ACADIA PARISH — Authorities in Acadia Parish are asking the public for help identifying a woman whose body was discovered in a bayou off Highway 13 on Friday.
The body was found by fishermen and is believed to be that of a woman between the ages of 20 and 50. Her race has not been confirmed due to the condition of the body when it was discovered.
Acadia Parish Sheriff K.P. Gibson said the body had been in the water for at least three weeks, possibly longer.
"It's obvious that the body had been in the water for at least 3 weeks, but we believe it to be greater than that. The environment in the area, you know, wildlife in the area has taken its toll on this body," Gibson said.
The cause and manner of death have not yet been determined.
"The important thing is finding out who this person is, a little bit about their story, where did they reside, maybe the last time they were seen. We have still not determined this to be a crime scene, meaning that this is a homicide. We don't know if there are medical conditions. We don't know a lot. So it's very challenging. You know, we need to find out more about the person," Gibson said.
Gibson said the condition of the body has made it difficult to narrow down identifying details, and he is urging anyone in the area who may have a missing family member to come forward.
"The body is just in such bad shape that we can't really even, you know, get down to that point of trying to even put it in a smaller time window on age at this point. So we are definitely looking in our area as well as our parish, Acadia, Vermilion Parish, and maybe even surrounding parishes that may have a family member, which is a female in that age range, who may not have been spoken to or seen, or asking people to at least check to see if they have a family member that maybe lives by themselves and have not heard from them in a while cause we just really, really like to assist a family and try and bring some closure to this aspect," Gibson said.
