September 25, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, Kiran Chawla sits down with the father of Allie Rice, Paul, as they discuss where the investigation into Allie’s murder is three years after the LSU student was tragically murdered in downtown Baton Rouge.
Chapters
02:04 Paul Rice Shares His Pain
11:46 Investigating the Night of the Incident
13:10 Theories and Rumors Surrounding Allie's Death
19:52 The Impact of Unsolved Cases
26:04 Keeping Allie's Memory Alive
39:30 The Incomprehensible Nature of Loss
41:27 The Long Road of Grief and Hope
Local Sponsors for this episode include:
Neighbors Federal Credit Union:
Another Chance Bail Bonds:
Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers
Sound and Editing for this audio podcast by Envision Podcast Production:
Chapters
02:04 Paul Rice Shares His Pain
11:46 Investigating the Night of the Incident
13:10 Theories and Rumors Surrounding Allie's Death
19:52 The Impact of Unsolved Cases
26:04 Keeping Allie's Memory Alive
39:30 The Incomprehensible Nature of Loss
41:27 The Long Road of Grief and Hope
Local Sponsors for this episode include:
Neighbors Federal Credit Union:
Another Chance Bail Bonds:
Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers
Sound and Editing for this audio podcast by Envision Podcast Production:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Three years ago, twenty one year old Ali Rice, a
(00:44):
vibrant LSU student, was shot and killed while waiting in
her car at a train crossing in Baton Route. Her
life ended in just a few moments, ten bullets, no answers.
Three years later, her family, friends and community carry the
(01:06):
weight of what is missing, the laughter, the future, the
everyday moments stolen. Her father remembers how they still reach
for the phone to tell her something, only to realize
she is not there. In this episode, we explore the
(01:27):
ongoing investigation, the heartbreak of unanswered questions, and the way
a life lost continues to shape a city craving for justice.
I'm Karen Challa and this is Louisiana Unfiltered, and this
week we are taking you deeper into Ali Rice's story.
(02:05):
Welcome back everybody. This week we are joined by Paul Rice. Paul,
you and I go back unfortunately three years now, and
I will never forget meeting you. There's some stories that
stick with you, and unfortunately we did not meet under
the best circumstances. Paul Rice is the father of Ali Rice.
(02:27):
Last week made three years since Ali was killed. Thank
you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
What have the last three years been like?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I can tell you it hasn't changed much since the
day after it happened. You know, we're still I guess
in shock, We're still in pain. We still all have
an empty void in our heart. I think sometimes we
still forget that it happened. You know. In some cases,
(03:04):
something will happened during the day and oh man, Ali
would love that. I can't wait to call her and
tell her and then oh yeah. But you know, at
the same time, you've got that feeling, that that dark
cloud hanging over There's so many positive memories that show
(03:24):
up as well, you know, and that comes through her friends,
you know, the social media tributes that are constantly there.
We see her videos, we hear songs that she used
to love, you know, just we even see the spirit
in one of my recently born nieces. You know, just
(03:45):
so much of her smile and her personality, even just
a few months old, screams Alli. You know. So you
know we are able to see her light still everywhere.
But it's you know, we just miss her terribly, and
to go through three years with no answers and not
really any closer to having a soft case than we
(04:08):
were the day after, you know, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Well, and I personally did not know Alie. I feel
like I have gotten to know her through what you
have told me, through what when a Brant Susie, your
sister Greenier has told me what I've learned from her friends.
And Ali was that person who could walk into a
room and you're all of a sudden up and jumping
around and enjoying life. And that's where that slogan came in.
(04:37):
Live like Alli, right. Not only that you purposely chose
the color yellow to represent her because it's a lively color.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Correct. Correct? Yeah, she was the bright light in the room.
I mean, you could have a you could have Thanksgiving
dinner and everybody's just kind of sitting around, you know,
nobody's really talking to each other. Well, Ali comes in
the room. No, there's She's dancing in the middle of
the living room. She's singing, she's cracking up, she's picking
on somebody, you know, and it just gets everybody stirred
(05:07):
up and energetic. And you know, it's just how she was.
It didn't matter what the event was, you know, she
she always had a well timed joke, you know, whether
you really wanted to hear it or not at that moment.
But it wasn't always appropriate. But you know, but that's
that's just who she was. That's what we missed. It
was just our family lost. It's like we had the
(05:30):
batteries pulled out whenever she whenever she left us, that
that energy was gone. Yeah. You know, her brothers they
have they have their own personalities, they have their own energy.
It's not it's not what Ali brought to the table.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, and every child is different.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So for our podcast audience, they have not ever heard
from you. We've talked about the case. I don't want
to re hashit too much and bring back the pain,
but if we can, let's at least go through some
of the information. September sixteenth, and this is one thing
(06:14):
that I think is very very important to talk about.
It was about two fifteen in the morning on Government Street,
right before the railroad tracks. She did not want her
friend to close up alone.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Correct. She had been out with a couple of friends
that night at b Arcade, their own Government Street, kind
of right across from Catholic High School and about you know,
somewhere between one thirty and one forty five. Most of
the friends had left and she had driven herself there,
but uh, you know, closed down at two o'clock. She
(06:49):
didn't want her friend London to have to walk out
of the building by herself, or be in the building
by herself while she was you know, going through the
closing procedures and everything. So she stayed sat there and
talked to her and cut up with her, probably danced
in film videos knowing her. But yeah, so they walked
out of the building together at two fifteen. She got
(07:11):
in her car, London got in her car. They drove
off separate directions, and four minutes later we know what happened.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
She was headed back to LSU. Yes, that's because that's
where she was staying.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
She had an apartment off campus on right side where
she stayed.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
She's at the railroad tracks and kind of, like you said,
we all know what happened. Gunfire erupted, ten bullets.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Can that hit her, YEP, sixteen fired.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
She tried to reverse, she tried to get out of there.
And this is the part that gets a little muddy
that we don't know exactly what went down there. There
are no cameras on that part of Government Street that
would have captured any of this.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Correct, that was what we were told in the beginning.
We did find out probably a few weeks maybe a
month later, that there was some footage that was captured
from further back for the back the direction that she
came from. Police didn't reveal this information for a long
(08:23):
time and we were asked to be quiet about it.
But probably about a year ago, you know, McNeely let
that out during an interview on the news, So it's
been common knowledge since. But they were able to see
what happened, but the footage was from too far back
(08:44):
for identification purposes. So some of the accounts of what
happened have been able to be substantiated to some degree,
but they're still you know, it's not irrefutable, you know,
So what the footage was a will to capture. They
they rolled it back to the time. If you recall,
(09:05):
there were some witnesses on the other side of the tracks,
on the other side of the train that had reported, right,
that had reported, you know, seeing two individuals walked through
the cars of the train, you know, while the train
had stopped, you know, moving slowly or whatever. They walked
(09:25):
through the through the tracks and according to them, they
said the timeline was maybe ten minutes later they heard
the shots. Well, what the cameras picked up, They did
see two individuals walking between the cars. They can it
was it was basically silhouette blob, right, you can just
(09:47):
see something as moving. It went in, you know, into
camera view as it walked through the trains, and then
it went out of camera view maybe a minute or
two later. Ali's car is driving up to the light.
Within seconds there's somebody comes into camera view from the
(10:11):
same direction that she was coming from and approaches her
vehicle and say that to say, we don't know, We
can't say with one hundred percent sure it was the
same two people because they went out of camera view.
Somebody came in from the other direction, so that maybe
they turned around, maybe it was somebody completely different, we
(10:31):
don't know, but her car was approached right up to
her driver's side window, and within seconds she slammed it
in reverse and tried to haul ass out of there,
and immediately they opened fire. So there's no evidence, you know,
that she rolled down the window or tried to communicate
with them in any way, because when they found her afterwards,
(10:53):
the door was locked or all doors were locked, windows
were shot out, but no evidence that they had been
rolled down or anything. So yeah, I mean, everything happened
within a span of seconds of her you know, hitting
that train crossed. She hadn't been sitting there for very
long from what the police have shared with me. They
(11:15):
offered us, of course, an opportunity to view the video.
