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Trigger warning: This article contains information about graphic violence.
A pathologist from Lubbock, Texas, Dr. Joseph Sonnier, was murdered in his own home, leaving behind the authorities and loved ones with a trail of mysteries. With each unsettling truth revealed, the case became as strange as it could ever get—a murder-for-hire plot, a complicated love triangle, and two heartbroken families (the victim's and the killer's).
After nearly a decade, following David Shepard, the murderer's conviction in 2013, NBC Dateline is finally set to revisit the gruesome murder of a celebrated doctor, whose murder was the result of a not-so-carefully orchestrated plan. His then-girlfriend's obsessed and deluded ex-boyfriend, another doctor named Thomas Dixon, was allegedly at the center of it all.
The episode titled Lone Star Obsession will air on NBC this Saturday, August 13, 2022, at 9:00 pm ET. The synopsis states:
"When a doctor is found murdered, investigators are stumped as to who would want him dead. Police discover simmering jealousies and a love triangle. Andrea Canning reports Saturday, August 13 at 9/8c on NBC."
Read further to learn more about Joseph Sonnier's case ahead of the episode premiere.
Five alarming details about Dr. Joseph Sonnier's murder case
1) Joseph Sonnier and his girlfriend were being stalked
Dr. Thomas Dixon was allegedly upset that Joseph Sonnier was in a relationship with Dixon's ex-girlfriend, Richelle Shetina. Thus, he bribed his friend David Shepard to track and eventually murder Sonnier, as per the prosecution's claims.
Shetina reportedly claimed that she was in Los Angeles and on a special trip to Paris to celebrate her 50th birthday with Sonnier when unusual things started occurring. She maintained she was being followed and a few months before the murder, in February 2012, returned home to a strange message purporting to be from Sonnier's ex-girlfriend.
2) He was murdered nearly two years after his wife's death
The children of murdered Texas doctor Joseph Sonnier got the news of their father's killing on the second death anniversary of their mother's murder. On July 12, 2010, Becky Gallegos, the second wife of Sonnier, was reportedly shot and murdered by her second husband, who then shot himself. Sonnier was found stabbed and shot to death inside his Lubbock home.
Sonnier's sons, Joseph and James Sonnier, made a statement, saying,
"Sadly, my brother and I also lost our mother two years ago under equally tragic, yet totally unrelated circumstances. Without a doubt, we can say that the two situations have no correlation."
3) Sonnier unknowingly got involved in a complicated love triangle
Dr. Joseph Sonnier unknowingly became a part of a love triangle when he started dating Richelle Shetina in July 2011. Shetina was previously involved with an Amarillo plastic surgeon named Dr. Thomas Dixon. The two were having an affair, and Shetina ended it after months of ups and downs.
Dixon was allegedly obsessed with her and was willing to move mountains to get her back. But here, all he had to do was get rid of Sonnier and hope that she would run back to him. He even hired his friend, Shepard, to "drive a wedge" between the two. But the hired man ended up murdering the target.
4) David Shepard did not intend on killing Joseph Sonnier
In the bizarre murder case of Texas doctor Joseph Sonnier, hitman David Shepard asserted that neither he nor the doctor who hired him for the hit ever meant to kill the victim. Shepard allegedly revealed what exactly transpired on the night in July when he first met Sonnier and killed him. He said,
"Things got out of hand. Unintentionally gun fired. I'm leaning in to see if he's okay. I fall in the window, and then I'm running around to see what's going on. I said, 'Dr. Sonnier, are you alright?' I don't hear anything, go in the garage. He's laying prone. I hear his last breath. I reach down. There's no pulse."
Shepard also contended that he allegedly stabbed Sonnier in an irrational and stupid effort to conceal what he claimed to be an unintentional murder. He added,
"I did stab him a couple of times. I can't reconcile the number that the prosecution says. Eleven, I think they've said. I had Dr. Sonnier's phone in my hand, and I considered dialing 911 just to call the authorities and I didn't. And I put it back in, mutilated his bodily remains and tried to cover it and make it up look like something else."
5) Shepard's daughter, Hayley, testified against him
In his initial confessions about murdering Joseph Sonnier, David Shepard claimed that he acted on Thomas Dixon's orders, who had offered him three silver bars and other pricey items in exchange for Sonnier's murder. He became a key witness in Dixon's trial, which took place about two years later.
Surprisingly, Shepard, who had already entered a plea deal, changed his narrative while on the stand, claiming that Dixon had nothing to do with it. He maintained that he acted all by himself. The trial was declared a mistrial with a hung jury.
The most persuasive evidence for the prosecution in the Amarillo surgeon's 2015 retrial came from David Shepard's own daughter, Haley Shepard, who stated that she feared her father had lied under oath in the first trial to defend his friend and alleged business associate, Dixon.
Catch Joseph Sonnier's full story on NBC Dateline this Saturday, August 13, at 9 pm ET.
