Lucy Bustamante / WWL-TV News Reporter
What police thought was a suicide turned out to be one of the most gruesome murders post-Katrina in New Orleans.
Police cordoned off the area around the 800 block of N. Rampart following the incident.
It happened around 10 p.m. Tuesday night in the 800 block of North Rampart on the outskirts of the French Quarter, according to authorities.
Police said they found a the dismembered body of a 26-year-old woman in an apartment, thanks to a tip from her killer, her 28-year-old boyfriend. The man jumped to his death a couple hours before from the rooftop bar of the Omni Royal Hotel. Police have not released their names.
VIDEO: Neighbors say man was 'nice guy'
But the scene at the Omni was just the beginning of a long night for detectives. When they checked inside the victim’s pockets, they found a five page suicide note, leading them to the apartment.
“When the detectives went into the apartment, they found (the victim) that had been dismembered,” said Captain Anthony Cannatella, an NOPD spokesman.
Sources close to the investigation said they found her legs inside of the oven, her head in a pot on the stove and the rest of her body in a trash bag.
Police said her boyfriend even left her family's contact information for the police inside of the apartment before he left for the Omni Royal Hotel.
“It appears he cleaned it up a lot before he left,” Cannatella said.
WWL-TV
Police found the victim's body in this apartment.
Investigators believed he planned the whole thing.
“I would imagine that he was in some serious mental anguish and pain,” Cannatella said. “I couldn’t fathom to think what caused him to do it. But he had to be in some serious pain to do it.”
Other than an increase in suicides in the city after Katrina, Canatella said he could not find a better explanation for this crime; neither could those watching the scene.
“There is a thin layer between being able to survive and cope and not being able to survive and cope and I think those layers, too, are getting thinner for people,” said Kari Shisler, a patron at King Bolden's Bar on North Rampart at the time of the murders.
Musician John Gross, also at the bar that evening, said he feels the city is in great despair.
“…How do we get people to come back to our city when these are things happening to the locals?” he said.
Eyewitness News learned that the man worked at Matassa's Grocery in the French Quarter as a delivery man and also as a bartender on ladies night at Buffa's Bar on the edge of the French Quarter. However, he stopped coming to work at Matassa's a few weeks ago and quit his job at the bar about a month ago.
"He was funny and bright and smart and he made everybody laugh, and he was just as bright as a person could be, a sweetheart. Big and tall and happy. Certainly a side of him I never saw," said Caryn Lott, owner of Buffa's Bar.
What police thought was a suicide turned out to be one of the most gruesome murders post-Katrina in New Orleans.
Police cordoned off the area around the 800 block of N. Rampart following the incident.
It happened around 10 p.m. Tuesday night in the 800 block of North Rampart on the outskirts of the French Quarter, according to authorities.
Police said they found a the dismembered body of a 26-year-old woman in an apartment, thanks to a tip from her killer, her 28-year-old boyfriend. The man jumped to his death a couple hours before from the rooftop bar of the Omni Royal Hotel. Police have not released their names.
VIDEO: Neighbors say man was 'nice guy'
But the scene at the Omni was just the beginning of a long night for detectives. When they checked inside the victim’s pockets, they found a five page suicide note, leading them to the apartment.
“When the detectives went into the apartment, they found (the victim) that had been dismembered,” said Captain Anthony Cannatella, an NOPD spokesman.
Sources close to the investigation said they found her legs inside of the oven, her head in a pot on the stove and the rest of her body in a trash bag.
Police said her boyfriend even left her family's contact information for the police inside of the apartment before he left for the Omni Royal Hotel.
“It appears he cleaned it up a lot before he left,” Cannatella said.
WWL-TV
Police found the victim's body in this apartment.
Investigators believed he planned the whole thing.
“I would imagine that he was in some serious mental anguish and pain,” Cannatella said. “I couldn’t fathom to think what caused him to do it. But he had to be in some serious pain to do it.”
Other than an increase in suicides in the city after Katrina, Canatella said he could not find a better explanation for this crime; neither could those watching the scene.
“There is a thin layer between being able to survive and cope and not being able to survive and cope and I think those layers, too, are getting thinner for people,” said Kari Shisler, a patron at King Bolden's Bar on North Rampart at the time of the murders.
Musician John Gross, also at the bar that evening, said he feels the city is in great despair.
“…How do we get people to come back to our city when these are things happening to the locals?” he said.
Eyewitness News learned that the man worked at Matassa's Grocery in the French Quarter as a delivery man and also as a bartender on ladies night at Buffa's Bar on the edge of the French Quarter. However, he stopped coming to work at Matassa's a few weeks ago and quit his job at the bar about a month ago.
"He was funny and bright and smart and he made everybody laugh, and he was just as bright as a person could be, a sweetheart. Big and tall and happy. Certainly a side of him I never saw," said Caryn Lott, owner of Buffa's Bar.