Nation: Body of abducted Louisiana girl found

http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/333433p-2783946c.html ^ | March 29 2002 | The Associated Press

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Nation: Body of abducted Louisiana girl found

The Associated Press

HATHAWAY, La. (March 29, 2002 9:23 p.m. EST) - The body of a 12-year-old girl was discovered Friday in a gully, a day after she was abducted from outside her home in southwestern Louisiana.

Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff Ricky Edwards would not say where exactly Holli Thibodeaux's body was found, nor how she died. Edwards declined to give any further details.

Dozens of FBI agents had joined the search Friday for Holli. She was abducted Thursday at the Hathaway Village Trailer Park after the driver of a pickup stopped to ask for directions to nearby Jennings, Edwards said.

The man grabbed Holli, threw her into his truck and drove north on Louisiana Highway 26, Edwards said.

Another girl who was with Holli ran and escaped.

The FBI released a composite sketch of the suspect and said they were looking for a light blue, full-sized pickup truck with a new silver toolbox and a red-and-yellow ladder in the back.

FBI agent Kenneth Kaiser said agents had several leads and had gathered evidence from the site, outside the trailer where Holli lived with her mother, Robyn Cormier, and a 16-year-old sister.

Family and friends gathered Thursday outside a high school for a prayer vigil with the family.

"It's not fair," said Halie Blanchard, a friend of Holli's in the fifth grade. "Why'd they have to pick her? I mean she didn't do anything wrong or anything."

Edwards said investigators also are looking into recent reports of attempted abductions in Eunice, 18 miles east of Hathaway, to see if any are similar to Holli's kidnapping.

Hathaway is about 30 miles east-northeast of Lake Charles.

[BlackVeil]

I think that life imprisonment, as you suggest, is indeed better than capital punishment. However, long sentences are often not served. And it is so terrible for the victims of subsequent homicides when they learn that the criminal had been released early. This happens all too often.

[Bonaparte]

Looking into my crystal ball, irv. I see a chronic offender with prior sex offenses who is out on early release/parole. I see him dumping a stolen light blue truck after committing this crime. I see his attorney arguing the abuse excuse and insanity. I see him breathing Holli's air for another 12 years.

[Bonaparte]

" Well, it seems to me that life imprisonment (without cable and weight room, etc) with hard labor is a more suitable (and useful) punishment than offing them."

Nothing is more "suitable" and "useful" than hanging a man who kidnaps and rapes a little kid.

[Intolerant in NJ]

He murdered 2 children in Watertown (WAY up North). Was sentenced to - I'm not sure, I think it was 20 years. He served about 13 years and was released on parole...13 years for murdering two children...Philly TV tonight carried a story about a local pharmacist who was selling drugs illegally - he faces fines of up to $48 million and 1600 years in jail...our justice system certainly seems to have its priorities backwards and upside down sometimes......

[Skooz]

I heard about the abduction on the radio yesterday. The piece of vomit stopped to "ask directions" from two girls. One ran away, but Holli stayed and was kidnapped and murdered. I live in Louisiana and my little girl will be eleven in three weeks. I cannot tell you what this stuff does to me.

If it were my little girl, I would ask for life imprisonment. Then, I would beg the parole board to grant him parole, because then he would be MINE.

[southerngrit]

Hopefully the authorities will find this creep and he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This is Louisiana - IF he gets life he'll serve it at "The Farm" (Angola). Trust me - even hardened criminals have no use for child molesters/murderers -- He won't live to see parole.

[theDentist]

This guy's head should be on a pike in the town square.

[roachie]

Is Angola still as harsh as it used to be? If so, this offender will definitely be paying the piper, if caught.

[SuziQ]

I sincerely hope the scum who did this is found (by a pack of hungry, ill-tempered pit-bulls.)

Or maybe he'll slip and fall into a gator filled swamp! We can only hope!

[Johnny Crab]

Be a good place for 'em! One thinks maybe a parent in this situation "may" begin practicing with his scoped, high-power "deer" rifle. I recall one Dad who paid a personal visit to New Orleans International Airport when the FBI was arriving with his captured son's molester.....and thanked the guy with a few fatal donations of lead.....

[Joe 6-pack]

"Or maybe he'll slip and fall into a gator filled swamp! We can only hope!"

It's unfortunate, but yes, sometimes, "accidents," of that nature do occur down here in Looooozeeeana. Just ask PETA...'gators gotta eat, too!

[thunderdome]

Back to public hangings....we need a stronger deterrent to crime than this pansy, sanitized justice system.

Criminals need to fear the law, not scoff at it.

[lwoodham]

I say death our death penalties are not tough enough. People like this guy should absolutely get the death penalty, but it should be something like death by Bengal Tiger, or death by being bound in a straight jacket and lowered slowly head first into a crocodile pit. It might make some stop and think before commiting such a brutal crime. Better yet let the surviving parents of a murdered child choose the form of execution.

[BlackVeil]

"He served about 13 years and was released on parole ... " (for the murders of two little children). Groan! That is so terrible! And I could cite you even worse cases from England and Australia. The whole of society is guilty, that it lets these things happen. But who will listen? Because I take an interest in the Middle East, I get bulletins from a group monitoring human rights in Iran. They do speak on some important issues. But at one time, I got a notice asking people to protest about the latest round of death penalties. In one case, a man who killed his three children had been flogged before being stoned to death. The judge who sentenced him symbolically threw the first stone. (Well - he won't need to bother with a parole hearing, will he?) In another case, a man had been sentenced to death for adultery and incest, because he repeated raped his two teenage daughters. Instead of sending a protest against the death sentences, I felt like writing a letter of complaint that they hadn't been carried out sooner. Also, the Iranian judge who sentenced the child murderer should be sent on a world tour, to instruct his fellow judges on decision making. I guess I sound rather raving, but recently there was an English case where the parents murdered their children (stabbed and strangled) but walked free because it was impossible to apportion blame between them, and each blamed the other. They were both in the house at the time. I would send them both down.

[BlackVeil]

You wrote: "The piece of vomit stopped to "ask directions" from two girls. One ran away, but Holli stayed and was kidnapped and murdered. I live in Louisiana ..." Very hard on the community. Sorry to add to the apprehension, but reading the account of this snatching of the victim makes me wonder - has he done this type of crime before? Rarely, in these psycho crimes, does the perp stop at one.

[rvoitier]

My 2¢: Capital punishment works only if executed in a timely fashion in the same way a dog doesn't know it's done a bad thing unless it suffers the consequences upon committing the act.

There are too many convicts on death row, imho. Sitting here in the comfort of my home in front of my computer I can pontificate from a philosophical viewpoint on how all those on death row should be put to death...NOW! Gee, what a concept. Staying philosophical and fantasizing of a perfect world, here would be my plan to make capital punishment WORK:
There are very close to 18,250 convicts on death row. Using the Pavlov-dog theory, execute one convict EVERYDAY in EVERY STATE for a YEAR.
That would:

• clear pending executions
• awake the potential criminals to consequences
• serve notice that death chambers are "Open For Business"

The flip side to my philosophical nirvana is what we have today--a fucked up society that prays on little children.

[FITZ]

I could see a true life imprisonment ---no release, no parole ever and a life of hard labor in leg chains instead of cable television, movies, and laying around in luxury at taxpayer expense.

[FITZ]

I know of a case where a little girl of 14 years old went riding her bike and was found brutally raped and murdered, sliced up. Her family will never recover, they prevented parole for the murderer but his 20 years finally were over and he's now out of prison ---they think he's rehabilitated and he's in his 40's. Most likely looking for his next victim at this moment.