Mom of teen who killed his abusive father describes not knowing whether her son was alive for 11 years

• Netflix's "I Killed My Dad" focuses on Anthony Templet, who shot and killed his father.
• His mom said she spent 11 years not knowing whether her son was dead or alive.

After 11 years of hoping that her missing son, Anthony Templet, was still alive and might get in touch, Teresa Thompson was overcome with joy when she was told he was OK.

"I was just so happy, I was jumping up and down and screaming, 'They found him,'" Thompson said in the upcoming Netflix documentary "I Just Killed My Dad," premiering August 9.

But next, she said in the film, her excitement turned to shock. "It didn't turn out that happy by the end of the conversation," Thompson, of Houston, Texas, said.

Anthony, then 17, had confessed to shooting and killing his father, Burt Templet, after a violent altercation in the early hours of June 3, 2019. The teen was in jail awaiting trial for manslaughter. He was released in 2021 with five years' probation after his attorney negotiated a plea deal on the grounds of self-defense.

Thompson had not seen her son since 2008 when, she said, he was "snatched" at the age of 5 by her former husband. She said that her ex had convinced a judge in his home state of Louisiana to give him sole custody.

Court records in the three-part documentary series show he'd concealed his past as a domestic abuser, which included time in prison for abusing Thompson when she was pregnant.

Thompson's sister, Elena, said in the documentary that Anthony was tricked by his dad into believing his mother was "just a junkie, had no use for him, didn't care for him and there was no reason to go looking for her."

Anthony Templet told the Netflix filmmakers that he was denied an education

In his own interview in the documentary, Anthony told filmmakers that his father used his lack of education against him, and installed surveillance cameras in every room in the house.

"I didn't have any contact with the outside world," Anthony, now 19, said, adding, "He always found a way to make me feel like I was doing wrong."

Anthony went on to recall that his father had a "hair trigger temper" and that "his moods could change in a second."

Thompson said that she spent years searching in vain for her son. The police were involved, she said, but couldn't find him. She went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Burt had relatives, and put up "missing posters" in the hope someone had seen her child.

"By the time he was 14 or 15, I would have no idea what he looked like or recognize his face," Thompson said in the film.

Meanwhile, Anthony said he feared for his safety. Moments before the killing, he said that he and Burt had gotten into a violent fight about Anthony's right to privacy. In police interviews shown in the film, Anthony admitted grabbing two of his father's guns and firing three bullets in his head. Burt died later in the hospital.

"I didn't want to kill him, I didn't want him to kill me," Anthony said in the documentary."It was kind of 'do or die."

Now, three years after Anthony was freed from prison, Thompson told filmmakers that she was relieved to be able to hug her "baby" again. A genealogy expert had tracked her down in 2019 after hearing about the complexities of Anthony's case.

In the documentary, Thompson told Anthony how much she'd longed for their reunion. "I've been looking for you since day one," she said.