4 charged with Lafourche woman’s rape, murder

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office has arrested four men in connection with the murder of a Galliano woman over the weekend.

Gonzalo Portillo Cortes, 20, Esdras Sanchez Garcia, 21, Luis Nava, 28, and Jose Castillo Moreno, 23, were arrested on Sunday and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated rape.

The arrest comes less than 24 hours after the body of Galliano resident Angela Laudun was found in a wooded area in Golden Meadow.

According to Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s spokeswoman Leslie Hill Peters, the men came in contact with Laudun at a Galliano bar.

Hill Peters said information from the investigation yielded the victim voluntarily left the bar around 2 a.m. Saturday with the men to engage in sex in exchange for money.

The four men were working for a Houma company and were living on property owned by Quality Shipyard in trailers owned by Superior Labor Services. But they allegedly drove Laundun to a house in Galliano where they had been doing repairs.

Hill Peters said Laudun became afraid at the home and attempted to flee, but the suspects allegedly held her down and raped her before strangling her.

Mark Goldman with the Lafourche Parish Coroner’s Office said the cause of death was “affixia due to suffocation.”

The sheriff’s office received help from other agencies around the area to tie the Hispanic men to the crimes.

St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Lt. George Breedy was noted by Hill Peters because he is fluent in Spanish.

“Contact to these men was made in Spanish,” said Hill Peters. “Their English was very limited.”

The men are being held at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center, each with a $1 million bond.

But Hill Peters said immigrations has a hold on the men, which will prevent the men from leaving jail.

The murder investigation was the first of the year in Lafourche Parish.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said in a news release this incident was not tied to a partially clothed woman found in a Thibodaux field on Friday morning.

On Friday, a partially-nude, 43-year-old Cut Off woman was found in a cane field in Thibodaux.

The woman was severely beaten and taken to the local hospital to be treated for her injuries.

Initially the sheriff’s office feared the crimes were related, but upon further investigation, Webre said he is certain that is not the case.

“We are 100 percent certain that this tragedy is not connected in any way to the prior incident,” the sheriff said. “We want to thank the people who helped us solve this case so quickly. Without the information they provided, these men might still be out there to potentially strike again.”

The woman in the Thibodaux beating was last seen leaving a truck stop with a white male believed to be in his mid-20s with a short, military-style haircut. He was driving a white company van, according to witnesses.

Webre said following the two incidents that he encourages residents to keep an eye open for their surroundings.

“No one should get into a vehicle with a stranger and everyone is encouraged to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement,” he said.

The investigation of the Friday crime is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call the Lafourche Parish Crimestoppers at 1-800-743-7433.

4 charged with Lafourche woman’s rape, murder