operation alongside a Louisiana State Police trooper and the meeting with a suspected drug dealer at a motel turned deadly.

Two men were arrested in connection with the killing. A 20-year-old was arrested about two weeks later and initially charged with capital murder; by July 17, 1979 the murder charge had been dropped and he was convicted of robbery and given a 20-year sentence. A 26-year-old identified as the gunman was captured by FBI agents in Portland, Oregon, on August 20, 1979; on October 7, 1981 the murder and assault charges against him were dropped and he pleaded guilty to robbery, receiving a 4-year sentence after prosecutors described the case on the other charges as too weak.

Bordelon had been with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office for ten months at the time of his death. Does anyone have memories of Deputy Bordelon or information about the motel meeting that might shed further light on the case?