Attack victim’s status remains grave
Safe believed to be family’s recovered
“Those who can tell us for sure are either dead or fighting for their life right now.” Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley, speaking of identifying a safe
GONZALES — An Ascension Parish woman who survived an attack in which her husband and son were killed on Saturday “is still in grave condition, but she is hanging on,” Sheriff Jeff Wiley said late Monday.
Also Monday, deputies were examining a safe found in Livingston Parish that could be the one taken from Shirley Marchand’s Babin Road home after the murders of her husband, Robert Irwin Marchand, 74, and his stepson, Douglas Dooley, 50, Wiley said.
The victims’ throats were cut — Marchand, 72, had emergency surgery Sunday — and deputies said they believe the attacker knew about and wanted the contents of the missing safe, a collection of gold coins with an estimated value of about $500,000, Wiley said.
“We don’t know right now if it is the same safe, and we will have to see when it gets here,” Wiley said Monday as the safe was en route to Ascension Parish. It was discovered in Livingston Parish, abandoned at a remote location off La. 63, near the Frost exit of Interstate 12, Wiley said.
Someone in Livingston Parish found the safe, remembered hearing about the murder investigation on the news, and notified Livingston Parish authorities, Wiley said. Livingston Parish deputies collected the safe, and called Wiley’s office.
“Our dilemma is that (the safe) seems to fit what people remember about the safe, children and other relatives of the Marchands,” Wiley said. “Those who can tell us for sure are either dead or fighting for their life right now.”
Wiley said his investigators have a list of details from relatives’ memories of the safe, and will use that to try to positively identify it.
Wiley said his office will continue to put all available resources into solving the case. The Sheriff’s Office has also added extra patrols near the Marchands’ home at 39122 Babin Road in a quiet neighborhood between La. 621 and La. 74.
According to initial reports, the attack likely occurred between midnight and 10 a.m. Saturday. Wiley said Dooley’s wife, who lives in Tennessee and spoke daily with Dooley, called authorities when she had not heard from him for 12 hours.
Deputies drove to the house at 10 p.m. Saturday. When they got no response at the door, they checked around the house, finding no signs of a break-in. