Inside Report for Dec. 30, 2011

Teacher’s friends grieve, frustrated

A bouquet of fake flowers adorned the front door of Sylviane Lozada’s Baton Rouge home Tuesday morning.

The plastic petals and leaves rubbed against the tape East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputies had placed on the door more than five months ago when they started looking for the missing Brusly High School teacher.

Since then, information supporting possible foul play has been obtained, but Lozada has not been found, leaving friends and family frustrated and sad, especially during the holiday season.

“The holidays can be very depressing under such circumstances,” said Sgt. Carolyn Stapleton, director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office Crime Victims’ Assistance Division. “Many people simply don’t know how to act.”

Brusly High School Principal Walt Lemoine said he was asked several times during the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks about “our missing teacher.”

The magnitude of Sylviane Lozada’s disappearance “really hit home,” he said, when a student gave him a package of Belgian truffles for Christmas. The candies are similar to what Lozada, a native of Belgium, used to give him and other coworkers before leaving for the winter holiday.

“Sylviane Lozada is a very special person,” Lemoine said. “A lot of people miss her.”

Karen Wooley is dealing with her grief by trying to figure out what happened to her friend and coworker.

Wooley said she is looking into hiring a private detective in hopes of digging up information investigators with the Sheriff’s Office have not.

“Someone has to know something,” Wooley said. “Sylviane didn’t disappear without a trace.”

Lozada was reported missing July 18 after her relatives in Belgium could not get in touch with her, authorities with the Sheriff’s Office have said. Lozada’s last contact with her family was around July 5.

Authorities have said that evidence obtained from Lozada’s home at 2234 Springlake Drive suggests foul play.

In addition, detectives discovered that shortly after Lozada’s disappearance, her husband, Oscar Lozada, purchased multiple gray five-gallon buckets with lids and yellow-and-black bags of Quikrete concrete mix, authorities have said. The buckets and bags of concrete mix have not been found.

Oscar Lozada has not been named a suspect in his wife’s disappearance.

Soon after Sylviane Lozada was reported missing, detectives were in contact with her husband, authorities have said. However, detectives lost contact for a while and will not say if they have regained it.

On July 9, authorities have said, Oscar Lozada and the couple’s then 4-year-old daughter boarded a plane in Dallas destined for Venezuela.

They were scheduled to return July 14, but have not come back.

Detectives also have said they have reason to believe Sylviane Lozada might have been inside her husband’s bright-yellow, 2001 Nissan Xterra on July 5 or July 6.

Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman with the Sheriff’s Office, said Sylviane Lozada’s disappearance is still under investigation and urged people with any information about the case to contact her office at [phone] or Crime Stoppers at [phone].

Wooley said she believes answers regarding her friend’s whereabouts will come.

“They might not be the answers I want,” she said. “But there will be answers.”

Kimberly Vetter covers crime for The Advocate. Her email address is [e-mail].