In December 2008, Jefferson Davis Parish Sherriff Ricky Edwards announced the formation of a task force culled from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the murders. Most were decomposed and displayed virtually no sign of trauma, their deaths believed to be the result of asphyxia.

Over the next year and a half, the bodies of four more prostitutes – 26-year-old Whitnei Dubois, 23-year-old Laconia 'Muggy' Brown, 24-year-old Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno and 17-year-old Brittney Gary – were found in or near Jennings. Again, two suspects were arrested – Jennings pimp Frankie Richard and his niece Hannah Conner – but were released due to lack of conclusive evidence. On March 18, 2007, a third victim with a similar profile to the others, 21-year-old Kristen Gary Lopez, was found in yet another canal. Two men were held for second-degree murder, though the charges were later dropped. Known to turn tricks as she battled a crack addition, her death was seemingly the fallout of the drug trade that ran along the highway I-10 corridor and left areas like South Jennings desolate.Ĭhronicled in the book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, less than a month later, on June 18, another prostitute, 30-year-old Ernestine Marie Daniels Patterson, was discovered in another canal off a highway south of Jennings.

On May 20, 2005, the decomposed body of 28-year-old Loretta Lynn Chaisson Lewis was fished out of a canal on the outskirts of Jennings, in the Jefferson Davis Parish of southwest Louisiana.

South louisiana serial killer victims