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After nearly four decades, the mystery of what happened to a young mother who vanished after the “Parade of Boats” festival in Louisiana has been solved.
Russell Lee and Judith “Judy” Weiser have been charged with the August 1986 murder of 22-year-old Paula Boudreaux, the Lafourche Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday.
“It was almost the worst kept secret in Golden Meadow,” Lafourche Sheriff Craig Webre told WWLTV. “Judith Lee (now remarried as Weiser) was married at the time to Russell Lee, and Russell was alleged to have been romantically involved with Paula, and Judith became enraged by that. She and, or Russell would have killed Paula.”
The mystery began on August 3, 1986 when Boudreaux was last seen at her parents’ home in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. She left the “Parade of Boats” festival, an annual event that marks the start of shrimping season, around 10.30pm and was dropped off at her parents’ home, family members told investigators at the time.
It was the last time she was seen alive. On August 6, she was reported missing by her sister. She left behind a four-year-old son, Eric.
In January 1989, skeletal remains were found in Slidell, Louisiana, but they were not identified as Boudreaux until 2023.
The St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office had submitted details to the LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Lab in 2013 and a possible image of the victim’s face was rendered.
An anonymous tipster provided Boudreaux’s name which led Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office investigators to collect DNA evidence from one of Boudreaux’s surviving relatives. In January 2023, the remains were identified as Boudreaux.
Armed with a positive ID on the remains, investigators reopened the case and Lee and Weiser were named persons of interest after police learned Lee was in relationships with both Boudreaux and Weiser at the time of the 22-year-old’s murder, according to the sheriff’s release.
Investigators found statements and evidence implicating both Lee, who had a violent criminal past, and Weiser, in Boudreaux’s murder.
The pair are believed to have killed Boudreaux, dismembered her body, and dumped the remains in a piney marsh in Slidell, where she was later found by hunters, according to police.
In Golden Meadow, Boudreaux’s distant relative Michelle Chouest, whose DNA helped solve the case, was speechless when she heard the news.
“I couldn’t contain it,” she told WWLTV. “I just cried. It’s an emotion I can’t understand myself. Just closure, but justice.”
Chouest is no stranger to tragedy after she lost her 20-year-old son in an accident. “Hearing that these parents didn’t know what happened to their daughter, and never found her, and died that way not knowing it, touched me,” Chouest said before Boudreaux was identified.
When the Lafourche Sheriff’s Office released the composite, she was compelled to alert them that it looked like Boudreaux.
“Well a huge catalyst,”Sheriff Webre said about Chouest. “We were then able to find her (Paula’s) sister Lillian, and her son, Eric, and get DNA from them for St. Tammany to confirm.”
Lee was taken into custody on July 9 in Missouri with the help of the Mountain Grove Police Department. On July 10, Weiser was taken into custody in Tennessee with the assistance of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
Both Lee and Weiser were charged with second degree murder and obstruction of justice. They will be transported to Louisiana where they are being booked at the Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex each on a $1.1 million bond.