I don't want to see it, you know. So yeah,
I mean, everything happened there very very quickly. But again,
because of where the location of the camera was, they
can kind of see how it went down, but you know,
(11:38):
but but cannot make out yeah, faces or even clothing
colors or anything like that.
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eight to one zero zero seven seven. And I remember
from our reporting we interviewed that witness. That witness was
absolutely terrified, but they wanted to come forward and say
(13:15):
something that could possibly help. And back then things were
a little different. It was a different administration with BRPD.
They wanted to sound the alarm that they tried calling
BRPD multiple times and it was falling on deaf ears.
We put out the report all of a sudden, they're
in touch with BRPD now. But since then, Paul, it's
been three years. We've heard all sorts of things. There's
(13:36):
a completely different new administration now within the bouton Roach
Police Department, and I want to try to go through
some of those theories. Let's say what you know as
the dead or three year conversations with the police department.
What is a possibility and what's just rumor. One of
the big theories we've heard is that this was a
(13:57):
gang initiation.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Believe that the police department stance on that right now
is still that it was not a gang initiation. My
sources that I talked to outside of the police department,
you know, people who were maybe a little more familiar
with the area and maybe some of the street life
and all of that, have said otherwise.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And I have the same information, and I've always been
told a young teenager fourteen fifteen about that age is.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yes, that I believe is what they believe, you know,
is the that's who our suspects are. And a lot
of the reasoning behind that just has to do with
the behavioral aspect of how the crime was committed. And
(14:49):
I look, I don't proclaim to be knowledgeable about the
streets at all. I'm just kind of spouting all things
that I've heard, you know, from the investigators and different
people who maybe have a little more experience. But the
words that I hear is that is not typical gang
behavior in the aspect of as far as going and
(15:14):
just totally destroying an innocent person. Now, it's not to
say they want robber, that they won't try to steal
her car, which you know, the consensus seems to be
that it was an attempted car jacking. That seems to
be what everybody believes right now. It's what I believe.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Because there was no evidence of a robbery or a burglary.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And I'm sure once they open fire on her their
best shots. Smartest thing to do is to get the
heck out of there, of course, you know, not try
to go. Okay, let me see if I can get
her purse now, you know, obviously you're not going to
go drive that car around anymore, you know. But yeah,
so it's it's the temperament of a younger person of
(16:02):
the level of immaturity there that would cause that type
of reaction because she either didn't cooperate or there's even
been speculation that when she threw it in reverse, that
maybe she ran over his foot, which pissed him off
and caused the violent reaction that occurred. I mean, of course,
we don't have anything to prove this theory, but based
(16:27):
on his approximate, you know, distance from her in the car,
very real possibility. But yeah, I mean I've heard from
other people. It's been that it was some type of
a gang initiation, or maybe not a formal initiation, but
(16:47):
maybe a youngster trying to get the attention of a
gang that they wanted to belong to, and hey, look
what we did, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, and one of the things and a lot of
what we're talking about. The reason it's not been set
out there is there's no proof, there's no corroboration, there's
no official or even credible sources saying yes, for a fact,
this happened. A lot of my information. Yes, they came
from credible sources, but they cannot confirm without a doubt
this is exactly what happened. Had anybody been able to
(17:18):
confirm that, obviously you would have this information, the case
would be solved.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
There's just not a lot of witnesses at two fifteen
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
No, And the pictures that the video that there is,
it's a silhouette the witness It was the same thing.
It was very not nondescriptive descriptions, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
But it is also the timeline that they presented didn't
line up with what they saw on the video, and
I think that's why their testimony or facts have been
discredited to some degree.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yep, which makes sense. But then the other thing that
I've heard, and this is this is something that can
be considered credible, but it's difficult to prove. Now, is
that a week or two later, I think early October
the fourth, fifth, sixth, something like that, a fourteen or
fifteen year old was gunned down in the same location.
(18:17):
From everybody I've heard of, that fifteen year old was
the gunman. But the problem is nobody's able to say
that for a fact.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I've heard that. Well, I remember when that happened. That
was my first thought as well. I believe it was
actually a sixteen year old and it was the terrorist
grocery store. Yeah, it was a few a few blocks
off from there, but close. Yeah, that was my first
thought initially, and it is something that I asked about.
(18:46):
I asked directly because the rumors that I was here
and that I was getting was either that he was
one of the gunmen or he knew and he was
going to snitch. It was you know, it was kind
of split as to one versus the other on that,
but who no one will confirm either way at this point.
(19:07):
When I asked the police the question about this particular incident,
the response was that they did not believe that it
was related. They had no evidence to tie it to
Ali's case in any way. That it appeared that appeared
to be a gang riff, you know, that spilled into
(19:28):
the streets there. It was something between two gangs. Something
that happened, and this was you know, either an act
of retaliation or something else. But yeah, to this day,
I think still there's a lot of the people out
there are still looking at that. As you know, a
(19:48):
potential answer if that is.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
The case, and just about everybody in law enforcement is
not able to say, yup, he's the one who did it.
As a father, what goes through you that you may
not get an official answer as to who did this
to your daughter?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, I'll answer that first with what Ali's mother says
all the time, And it makes perfect sense. Even if
we find out who did it, it's still not going
to bring her back. Yeah, And that that does keep
us grounded at some level here that if we don't
(20:33):
get an answer, what does it actually change now? I mean,
of course, we want to see these people come to justice.
We want to take them off the street so this
doesn't happen to somebody else's child. I don't know. I
mean I do think there's a level of pain that
will go away once there is an answer. I think
(20:56):
we'll all sleep a little bit better at night. I
think the people who live in that area will feel
better knowing that you know, whether this person's dead or
whether this person's incarcerated, they're off the streets. They're not
a danger to me anymore.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Are there other theories out there or other rumors out
there that we need to debunk? Or prove or anything
that you'd like to say while we're here.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
According to a Facebook comment or earlier this week, I'm
the number one suspect.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Oh okay, yeah, okay, why is that?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Well? According to this person, I don't cry enough in
my interviews. The commenters were going on a reason they've
never found them because they're looking in the wrong place.
That the assumption is because of where it happened, that
the streets are responsible. When it his mind, it's either
me or it's an inside job. There's also speculation that
(21:54):
there's cover up within the police department or within the mayor.
I've heard that one as well, that the killer or
somebody involved in it might have been related to one
of them, and that's why there's no movement and there's
no answers and all of that. But the come up
(22:15):
with some wild theories.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
What are your conversations with the police the mayor that
you can share with us over the last three years.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
So I don't speak with them as frequently now, you know,
as we did in the beginning, because I know what
answer I'm gonna get if I ask right now. But
they they have been good about being in contact with me,
you know. Chief Paul was you know, I know a
lot of people have opinions about him, but he was
wonderful to me and my family. He was He was
(22:47):
the first person to call me after all of this happened,
and I'm gonna tell you, the man was crying on
the phone as he was talking to me, like, you know,
this is not my city, this is We're not going
to stand for the you know, let me know whatever
you need, you know, And then he would call me
every two or three weeks just to check on me,
to make sure that the detectives were talking to me
(23:09):
and how can I help you whatever. You know, he
handled things wonderfully, you know. Mayor Broom, you know, she
called me within a couple of days and you know,
expressed her regrets. But I've done a lot of speaking events,
you know, since all of this happened. You have different
(23:30):
different events around Baton Rouge gear towards public safety or
talking about her case. And I've met Mayor Broom on
many occasions and she was you know, she would walk
up to me and hug me. I have a letter
that she wrote me during one of the events that
we did to both myself and Kathy Tolliver. She drafted
a little bit little letter while we were all sitting
(23:52):
there and handed it to me as she was leaving.
