Saturday, June 9, 2012

Body parts may belong to decapitated New Orleans woman

Nopd / NOPD

By msnbc.com staff

Four body parts that washed ashore on Mississippi beaches Saturday may belong to a decapitated New Orleans woman whose stabbed torso turned up days earlier, officials said.

Jaren Lockhart, 22, vanished Tuesday in New Orleans, officials said. Her torso, discovered Thursday in Bay St. Louis, Miss., was positively identified Saturday, officials told television station WLOX of Biloxi.


On Saturday morning, a fisherman found a lower leg portion in Pass Christian, east of Bay St. Louis, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove told NBC station WDSU of New Orleans.  Authorities later found a thigh nearby. They found the head just to the east in Long Beach, WDSU reported.

WLOX reported an unspecified fourth part was discovered later in Pass Christian.

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Officials were trying to determine if the parts found Saturday also belonged to Lockhart, who New Orleans police said had tattoos over most of her body. She was last seen leaving her Tulane Avenue home around 8 p.m. Tuesday.

WDSU reported that her boyfriend told police that she took a cab to her Bourbon Street job and he grew concerned when he couldn’t contact her. He told police he hasn’t seen or heard from her since that night, WDSU said.

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