Murder Chose Me new season preview and FAQ for Detective Rod Demery

Murder Chose Me is back with a brand new slate of episodes, and we’ve got a full season preview. Plus, for viewers new to the Investigation Discovery hit, we’ve expanded our bio of Detective Rod Demery to include everything from the man’s age, birthday, and wife to new details about his mother’s murder and brother’s conviction on homicide charges.

When does the new season of Murder Chose Me begin?

Murder Chose Me was greenlit for another season in May of last year; the new episodes will begin airing April 4th at 10 PM. (However, if you can’t wait one minute more, Investigation Discovery has made “Damsel In Distress,” the season premiere, available for streaming right now.)

John Nicholson, who portrays Rod Demery on the show, told us that “the scripts and guest star casting have been awesome” for Murder Chose Me‘s new season. He added that “Rod is an amazing cop and a really good human being, and I’m delighted to be part of the process that helps people learn about his career and life…When I hang with Rod in Shreveport, it’s like being with rock star: everyone knows him, wants to come over and say hello or have their photo taken with him.”

In addition, Investigation Discovery has offered the following teasers for the first three episodes of Murder Chose Me‘s new season:

Episode 206 Premieres Wednesday, April 4 at 10/9c

The bullet-ridden bodies of three friends are discovered in a car abandoned in Shreveport’s most notorious neighborhood. Demery must venture deep into the city’s seedy underbelly to catch a killer with an inscrutable motive and an evil disposition.

Episode 204 Premieres Wednesday, April 11 at 10/9c

A pair of masked gunmen crash a late-night birthday party, and when guest Noah Randle makes a heroic attempt to intervene, he is shot dead. Detective Rod Demery is called in on his day off to untangle a sinister plot fueled by a bitter grudge.

Episode 207 Premieres Wednesday, April 18 at 10/9c

A pillar of the Korean community is murdered in broad daylight on the doorstep of her popular beauty supply store. When the trail of physical evidence runs cold, Detective Rod Demery must rely on shoe-leather detective work to catch the killer.

Who is Rod Demery? Is he for real?

Detective Rod Demery was a homicide detective in Shreveport for 14 years, from 2002 to 2016. The 52-year-old veteran came to TV producers’ attention thanks to his unheard-of 100% confession rate: every one of the 250 murders he was in charge of investigating resulted in a suspect confessing to the crime. According to Rod, the key to his success was understanding that “there’s [nothing] that anyone does that they don’t want to tell anyone about…the question is whether they want to tell you.”

He further explained that part of his success was remaining “non-judgmental” during interrogations, and letting suspects more or less out themselves. “They’re overwhelmed by whatever emotion it is that they’re experiencing at the time,” Rod has said, “and when they get it out, they feel so much better.”

Of course, Rod’s devotion to his job took a personal toll. He doesn’t currently have a wife, and has been divorced twice. When we asked him about the importance of his work, Rod affirmed that it was a “singular obsession” for him:

Marriage–and very little else–got my attention, in those years. I’m sure some can work homicide and maintain other things, but I couldn’t….But I solved cases. For me that fulfilled all that a person seeks: God’s command, identity, self-actualization, clarity and peace.

Murder Chose Me star John Nicholson and Detective Rod Demery at the African-American parade in Shreveport LA on February 3, 2018. Photo via John Nicholson on Instagram

Was Rod Demery’s mother really murdered when he was a boy?

Barbara Sue Demery, Rod’s mother, was murdered on May 8th, 1969. Rod was three years old; his brother Patrick was 5. Barbara was killed by Jerry Armstead, her new husband, who was approximately eighteen years older — and white.

Armstead, who fired nine rounds into Barbara’s back, was charged with “murder without malice.” As Rod would later explain, that charge “basically says that he believed that there was a burglar in the house and he just started shooting.” And, because Jerry was friends with the local sheriff, a proper investigation into Barbara’s murder never took place.

Rod himself looked into his mother’s murder decades later, after he’d begun work as a homicide detective. He managed to track down Jerry Armstead, who was by that time in poor health, and to interview the man. During an appearance on Dr. Oz, Rod said that Jerry had told himself the same lie about what happened for so long that he was unable to admit anything different.

But Rod also said that as it turned out, he himself got something much more substantial from the encounter:

I found out that I had a forgiveness. I actually prayed for Jerry. And I can’t say that I did that for anybody, until that point in life. And I realized that forgiveness was the key [to] all the things that I’d been searching for–and the identity. I realized who I was….I think God has an amazing way of compartmentalizing things for you, and giving you clarity. You know, I forgave him. I felt like a man. For the first time. Probably for the first time, at that point.

What happened to Detective Demery’s brother?

Patrick Demery, Rod’s brother, murdered his friend Richard Sherman and attempted to murder Sherman’s girlfriend and daughter after the three adults got high on cocaine together in the early morning of April 6th, 1994.

According to reports from the aftermath of the murder, Patrick became convinced that Richard had stolen $50 from him, and “stabbed his friend ten or eleven times.” He then tied up Sherman’s girlfriend and daughter, raped and stabbed the girlfriend, and attempted to stab the daughter. (Both women survived their attacks.)

Patrick was convicted of Richard Sherman’s murder in October of 1994, and sentenced to 22 years in a California state prison, to be followed by two consecutive life terms. He’ll be eligible for parole in May of 2022.

Rod has spoken openly on the difficulty of reconciling his career as a homicide detective with the love he has for his brother:

It’s not that I disowned him; I just thought, [the Sherman family] deserves more….It’s not that I don’t feel for my brother. Because he’s my brother. I worry about him daily. I know what goes on in prison. But I think about the person he killed. And the people that were left behind to mourn that person. Where I can forgive him for the things that he’s done that affected my life, I can’t forgive him for the things he’s done that affect other people.

The new season of Murder Chose Me premieres Wednesday, April 4th at 10 PM on Investigation Discovery.

(Photo credits: Murder Chose Me via Investigation Discovery, John Nicholson on Instagram)