Body found in river is missing LSU freshman

UPDATE: LSU officials have confirmed the body found yesterday is that of Kori Gauthier.

A week before she vanished, Kori Gauthier, a 19-year-old freshman at Louisiana State University, shot video of herself and a male friend giggling and slapping each other with dorm room pillows. A female voice narrates the video on social media, opening with the phrase, “This is for couples only,” and closing with a question, “In this relationship, who will be the last to die?”

At 1:15, Wednesday morning, April 7, 2021, motorist Devin Jones drove I-10 eastbound up the steep incline of the bridge crossing the Mississippi River into Baton Rouge. As he rounded the top of the hill-like structure, the vehicle ahead of him abruptly swapped lanes, edging ahead of a semi-trailer truck.

“The car in front of me swerved and cut lanes, and all I saw was a parked car,” he told reporters. “I locked my brakes, hitting the white car. It was either that car or an 18-wheeler.”

Over two and a half miles long, the Horace Wilkinson is Louisiana’s tallest bridge. The truss superstructure is 4,550 feet long and features a 1,235-foot clear channel span. The traffic deck holds six lanes of freeway traffic, carrying an average of 90,000 vehicles per day. The bridge has been the site of at least one death every year since the bridge’s construction in 1968.

Devin Jones’ accident totaled both cars, briefly landing him in the hospital. Before a tow truck driver pulled both vehicles to an impound yard, Devin watched police pull a woman’s wallet from the center console of the white car he plowed into. However, that car had no occupant. Devin had searched for the vehicle’s driver before the police arrived, imagining someone with car trouble exiting the vehicle before the collision.

The next day, Kori Gauthier’s employer called her family after she failed to arrive for her shift at the Arnaudville studio, where she worked as a dance instructor. The employer told her family Kori was also not answering her phone.

Verifying this, Kori’s father and mother soon called others and learned that Kori, an education major, had missed all classes that day and a scheduled doctor’s appointment. Driving to LSU, they learned Kori had not come home the night before.

“Went to her dorm room; she wasn’t there. Looked for her car; couldn’t find her car. We started trying to turn over every stone we could,” Spencer Gauthier, Kori’s uncle, told reporters. Spencer said Kori’s father used a GPS locator on Kori’s phone to track the device. The phone was inside her car at the salvage yard.

The police seemingly had not attempted to locate the owner of the car, Kori’s father.

“Neither my brother, Kori’s father, or her mother were notified that the car was in an accident or anything,” the uncle said. “We tried that morning to get information on the investigation. Baton Rouge Police worked the crash. They told us to file a public records request for the report. We’ve done that and are waiting to hear back.”

The Baton Rouge Police Department released a statement saying:

“On April 7, 2021, shortly after midnight, we responded to the Horace Wilkinson Bridge regarding a reported accident involving a stalled vehicle. Upon arrival, the officer observed the stalled vehicle was unoccupied. The officer acted quickly to have the vehicle removed from the roadway to prevent any other crashes. The registered owner of the unoccupied vehicle was not contacted, but the investigation remained ongoing.”

However, the family’s investigation revealed, using GPS data, that an hour before someone left Kori’s car running idle on the bridge, her vehicle crossed the bridge three times. First, the car crossed eastbound. Later, the car crossed westbound, and then eastbound again, stopping in the middle of the bridge in an eastbound lane. The vehicle remained there until Devin Jones collided with it an hour later. When Kori’s family located her phone, the GPS destination pointed to the home of an aunt and later, a cousin confirmed that Kori planned to stay the night at their home.

Spencer said the family contacted LSU Police, who told them to call the LSU communications office. “They would not tell us anything,” he said, “Other than to confirm LSU Police was investigating her disappearance.”

Spencer Gauthier next turned to the public for help via social media, writing:

“Everyone, I need your help! Please share this picture of my niece Kori Gauthier. She has not been seen since April 6th. I’ve checked every hospital, jail, coroner’s office. You name it. No sign of her. I’ll personally pay ten-thousand dollars to anyone that leads her home. I need my niece!!!!”

