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KENNER, Louisiana (AP) — As police in a New Orleans suburb prepare to take over the case of a Bourbon Street dancer whose body parts washed ashore in Mississippi in 2012, the police chief says he hopes his department can close the case.
But Kenner Police Chief Steve Caraway said Tuesday there is still no break in the investigation of Jaren Lockhart’s death and dismemberment.
Authorities in Mississippi’s Hancock County said Monday they have turned the case over to Kenner investigators, according to reports.
Neither Grannan nor Caraway would discuss details about any evidence indicating the killing happened in Louisiana.
Lockhart was last seen alive leaving a Bourbon Street strip club with two people on June 6, 2012.
Caraway noted that Kenner officials have been involved in the investigation since the beginning. Their early work included a search of the home of one of the last people seen with Lockhart.
Caraway said his department will work closely with the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office to move the investigation forward. He said Hancock County authorities felt they lacked the resources to advance the investigation any further.
Detective David Stromeyer of the Kenner department will take the lead in having another look at evidence in the case.
“He’s going to go over everything, obviously, see if there is something that may have been missed, or something that he feels is important,” Caraway said.
Lockhart’s torso was found on the beach in Bay St. Louis, Miss., in June. Other body parts and pieces of clothing washed up later on beaches in the Mississippi cities of Pass Christian and Long Beach.
Authorities said Lockhart was identified, in part, by tattoos. She had been stabbed in the chest.
The two people seen leaving the strip club with Lockhart were identified as Margaret Sanchez and Terry Christopher Speaks.
Neither was arrested in the case. Caraway said he believes Sanchez, who authorities said was 28 at the time of Lockhart’s disappearance, is still in the New Orleans area.
Speaks, 41, is in federal custody for failing to register as a sex offender in North Carolina. The Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows he’s being held in a facility in Otisville, N.Y., due for release in October.