I still have that on my desk at work. It
was just the sweetest thing, you know, just stating how
proud of us that she was, for how strong and
how we were, you know, turning our tragedy into something
positive and fighting for the community and all of that.
(24:13):
So that's a piece of paper that I hold on too,
because that really meantalized me to receive.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That, and that does speak volumes. And you mentioned Kathy
Tolliver for our listeners, we've had Kathy and her daughter on.
Kathy Tolliver's grandson was three years no, he was and he.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Was eight year old. Three years old.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Three okay, Yeah, he was sleeping and gunfire erupted and
it was meant for the next door neighbor's house. One
of the bullets came straight through Kathy Tolliver's grandson's bedroom,
shot him in the head, shot and killed him immediately.
Kathy and you have become very vocal in the community
(24:53):
to stand up against crime, against gun violence, and your
daughter was a victim of that, the bent Rooge crime.
I guess your thoughts on that statement alone.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Well, first of all, let me tell you Kathy Tolerant
is an amazing person. She is driven, she is inspirational,
and she's got a lot of fire. Oh yeah. And
I keep telling the organizers at the different events where
we're both speaking at, please do not make me follow Kathy,
because I you know, while I'm certainly passionate about the subject,
(25:30):
you know I cannot match her energy and the strength
in her words. But you know she is phenomenal. But I
can tell you, you know, their scenario happened about six
months before hours and they're in the same amount of pain,
just like we are three years later. Like those wounds
(25:51):
have not healed and they're not going.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
To Nope, they have no answers either, right, and they
have a lot of theories out there on their case
as well, but same exact thing. There's no way to corroborate,
confirm it for a fact.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Well, tell me three years later, how are you in
the entire family in the community, are friends keeping Ali's
memory alive?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I can tell you for me personally. I mean, if
you stepped into my office at work, it's covered in
pictures of Alley everywhere. You know, I still wear my
yellow Live Like Alley shirts and my green one and
my pink one all the time. You know. We have
the bracelets that that we brought out shortly after you know,
(26:36):
everything happened, because we really wanted to make sure that
this case, you know, retained attention, that the public continued
to care, and which we know they did and they would.
But still, you know, you have that symbol. You walk
into the grocery store, you see the yellow bracelets. Everywhere.
You know, people are standing beside you, you know, and
(26:57):
I still see them to this day. You know, people
I don't know still walk up to me and say,
we still pray for you every day. You know, we
think about your daughter all the time. You know. So
it has not been forgotten, that's for sure. You know,
it's definitely still something that's that's front and center. I mean,
(27:20):
one thing I do, Hey, look i'm mail, you know,
go back to what the guy accused me of before.
I don't cry on the interviews that often. I'm generally
able to hold it together, but there are times that
I have to let all this out. And you know,
if anybody's ever seen my Facebook page, you know, there's
(27:41):
periodically you just you'll get like a humongous rant on
there something's eating on my mind, or think just something
that I want to say, or some memory comes up
about her, and you know, I just lay it all
out there. And I think I do think that people
like to see these things that I've heard the comment
(28:03):
so many times that I feel like Ali was my niece,
or you know, nobody really says feel like they're there
herd she's heard their daughter. But you know it's like
somebody that I knew, that, somebody that I know. You know,
a lot of people feel that way. So you know,
I think that that says a lot for our family
and how we've held ourselves, how we've presented her in
(28:27):
all of that, that we really have let the community
know who this child was. You know. In addition, when
the everything happened, of course, the first thing you got
to deal with as a funeral, right, we got a
lot of financial donations, which we did not ask for,
(28:50):
you know, certainly very appreciative for, but we had more
than enough to cover the funeral. And you know, instead
of pocketing that money, that's what we used to start
our foundation to live like Ali Foundation and you know,
we're we're still a little slow out the gates. It
took us a little while to get through the you know,
(29:12):
setting the business up with the state and getting the
nonprofit status and five O one C three and all
of that. But you know, we have been meeting regularly
and trying to pitch ideas and find out what our
next move is. And uh one of the things we
really wanted to do from the very beginning was start
a scholarship fund and we had hoped to have that
(29:36):
in place for uh, you know, this past may to
be able to award it, but unfortunately the timeline didn't
work out. But we will be launching that application process
at the beginning of next year, you know, with the
with the plans to award it. And that's something that
we want to do for as long as we can
raise the money to do it. You know, we want
(29:56):
to support you know, high school seniors taking it to
the next level, but we also want to know what
they how do they feel about their community, how how
has violence affected them, you know, what does it mean
to them to live like Ali? So making those the
topics of the you know, the writing that we want
(30:18):
to include with the application tell us, let us know
what our what's what's the state of our community, and
I think that'll help us figure out where we need
some help, you know what, what maybe we can do
as a small foundation too, you know, who can we
support or what what idea can we get out there,
(30:38):
So you know, it's definitely a lot of promise there.
We have also worked with another foundation locally to put
two cameras up in places that didn't previously have them,
one being the area where Ali was murdered, and the
other being at the Triple As Food Mart, which was
less than a block away from where Devin Page was murdered.
(31:01):
Where it is. That one that we placed at Triples
has actually solved multiple you know, helped in the solving
of multiple crimes over there, including the.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Murder of Montreal Jackson.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, when his father was i think attacked and beaten
in that area. It was all caught on camera and
they were able to identify who it was. But there's
also other things that they've been able to catch in
action or you know, at least from that general area,
see the people coming in and out and all of that.
So it's wonderful. I want to put more out we're
(31:38):
working with them right now to place more cameras in
Ali's name.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Good good, And I'll even add this part that there
are some stories that you go out and cover. We're
human reporters were humans as well that we go out
and cover. And I still remember I was actually out
of town when this happened. I remember waking up that
morning and figuring out what was going on, who it was,
(32:05):
And it took me several days. I had Susie's number immediately,
but I didn't have it in me to call her.
And I saw you guys were talking to everybody, But
it took me a very long time to actually be
able to have the courage to pick up the phone
and say, I know you just lost a loved one,
(32:26):
do you want to interview with me? As a reporter?
I think that's one of the hardest parts of this
job because you don't know how that family member is
going to react. You've lost a loved one, Are you
willing in the mood to talk to somebody? More than
likely you're not. A lot of times people do want
to say something because they want their person to never
be forgotten. But I remember talking to Susie and I
(32:48):
couldn't hold it together then to come to your house
and interview you. In fact, before we started, I was
saying this that you gave me a yellow rose, and
I'll never forget that it's sat on my window sill
until just very recently I try to pick it up
in it all disintegrated. It's also been three years it
finally fell apart. Ali's case, Devin Page. Certain cases that
(33:14):
go unsolved to stick with you, and it's not a
you or me the entire community. These are cases in
entire community. They want answers well.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
And I think part of the mindset that comes with
with both Devon's case and Ali's case is these these
were not kids that were out causing problems. These were
not kids that were somewhere that they shouldn't have been.
Devin was sleeping in his bed. That could have happened
(33:46):
to anybody, anyone, anyone that would have been sleeping in
that room right there. In fact, wasn't his sister or
young another sibling was there in the bed as well.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They were soon to be put to bed.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, okay, I couldn't remember that detail, but yeah, I
mean Ali's case, it could have It didn't matter that
it was Ali that was there at the train tracks
at that moment. Anybody else that would have driven there
at that moment would have had the same experience, and
that terrifies everybody.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
They're truly innocent bystanders. Absolutely, It's a little different when
it's like the sixteen year old you're saying, they didn't
get that much coverage. People will call it street justice.
It's very, very, very different. But these cases are the
ones that really stick with you, and as a community,
the community needs it solved. But I want to even
(34:38):
go further and say, I feel like law enforcement also
they want it solved.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Oh look, I'll tell you I've had very frank and
emotional conversations with the detectives that have worked the case,
you know, and as new people have come in and
out of it, this haunts them. They do not want
to leave this one and unsolved. Did they? Especially in
(35:05):
the beginning. I'm sure it's sleepless nights trying to figure
out what can I do next? How can you know?
