Arrest warrant issued for Terry Speaks in Jaren Lockhart dismemberment case

Terry Speaks (file photo)
Terry Speaks (file photo)
Terry Speaks (file photo)

KENNER, Louisiana (AP) — Kenner Police on Thursday obtained an arrest warrant for a man considered a suspect in the stabbing and dismemberment of a Bourbon Street dancer.

Police obtained the warrant for Terry Speaks, 41, in the death of 22-year-old Jaren Lockhart, whose body parts were found along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Kenner Police Department said in a statement.

Speaks is currently in federal prison in New York on an unrelated sex-crime charge. He is scheduled for release in October, said Sgt.Brian McGregor. At that time, Speaks will be extradited to Louisiana to face charges of second-degree murder, obstruction of justice and failing to register as a sex offender, he said.

Last month, police arrested Margaret Sanchez on charges of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. She remains in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center with bail set at $750,000.

reports Speaks reportedly admitted telling someone that he and Sanchez had killed a girl in Louisiana, carved up her body and dumped the remains off a bridge in coastal Mississippi. That statement was revealed in a summary of the case included in an arrest log filed after Sanchez was booked

It is not clear to whom Speaks allegedly made the statement, but Kenner Police have said they traveled to New York to interview him after they took over the investigation from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi.

Lockhart was reported missing June 6, 2012, after leaving Temptations, a Bourbon Street strip club where she worked. Days later, parts of her body — including her torso and head — washed up in various places along the Mississippi coast. Investigators also found that tattoos Lockhart had were “strategically” removed in an apparent effort to make identification difficult.

In addition to Speaks’ statement, the arrest log said “numerous” other witnesses told investigators that Speaks and Sanchez approached Lockhart as she danced and offered her money to leave with them for “a party/sexual encounter.”

Lockhart accepted the offer, according to the log, and surveillance footage released shortly after her disappearance showed the three together that night.

Authorities have said it is not yet clear when Lockhart was killed but that she likely was killed in Kenner.

The suspects’ car was later seen entering and leaving Mississippi after Lockhart was reported missing and before her remains washed ashore in Hancock and Harrison counties.