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| Bambarger,
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Kenny Bambarger spent
every day and night for a month in tough neighborhoods, handing out
fliers, talking to strangers and getting little sleep. He was
looking for his 17-year-old son, Dusty, in the Scotlandville
hangouts the teen had begun frequenting in the past two months.
Kenny Bambarger was close -- he figures he was no more than a
mile away when the teen's body was dumped in a vacant lot -- but
that is of no consolation now.
Bambarger spoke to The Advocate at his home recently, his eyes
sunken and red after a week in which he dealt with the deaths of
both his son and mother, who died the same day Sheriff's Officials
identified Dusty Bambarger's body.
"Right now, there is still a tremendous amount of pain," Kenny
Bambarger said.
He said he had an open relationship with his son and they talked
about everything, but the one secret his son kept -- his cocaine
addiction -- led to his death.
"It breaks my heart he didn't come to me with this," Bambarger
said. "I feel I could have helped in some way."
Bambarger said he learned of his son's cocaine use from his son's
friends shortly after the teen-ager's disappearance.
Disappearance
Dusty Bambarger disappeared from his family's Woodlawn Estates
home on Nov. 9, leaving in his parents' Chevrolet Suburban with
nothing more than $20 his mother had loaned him. He said he was
going to a friend's house to watch a movie, leaving behind a
paycheck for nearly $500. His father said there was no indication he
was running away.
Bambarger's parents quickly reported him as a missing person, but
throughout the weeks-long search for the teen, Sheriff's Officials
insisted there was no evidence of foul play. One week after Dusty
Bambarger disappeared, his family, in desperation, signed an arrest
warrant for their son for illegally driving their Suburban.
Kenny Bambarger would not comment on the Sheriff's Office's
handling of the case, but said a deputy suggested signing the
warrant so that more resources could be committed to the case.
"I kept pressing and pressuring for something to happen,"
Bambarger said.
The case was only acknowledged as a homicide when Dusty
Bambarger's badly decomposed body was discovered Dec. 8 in an
overgrown vacant lot on Ford Street in north Baton Rouge.
The Sheriff's Office has not released a cause of death; however,
an arrest warrant for Derrick Gaines, 26, indicates Bambarger was
killed by two acquaintances.
According to the warrant, on the morning of Nov. 14, Terry
Montgomery, 20, was driving Bambarger's Suburban while Bambarger sat
in the front passenger seat and Gaines rode in the back.
The warrant alleges that Gaines, who has an arrest record dotted
with counts of dealing cocaine and violent crime, hit Bambarger in
the head with a gun before he and Montgomery killed him. Montgomery,
who has been in and out of prison on counts ranging from simple
burglary to resisting an officer, is suspected of dumping the body,
taking off with the Suburban and later renting the SUV for eight
rocks of crack cocaine.
Gaines and Montgomery have both been arrested and remain in
Parish Prison on first-degree murder counts. A third man, Leonard
Moses, 24, whose prints were found on the Suburban, was arrested for
illegally using the SUV; no additional charges have been added.
No signs of trouble
In the weeks before Dusty Bambarger disappeared, his parents
noticed nothing unusual about their son. He showed up for work on
time every day and was home when he was supposed to be.
He hung out with friends and, on the night before he left home
for good, he went out for pizza with his best friend and joked
around with him, giving no indication that anything was wrong.
"I still don't know how he pulled this off," Kenny Bambarger
said, adding, "If there were signs, I missed them."
Dusty Bambarger was a talented skateboarder and musician and had
what his father described as a "mechanical mind" -- for a while he
acted as a one-man bike repair service for his friends.
He was well-liked -- 50 people showed up to a candlelight vigil
for him after he disappeared -- and loathe to do things any way but
his own, friend Andrew Martin said.
"He was just so different," Martin said. "If everybody was for
something and he was against it, he was not afraid to stick up for
what he believed in, and he never went by what other people said."
School was a different story. Bambarger struggled, much more
comfortable behind a drumset than in a classroom, and dropped out of
Woodlawn High School earlier this year, his father said.
Despite his academic problems, Dusty Bambarger seemed to have his
life together, working full-time at his father's mechanical services
business and giving his parents no problems in the weeks before his
disappearance. He had even told his friends he was planning to
straighten out his life, save some money and re-enroll in school.
Friends notice a change
Nathan Lanclos, 17, who calls Dusty Bambarger his best friend,
was with Bambarger the night before he disappeared. He said the two
went out for pizza and had a good time.
"We hung out and had a fun time, like we normally do. He never
said anything about going away," Lanclos said.
Recently, however, Dusty Bambarger had started spending his
nights in Scotlandville with an older, rougher crowd. Lanclos said
Bambarger had even stopped skateboarding, a hobby that used to
consume him.
"He started going down to Scotlandville, hanging out with mostly
gangsters and stuff," Lanclos said.
Family and friends all said Dusty Bambarger was someone who took
people at face value. Bestowing that trust on the people he met in
the last, drug-filled weeks of his life, may have led to his death.
Lanclos said Bambarger misjudged his new acquaintances.
"He was a very trusting person, and I guess he thought they were
his friends and they weren't," Lanclos said.
Despite the changes he had noticed in his friend, Lanclos said he
was shocked when he found out Bambarger had been killed.
"He was the best friend I've ever had. I've never been closer to
anybody and I can't really ..." Lanclos said, trailing off. "It's
been really hard."
The Bambargers' home is awash in memories of their son. On
Tuesday, the kitchen table was covered with photos from all stages
of Dusty Bambarger's life. Looking at them, Kenny Bambarger said,
has helped him, his wife and Dusty's 15-year-old sister cope.
Bambarger's room is as he left it. His drums are still set up in
the corner and his bed, as with beds of many teenagers, is unmade.
One wall is now inscribed with messages from friends and splashed
across it in white paint is a line similar to a quote from Theodor
(Dr. Seuss) Geisel: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it
was."
"He was just beginning to mature, just beginning to become a
man," Kenny Bambarger said. "And that's the biggest thing that
saddens me, is the loss of opportunity for him to develop into a
good man."