August 5
August 5, 2008
Sarah Maria Domangue
August 7, 2008
A couple found dead in the Choupic community early Sunday morning is Lafourche Parish’s first murder-suicide of the year.
Details about the incident were still sketchy as of press time Monday.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Larry Weidel said deputy Sgt. Danny Toups and Reserve Deputy Dustin Rabalais found the bodies of Darci Landry, 25, and her boyfriend, Carmen Gregoire, 37, inside the couple’s mobile home at 134 Landry Lane just after midnight.
Landry was in the bed and Gregoire was on the floor, Weidel said.
One of Landry’s relatives alerted the sheriff’s office because the couple had not been heard from in several days. The family member wanted the deputies to check the residence as a precautionary measure.
“Apparently, the couple was not answering the door or the telephone and family members were beginning to get worried that something was wrong,” Weidel said. “The family member had no other way to get inside of the home, so he or she called the sheriff’s office to have a deputy enter the home to check things out.”
Once inside, the deputies found the two bodies along with a blood-stained journal that allegedly belonged to Gregoire. Weidel said that he confessed to killing Landry in the journal’s last written entry.
The actual time of death has not been determined. Detectives are estimating that the couple’s bodies had been inside the mobile home for at least four to five days before the discovery because the bodies were beginning to decompose.
Gregoire apparently stabbed Landry several times before taking his own life with an overdose of an unknown medication.
“An autopsy was performed, and a toxicology report is pending,” Weidel said. “Normally, it takes several weeks for a toxicology report to come back. I think the deterioration was to the point that they could not really determine what medication was taken. But that’s what it appeared to be – an overdose.”
Lt. Chad Shelby is currently investigating the incident, and more information will be released as it becomes available.