What else can I look at? What did we miss?
You know? They I believe the emotion that I saw
in their faces and the words that they spoke to
me that they want this case of just as much
(35:28):
as we do. And it's not just for professional reputation reasons.
This hurts their heart.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yep. Well, it's a child, it's somebody's child, it's your child's.
There are many parents out there, there are many fathers
out there. Many of those ulcers are probably parents, and
they put themselves in your shoes that if this happened
to their child, they would want it solved as well. Absolutely,
you and I have had these conversations. You lose that
right to walk your one and only biological daughter down
(35:58):
the aisle.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that's very painful
right now, being at this three year mark. She was
twenty one when she was murdered. She was in her
senior year at LSU. We didn't get to see her
walk down the aisle. LSU did provide her with a
(36:24):
posthumous degree, and her mother and I were able to
walk across the stage and accept that for her, and
you know, we got a nice ovation and from the
people that were present, and a lot of hugs and
comments and stuff afterwards. It was a wonderful experience and
forever thankful to LSU for doing that for But yeah,
(36:48):
I mean since that time. You know, the friends that
she had, that she lived with, that she graduate would
have graduated with, that she hung around with during that time.
I'm framed. They're all twenty four now, twenty three, twenty four,
twenty five. What happens when you're at that age, You're
starting your career, you're getting married, you probably possibly having children's.
(37:15):
That's probably where we would be with Ali right now,
had she still been with us. And that hurts. I mean,
I look, I love her friends everyone, I'm proud of them.
I'm happy for them. They're all strong as well. They've
gotten through this, you know, fought the battle with us,
(37:36):
and I couldn't be more proud of them. But they
lost out too because Ali would have been a part
of that. Ali would have been in their weddings. Ali
would have been there at the hospital holding the baby,
you know, within hours of it being born, if not
sitting out in the waiting room while it was going on.
That's who she was. She would have been offering to babies,
(38:00):
said I'm coming over, I want to come and play
with the baby. You know. That was Ali. But yeah,
like you said, that was That was one of the
things that hit me very hard. In the beginning was
this was, this is the person I'm supposed to walk
down the aisle one day and give her away. I don't.
I don't get to walk my son's down the aisle.
(38:21):
You know, maybe maybe if I'm lucky a groomsman or something,
or you know, but now I don't. You don't walk
them down the outre. There's there's a difference. Any any
man out there knows there's a difference. And step daughters,
I mean, they're gonna walk with their daddy and then
rightfully so, and I'll be there in full support. But
(38:43):
that that was my one, you know, and let's look
at it. I mean, I'm talking about it from my perspective.
In her mother's perspective. You know, her mother and and
Ali's grandmother had one of the those phenomenal relationships. They're
the kind that get together every weekend, they're doing something.
(39:06):
They're always you know, off on some adventure or whatever.
She wanted. That with Ali, that's gone. That was taken
from her. You know, the opportunity to plan a wedding,
to to go pick out the dress, to go do
those things, to be in the delivery room, all of
(39:27):
that stolen because someone wanted her car. Make it make sense.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
It can't. It doesn't make sense, and it won't ever
make sense, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I I was thinking about this on the way over here.
You know, they're you pretty much don't get to hear
the story for a long after it happens, right you,
it's a okay, this happened, this person was killed. Maybe,
if you're lucky, a couple of weeks you're talking about,
arrests have been made, and maybe a couple of years
(40:10):
later they'll finally go to trial and we'll get justice
and whatever. That's the typical path on a lot of
these stories. But people don't know what happens during during
that time after. You might know about the funeral, but
you don't know what happens after the funeral. You don't
know about the constant years of therapy that family members
(40:34):
have to go through. You don't know the coping mechanisms,
excuse me, coping mechanisms that people get drawn to, whether
positive or negative, to try to deal with the feelings,
and all of that you don't know about. In the
case of an unsolved case like ours, the accusations that
(40:57):
are going on behind the scenes, the theories, the constant,
have you heard anything? Have you heard anything? You know?
People don't understand. We're not supposed to talk about our case,
not when it's an active investigation. There are details being withheld,
and they're so quick to blame the police for doing
nothing when you know that they are. They just can't
(41:20):
talk about it. And there's reasons for that. If you've
ever been involved in a case, you know that. But
there's there is that constant what you know? And with
the three year mark coming up last week, there were
the comments on the articles, why are we still talking
(41:41):
about this girl? Why are we Why aren't we talking
about this person? Why aren't we talking about this person?
I can tell you as as the father, of course,
I want her name to be out there. I want
her to be talked about. I'm not asking for these
interviews though they're coming to me. Don't get don't get
upset with me because they're not covering your relative or
(42:03):
your friend. Get out, get up and do something. Call somebody,
talk to somebody, be public, try to make a change.
They're gonna cut they'll they'll come to you.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Then you're right, And in this case, I reached out
to you.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
I think it's very important to keep Ali's name out there,
Devin Page's name out there. I do the same for
Devin every universary. I reach out to Kathy and I
will make a plea to the public, to our listeners.
If you know anything, it might be the smallest of tips,
call it in. Please, It's a simple call. If you
(42:44):
don't want to call it to bout and Reach police,
call it to crime stoppers. You can remain anonymous. Maybe
there's something heavy on your heart and you know something
and you weren't comfortable saying it three years ago, two
years ago, last year, but now all of a sudden
it needs to come off your chest. Call crime stoppers.
That that's all you have to do. You don't even
have to call. You can fill out a form, you
can text. There are so many ways to do this,
(43:06):
but your one tip could lead to an arrest, could
lead to something new being turned up in this.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Absolutely to closure. When the Nathan Millard event was going
on here in Matton Rouge, mean where they were searching
for his body and all of that, we had been
invited by the United Cajun Navy to come help out,
come come support. You know, hey, look, we want people
(43:35):
to get to know, you within our organization and there's
a lot of people here that you know, you might
be able to bounce some questions off whatever. And Kay
and I went. We spent the day with them, and
you know, we walked up and down the river, the levee,
you know, checking under everything. We saw a lot of
things that we thought we'd never see in life. But
(43:56):
you know, just the homeless out there and the homeless
camps and all those things. But my point to the
story is we went out in the neighborhood back off
of Government Street, I think around I don't want to
say any road names at this point, but within a
(44:16):
few blocks of the UH the site, and we had
an opportunity to talk to some of the people that
lived in the neighborhood, told them who we were, and
you know, to reminded them of the events this was.
This would have been probably out five or six months
after and you know, so obviously still fresh in their minds.
(44:38):
And ye know, there's a lot of a lot of
people had a lot of theories out there, you know,
and it's some of it sounded very plausible.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I went back with quite a bit of information to
hand back to the detectives and say, hey, look into this.
You know, these people are telling me where they live,
They're telling me what the kid was like, what the
age was, what their behavior was. They carried guns, they
terrorized people. So go look at these people. But that's
(45:15):
these people weren't coming forward to crime stoppers, they weren't
calling the police themselves to provide this information. Sometimes you
just got to drag it out of them. You got
to find a way to pull it. You got to
make a presence, you know, seeing you face to face,
they might open up a little bit. You know. We
did a walk through with the police department through. This
(45:37):
was after one of the events that we did, Kathy
and I had done and went, I mean nine o'clock
at night in the streets of North Byton Rouge. We're
knocking on doors. The police wanted to let them hate.
We're out here. Anything we need to look at. By
the way, this is Paul Rice. This is Ali Rice's dad.
If you know of anything, you know, we're still looking
(45:58):
for information and leads and all of that. You know something,
you got to go to them and get the information.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Sometimes absolutely, and one of my reasons for asking you
to come here is because it's not a quick one minute,
it is an hour. We can talk a little bit
about everything. But more than anything, you can make that
plea yourself to anybody who knows anything.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
If you know anything, even if you're not sure if
it's legit, let the police decide that. But anything is helpful.
