ST. TAMMANY CRIME NEWS

Tracking local crime and police news in New Orleans, Louisiana

A 60-year-old woman who answered a man's online ad to share a house was shot in the face by her new roommate Saturday, shortly after she unpacked her belongings in his Slidell home, authorities said.

A Slidell-area man on Monday pleaded guilty to raping a 17-year-old girl from Michigan.

Richard McCullough

Police said a Slidell woman was shot in the face twice by her new roommate Saturday night in a case that has investigators baffled as they try to determine what the man's motive could have been.

The 60-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Slidell Police Capt. Kevin O'Neil said Monday.

"This is the kind of stuff they make movies about," he said.

A falling bullet grazed the back of a 25-year-old New Orleans man as he rang in the new year this morning, but authorities said celebratory gunfire overall appeared to continue its years-long decline.

An argument over a woman in Slidell turned violent early Friday morning as four men scuffled in and around a Waffle House in a brawl that continued even after one of them was shot in the leg.

Deputies believe the same smash-and-grab burglar is responsible for breaking into six cars near Mandeville and Covington this week, authorities said Friday

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's OfficeSecurity camera footage of a suspected car burglar who has been breaking into cars in areas around Mandeville and Covington.

A Slidell woman wanted by police for stabbing another woman in the eye during an argument earlier this fall was arrested Thursday when she showed up in court to face charges in a previous fight.

Two Slidell women were arrested this week after conducting a gift card scam that netted them more than $8,000 from two local Wal-Mart stores, authorities said.

St. Tammany Parish deputies put dozens of wanted suspects, most accused of being street-level drug dealers, behind bars Thursday morning as part of a parish-wide sweep.

A Winn-Dixie store manager was tossed from the hood of a van Tuesday night in Slidell as he tried to stop the driver from speeding off with three bottles of stolen liquor.

ELLIS LUCIA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEFirefighters use crime scene tape to cordon off the property while the state fire marshal investigates the cause of a fire at 228 High St. in the Money Hill subdivision near Abita Springs.

Firefighters battled a blaze in the attic of a newly built and unoccupied Money Hill house that had apparently been burglarized before the Wednesday morning fire.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office has settled out of court a 5-year-old lawsuit in which a Folsom woman claimed she was beaten by a deputy after a dispute at a Mandeville area carwash.

Slidell Police are worried that teenagers may be getting high by smoking herbs marketed as incense.

The family of a former Fontainebleau High School student who was arrested and later expelled for allegedly joking about having a bomb in his backpack has sued the St. Tammany Parish School Board.

A man was sentenced to 55 years in prison Wednesday for brutally attacking and robbing the 71-year-old mayor of Madisonville, Peter Gitz, in 2006.

St. Tammany Parish Councilman Marty Gould was booked recently with driving while intoxicated after a traffic stop on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

Two men today were charged with sexual battery for purportedly touching female children in sexually inappropriate ways.

A St. Tammany Parish grand jury today indicted a 40-year-old Slidell woman for allegedly running over a man who was riding his motorized wheelchair on the shoulder of the road.

Police from four agencies are looking for a pair of men they believe robbed Sonic Drive-In locations from Ponchatoula to Picayune, Miss., over the past month.

ELLIS LUCIA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEAshley Snipes, 20, rests after a morning fire badly damaged her small house off South Pontchartrain Drive in Lacombe on Tuesday. Snipes, who lives in the home with her boyfriend and another friend, was alone and asleep at the time of the fire but ran out in time to avoid injury.

A fire apparently triggered by a generator severely damaged a house on South Pontchartrain Drive in Lacombe on Tuesday morning, leaving three residents homeless.

A former employee of a Slidell medical practice is behind bars in Picayune, Miss., on suspicion of stealing a doctor's pad, writing dozens of fake prescriptions and selling the pills.

A former employee of a Slidell medical practice is behind bars in Picayune, Miss., after allegedly stealing a doctor's pad, writing dozens of fake prescriptions and selling the pills.

Mark Carpenter

A former assistant principal at Lee Road Junior High School pleaded guilty Monday to raping a 6-year-old girl and possessing child pornography.

Mark Carpenter, 54, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping the girl in 1986, before he was hired by the St. Tammany Parish school system.

A driver from Baton Rouge has been booked with vehicular homicide after an alleged drunk-driving accident near Mandeville that killed her passenger.

G. Andrew Boyd / The Times-PicayuneAn Abita Springs tanker unit dumps water into a pool used by a pumper engine as fire equipment blocks two-lane Highway 21 north of Covington. A Baton Rouge man and his son were killed when fire heavily damaged a house at 73212 Highway 21 north of Covington early Sunday morning, also known locally as Military Road, completely blocking the highway for several hours as firefighters fought the blaze. About a dozen firefighting units from Fire District 12, Abita Springs and surrounding units pitched in to help.

A Baton Rouge man and his 3-year-old son were killed in a house fire near Covington early Sunday, State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said.

