Larose woman’s body, vehicle recovered

The body of a 71-year-old Larose woman was recovered last Tuesday, six hours after Eugenie “Ann” Boulet plunged into the Intracoastal Canal.

Witnesses reported the car drove slowly into the canal around 1 p.m. from a small, private boat launch near the intersection of the canal and Bayou Lafourche, Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry Weidel said. Several people told authorities they saw Boulet’s vehicle stop near the launch, leave, and then return.

As the car sank into the water, Boulet was unresponsive to screams for her to get out of the car, Weidel said.

More than 100 spectators watched from the four corners of the water intersection as the Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol searched the swift, murky water for Boulet’s late model, silver Mercury Marquis. The vehicle was found several hundred feet from where it entered the water, Weidel said.

Retrieving the vehicle quickly became a community effort.

Divers with the sheriff’s office tied a cable around the wheel of the submerged Marquis. A U.S. Coast Guard vessel and a spud barge that was in the area for repairs assisted with securing the cable. The line was connected to a wrecker from Ken’s Body Shop in Cut Off. Using a large piece of equipment from Allied Shipyard arrived near dark to help lift the car out of the water and onto the bank around 7:30 p.m., Weidel said.

Boulet’s body was still in the driver’s seat, secured by a seatbelt, he said.

The investigation is ongoing, Weidel said. Detectives have learned that Boulet missed a doctor’s appointment earlier in the day. She had not been seen since she left the residence that morning, according to authorities.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Bud Dill and Captain Dean Savoie and watch members of the Water Patrol search for the sunken vehicle containing the body of Ann Boulet. * Photo courtesy of the LPSO