Point us in a direction, give us some kind of
a clue, whether this person's dead or alive. You've got
the opportunity to provide this anonymously, and there's fifty five
(46:42):
thousand dollars it's still sitting out there for any information
that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person
or persons that murdered my daughter.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
We appreciate you coming on. I can't thank you enough
for coming on and opening up. And I know you
remain in my prayers, and I think I can speak
for many people out there as well, that you remain
in their prayers as well. And it's not just you,
it is her mom, it is your entire family. Thank you,
(47:18):
of course, to our listeners, we thank you for listening,
and we will see you on the next episode of
Louisiana Unfiltered.
This episode is brought to you by Dudley Devosure injury lawyers,
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(00:21):
four four four four four or visit Dudleydebosure dot com.
Three years ago, twenty one year old Ali Rice, a
(00:44):
vibrant LSU student, was shot and killed while waiting in
her car at a train crossing in Baton Route. Her
life ended in just a few moments, ten bullets, no answers.
Three years later, her family, friends and community carry the
(01:06):
weight of what is missing, the laughter, the future, the
everyday moments stolen. Her father remembers how they still reach
for the phone to tell her something, only to realize
she is not there. In this episode, we explore the
(01:27):
ongoing investigation, the heartbreak of unanswered questions, and the way
a life lost continues to shape a city craving for justice.
I'm Karen Challa and this is Louisiana Unfiltered, and this
week we are taking you deeper into Ali Rice's story.
(02:05):
Welcome back everybody. This week we are joined by Paul Rice. Paul,
you and I go back unfortunately three years now, and
I will never forget meeting you. There's some stories that
stick with you, and unfortunately we did not meet under
the best circumstances. Paul Rice is the father of Ali Rice.
(02:27):
Last week made three years since Ali was killed. Thank
you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
What have the last three years been like?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I can tell you it hasn't changed much since the
day after it happened. You know, we're still I guess
in shock, We're still in pain. We still all have
an empty void in our heart. I think sometimes we
still forget that it happened. You know. In some cases,
(03:04):
something will happened during the day and oh man, Ali
would love that. I can't wait to call her and
tell her and then oh yeah. But you know, at
the same time, you've got that feeling, that that dark
cloud hanging over There's so many positive memories that show
(03:24):
up as well, you know, and that comes through her friends,
you know, the social media tributes that are constantly there.
We see her videos, we hear songs that she used
to love, you know, just we even see the spirit
in one of my recently born nieces. You know, just
(03:45):
so much of her smile and her personality, even just
a few months old, screams Alli. You know. So you
know we are able to see her light still everywhere.
But it's you know, we just miss her terribly, and
to go through three years with no answers and not
really any closer to having a soft case than we
(04:08):
were the day after, you know, it's hard.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Well, and I personally did not know Alie. I feel
like I have gotten to know her through what you
have told me, through what when a Brant Susie, your
sister Greenier has told me what I've learned from her friends.
And Ali was that person who could walk into a
room and you're all of a sudden up and jumping
around and enjoying life. And that's where that slogan came in.
(04:37):
Live like Alli, right. Not only that you purposely chose
the color yellow to represent her because it's a lively color.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Correct. Correct? Yeah, she was the bright light in the room.
I mean, you could have a you could have Thanksgiving
dinner and everybody's just kind of sitting around, you know,
nobody's really talking to each other. Well, Ali comes in
the room. No, there's She's dancing in the middle of
the living room. She's singing, she's cracking up, she's picking
on somebody, you know, and it just gets everybody stirred
(05:07):
up and energetic. And you know, it's just how she was.
It didn't matter what the event was, you know, she
she always had a well timed joke, you know, whether
you really wanted to hear it or not at that moment.
But it wasn't always appropriate. But you know, but that's
that's just who she was. That's what we missed. It
was just our family lost. It's like we had the
(05:30):
batteries pulled out whenever she whenever she left us, that
that energy was gone. Yeah. You know, her brothers they
have they have their own personalities, they have their own energy.
It's not it's not what Ali brought to the table.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, and every child is different.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So for our podcast audience, they have not ever heard
from you. We've talked about the case. I don't want
to re hashit too much and bring back the pain,
but if we can, let's at least go through some
of the information. September sixteenth, and this is one thing
(06:14):
that I think is very very important to talk about.
It was about two fifteen in the morning on Government Street,
right before the railroad tracks. She did not want her
friend to close up alone.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Correct. She had been out with a couple of friends
that night at b Arcade, their own Government Street, kind
of right across from Catholic High School and about you know,
somewhere between one thirty and one forty five. Most of
the friends had left and she had driven herself there,
but uh, you know, closed down at two o'clock. She
(06:49):
didn't want her friend London to have to walk out
of the building by herself, or be in the building
by herself while she was you know, going through the
closing procedures and everything. So she stayed sat there and
talked to her and cut up with her, probably danced
in film videos knowing her. But yeah, so they walked
out of the building together at two fifteen. She got
(07:11):
in her car, London got in her car. They drove
off separate directions, and four minutes later we know what happened.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
She was headed back to LSU. Yes, that's because that's
where she was staying.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
She had an apartment off campus on right side where
she stayed.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
She's at the railroad tracks and kind of, like you said,
we all know what happened. Gunfire erupted, ten bullets.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Can that hit her, YEP, sixteen fired.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
She tried to reverse, she tried to get out of there.
And this is the part that gets a little muddy
that we don't know exactly what went down there. There
are no cameras on that part of Government Street that
would have captured any of this.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Correct, that was what we were told in the beginning.
We did find out probably a few weeks maybe a
month later, that there was some footage that was captured
from further back for the back the direction that she
came from. Police didn't reveal this information for a long
(08:23):
time and we were asked to be quiet about it.
But probably about a year ago, you know, McNeely let
that out during an interview on the news, So it's
been common knowledge since. But they were able to see
what happened, but the footage was from too far back
(08:44):
for identification purposes. So some of the accounts of what
happened have been able to be substantiated to some degree,
but they're still you know, it's not irrefutable, you know,
So what the footage was a will to capture. They
they rolled it back to the time. If you recall,
(09:05):
there were some witnesses on the other side of the tracks,
on the other side of the train that had reported, right,
that had reported, you know, seeing two individuals walked through
the cars of the train, you know, while the train
had stopped, you know, moving slowly or whatever. They walked
(09:25):
through the through the tracks and according to them, they
said the timeline was maybe ten minutes later they heard
the shots. Well, what the cameras picked up, They did
see two individuals walking between the cars. They can it
was it was basically silhouette blob, right, you can just
(09:47):
see something as moving. It went in, you know, into
camera view as it walked through the trains, and then
it went out of camera view maybe a minute or
two later. Ali's car is driving up to the light.
Within seconds there's somebody comes into camera view from the
(10:11):
same direction that she was coming from and approaches her
vehicle and say that to say, we don't know, We
can't say with one hundred percent sure it was the
same two people because they went out of camera view.
Somebody came in from the other direction, so that maybe
they turned around, maybe it was somebody completely different, we
(10:31):
don't know, but her car was approached right up to
her driver's side window, and within seconds she slammed it
in reverse and tried to haul ass out of there,
and immediately they opened fire. So there's no evidence, you know,
that she rolled down the window or tried to communicate
with them in any way, because when they found her afterwards,
(10:53):
the door was locked or all doors were locked, windows
were shot out, but no evidence that they had been
rolled down or anything. So yeah, I mean, everything happened
within a span of seconds of her you know, hitting
that train crossed. She hadn't been sitting there for very
long from what the police have shared with me. They
(11:15):
offered us, of course, an opportunity to view the video.
I don't want to see it, you know. So yeah,
I mean, everything happened there very very quickly. But again,
because of where the location of the camera was, they
can kind of see how it went down, but you know,
(11:38):
but but cannot make out yeah, faces or even clothing
colors or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
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eight to one zero zero seven seven. And I remember
from our reporting we interviewed that witness. That witness was
absolutely terrified, but they wanted to come forward and say
(13:15):
something that could possibly help. And back then things were
a little different. It was a different administration with BRPD.
