Handyman arrested in Fla. after La. elderly couple found strangled

HAMMOND, La. -- Louisiana police say a handyman arrested in Florida is accused of kidnapping and strangling his Baton Rouge employers.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie told a news conference that 42-year-old Ernesto Alonso was arrested about 8 a.m. Wednesday in Hollywood, Florida.

Police spokesman L'Jean McKneely says police may also have recovered tens of thousands of dollars believed missing from the home of Dennis and Suzanne Duplantier, 71 and 70.

Police say relatives called Monday saying they had been unable to get in touch with the couple, and OnStar tracked their pickup truck to a truck stop near Interstate 12 in Hammond. Their bodies were inside.

An arrest warrant says the couple was likely bound and beaten in the home until they granted access to their safe, reports CBS affiliate WAFB. The arrest warrant says blood was found in multiple rooms of the home, "consistent with a physical confrontation."

Surveillance video shows their pickup being parked at a Hammond gas station and a suspect police believe to be Alonso getting out and into another vehicle that had an accomplice inside.

Police say evidence inside the home led them to identify Alonso as a suspect, and when he was arrested, they say. Investigators uncovered items "consistent with those used in the homicide" when they arrested him, reports the station.

Alonso had reportedly been staying on the couple's property and they occasionally hired him to do odd jobs.

Dabadie says Alonso will be extradited to Baton Rouge, where he'll be booked with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping.

Investigators are still looking for a possible accomplice.