Donna Arceneaux investigation grows cold

Two years ago, Bayou Justice recounted the brutal 2017 murder of Donna Arceneaux, a 40-year-old hairstylist found dead in her home with a gunshot wound through her chest. Initially, the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office treated her death as a suicide. That changed when investigators learned the gun left on the scene was not the murder weapon.

Donna Arceneaux, a state-licensed cosmetologist and hairstylist, owned and ran the Bella Donna Day Spa in Franklinton. According to friends, Donna loved the outdoors, hiking, hunting, and fishing. She enjoyed listening to country music and spending time with her children. She had two sons, Scott Jenkins and Brennon Dendy, and one daughter, Adriel “Ellie” Arceneaux.

Ellie lived with her mother, as did Ellie’s dog. However, Ellie stayed with her dad the weekend Donna died, and she had the dog with her.

According to a sheriff’s office news release, deputies found Donna shot and lifeless in her bed early Tuesday morning, October 24, 2017. Shortly after midnight, the release said, the sheriff’s office received a 911 call reporting a shooting at 21229 Louisiana Highway 16, south of Franklinton. On scene, deputies learned that two of Donna’s friends, a neighbor and her minister, discovered Donna’s body and called the police.

Outside Donna’s home, getting no answer to phone calls or knocks at the door, the friends entered through an open back door into the kitchen. The minister told me later she noticed a spoiled six-pack of pork chops thawed on the counter, as if Donna planned a meal she never cooked or served.

From down the hall, she heard the neighbor shout and joined him at the door of Donna’s bedroom. Inside, they saw her nude body with a gunshot wound through her chest.

The minister phoned 911, and the Washington Parish detectives and deputies worked the scene all day. The Louisiana State Police Crime Lab joined them that afternoon and later transferred the body to the St. Tammany Parish coroner’s office for the autopsy.

“It is always tragic when any person loses their life in such a manner,” Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal told reporters. “Our detectives will continue to investigate this shooting death,” the sheriff said, “until we resolve the matter.” In the meantime, he asked that everyone “join with me in prayer for the victim’s family and friends.”

One year later, Covington Coroner Rogelio Angeles Casama certified and quietly filed Donna’s Death Certificate with the state registrar’s office in Baton Rouge. Although Dr. Casama cited homicide as the manner of death, neither the sheriff’s office in Washington Parish nor the coroner’s office in St. Tammany Parish notified news reporters or Donna’s family.

Since the initial news release suggested Donna’s death was a suicide, the public did not learn about the missing murder weapon and the homicide designation until Bayou Justice reported the finding in 2020.

At that time, the coroner’s office had not made public the results of Donna Arceneaux’s autopsy, and investigators had not confirmed what type of projectile, slug or bullet, nor what caliber of bullet, killed Donna Arceneaux. This prompted a member of Donna’s family to ask that the Louisiana State Police take over the investigation.

Pathologist Dr. Michael DeFatta’s autopsy report described Donna’s body as thin, sixty-three inches tall, weighing 117 pounds with black hair and the tattoo of a scorpion on her left thigh.

Finding her nude, the doctor ordered sexual assault nurses to evaluate the body with rape kits. The report notes the nurses bagged test results as evidence. However, the doctor did not detail the test results in his report.

According to the doctor’s findings, Donna died from a “perforating gunshot to the left chest.” The shot created an entrance wound measuring 1.5 by 0.8 centimeters and entered her left breast 2.5 inches left of the midline, nine inches from the top of Donna’s left shoulder.

Traveling through the skin and soft tissue of the left breast, the projectile severed the left anterior fifth rib and damaged the left lobe of Donna’s liver and lung, along with her spleen and heart. Passing through her body, the projectile exited her back in the same location, on the left side, 2.5 inches left of the midline, and nine inches from the top of her shoulder. Dr. DeFatta measured the exit wound as one centimeter in circumference, unusually smaller than the entrance wound because of the noted perforation.

According to Donna’s cousin, the only firearm police found in the home was a shotgun, a weapon that typically renders holes larger than one centimeter.

Donna had “two curvilinear abraded marks near her left upper shoulder at the base of the neck.” The examiner noted blood drops on both legs just above the knee, spatters from the gunshot wound.

He also found blood transfers, blood deposited on her body after the gunshot, attached to her left thorax and left arm. According to the report, Donna’s death came instantly, suggesting the blood transfers came from someone moving Donna’s body after her heart stopped beating.

Today, Donna Arceneaux’s death remains an unsolved homicide. Captain Tom Anderson of the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office said this week that his team has received no updates on the case since the State Police took over the investigation. Troop L has no email address and so far, has not returned my calls.