They wanted to sound the alarm that they tried calling
BRPD multiple times and it was falling on deaf ears.
We put out the report all of a sudden, they're
in touch with BRPD now. But since then, Paul, it's
been three years. We've heard all sorts of things. There's
(13:36):
a completely different new administration now within the bouton Roach
Police Department, and I want to try to go through
some of those theories. Let's say what you know as
the dead or three year conversations with the police department.
What is a possibility and what's just rumor. One of
the big theories we've heard is that this was a
(13:57):
gang initiation.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Believe that the police department stance on that right now
is still that it was not a gang initiation. My
sources that I talked to outside of the police department,
you know, people who were maybe a little more familiar
with the area and maybe some of the street life
and all of that, have said otherwise.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And I have the same information, and I've always been
told a young teenager fourteen fifteen about that age is.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yes, that I believe is what they believe, you know,
is the that's who our suspects are. And a lot
of the reasoning behind that just has to do with
the behavioral aspect of how the crime was committed. And
(14:49):
I look, I don't proclaim to be knowledgeable about the
streets at all. I'm just kind of spouting all things
that I've heard, you know, from the investigators and different
people who maybe have a little more experience. But the
words that I hear is that is not typical gang
behavior in the aspect of as far as going and
(15:14):
just totally destroying an innocent person. Now, it's not to
say they want robber, that they won't try to steal
her car, which you know, the consensus seems to be
that it was an attempted car jacking. That seems to
be what everybody believes right now. It's what I believe.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Because there was no evidence of a robbery or a burglary.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And I'm sure once they open fire on her their
best shots. Smartest thing to do is to get the
heck out of there, of course, you know, not try
to go. Okay, let me see if I can get
her purse now, you know, obviously you're not going to
go drive that car around anymore, you know. But yeah,
so it's it's the temperament of a younger person of
(16:02):
the level of immaturity there that would cause that type
of reaction because she either didn't cooperate or there's even
been speculation that when she threw it in reverse, that
maybe she ran over his foot, which pissed him off
and caused the violent reaction that occurred. I mean, of course,
we don't have anything to prove this theory, but based
(16:27):
on his approximate, you know, distance from her in the car,
very real possibility. But yeah, I mean I've heard from
other people. It's been that it was some type of
a gang initiation, or maybe not a formal initiation, but
(16:47):
maybe a youngster trying to get the attention of a
gang that they wanted to belong to, and hey, look
what we did, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, and one of the things and a lot of
what we're talking about. The reason it's not been set
out there is there's no proof, there's no corroboration, there's
no official or even credible sources saying yes, for a fact,
this happened. A lot of my information. Yes, they came
from credible sources, but they cannot confirm without a doubt
this is exactly what happened. Had anybody been able to
(17:18):
confirm that, obviously you would have this information, the case
would be solved.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
There's just not a lot of witnesses at two fifteen
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
No, And the pictures that the video that there is,
it's a silhouette the witness It was the same thing.
It was very not nondescriptive descriptions, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
But it is also the timeline that they presented didn't
line up with what they saw on the video, and
I think that's why their testimony or facts have been
discredited to some degree.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yep, which makes sense. But then the other thing that
I've heard, and this is this is something that can
be considered credible, but it's difficult to prove. Now, is
that a week or two later, I think early October
the fourth, fifth, sixth, something like that, a fourteen or
fifteen year old was gunned down in the same location.
(18:17):
From everybody I've heard of, that fifteen year old was
the gunman. But the problem is nobody's able to say
that for a fact.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I've heard that. Well, I remember when that happened. That
was my first thought as well. I believe it was
actually a sixteen year old and it was the terrorist
grocery store. Yeah, it was a few a few blocks
off from there, but close. Yeah, that was my first
thought initially, and it is something that I asked about.
(18:46):
I asked directly because the rumors that I was here
and that I was getting was either that he was
one of the gunmen or he knew and he was
going to snitch. It was you know, it was kind
of split as to one versus the other on that,
but who no one will confirm either way at this point.
(19:07):
When I asked the police the question about this particular incident,
the response was that they did not believe that it
was related. They had no evidence to tie it to
Ali's case in any way. That it appeared that appeared
to be a gang riff, you know, that spilled into
(19:28):
the streets there. It was something between two gangs. Something
that happened, and this was you know, either an act
of retaliation or something else. But yeah, to this day,
I think still there's a lot of the people out
there are still looking at that. As you know, a
(19:48):
potential answer if that is.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
The case, and just about everybody in law enforcement is
not able to say, yup, he's the one who did it.
As a father, what goes through you that you may
not get an official answer as to who did this
to your daughter?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, I'll answer that first with what Ali's mother says
all the time, And it makes perfect sense. Even if
we find out who did it, it's still not going
to bring her back. Yeah, And that that does keep
us grounded at some level here that if we don't
(20:33):
get an answer, what does it actually change now? I mean,
of course, we want to see these people come to justice.
We want to take them off the street so this
doesn't happen to somebody else's child. I don't know. I
mean I do think there's a level of pain that
will go away once there is an answer. I think
(20:56):
we'll all sleep a little bit better at night. I
think the people who live in that area will feel
better knowing that you know, whether this person's dead or
whether this person's incarcerated, they're off the streets. They're not
a danger to me anymore.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Are there other theories out there or other rumors out
there that we need to debunk? Or prove or anything
that you'd like to say while we're here.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
According to a Facebook comment or earlier this week, I'm
the number one suspect.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Oh okay, yeah, okay, why is that?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Well? According to this person, I don't cry enough in
my interviews. The commenters were going on a reason they've
never found them because they're looking in the wrong place.
That the assumption is because of where it happened, that
the streets are responsible. When it his mind, it's either
me or it's an inside job. There's also speculation that
(21:54):
there's cover up within the police department or within the mayor.
I've heard that one as well, that the killer or
somebody involved in it might have been related to one
of them, and that's why there's no movement and there's
no answers and all of that. But the come up
(22:15):
with some wild theories.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
What are your conversations with the police the mayor that
you can share with us over the last three years.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
So I don't speak with them as frequently now, you know,
as we did in the beginning, because I know what
answer I'm gonna get if I ask right now. But
they they have been good about being in contact with me,
you know. Chief Paul was you know, I know a
lot of people have opinions about him, but he was
wonderful to me and my family. He was He was
(22:47):
the first person to call me after all of this happened,
and I'm gonna tell you, the man was crying on
the phone as he was talking to me, like, you know,
this is not my city, this is We're not going
to stand for the you know, let me know whatever
you need, you know, And then he would call me
every two or three weeks just to check on me,
to make sure that the detectives were talking to me
(23:09):
and how can I help you whatever. You know, he
handled things wonderfully, you know. Mayor Broom, you know, she
called me within a couple of days and you know,
expressed her regrets. But I've done a lot of speaking events,
you know, since all of this happened. You have different
(23:30):
different events around Baton Rouge gear towards public safety or
talking about her case. And I've met Mayor Broom on
many occasions and she was you know, she would walk
up to me and hug me. I have a letter
that she wrote me during one of the events that
we did to both myself and Kathy Tolliver. She drafted
a little bit little letter while we were all sitting
(23:52):
there and handed it to me as she was leaving.
I still have that on my desk at work. It
was just the sweetest thing, you know, just stating how
proud of us that she was, for how strong and
how we were, you know, turning our tragedy into something
positive and fighting for the community and all of that.
(24:13):
So that's a piece of paper that I hold on too,
because that really meantalized me to receive.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That, and that does speak volumes. And you mentioned Kathy
Tolliver for our listeners, we've had Kathy and her daughter on.
Kathy Tolliver's grandson was three years no, he was and he.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Was eight year old. Three years old.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Three okay, Yeah, he was sleeping and gunfire erupted and
it was meant for the next door neighbor's house. One
of the bullets came straight through Kathy Tolliver's grandson's bedroom,
shot him in the head, shot and killed him immediately.