Spencer said later he hoped someone knew his niece’s location. He imagined her a Jane Doe unconscious in a local hospital and hoped the reward would encourage someone working with her to come forward.

“If I had to paint the picture of the model child and model personality, it would be Kori,” Spencer said. “Someone who never gave her parents any issues on any level, the sweetest person you would ever meet. She would volunteer and help other youth, teaching them how to dance and other things.”

On the day of Spencer’s post, the Cajun Navy arrived at the office of the LSU Police Department, volunteering to join their search and rescue mission. Since then, the organization has posted daily videos of search activities, along with pleas for additional volunteers on foot or horseback, or owners of ATVs, drones, boats, and helicopters. By week two of the search, the organization had 300 volunteers searching the area.

Saturday night, April 10, over social media, LSU reported Mercy Search and Rescue cadaver dogs alerted twice in a 90-foot-deep area of the river near the Farr Park Equestrian Center and RV Campground, an area believed unsafe for divers.

The following day, mounted patrols began searching the nearby levee in both directions while EBRSO, LDWF, LSUPD, and BRPD continued boat searches, monitoring the depths with advanced sonar technology.

On Monday, April 12, United Cajun Navy Safety Guide Raheem Pierce said his team had expanded their search. “From the bridge down to L’auberge Casino, those are the areas we are focusing on,” he said.

Hundreds attended prayer vigils in Baton Rouge and Opelousas, Kori’s hometown, Sunday, and Monday. At both events, Kori’s friends and family distributed fliers sharing new information on her disappearance. The handbill said Kori’s boyfriend, presumably the male in the pillow fight video, argued with her the night of her disappearance and that he was the last person to see her. That night, she had her hair wrapped in a bun and wore a purple LSU sweatshirt and black tights. Standing 5-foot-5 and weighing 120 pounds, Kori has dark brown hair and brown eyes.

At the Opelousas gathering, Levar Gauthier, Kori’s father, said, “This means the world to us. It lets me know that my daughter’s life means something,” he said. “She’s an education major at LSU, and right now she’s teaching St. Landry Parish and Opelousas and the city of Baton Rouge, and throughout the United States, everyone who is reaching out. Kori is teaching us a lesson of unity. Let’s accept her lesson and make this world better starting today.”

At the event, a cousin of Kori’s complained that the missing student’s 20-year-old wrestler boyfriend had not attended. However, another relative defended him, saying the boyfriend had contacted Kori’s family and assisted with the police investigation.

Regarding the GPS readings before the crash, LSU student Kirby Clements suggested, “Maybe someone was on the phone or in the car with her. Was she having an argument and just got out, or was she being followed and someone staged the accident?”

Sydni Chavis, another LSU freshman from Opelousas, lives across the hall from Kori. She last saw her friend two days before she vanished. “I saw her that Monday. We hung out and she was happy,” Sydni said.

At 9:18, Tuesday morning, April 13, a tugboat crewmember found a body floating in the Mississippi River at Milepost 137 near Reserve, 40 miles downstream from Baton Rouge. Two hours later, authorities removed the body from the water.

That afternoon, LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard announced, “LSU Police are in contact and working with the authorities in St. John the Baptist Parish. A body has been recovered, but identification is pending.”

That evening, Dr. Christy Montegut, the St. John the Baptist Parish coroner, ordered an autopsy to determine the identity of the recovered body, and just before 6 the following evening, LSU Chief of Police Bart Thompson released this statement:

“Since Kori was first reported missing, the LSU Police Department, Baton Rouge Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies and volunteers have taken exhaustive measures to locate her and, in the process, to determine what led to her disappearance. This is a difficult conclusion for all of us, but we hope this will bring closure for the Gauthier family. Based on cell phone tracking, video footage and a timeline of the events related to this case, combined with other evidence shared with Kori’s parents that we are not at liberty to disclose publicly out of respect for their privacy. We have concluded that there was no criminal activity or foul play involved.”