Safe linked to Ascension murder found in Livingston
GONZALES — A safe that fits the general description of the one taken from the Babin Road home of two murder victims on Saturday has been found in Livingston Parish, Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley said Monday.
The safe contained a gold coin collection worth an estimated half-million dollars was the apparent motive when intruders slit the throats of three people, killing two men and critically wounding a woman, Wiley has said.
Businessman Robert Irwin Marchand, 74, and his stepson Douglas Dooley, 50, were killed in their home at 39122 Babin Road, Wiley said.
Marchand’s wife and Dooley’s mother, Shirley Marchand, 72, was in “grave condition” Monday after undergoing emergency surgery Sunday at a hospital, Wiley said.
The brutal slayings probably occurred between 12 a.m. and 10 a.m. Saturday, Wiley has said.
Sheriff’s deputies went to the home at 10 p.m. Saturday to check on the Marchands after Dooley’s wife, who lives in Tennessee and speaks daily with Dooley, had been unable to reach him for more than 12 hours, Wiley said.
When deputies received no response at the door, they peered through the windows, Wiley said, noting nothing out of the ordinary — and no signs of a break-in — until they came to an office on the far left side of the house where they saw three bodies covered in blood.
Deputies forced open the door and realized Shirley Marchand was still alive, Wiley said. All three victims were fully clothed, and each had signs of trauma on their bodies, indicating the intruders used a “blunt object” as well as a knife, he said.
“This department is working non-stop to identify and capture the killers,” Wiley said.
Though Marchand’s critical condition prevented her from being able to speak with police, investigators are reviewing footage from three surveillance videos in the area, Wiley said.
There are a few clues that lead police to think the intruders may have known the victims, he said.
One clue is that the house had no signs of forced entry, which could either indicate the door was left unlocked, or that the victims had willingly let the intruders in, Wiley said.
The sheriff said that detectives believe there was more than one attacker, particularly because Dooley was a large man and would not have been easily subdued.
But the primary clue, Wiley said, was that the intruders had known to take Robert Marchand’s safe, which contained hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold coins, while a desktop computer, laptops and cellphones in the house were left untouched.
The safe was discovered in secluded area near the town of Livingston near the Frost exist of Interstate 12, “in a remote area off Highway 63,” Wiley said Monday.
Any pawn shop dealer, gold-buyer, or jeweler in the greater Baton Rouge area should call Crime Stoppers to report anyone trying to sell rare gold coins, Wiley said.
“A gold vendor would not see these types of coins on a regular basis,” Wiley said. “A responsible vendor needs to come forward.”
Wiley said the victims are well known and well respected residents of the community who were “viciously attacked in their own home.” Robert Marchand was a businessman and lifelong resident of Gonzales who was active in his church, Wiley said. His wife worked at a local funeral home, which Wiley did not identify, and attended the same church as her husband.
“These were people in their home who were law-abiding citizens,” the sheriff said.
Anyone with information should call the Sheriff’s Office at (225) 621-4636, or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.