PORT ALLEN - Fatrell Queen was found murdered in his home nine months ago. Since then, his family says Port Allen Police and Chief Esdron Brown have not been open about the investigation, and may be mishandling it.

"The family has not had the communication with the police department, with the chief, as they should," said Clerice Lacy, a family friend.

Which is why they want either the FBI or State Police to take over.

Last week, the family asked the council to look into the legality of taking the case away from Port Allen. Turns out, it can't do that, but the council can vote to compel the Chief of Police to consider it, which happened unanimously on Wednesday.

Chief Brown, however, seemed dismissive of the whole thing.

"The question was, could the State Police come in and help with the process?" asked councilman Brandon Brown.

"I mean what process?," replied Chief Brown.

"I guess since it's been like 8, 9 months since it happened?" said Brandon Brown.

"Yeah, some murders take longer to solve than others, unfortunately," said Chief Brown.

The family is grateful that the council voted to help them, but now they're left with even more unanswered questions.

"Not so assuring," Lacy said. "And we're not certain if we got the answer as far as an outside agency coming in to assist."

Chief Esdron declined an interview with News 2. The family says their next step in getting justice for Fatrell may be a recall petition.