Kathy and you have become very vocal in the community
(24:53):
to stand up against crime, against gun violence, and your
daughter was a victim of that, the bent Rooge crime.
I guess your thoughts on that statement alone.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Well, first of all, let me tell you Kathy Tolerant
is an amazing person. She is driven, she is inspirational,
and she's got a lot of fire. Oh yeah. And
I keep telling the organizers at the different events where
we're both speaking at, please do not make me follow Kathy,
because I you know, while I'm certainly passionate about the subject,
(25:30):
you know I cannot match her energy and the strength
in her words. But you know she is phenomenal. But I
can tell you, you know, their scenario happened about six
months before hours and they're in the same amount of pain,
just like we are three years later. Like those wounds
(25:51):
have not healed and they're not going.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
To Nope, they have no answers either, right, and they
have a lot of theories out there on their case
as well, but same exact thing. There's no way to corroborate,
confirm it for a fact.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Well, tell me three years later, how are you in
the entire family in the community, are friends keeping Ali's
memory alive?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I can tell you for me personally. I mean, if
you stepped into my office at work, it's covered in
pictures of Alley everywhere. You know, I still wear my
yellow Live Like Alley shirts and my green one and
my pink one all the time. You know. We have
the bracelets that that we brought out shortly after you know,
(26:36):
everything happened, because we really wanted to make sure that
this case, you know, retained attention, that the public continued
to care, and which we know they did and they would.
But still, you know, you have that symbol. You walk
into the grocery store, you see the yellow bracelets. Everywhere.
You know, people are standing beside you, you know, and
(26:57):
I still see them to this day. You know, people
I don't know still walk up to me and say,
we still pray for you every day. You know, we
think about your daughter all the time. You know. So
it has not been forgotten, that's for sure. You know,
it's definitely still something that's that's front and center. I mean,
(27:20):
one thing I do, Hey, look i'm mail, you know,
go back to what the guy accused me of before.
I don't cry on the interviews that often. I'm generally
able to hold it together, but there are times that
I have to let all this out. And you know,
if anybody's ever seen my Facebook page, you know, there's
(27:41):
periodically you just you'll get like a humongous rant on
there something's eating on my mind, or think just something
that I want to say, or some memory comes up
about her, and you know, I just lay it all
out there. And I think I do think that people
like to see these things that I've heard the comment
(28:03):
so many times that I feel like Ali was my niece,
or you know, nobody really says feel like they're there
herd she's heard their daughter. But you know it's like
somebody that I knew, that, somebody that I know. You know,
a lot of people feel that way. So you know,
I think that that says a lot for our family
and how we've held ourselves, how we've presented her in
(28:27):
all of that, that we really have let the community
know who this child was. You know. In addition, when
the everything happened, of course, the first thing you got
to deal with as a funeral, right, we got a
lot of financial donations, which we did not ask for,
(28:50):
you know, certainly very appreciative for, but we had more
than enough to cover the funeral. And you know, instead
of pocketing that money, that's what we used to start
our foundation to live like Ali Foundation and you know,
we're we're still a little slow out the gates. It
took us a little while to get through the you know,
(29:12):
setting the business up with the state and getting the
nonprofit status and five O one C three and all
of that. But you know, we have been meeting regularly
and trying to pitch ideas and find out what our
next move is. And uh one of the things we
really wanted to do from the very beginning was start
a scholarship fund and we had hoped to have that
(29:36):
in place for uh, you know, this past may to
be able to award it, but unfortunately the timeline didn't
work out. But we will be launching that application process
at the beginning of next year, you know, with the
with the plans to award it. And that's something that
we want to do for as long as we can
raise the money to do it. You know, we want
(29:56):
to support you know, high school seniors taking it to
the next level, but we also want to know what
they how do they feel about their community, how how
has violence affected them, you know, what does it mean
to them to live like Ali? So making those the
topics of the you know, the writing that we want
(30:18):
to include with the application tell us, let us know
what our what's what's the state of our community, and
I think that'll help us figure out where we need
some help, you know what, what maybe we can do
as a small foundation too, you know, who can we
support or what what idea can we get out there,
(30:38):
So you know, it's definitely a lot of promise there.
We have also worked with another foundation locally to put
two cameras up in places that didn't previously have them,
one being the area where Ali was murdered, and the
other being at the Triple As Food Mart, which was
less than a block away from where Devin Page was murdered.
(31:01):
Where it is. That one that we placed at Triples
has actually solved multiple you know, helped in the solving
of multiple crimes over there, including the.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Murder of Montreal Jackson.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, when his father was i think attacked and beaten
in that area. It was all caught on camera and
they were able to identify who it was. But there's
also other things that they've been able to catch in
action or you know, at least from that general area,
see the people coming in and out and all of that.
So it's wonderful. I want to put more out we're
(31:38):
working with them right now to place more cameras in
Ali's name.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Good good, And I'll even add this part that there
are some stories that you go out and cover. We're
human reporters were humans as well that we go out
and cover. And I still remember I was actually out
of town when this happened. I remember waking up that
morning and figuring out what was going on, who it was,
(32:05):
And it took me several days. I had Susie's number immediately,
but I didn't have it in me to call her.
And I saw you guys were talking to everybody, But
it took me a very long time to actually be
able to have the courage to pick up the phone
and say, I know you just lost a loved one,
(32:26):
do you want to interview with me? As a reporter?
I think that's one of the hardest parts of this
job because you don't know how that family member is
going to react. You've lost a loved one, Are you
willing in the mood to talk to somebody? More than
likely you're not. A lot of times people do want
to say something because they want their person to never
be forgotten. But I remember talking to Susie and I
(32:48):
couldn't hold it together then to come to your house
and interview you. In fact, before we started, I was
saying this that you gave me a yellow rose, and
I'll never forget that it's sat on my window sill
until just very recently I try to pick it up
in it all disintegrated. It's also been three years it
finally fell apart. Ali's case, Devin Page. Certain cases that
(33:14):
go unsolved to stick with you, and it's not a
you or me the entire community. These are cases in
entire community. They want answers well.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
And I think part of the mindset that comes with
with both Devon's case and Ali's case is these these
were not kids that were out causing problems. These were
not kids that were somewhere that they shouldn't have been.
Devin was sleeping in his bed. That could have happened
(33:46):
to anybody, anyone, anyone that would have been sleeping in
that room right there. In fact, wasn't his sister or
young another sibling was there in the bed as well.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They were soon to be put to bed.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, okay, I couldn't remember that detail, but yeah, I
mean Ali's case, it could have It didn't matter that
it was Ali that was there at the train tracks
at that moment. Anybody else that would have driven there
at that moment would have had the same experience, and
that terrifies everybody.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
They're truly innocent bystanders. Absolutely, It's a little different when
it's like the sixteen year old you're saying, they didn't
get that much coverage. People will call it street justice.
It's very, very, very different. But these cases are the
ones that really stick with you, and as a community,
the community needs it solved. But I want to even
(34:38):
go further and say, I feel like law enforcement also
they want it solved.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Oh look, I'll tell you I've had very frank and
emotional conversations with the detectives that have worked the case,
you know, and as new people have come in and
out of it, this haunts them. They do not want
to leave this one and unsolved. Did they? Especially in
(35:05):
the beginning. I'm sure it's sleepless nights trying to figure
out what can I do next? How can you know?
What else can I look at? What did we miss?
You know? They I believe the emotion that I saw
in their faces and the words that they spoke to
me that they want this case of just as much
(35:28):
as we do. And it's not just for professional reputation reasons.
This hurts their heart.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yep. Well, it's a child, it's somebody's child, it's your child's.