A teary-eyed but tough 73-year-old mayor of Madisonville called it "justice" Thursday afternoon after a St. Tammany Parish jury found Charles Holcombe guilty of robbing him outside his restaurant in 2006.

A teary-eyed, but still tough 73-year-old old mayor of Madisonville called it "justice" on Thursday afternoon after a St. Tammany Parish jury found Charles Holcombe guilty of robbing him outside his restaurant in 2006.

A Bush man was found guilty on Wednesday of having helped Dominic Robinson escape and cover up evidence after the killing of Samantha Jaume, the Mandeville-area homemaker murdered in front of her children on Independence Day, 2001.

Even after spending seven years in prison, it didn't take Michael Nelson long to get back to his old habits, Slidell police said.

A Slidell man shot and killed his neighbor's pit bulls after they attacked him and his dog Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

After a mistrial in April, a man is back on trial in Covington for allegedly beating and robbing Madisonville Mayor Peter Gitz at the mayor's restaurant in 2006.

Scott Threlkeld / The Times-PicayuneMandeville Police Chief Tom Buell, left, who has led the department since 1974, and Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price.

The opening strains of Tom Buell's farewell to Mandeville on Thursday night were met with accolades befitting a police chief who had served for three decades, shepherding his department from a handful of officers into a modern force equipped with laptops and sophisticated radios.

ELLIS LUCIA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEAccording to St. Tammany Parish authorities, Cynthia Lynch of Tulsa, Okla., was shot dead last week while arguing with Raymond 'Chuck' Foster, the imperial wizard of the Bogalusa Sons of Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, near this camp site in the Devil's Island area off the Pearl River Canal in Sun, La. The pair reportedly argued during Lynch's initiation rites to join the organization. The camp site is on a levee bluff constructed from the borrow of canal dredge material and is a popular camping site because of a small sandy area at the water's edge allowing for easy boating access.

See the Klan oath and other documents from the Sons of Dixie Knights of the KKK.

Through the sparse cover of barren trees, a cluster of colorful tents adorns a rise alongside the Pearl River Canal.

Cluttered with fishing gear, bags of junk food, discarded cigarette packs and other trash, it seems like an ordinary campsite, the kind any good old boys of the north shore might set up to do some hunting and fishing in that quiet patch of God's country on the fringe of the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge.

Oklahoma Department of CorrectionsCynthia C. Lynch

Cynthia Lynch boarded a bus in Tulsa on Friday and braced herself to venture out of Oklahoma for the first time in her life.

Described by family members as weak-willed, the 43-year-old divorcee was reaching out, scrambling for some kind of acceptance even if it meant traveling 700 miles to meet with a small group of dedicated Ku Klux Klansmen in a remote corner of St. Tammany Parish while promising to spread their message of racial purity.

See the application Cynthia Lynch filled out for the Sons of Dixie.

Oklahoma Department of CorrectionsCynthia C. Lynch

The Tulsa, Okla, woman allegedly slain by a member of the Ku Klux Klan on Sunday when she tried to back out of an initiation rite in St. Tammany Parish has been identified as 43-year-old Cynthia C. Lynch, authorities said Wednesday.

In the wake of a weekend slaying tied to a Ku Klux Klan initiation ritual, Washington Parish authorities said they are surprised to learn the group was based in their area.

Susan PoagU.S. Attorney Jim Letten addressses the media after State Sen. Derrick Shepherd pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering at the Hale Boggs Federal Courthouse in New Orleans Oct. 10.

Boy, was I pleased when Barack Obama won the election. At last, I thought to myself, we'll be rid of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. Letten is a newspaperman's nightmare. You can't laugh at him because he never says anything stupid. You can't blast him because he is scrupulously fair. He works tirelessly putting crooks in stir, but is a most amiable fellow. He is an absolute dead loss.

So, thanks for nothing, Mary Landrieu. Just because Letten has done an exemplary job during the Bush administration, the doyenne of Louisiana Democrats does not think he should be replaced.

Map of area where the body was found.

In the wake of a weekend slaying tied to a Ku Klux Klan initiation ritual, Washington Parish authorities said they are surprised to learn the group was based in their area.

Video: Outraged locals react

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain has scheduled a news conference this afternoon to release more information about a body that was found Monday near Sun.

A woman found slain in rural St. Tammany Parish on Monday was shot to death by members of the Ku Klux Klan after she tried to back out of an initiation ritual, St. Tammany Parish authorities announced Tuesday.

After four weeks on the lam, a 30-year-old man described as Covington Police Department's "most wanted criminal," was apprehended Thursday evening in Mandeville.

FRANKLINTON, La. -- A 61-year-old Franklinton man is accused of killing four small dogs belonging to his neighbors and setting their bodies on fire.

The body of an elderly man was found Wednesday afternoon behind the Green Springs Motel next to the Little Bogue Falaya River near Covington.