New Orleans residents horrified as 3 bodies found 'several days' after death in bullet-strewn home

Officials said the state of the decayed bodies will make them difficult to identify

PUBLISHED JAN 5, 2023

Three people were found dead inside a home in New Orleans in Louisiana (Screenshot/WWLTV)

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: According to New Orleans police, three bodies were discovered in the Fairgrounds neighborhood early Tuesday morning, January 3. It was reported that neighbors reportedly called police asking for a wellness check at a home in the 1700 block of Gentilly Boulevard.

Officers arrived at the home at around 9.18 am, where they discovered three bodies. Deputy Superintendent Hans Ganthier told WWLTV that the "three adults had been dead for several days." Law enforcement sources state that the investigation will be handled as a homicide due to a number of troubling signs, including bullets found on the floor of the residence. Ganthier stated, "Right now, we're treating it as homicide solely because there were some bullets on the ground." The deputy superintendent added that it has been difficult to determine the victims' genders and ages because of how long the bodies have been decomposing.

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Ganthier stated, "We can't even tell the gender or the sex of the people that we're looking at right now." The victims' complete identities are still a mystery. Neighbors in the area have taken it upon themselves to find out who the victims might be by asking around.

Some neighbors, meanwhile, believe that one of the victims might be a man they used to see frequently. Local neighbor Kendra Parks said, "(We are) talking amongst one another, just (asking) have you seen him. He's always outside on his porch or on the neutral ground."

A different local, Randall McCoy, told WWLTV that he would be really upset if one of the victims was the man they suspect it to be. "It really hurt me because he never bothered nobody," McCoy said. "The only thing he used to do is dance and try and make people happy."

A tragedy like this "tears at your heart," said Morgan Clevenger, president of the Fair Grounds Triangle Neighborhood Association. The first homicide of 2023 came quickly for a city that had just concluded 2022 with at least 279 homicides, which was New Orleans' highest number since 1996.