Who was Erick Crain? Details explored from the Ernest Luttrel case shown in Who Hired the Hitman episode 1

Who Hired the Hitman? opens with the Ernest Luttrell case and the part Erick Crain played in it. Episode 1, titled Home on the Rage, looks at a killing on a quiet Keithville property and the people pulled into the probe.

The setup is direct. A farmer is found shot at home. Family, workers, and friends enter the picture as detectives sort claims, alibis, and money issues. The question stays the same from start to finish. Who planned it, and why?

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Who was Erick Crain? in Who Hired the Hitman?

Erick Crain was an out-of-work mechanic from Louisiana tied to the July 2010 shooting of Ernest Luttrell. Investigators reached him after interviewing people close to the household. Crain reportedly told officers that he was hired to carry out the act and asked to make it look like a robbery. According to KSLA, he later said the job came with a promise of one thousand dollars, and he testified to that effect in court.

The case background starts with a Sunday morning. Luttrell’s companion told authorities she returned from church and found him dead in the kitchen of the Greenwood-Springridge Road home. Deputies confirmed gunshot wounds. There were signs of missing items, including firearms and a truck, which fed an early theory of a break-in. That idea did not last long as interviews added new lines to the story.

Investigators logged boot prints and noted missing property (Image via Pexels)

Attention shifted to two people who knew the property well. The farmhand and the housekeeper, Tina Vanmoerkerque, became part of the core timeline. Leads moved on to Crain, who allegedly joined Tina the day before the shooting and was dropped near the home that morning. From there, the case widened to money and property questions that touched the family.

Detectives looked at the status of the relationship, prior documents, and control of accounts. Loretta Luttrell was booked on a first-degree murder count as the probe grew. Her daughter, Linda Kate Passaniti, also entered the file.

She was arrested months later in Texas on a secret indictment and extradited to Louisiana to face murder, conspiracy, and forgery charges. KLTV reported that records found early in the inquiry led officers to recheck Passaniti’s role in financial matters tied to Luttrell before and after his death.

The courtroom results set the public record. Crain pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Vanmoerkerque pleaded guilty to murder. Both received life terms and agreed to testify. According to KSLA, Crain told jurors Passaniti asked him to stage the scene as a robbery.

Crain and Vanmoerkerque pleaded guilty and agreed to testify (Image via Pexels)

Passaniti went to trial in 2013 and was found guilty on all counts, including principal to second-degree murder, conspiracy, and three forgery counts. The judge ordered life without parole plus additional consecutive terms. KSLA reported the sentence as life plus sixty years.

As for Loretta Luttrell, she was found incompetent to stand trial and later died before any jury could hear her case. The charges were reportedly dismissed after her death. With that, the longest running threads in the file ended with three prison terms and one case closed by death rather than verdict.

Also read: “disappointed and disturbed”- Alex Murdaugh points out flaws in the portrayals of Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family

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About the show Who Hired the Hitman?

Who Hired the Hitman airs on Investigation Discovery and spotlights murder-for-hire files. Each hour follows phone records, alibis, and shifting motives until a planner or payer comes into focus. Per Warner Bros. Discovery’s press site, new episodes air weekly on ID, and episodes stream the next day on Max.

Episode 1, Home on the Rage, frames the Luttrell killing as the season’s opener. A farmer on his kitchen floor, many suspects on the same property, and a plot that allegedly traded a man’s life for cash form the backbone of the story. The hour keeps the facts front and center while returning to the same core question asked in every case title: who hired the hitman?

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Also read: Ernest Luttrell murder case on Who Hired the Hitman- A detailed case overview

Edited by Preethika Vijayakumar