ST. LANDRY PARISH — CARENCRO, La. — Family and friends gathered Sunday afternoon to honor the life of Dalana Charlot, a 41-year-old woman who was shot and killed last week in Carencro.
Loved ones held a candlelight vigil filled with prayer, music and emotional tributes, remembering Charlot as a devoted mother, daughter, sister and friend.
“We are always going to make sure we celebrate Dalana — Mother’s Day, birthdays, anything,” one family member said.
“She was a god gifted woman, she was a beautiful soul, she wasn’t just my daughter she was my everything," Charlot's mother said.
Authorities say the shooting is being investigated as a murder-suicide. According to the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded just after 11 p.m. April 1 to the 100 block of Maggie Lane, where they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds in a driveway.
Investigators say 33-year-old Raylon Wiltz shot his estranged girlfriend, Charlot, before turning the gun on himself. Charlot was pronounced dead at the scene. Wiltz later died at a local hospital.
For Charlot’s mother, Lisa Powell, the loss is devastating.
“He stole my daughter… he stole my daughter’s life,” Powell said.
Powell is now urging others to turn away from violence, sharing a message directed at young men.
“Young men, if you can’t handle what you’re doing, put the guns down… he should have left her alone,” she said.
As the investigation continues, Charlot’s family says their focus is on honoring her life and supporting one another through the grief.
“It’s a long road I have to travel… and I’ll never get to the end of that road until I see her again,” Powell said. “No mother should have to bury her child in that type of violence.”
