Louisianna

[LadyBlue]

Body, Car Found In Bayou Lafourche

A body and a car were found in Bayou Lafourche just north of the Golden Meadow bridge during the weekend, according to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office.


Deputies and detectives responded to a 911 call from a fisherman who first saw the body Saturday at about 11:45 a.m. in the bayou near East 176th Street.


The man was identified as Raymon McLaughlin, 41, a Honduras native living in Golden Meadow.


An initial investigation uncovered no evidence of external trauma. The body was sent to the Lafourche Parish coroners office for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.


Detectives found papers on the body that indicated McLaughlin had been living in the United States since 1983 and worked for a local boat company. Detectives also were familiar with McLaughlin and some of the people he knew. After investigating his whereabouts during the past several days by interviewing his friends, detectives learned that McLaughlin had attended a party Thursday night and left in his car Friday at about 1:30 a.m.


Detectives on Sunday found tire tracks that ran from Highway 308 to the water's edge. A diver with the sheriffs office on Sunday found the car submerged in the bayou near the area where the tire tracks were found.


State Police are handling the investigation as a traffic fatality.

[LadyBlue]

A pond being drained Wednesday on private property off La. 82 in Forked Island revealed a grisly find - a submerged car with the skeletal remains of a man, Vermilion Parish officials said Thursday.

The remains are suspected to be those of Wallace "Frenchy" Bourque of Eunice, who has been missing since October 1977.

Eunice Police Chief Gary Fontenot said members of Bourque's family had identified belongings found in the car and believe the body is that of Bourque.

The Vermilion Parish Sheriff's Office, which recovered the body, said positive identification would not be released until the Lafayette coroner completes his investigation. The cause of the man's death is also under investigation, said Deputy Jody Meaux, and said "nothing has been ruled out."

Fontenot said he knew Bourque because he was a neighbor. He said that after Bourque disappeared, a search for him continued for the next two years, but to no avail.

"There was a lot of rumors about him running off, but no one believed that," he said. "He was always building things for his kids - anything out of iron he could make - he was a real hard worker."

Bourque had five young children, Fontenot said. "He was a real nice guy. It was hard to believe that he wouldn't come home with those five kids."

Craig Chandler of Oberlin agreed. He said Bourque was planning to escort his daughter as the Eunice High homecoming queen that week, and that's all he'd been talking about - walking her across the football field.

Chandler said he and Bourque had been doing welding work on a barge offshore for Santa Fe Construction out of Houma. He said they got in early from the job, and Chandler and his wife gave Bourque a ride back to Eunice. Then Bourque got a ride to Cameron, where his car was parked, from another co-worker, Jack Young, who died a few years ago in an automobile accident, Chandler said.

Chandler said Young and Bourque stopped for a beer in Forked Island, but when Young pulled out, Bourque was a few cars behind and never caught up.

"Jack told me the same week that Frenchy never did show up," Chandler said. "Then his (Bourque's) wife called and asked if I'd seen him. The last I heard, she had remarried and moved to Texas."

Chandler also said Bourque was not the type to just disappear.

"All he talked about was that his daughter was homecoming queen," he said. "He cared about his kids."

Vermilion Parish Sheriff Michael Couvillon said the Vermilion Parish Drainage Board and residents in Forked Island gave valuable assistance in recovering the body and the car. He said the Bourque family members also expressed thanks that people had helped out.

[LadyBlue]

Medical examiners and Lafayette police continued the investigation Tuesday into what killed a 13-year-old Lafayette girl found in a wooded area within the city Sunday.
Alexiua Feast's body was discovered behind an apartment complex off St. Antoine Street.

Police Cpl. Mark Francis said Tuesday that the case is still classified only as a suspicious death, but investigators are leaning toward considering it a homicide.

Medical examiners had not determined a cause of death as of Tuesday.

Francis said investigators believe Feast's body had been in the woods for two to four weeks.

He said the decomposition of the body was making the task of determining cause of death more difficult.

Investigators were continuing to search the area where Feast's body was found and to question area residents.

Francis said police are trying to put together a timeline of when Feast was last seen and whom she might have been with at the time.

Investigators hope to get some sense of what happened through investigation of the remains, the clothing and the site itself, he said.

Francis said if she was attacked, she might have fought her attacker and have traces of skin or blood under her fingernails or on her clothes.

He said officers have been canvassing people living in the area to see if anyone can place the last time Feast was seen.

He said human nature tends to favor police being able to establish where she was likely to have been.

"Human beings are creatures of habit; we like being with people we know and going places where we're comfortable," Francis said. "She's got friends she runs with."

Francis said many people who would not call police to tell what they might know are often willing to speak to officers who seek them out.

Working against them is the amount of time the body was exposed to the elements, he said.

"It's rained; the weather's changed several times," Francis said.

[LadyBlue]

A badly decomposed body found Saturday hanging from a tree in a wooded area of Mandeville has been identified as the remains of a missing Mandeville area man.

James William Doyle, 47, was reported missing Sept. 10 by his sister, authorities said.

[LadyBlue]

West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's officials confirmed Monday afternoon that the body of a young woman found in Pointe Coupee Parish was that of missing 17-year-old Michell Sparks.
Sparks went missing on Oct. 22. Authorities said her body was discovered on Friday, wrapped in carpet and sunk in a canal under logs.

"I knew something was wrong," said Retha Hill, Sparks' mother. "How could somebody actually hurt my daughter, because she wouldn't have ever hurt anybody. This is devastating to me. I lost my best friend. I lost my daughter. I lost a part of my life."

West Baton Rouge Sheriff Mike Cazes said Dr. Mary Manhein of the LSU FACES lab identified the body.

www.2theadvocate.com/stories/110804/new_sparksid001.shtml