OPELOUSAS, La. — The Louisiana State Police have identified the skeletal remains found in Evangeline Parish in 2018 as those belonging to Erica Nicole Hunt, who went missing in Opelousas in 2016.
According to Tpr. Thomas Gossen, LSP has confirmed that the body of Hunt has been identified and they are treating the case as a homicide.
The LSP Bureau of Investigations is leading the investigation along with help from the Evangline Parish Sheriff's Office, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office and the Opelousas Police Department.
Gossen says the remains were originally located in December 2018 in Evangeline Parish while investigators were trying to find a missing boy.
According to OPD, the last time anyone saw Hunt was on July 4, 2016, when she was last seen around a residence located on Hirsch's Alley behind Ray's Boudin off of Vine Street in Opelousas.
Gossen says that LSP were notified on Friday that the remains were a forensic match for Hunt after being analyzed by the LSU Faces Lab, LSP Crime Lab and the DNA Doe Project.
KATC spoke with Hunt's mother, Shannon Issac, in 2017 who said that she had seemed to have vanished into thin air and left behind her then three year old daughter, Bri.
"There had been times that she called me off of random numbers because her phone was dead just to see what Bri was doing or to let us know where she was," Issac told KATC in 2017. "So, as for her just up-and-leaving no contact information, not anything, is impossible to me."
Issac told KATC then that the family had little to no leads, except for a vague chart that the family had obtained seven months after her death.
"We contacted OPD, we contacted the sheriff's department and even the man who's in charge of Crimestoppers, and no one could tell us any information about this chart, where it came from, who had it or who did it," said Issac at the time. "From what they assume is that it came off of a personal computer."
LSP and other investigating agences are asking for the public’s help in providing information related to Hunt's disappearance.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to contact St. Landry Crime Stoppers at 948-8477(TIPS), online at stlandrycrimestoppers.com, or via Facebook by leaving a WEBTIP. Tips may also be submitted via text message by texting TIPS625 plus the tip to CRIMES (274637).
The Louisiana State Police online reporting system is also available to the public through a convenient and secure reporting form that is submitted to the appropriate investigators. Citizens can access the form by visiting www.lsp.org and clicking the Suspicious Activity link.
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