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.
Computer hiker’s death remains a mystery
After searching two years, police in Florida have identified a hiker found dead in a tent. His last official residence had been in New York, but he arrived there from Louisiana, still working remotely for a company in Baton Rouge. I did not follow the case, so I never saw his photograph until after authorities identified him. Once I did, though, I remembered meeting him in Hammond in 2012.
Three murder victims torched in Port Vincent
In 1979, a deputy with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office discovered two bodies smoldering in a fishing camp behind a Port Vincent bar. One month earlier, ten miles away, the same department found a woman’s body burning in a roadside ditch. All three murders remain unsolved today.