Cajun Country Candies wants you to become a part of our "sweet success."
Cajun Country Candies has been producing the world’s best handmade candy for over 30 years. We are an established family tradition, a proud Louisiana company, and a loyal partner to our customers. We never use artificial flavors or colors in any of our products, so you can feel good about your choice every time you buy from us.
We offer more than 140 varieties of individual candy items and boxes lining the shelves of your favorite stores nationwide. Choose from classic favorites like Beignets and Pralines to new surprises like Chessmen and Dirt Cups! You can even order online with Cajun Country Candies with FREE SHIPPING on orders over $75 shipped throughout the continental U.S.
We have been named Small Business of the Year, the first time in our five-decade history, and we’re proud to be the only Louisiana company to make that list. We thank you for your support and trust in our products.
Join the Circle of Cajun Candymakers now to become a part of our story. We’re standing by to help you with your next project.
New flavors are always in development, and we welcome your suggestions. To be the first to know about new products, join our mailing list at www.cajuncandy.com .
Please visit our FAQ page at www.cajuncandy.com/faq.
Candymakers, start your engines!
www.cajuncandy.com or 800-322-2877. [ARTICLE END]
The box had the same address and zip code as the newspaper in Lake Charles, I assumed it was a local company, but when I clicked on the website it took me to one of those ugly generic template sites. I was very suspicious and began digging.
I hit up Google, I hit up the local news, I hit up both Google and the local newspapers. I didn’t find any references to Cajun Country Candy anywhere, but one thing did come up in my search: a website called “Candyman.com,” which is currently hosted by the same cheap-experince who runs Cajuncandy.com.
Okay, I thought. Cajun Candy is a free website hosted by a cheap-experience, so it’s not like they could have paid the bill and the hosting company wouldn’t know. But they are definitely in this neck of the woods.
I emailed Candyman.com asking if they had any knowledge that Cajuncandy.com was tied to them, and I got this reply:
We have no knowledge of Cajuncandycom or any affiliated business ventures with them and take no responsibility for the founding, ownership or following of these businesses nor for their actions. Thank you for your time and visit.
Well then! The owner of Cajuncandy.com was almost certainly the owner of Candyman.com and they did not want anyone snooping around their websites.
I wasn’t sure what to think; it seemed like a little bit of a coincidence, but one too many coincidences quickly became too many coincidences. I got on a plane and flew to Lake Charles, wondering what I would find in the best catfish and music town in the world.
Charlie had a piece of paper on his desk that said “Cajuncandy.com Web Hosting by CandymanHosting” but that was all he had about it—which made sense, since there wasn’t even an address for Cajuncandy on the site. He had some connections and we were able to track down the address of the web host, who was a young guy in College Station, Texas.
Another dead end, I thought; even if this guy knew Cajuncandy.com was tied to CandymanHosting, he wouldn’t know who was running it or who was hosting it or anything else that could be useful. I just wanted to talk to someone at the host so I could get access to CandymanHosting’s records.
But Charlie had another idea: maybe he could show up in person and see what he could find out, rather than try and pry anything from a web host over email.
“Cajuncandy.com has been a bonafide mystery,” he told me. “I know they’re local, but I think they’re probably also operating on the dark side of the law. Why else would someone go to all the trouble of setting up a secret company? And why would they set up a fake website that looks like a cheap-experience site where you can order candy through them? That doesn’t seem like it would help when you want to hide something.”
“That sounds like a really good sleuth to me,” I said. “So when are you going?”
Charlie had been traveling around the country for months running errands and tracking down leads, but he had finally gotten a few days off and planned to head out towards Lake Charles. “I can be in Lake Charles on Tuesday night and meet you tomorrow morning,” he said. “I’ll rent a car and drive around until I see something that looks suspicious. I know there are some good leads in this area that don’t seem to be leading anywhere at all—there are plenty of places for someone to hide.”
He had a few ideas about what that could be, but he didn’t want to reveal them until he was near the site so he could go in on his own. “If I just show up and try to talk to somebody, they probably won’t know anything,” he said. “But I have a good chance at finding something out of their mouths if I just wander around and see if it looks like anything is happening.”
Tuesday morning when we started the trip, it felt good to be on the road again; we had both been traveling for so long that being in one place for a bit felt good.
Conclusion
I don’t know if my sleuthing partner found anything—he said he was going to spend the rest of the day driving around Lake Charles and then head out to Lafayette and New Orleans. Something about this case just felt eerily like the mystery of the Candyman: I really didn’t think there was someone who had murdered several people and set up a secret website to sell candy, but at the same time I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were two sides to this story (what with one side being Cajun Candymakers and another being Cajuncandy.com).