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Erica Hunt, pictured at left, was reported missing from Opelousas in July 2016. Remains found in Evangeline Parish in December 2018 were confirmed as a forensic match to Hunt. Courtesy of Bring Erica Hunt Home Facebook page Scales of justice.
Classen Rafael / EyeEm Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Three men were indicted Friday by a St. Landry Parish grand jury on murder charges, one of them for a murder in 2016 . Jordan Jamal Barnes, 33, was indicted for the second-degree murder of Erica Hunt, who went missing in July 2016, St.
Landry Parish District Attorney Chad Pitre wrote in a news release. The missing persons case by the Opelousas Police Department remained unsolved until December 2018, he said, when human remains were found in rural Ville Platte in Evangeline Parish during a search for a missing child. Hunt's case was re-opened .
LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services lab and DNA Doe Project analysis assisted law enforcement in identifying the remains in 2024 as Hunt. Louisiana State Police pursued the case which led to Barnes, who confessed to the crime, Pitre said. In an unrelated case, Irving Cisneros Arguelles, 24, was indicted Friday in connection with the first-degree murder of Jorlany Osario Beitez, Pitre wrote.
Beitez was reported missing on Feb. 17. Authorities found her burned SUV in a field near the 3500 block of Highway 10, Pitre wrote.
Her body was found in a nearby bayou. Arguelles was found in the Beggs area on Highway 10, Pitre said, where law enforcement officers allegedly saw him discarding the victim's phone. In a third case, Joseph E.
Thomas, 18, was indicted by the St. Landry Parish grand jury in connection with the second-degree murder of a 15-year-old. The fatal shooting, Pitre wrote, occurred on Jan.
2 in the 800 block of Joseph Street in Opelousas..
