Dean Lawson¶
Dean Lawson is the Miata-driving boyfriend of Amanda Lucky and a teenage heroin dealer whom the task force never meets, though his buried cash and hidden heroin end up in their car. He vanishes before they can find him.
| Type | NPC (never seen in person) |
| Aliases | Dean; Lawson |
| Affiliation | Lawson family (parents own a cabin at Stately Acres) |
| Status | Missing (as of Radford Horror 08) |
| First appearance | Radford Horror 01 |
| Played by | Andre (offscreen) |
Description¶
Dean plays football at the high school that Sheila attended, and his parents bought him a red Miata with the muffler cut off. Sheila calls him "a real piece of work" (Radford Horror 01). Phoebe's mother, Maybelline Augustine, says his parents are never home, that he is up in the house by himself, and that "that boy needs Jesus" (Radford Horror 05). Dean is never met in person in any episode.
History¶
Suspect¶
Sheila identified him when his Miata roared past the diner in the first episode (Radford Horror 01). Under pressure, Dr. Lori named him as the person Amanda said was involved in drugs (Radford Horror 02). During the chase in Radford Horror 03, the team saw a red Miata pulling out of the woods near the armed campers and then turn onto a dirt road (Radford Horror 03).
Phoebe did not get along with him and had fought with Amanda over him (Radford Horror 05). In Radford Horror 06, Matt McCready said Dean had threatened to have him killed when he asked when Dean last saw Amanda, and that Dean had been hanging around with people who looked "real methy". The sheriff reported that the school had filed enough truancy reports on Dean that it called the police, and that Dean's parents could not be reached (Radford Horror 06). The cold open of that episode showed an unidentified teenager digging in a dark yard and burying three Ziploc bags of cash; the team's later discovery suggests it was Dean (Radford Horror 06).
The cabin and the stash¶
In Radford Horror 07, the team went to Stately Acres to find him. The guard, Douglas Douglas, told them he had seen Dean carrying a shovel to the family cabin: "Burying bodies? I don't know." He added that he hated "that little shit", who had kicked one of his cats. At the Lawson cabin, Kurt and the others dug where the ground had been disturbed and uncovered several Ziploc bags holding about $40,000 in cash and a small tin-colored key. A loose floorboard under the bed in an untouched child's bedroom hid a locked Samsonite briefcase, which the key opened. It held four neat parcels of lightly cut heroin from somewhere in South America (Radford Horror 07). The charter pilot Freak later bought a bump from a young man whose description matched Dean's, and said the heroin came from "a bunch of Mexicans" (Radford Horror 07). See Dean Lawson's heroin and cash and The cartel.
Vanishing¶
The team kept the cash and drugs, which Diane referred to as "the budget", and spent some of the money on an air conditioner. They tipped off the sheriff that Dean was probably involved in the heroin trade. The sheriff replied that Dean's parents had not been able to reach him and nobody had seen his car. Kurt wondered whether Dean was the man the cartel had knocked down and beaten near the church. The police blamed "the cartel" for the heroin found in the church (Radford Horror 08).
Trivia¶
- Radford Horror 07 has the cash and key buried in the cabin's yard and the heroin under the bedroom floorboard. In Radford Horror 08, the players' recaps reverse this, putting the heroin in the dug-up yard and the money in the floorboards.
- Dean is the team's top interview target in Radford Horror 02 but is never interviewed.
- Dante joked in Radford Horror 03 that owning a Miata cost Dean his status as official boyfriend.