Reward up for serial killer

• By JASON BROWN
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Oct 29, 2009 - Page: 1A

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

JENNINGS — Officials increased the reward from $35,000 to $85,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of a serial killer responsible for the deaths of eight women from Jefferson Davis Parish.

The announcement was made during a news conference with members of the Multi-Agency Investigative Team charged with solving the deaths. It was also the first time authorities have acknowledged the killings are probably the work of a serial killer.

Sheriff Ricky Edwards said his office, the District Attorney’s Office and the FBI are funding the reward. No questions were taken during the news conference.

Area residents have long attributed the deaths to a serial killer preying on women in the southwest Louisiana parish.

Officials, however, had been reluctant to label it the work of a serial killer. That recently changed when Edwards issued a news release referring to the deaths as possibly being connected to a “common offender.”

“For that reason, the label ‘serial murder’ is applicable,” Edwards said Wednesday, reading from a prepared statement.

He said they had shied away from the term “because it does not benefit us in our goals to identify and apprehend the offender, nor does it prevent further loss of life.”

The killings began in May 2005 when a fisherman discovered the body of Loretta Chaisson Lewis floating in a canal. Since then, the bodies of Ernestine Daniels Patterson, Kristen Gary Lopez, Whitnei Dubois, Laconia “Muggy” Brown, Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno, Brittney Gary and Necole Guillory all have turned up in canals or along rural roadways.

The most recent victim was Guillory, whose body was discovered Aug. 19 near Interstate 10 in neighboring Acadia Parish. She was last seen Aug. 16.

A coroner ruled she likely died from being strangled or suffocated. The lower half of her body was unclothed.

The remaining victims were found nude or partially clothed but missing certain garments.

The women ranged in age from 17 to 29 and were commonly associated either through their personal relationships or lifestyles.

The Sheriff’s Office formed the investigative team in December 2008, taking in members from local, state and federal agencies.