Jeff Davis 8

The first victim, Loretta Lewis, 28, was found floating in a river by a fisherman on May 20, 2005.[3][4] Other victims were Ernestine Marie Daniels Patterson, 30; Kristen Gary Lopez, 21; Whitnei Dubois, 26; Laconia "Muggy" Brown, 23; Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno, 24; and Brittney Gary, 17.[4] The final body of Necole Guillory, 26, was found off Interstate 10 in 2009.[5]

Patterson and Brown had their throats slit; the other bodies were in too advanced state of decomposition to determine the cause of death, though asphyxia is a suspected cause of death.[2]

Brown's investigative work reveals many tangled connections between victims, suspects, and the police.[2][6] Most of the victims knew each other well.[3] Some were related by blood (such as cousins Kristen Gary Lopez and Brittney Gary) or lived together (Gary lived with Crystal Benoit shortly before her death).[2] The victims also shared in common traits such as poverty, mental illness, and histories of drug abuse and prostitution.[1][2]

The women all also served as informants for the police about the local drug trade and often provided police with information about other Jeff Davis 8 victims before their own deaths.[2]

Kristen Lopez, one of the victims, was present when police shot and killed a drug dealer named Leonard Crochet in 2005 along with several individuals connected to the Jeff Davis 8 case, including Alvin "Bootsy" Lewis, who fathered a child with victim Whitnei Dubois and is also the brother in law of the first victim, Loretta Chaisson Lewis.[2] A grand jury investigated the shooting and determined there was no probable cause for a charge of negligent homicide against police even though a Louisiana State Police investigation into the Crochet shooting concluded that he was unarmed when he was shot to death by law enforcement.[2] However, witnesses told investigators they believed the police had killed many of the victims because of what they knew about the shooting of Leonard Crochet.[2]

Task force investigative reports reveal a series of witness interviews in which local law enforcement were implicated in the murders.[2] Statements from two female inmates portrayed suspects working with the sheriff's office to dispose of evidence in the Lopez case.[2] However, the sergeant who took the statements was forced out of his job, and the allegations were ignored by law enforcement.[2]

Sheriff's office chief criminal investigator, Warren Gary, was also accused of purchasing a truck suspected of having been used to transport a body for the purpose of discarding evidence.[4][7]

In 2009, the sheriff ordered that every investigator working the Jeff Davis 8 case be swabbed for DNA in response to the accusations against investigators.[2] However, the office refuses to comment on the results of the DNA testing.[2]

Police have arrested or issued warrants for the arrest of four people in connection with the case.[1] Two people were held on murder charges for months before being released due to issues with evidence.[1]

Frankie Richard, a local strip club owner and suspected drug dealer[1][2] admitted to being a crack addict and to having sex with most of the victims.[1] He was among those last seen with one of the victims, Kristen G. Lopez.[1] Law enforcement's own witnesses have connected Richard to the Sheriff's Office.[3] The two female inmates who stated the Sheriff's Office disposed of evidence in the Lopez case alleged that the evidence was discarded at the behest of Richard.[2]

Byron Chad Jones and Lawrence Nixon (a cousin of the fifth victim, Laconia Brown) were briefly charged with second-degree murder in the Ernestine Patterson case.[2] However, the sheriff's office did not test the alleged crime scene until 15 months after Patterson's murder, and found it "failed to demonstrate the presence of blood."[2]