LA - Olander, 79, & Alphathada Cassimere, 77, murdered, New Orleans, 10 May 2009

KaylynnCouture

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2008
Messages
7,056
Reaction score
2,504
NEW ORLEANS — An elderly couple was found dead Sunday morning in their Gentilly community home and New Orleans police are searching for clues in the case.

Police Chief Warren Riley says robbery did not appear to be the motive and investigators also believe that the couple was not the intended target. Family members have identified the victims as 79-year-old Olander Cassimere Sr., a pastor, and 77-year-old Alphatheda Cassimere.

They would have celebrated their 55th anniversary on Friday.

Riley said a family member entered the home to see the front door had been broken into.

Officers arrived just after 8 a.m. Riley said the couple's daughter was also in the home, but was unharmed. Riley said the daughter has a mental disability.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519687,00.html
 
I wonder what LE means when they say they believe the couple was not then intended target? Did someone else live in the home that was away at that time?
 
This link has MUCH more information: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news-1/124201932554830.xml&coll=1


......But on Mother's Day, New Orleans police said, relatives discovered the couple fatally shot in the Pontchartrain Park home where the Cassimeres raised nine children. One daughter -- who family members say is autistic and lived with her parents -- was unharmed, police said.

"They were good people who lived the life that they preached about," said daughter Carmen Cassimere-Fisher, 39.

Police haven't announced any arrests in the double murder, which occurred in the 5400 block of Seminary Place shortly before 8 a.m.

Cassimere-Fisher, a home health care worker, arrived at the family home close to 8 a.m. to take care of her autistic sister. She noticed the front door open, its hinge broken.


Cassimere-Fisher said she found her mother lying on the floor close to a bedroom door. Alphathada Cassimere, 77, was clutching a pair of scissors, she said.

Olander Cassimere, 79, had been shot in another bedroom as he lay on a bed, his legs stretched out and ankles crossed as if he were sleeping.

The house wasn't ransacked, and the family wasn't robbed, family members said.

The relatives said they don't understand the violent murders. Two of them said they believe the murders are connected to another relative's plan to testify in a kidnapping and attempted-murder case.

Cassimere-Fisher said someone came to the Seminary Place home recently asking whether the grandparents of the witness lived there. The inquiring man didn't have identification and used the witness's nickname, she said.


Family members who gathered at the couple's house looked with suspicion at cars crawling down the block that they didn't recognize.
 
That is what I am wondering also. This couple lives to be in their 70's with an upcoming anniversary only to be murdered in their own home.

I hope this story is followed up on.
 
Thanks for the update. I did not read it before posting.
 
This is horrible. I hope that the scissors yield some DNA of the perp (with any luck at all, she got a swipe at him/her?) Tragic...:(
 
Family convinced the deaths are tied to a kidnapping- http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/elderly_couples_deaths_tied_to.html

As New Orleans homicide detectives pursued leads in the Sunday murder of an elderly Gentilly couple, family members on Monday remained convinced the shooting deaths are tied to the alleged kidnapping of a relative last year.

As the victim, the relative also was a witness in the kidnapping case, family members said.

Police officials and Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro would not comment on whether the double murder is being treated as a case of witness intimidation. However, a source in the New Orleans Police Department said detectives are trying to determine whether last year's kidnapping of a relative of Alphathada and Olander Cassimere Sr. is related to their deaths.


An NOPD source said police are examining the case of a woman who was believed to be involved in the kidnapping of a relative of the Cassimeres.

A kidnapping defendant who fits the description offered by the Police Department source is Kashie Fernandez, 29, who was arrested last year and was charged with kidnapping in September. In January, at the request of prosecutors, Criminal District Court Judge Karen Herman increased Fernandez's bond from $10,000 to $50,000.

Fernandez was scheduled to face trial today.

Fernandez, who had been wearing an electronic-monitoring bracelet, was re-arrested by police Sunday about noon, said Maurice Tyler, her defense attorney.
 
This is just too sad.
Sometimes it seems like the world today is turned upside down....the truly religious, who live what they preach, like this couple appear to, are senselessly murdered...and others who purport to be religious (like Huckaby) are murderers.
 
This is just too sad.
Sometimes it seems like the world today is turned upside down....the truly religious, who live what they preach, like this couple appear to, are senselessly murdered...and others who purport to be religious (like Huckaby) are murderers.

I totally agree. It's so sad.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
150
Guests online
926
Total visitors
1,076

Forum statistics

Threads
589,931
Messages
17,927,844
Members
228,004
Latest member
CarpSleuth
Back
Top