There are many parents out there, there are many fathers
out there. Many of those ulcers are probably parents, and
they put themselves in your shoes that if this happened
to their child, they would want it solved as well. Absolutely,
you and I have had these conversations. You lose that
right to walk your one and only biological daughter down
(35:58):
the aisle.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that's very painful
right now, being at this three year mark. She was
twenty one when she was murdered. She was in her
senior year at LSU. We didn't get to see her
walk down the aisle. LSU did provide her with a
(36:24):
posthumous degree, and her mother and I were able to
walk across the stage and accept that for her, and
you know, we got a nice ovation and from the
people that were present, and a lot of hugs and
comments and stuff afterwards. It was a wonderful experience and
forever thankful to LSU for doing that for But yeah,
(36:48):
I mean since that time. You know, the friends that
she had, that she lived with, that she graduate would
have graduated with, that she hung around with during that time.
I'm framed. They're all twenty four now, twenty three, twenty four,
twenty five. What happens when you're at that age, You're
starting your career, you're getting married, you probably possibly having children's.
(37:15):
That's probably where we would be with Ali right now,
had she still been with us. And that hurts. I mean,
I look, I love her friends everyone, I'm proud of them.
I'm happy for them. They're all strong as well. They've
gotten through this, you know, fought the battle with us,
(37:36):
and I couldn't be more proud of them. But they
lost out too because Ali would have been a part
of that. Ali would have been in their weddings. Ali
would have been there at the hospital holding the baby,
you know, within hours of it being born, if not
sitting out in the waiting room while it was going on.
That's who she was. She would have been offering to babies,
(38:00):
said I'm coming over, I want to come and play
with the baby. You know. That was Ali. But yeah,
like you said, that was That was one of the
things that hit me very hard. In the beginning was
this was, this is the person I'm supposed to walk
down the aisle one day and give her away. I don't.
I don't get to walk my son's down the aisle.
(38:21):
You know, maybe maybe if I'm lucky a groomsman or something,
or you know, but now I don't. You don't walk
them down the outre. There's there's a difference. Any any
man out there knows there's a difference. And step daughters,
I mean, they're gonna walk with their daddy and then
rightfully so, and I'll be there in full support. But
(38:43):
that that was my one, you know, and let's look
at it. I mean, I'm talking about it from my perspective.
In her mother's perspective. You know, her mother and and
Ali's grandmother had one of the those phenomenal relationships. They're
the kind that get together every weekend, they're doing something.
(39:06):
They're always you know, off on some adventure or whatever.
She wanted. That with Ali, that's gone. That was taken
from her. You know, the opportunity to plan a wedding,
to to go pick out the dress, to go do
those things, to be in the delivery room, all of
(39:27):
that stolen because someone wanted her car. Make it make sense.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
It can't. It doesn't make sense, and it won't ever
make sense, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I I was thinking about this on the way over here.
You know, they're you pretty much don't get to hear
the story for a long after it happens, right you,
it's a okay, this happened, this person was killed. Maybe,
if you're lucky, a couple of weeks you're talking about,
arrests have been made, and maybe a couple of years
(40:10):
later they'll finally go to trial and we'll get justice
and whatever. That's the typical path on a lot of
these stories. But people don't know what happens during during
that time after. You might know about the funeral, but
you don't know what happens after the funeral. You don't
know about the constant years of therapy that family members
(40:34):
have to go through. You don't know the coping mechanisms,
excuse me, coping mechanisms that people get drawn to, whether
positive or negative, to try to deal with the feelings,
and all of that you don't know about. In the
case of an unsolved case like ours, the accusations that
(40:57):
are going on behind the scenes, the theories, the constant,
have you heard anything? Have you heard anything? You know?
People don't understand. We're not supposed to talk about our case,
not when it's an active investigation. There are details being withheld,
and they're so quick to blame the police for doing
nothing when you know that they are. They just can't
(41:20):
talk about it. And there's reasons for that. If you've
ever been involved in a case, you know that. But
there's there is that constant what you know? And with
the three year mark coming up last week, there were
the comments on the articles, why are we still talking
(41:41):
about this girl? Why are we Why aren't we talking
about this person? Why aren't we talking about this person?
I can tell you as as the father, of course,
I want her name to be out there. I want
her to be talked about. I'm not asking for these
interviews though they're coming to me. Don't get don't get
upset with me because they're not covering your relative or
(42:03):
your friend. Get out, get up and do something. Call somebody,
talk to somebody, be public, try to make a change.
They're gonna cut they'll they'll come to you.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Then you're right, And in this case, I reached out
to you.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
I think it's very important to keep Ali's name out there,
Devin Page's name out there. I do the same for
Devin every universary. I reach out to Kathy and I
will make a plea to the public, to our listeners.
If you know anything, it might be the smallest of tips,
call it in. Please, It's a simple call. If you
(42:44):
don't want to call it to bout and Reach police,
call it to crime stoppers. You can remain anonymous. Maybe
there's something heavy on your heart and you know something
and you weren't comfortable saying it three years ago, two
years ago, last year, but now all of a sudden
it needs to come off your chest. Call crime stoppers.
That that's all you have to do. You don't even
have to call. You can fill out a form, you
can text. There are so many ways to do this,
(43:06):
but your one tip could lead to an arrest, could
lead to something new being turned up in this.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Absolutely to closure. When the Nathan Millard event was going
on here in Matton Rouge, mean where they were searching
for his body and all of that, we had been
invited by the United Cajun Navy to come help out,
come come support. You know, hey, look, we want people
(43:35):
to get to know, you within our organization and there's
a lot of people here that you know, you might
be able to bounce some questions off whatever. And Kay
and I went. We spent the day with them, and
you know, we walked up and down the river, the levee,
you know, checking under everything. We saw a lot of
things that we thought we'd never see in life. But
(43:56):
you know, just the homeless out there and the homeless
camps and all those things. But my point to the
story is we went out in the neighborhood back off
of Government Street, I think around I don't want to
say any road names at this point, but within a
(44:16):
few blocks of the UH the site, and we had
an opportunity to talk to some of the people that
lived in the neighborhood, told them who we were, and
you know, to reminded them of the events this was.
This would have been probably out five or six months
after and you know, so obviously still fresh in their minds.
(44:38):
And ye know, there's a lot of a lot of
people had a lot of theories out there, you know,
and it's some of it sounded very plausible.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I went back with quite a bit of information to
hand back to the detectives and say, hey, look into this.
You know, these people are telling me where they live,
They're telling me what the kid was like, what the
age was, what their behavior was. They carried guns, they
terrorized people. So go look at these people. But that's
(45:15):
these people weren't coming forward to crime stoppers, they weren't
calling the police themselves to provide this information. Sometimes you
just got to drag it out of them. You got
to find a way to pull it. You got to
make a presence, you know, seeing you face to face,
they might open up a little bit. You know. We
did a walk through with the police department through. This
(45:37):
was after one of the events that we did, Kathy
and I had done and went, I mean nine o'clock
at night in the streets of North Byton Rouge. We're
knocking on doors. The police wanted to let them hate.
We're out here. Anything we need to look at. By
the way, this is Paul Rice. This is Ali Rice's dad.
If you know of anything, you know, we're still looking
(45:58):
for information and leads and all of that. You know something,
you got to go to them and get the information.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Sometimes absolutely, and one of my reasons for asking you
to come here is because it's not a quick one minute,
it is an hour. We can talk a little bit
about everything. But more than anything, you can make that
plea yourself to anybody who knows anything.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
If you know anything, even if you're not sure if
it's legit, let the police decide that. But anything is helpful.
Point us in a direction, give us some kind of
a clue, whether this person's dead or alive. You've got
the opportunity to provide this anonymously, and there's fifty five
(46:42):
thousand dollars it's still sitting out there for any information
that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person
or persons that murdered my daughter.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
We appreciate you coming on. I can't thank you enough
for coming on and opening up. And I know you
remain in my prayers, and I think I can speak
for many people out there as well, that you remain
in their prayers as well. And it's not just you,
it is her mom, it is your entire family. Thank you,
(47:18):
of course, to our listeners, we thank you for listening,
and we will see you on the next episode of
Louisiana Unfiltered.
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The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!