Jessica Hawk - Homicide - NO - Aug 11, 2008

[LadyBlue]

Date: Aug 11, 2008
Cause of Death: Stabbed
Location: New Orleans, LA

A native of Lebanon is dead, the victim of a murder in her New Orleans, Louisiana home.

32-year-old Jessica Hawk died of apparent stab wounds. She was found at 9:40 a.m. Monday, on the floor of her home in the Bywater section of the city, near the French Quarter.

Jessica's brother Brandon tells Local 12 Jessica moved to New Orleans four to five years ago after getting a Botany degree from Miami University. Brandon says Jessica was supposed to come home to Lebanon for a visit yesterday. The family kept calling all weekend and couldn't get ahold of her. She also didn't show up at restaurant for dinner date Sunday night.

Jessica's family and her boyfriend called police in New Orleans on Monday morning to check on her.. that's when her body was found.

3013 Chartres St Her address

In addition to working for Harold’s Plants, Hawk was also a member of the original staff that helped open the Audubon Insectarium in June 2008 and she was taking Masters level classes in Botany at the University of New Orleans. She scheduled to start a job at the New Orleans Botanical Garden the week she was murdered.

[LadyBlue]

The Murder of Jessica Hawk
www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/the-murder-of-jessica-hawk/Content?oid=1350151

[LadyBlue]

DNA swabs and samples were sent to Baton Rouge. Horvitz and Hawk's family waited more than six months for the results, which found only Hawk's DNA at the scene. Homicide detective Winston Harbin says there was no indication of forced entry.

"From our point of view, the forensic team didn't do a good job," says Ivonne Garzon, Hawk's friend and an activist for a DNA lab in New Orleans. "We asked about fingerprints, fingernails, (NOPD) said there was no evidence. Her apartment was small. We don't understand how someone could break in and not leave a trace."

New Orleans lost its DNA lab following the 2005 levee failures, when the facility flooded. Samples are now sent to Louisiana State Police in Baton Rouge, where they're outsourced, again, to a private company. The building that housed the New Orleans lab was demolished in 2009. (See "DNA D.O.A.," cover story, Aug. 2, 2010.)

"It took six-and-a-half months for the DNA results to come back, and for a case like this, that is beyond outrageous," Horvitz says. "I would rank that as offensive to the citizenry as the condition of [New Orleans Recreation Department], which is absolutely scandalous. Why (do) New Orleanians seem willing to accept conditions that are unacceptable in certain areas of life?"

With the launch of a Justice for Jessica campaign, Horvitz hopes to reopen the case and attract more public attention — not just for Hawk, but other victims of crime, as well as the severity of violence in New Orleans. The campaign hopes to promote the case with street-level public awareness ("Who Killed Jessica Hawk" stickers and posters), and, with the cooperation and guidance of NOPD, potentially hire a forensic pathologist and independent detective. Horvitz also helped Crimestoppers increase its reward from the standard $2,500 to $25,000, which will be announced at the Oct. 9 memorial service.

[LadyBlue]

Jessica Hawk 8/09/08 the attacker was seen around 11:00pm peering in her window. Friday was the 8th so I believe it was after midnight as well.

[LadyBlue]

08/09/2008: Lavergne is released from the Evangeline Parish jail on the aggravated oral sexual battery charge