New tech leads to breakthrough in 1986 Golden Meadow cold case. Foul play is suspected

Colin Campo, The Courier
·3 min read

A break was made in a 37-year-old cold case when previously unidentified remains turned out to be those of a missing Golden Meadow woman.

Paula Boudreaux, 22, disappeared from Golden Meadow on August 6, 1986. Her family last saw her alive Aug. 2 after the Golden Meadow blessing of the fleet.

Investigations took place at the time of her disappearance but leads ran dry. Now with new technology matching her identity to remains found March 13, 1989, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office say they believe criminal action was involved.

"We are taking the position that, until we discover otherwise, foul play or perhaps homicide was involved," Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said at a press conference, April 19. "We consider this case a now active criminal investigation."

Rumors circulated of foul play at the time of her disappearance, Webre said, but no hard proof pushed the case beyond that of a missing person. There are suspects and one residence in Golden Meadow that will be investigated going forward. Webre said in days past departments from parish agencies were not as connected as they are today, and he credited the St. Tammany Parish Coroner's Office for contacting them.

St. Tammany Parish Coroner's Office Cold Case Investigator Chris Knoblauch said no case is ever closed, "every death has to be presumed to be a homicide until it is proven it isn't".

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre and St. Tammany Parish Coroner Dr. Charles Preston present side-by-side image of LSU Forensic Anthropology Computer Enhancement Service and a photo of Paula Boudreaux, who went missing 37-years-ago. The generated image gave a breakthrough in Boudreaux's cold case which is now suspected to have criminal involvement.

These remains were sent to the Louisiana State University Forensic Anthropology Computer Enhancement Services Lab where they have remained since. In April of 2013, a computer approximation of what the face would have looked like was created.

With new technology, Knoblauch picked the cold case back up in February of 2020 and worked jointly with detectives using the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Database System to try to find the identity.

An anonymous tip to the database system led to a breakthrough and on October 11, 2022 Knoblauch suspected the remains were of Boudreaux and only needed confirmation. DNA samples were provided by Boudreaux's relatives and a match concluded on January 4, 2023.

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The remains were difficult to identify when they were found. Technological limitations hampered identification because of the state the remains were in when they were located by hunters. The remains were spread out over a large area of the marsh, he said, but a mostly intact skull was recovered.

“It’s unfortunate that Ms. Boudreaux’s identity remained undiscovered all these years while science caught up with mystery,” said St. Tammany Parish Coroner Dr. Charles Preston. "We have now identified the victim, and we will continue to work with these sheriff’s offices as they seek to identify whoever is responsible for her death.”

According to a Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office release, for investigative purposes the breakthrough was kept silent outside of Boudreaux's relatives while law enforcement expanded their search. News was released now in hopes of getting new leads.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: New tech leads to breakthrough in cold case of Golden Meadow woman