Police: Slain La. sheriff's employee identified as sergeant
TERRYTOWN, La. -- Authorities have identified a sheriff's office employee found murdered in a car in a New Orleans suburb as a 10-year veteran of the force, reports CBS affiliate WWLTV.
On Monday, a passerby called police after finding a woman's hair hanging out of a red pickup truck with shattered glass in Terrytown, Louisiana, according to the station. Law enforcement later identified the woman as 47-year old Tracey Marshall.
Marshall was a sergeant within the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, the parish just outside New Orleans. She was assigned as a bailiff to the courts.
Any possible motives in her murder remains unclear, but officials believe it didn't have anything to do with her job.
"The investigation continues at this point in time," Sheriff Newell Normand told the station. "We're piecing together the information that we have been able to determine from canvassing the neighborhood."
Neighbors reported that they heard gunshots in the area around 9 p.m. Sunday -- nearly 12 hours before the body was discovered. One neighbor told WWLTV that four shots were fired one right after another.
The sheriff confirmed to the station that his deputies did investigate reports of gunfire. However, it had been in another area close by -- one block away, he said.
"As you know, we had inclement weather last evening," Normand added. "A lot of wind and everything else, so the sound could carry long distances and it's a little more difficult to determine the exact location."
The station also reported Monday that Normand said there were several spent casings outside the vehicle, which was a private car, not a marked cruiser.