31 March 2008

SHOCK: avoyelles murder connected to paragon casino

UPDATED 02 april 2008


6:00 pm 'continuing coverage' report 02 april 2008
====

UPDATE: tuesday 01 april 2008: Donald Ray Johnson, 23, of Bunkie, was charged late Monday with second-degree murder in addition to charges of unauthorized use of a credit card, Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Maj. Harry Normand said today. ~ source
====
UPDATE: tuesday 01 april 2008 see missing woman found dead from the gannett/alexandria daily town talk
***********
previous news videos
5:00 pm 02 april 2008
====
6:00 pm 31 march 2008
====
5:00 pm 31 march 2008
====
***********
65 year old janaver distefano of plaquemine, louisiana, was abducted from a parking garage at the paragon casino, marksville, la. saturday 28 march 2008. her body was found monday 31 march 2008 in her car, which had been left parked under a shed on an abandoned homesite, at the corner of what mr. magnoli called in his 5:00 pm report, "moreau street and marshall" google maps returns a hit for a moreau street and south marshall blvd. bunkie la. UPDATE: a screen grab from a klax-tv video shows the street signs. they are moreau and s. marshall. [picture]
====
the gannett/alexandria daily town talk reports:
excerpt:
Her body was discovered around 7 a.m. Monday in her car in front of an abandoned Bunkie home. The discovery came about three and a half hours after the arrest of Donald Ray Johnson, 23, of Bunkie, who was charged with unauthorized use of a credit card in connection with using Distefano’s card, Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Maj. Harry Normand said.

Johnson is also being investigated in connection with Distefano’s death, he said.

He said detectives were led to the body “through their investigation” and led to Johnson after his use of Distefano’s credit card.

Distefano was last seen Saturday morning at the Paragon Casino Resort and reportedly left around 11:20 a.m. to go to Wal-Mart, half a mile away, but hadn’t been seen since.

Several calls to Distefano’s cell phone over that day went unanswered, Normand said.

Her credit cards had been used twice by Johnson, according to Normand, at Wal-Mart and its gasoline pumps. ~ source
more later...
====