Has reward hindered Alvarez murder investigation?

In February 2021, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office again asked the public for information regarding the unsolved homicides that claimed the lives of 63-year-old Mary Alvarez, 42-year-old Daytra Miller, and 13-year-old Robert West, Jr.

In each murder case, the sheriff’s office increased rewards for information to $25,000.

Bayou Justice explored the murders of Daytra Miller and her son, Robert, twice since the horrific event, but not the Alvarez case. Unfortunately, the original reward offered in that case may be responsible for that oversight.

Too often, authorities offer rewards in homicide cases that result in someone coming forward, hoping to collect. They claim some local thug incarcerated for another crime is the guilty party. In most cases, the tips prove fruitless, but on the off chance that the lead pans out, the anonymous tipster hopes to reap some portion of the reward.

The public, sadly, has short memories. An announcement of an arrest, or even potential arrest, often leads to a perception of conviction in readers’ minds. For example, many today believe the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested Amite Attorney Donna Bahm’s slayer. However, that never happened.

A staunch advocate of “Innocent until proven guilty,” ordinarily, I do not fall victim to conviction by media. However, I confess guilt in the Alvarez case. I wrongly believed the sheriff’s office arrested Mary’s murderer, but that also never happened.

On Thursday, November 15, 2012, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards told reporters that his detectives had opened an investigation into Hammond-area businesswoman Mary Alvarez’s death. He said his deputies responded to a 911 call from the victim’s husband around 5 p.m., Wednesday, November 14.

Vic Alvarez told investigators he stopped by Alvarez Nursery, the couple’s business on Morrison Boulevard, around 4:35 and found his wife lying on the floor, unresponsive and bleeding from the head. First responders, including sheriff’s deputies, confirmed Mary had fatal injuries. However, the sheriff declined to report the cause of death until the coroner completed the autopsy. He said the woman’s death did not appear to be a random act of violence, nor could law enforcement determine whether her death resulted from a criminal act. However, the following day, the coroner’s report confirmed the cause of death: a single gunshot wound to the head.

One month later, the sheriff announced that his office and Crime Stoppers of Tangipahoa Parish had both offered rewards of $2,500 for “information leading to the discovery of the events preceding Alvarez’s death.”

One year later, on November 2, 2013, detectives received information from an informant insisting that Eric O’Neil Selders, today 49-years-old and incarcerated on non-related charges, murdered Mary Alvarez.

Two years later, in a news release dated Saturday, October 31, 2015, the sheriff’s office publicly named Selders as their prime suspect in Mary’s killing, explaining that he was behind bars for other crimes and had not yet been charged with her murder.

The news release then discussed investigators’ interactions with Vic Alvarez.

“As the surviving spouse, and the person who found her, Mr. Alvarez endured many rounds of grueling questioning by our detectives, but he never stopped being cooperative and assisting,” the release explained.

The report also said “Sheriff Daniel H. Edwards wishes to let Mr. Alvarez know the whole department shares in this great loss, appreciates his full cooperation and regrets that in doing our job, he had to endure multiple rounds of questioning that was certainly uncomfortable for him in his time of extreme grief.”

The release recounted how an informant provided information pointing to Eric Selders. He said detectives would pursue the lead aggressively and share the information with federal authorities. The sheriff’s office believed this strategy would eventually lead to charges against Selders in Mary’s murder, but that never happened.

Instead, the joint effort found what led to charges against Selders for distributing narcotics and possession of a firearm.

Sheriff Edwards sat down for an interview with the Baton Rouge Advocate that Saturday. He told them Selders remained in jail following his arrest in 2013, just a few days after the informant tipped his office. He said Selders was serving a 15-year sentence on the federal charges and would face additional drug distribution charges in federal court.

While Selders sat in jail, the sheriff said, detectives continued to build a case, aiming to prosecute him for Mary’s murder.

“At this point, TPSO believes it has sufficient evidence to obtain an arrest warrant of Eric Selders,” the press release said in 2015. “However, due to Selders being in jail and serving a lengthy sentence, we are continuing to work with the District Attorney’s Office to bolster the case against Selders before an arrest is made in an effort to give the district attorney as strong a case as possible.”

Within a year of the Mary Alvarez murder, an indictment named 39 people, including Selders, for their involvement in what authorities described as a “violent drug trafficking” network. The charges followed a 29-month drug ring investigation codenamed “Operation Third World.”

U.S. Attorney Walt Green said the network used a Baton Rouge daycare center called the Emmanuel Child Development and Learning Center, 1384 Swan Avenue, for storage. The indictment said those arrested, Selders among them, planning the sale of Ecstasy, cocaine, and marijuana stored at the facility.

According to public records, back in 1989, courts convicted Selders of distribution of cocaine, aggravated battery in 1991, possession with intent to distribute a Schedule II narcotic in 1998, and possession with intent to distribute a cocaine-based drug in 2006.

His rap sheet suggests he has earned a “career criminal” designation, but that career has not included murder.

Today, eight years after Mary’s death and five years after investigators insisted they would soon charge Selders, TPSO insists the man remains a “person of interest.” However, they also raised the reward from $2,500 to $25,000.

Let’s hope that strategy works better today than it did last time.