Monday, November 12, 2012

Unsolved Murder in Louisiana


The Cruel Death of Stephanie Lynn Hebert
by Robert A. Waters

Thirty-five years ago, an unknown killer abducted a child from Waggaman, Louisiana. 
On a blazing hot summer day in 1978, six-year-old Stephanie Lynn Hebert left her home to play with a neighbor.  Late that afternoon, her parents, Donald and Joyce Hebert, reported her missing. 

The New Orleans Times-Picayune described the child: “Stephanie, whose 6th birthday is June 30th, was last seen wearing pink shorts and a pink checkered top, her father said.  Also, she was barefooted and wearing blue framed glasses, he said, adding that she had blond hair, is about four feet tall and weighs about 45 pounds.  Last month she graduated from kindergarten at Live Oak Manor Elementary School near her home.”

An ice cream vendor told detectives from Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office that she’d sold cotton candy to a child and an older woman sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m.  The vendor claimed the little girl looked like Stephanie.  (Despite a massive search, the two were never located.)

Thousands of searchers scoured the surrounding countryside, including a heavily forested area near the missing girl’s home.  Helicopters buzzed overhead, focusing on the nearby Mississippi River.  Investigators, including FBI agents, meticulously searched the Hebert home while Stephanie’s parents met with reporters to plead for their child’s return.  Psychics opined on where to locate Stephanie, but those avenues proved unsuccessful.

Finally, on November 29, 1979, twenty-one miles from Waggaman, a hunter found the child’s skeletal remains.  Stephanie, tied to a tree, had been dead for approximately six months, likely since the time she went missing.  Ropes had been secured around her remains, and her clothing and eyeglasses lay on the ground nearby.  Animals had scattered many of her bones.

The child’s killer was never found.

Numerous questions remain.  Why did the kidnapper tie Stephanie to a tree?  Was she still alive when left in those lonely woods?  Did she succumb to the elements or animal attack?  

After 35 years, is the killer still alive? 

NOTE: Stephanie Lynn Hebert’s sad case lay cold, dormant, and forgotten for twenty-five years, until an amateur online sleuth began researching it.  Here's hoping the murderer will be caught, and will face the justice he so deserves. 

5 comments:

TheSquareRigger said...

U have a very sad blog. I love it.

Unknown said...

The man in the links Below, Kerry James Breaux Sr., 55 years old, was one of the two people questioned in her murder. He was arrested in 2010 for manufacturing child porn. He is being released this coming September 2013. Also, he had long hair, as far back as a child as I can remember, and cut it prior to being arrested. Here are the links below. Maybe, if he did do it, he could be spooked into a confession, if he thinks that new evidence came up. I sure hope so, because his family is in denial, and he is going to have access to their kids again! Disgusting! If he did do it, I hope there is a way to prove it!

http://www.wafb.com/story/12932136/deputies-look-for-man-wanted-on-child-porn-charges?clienttype=printable

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20100809/ARTICLES/100809393

Unknown said...

Also, if the (very reliable) person that told me, did their homework right, he lived in Waggaman at the time.

Unknown said...

I can not believe that a MONSTER would tie a child to a tree and just leave her to die like that..
This is a terrible injustice to this poor baby,although she was 6 yrs old she was still just a baby.
This poor family my heart grieves for them after reading this makes me wonder has things been to long forgotten by the police, granted the family wont forget.
Play at the feet of JESUS--Rest in the LORDS arms.

Unknown said...

You need to look at Alvin Scott Loyd, currently serving a life sentence for killing other child a few years later.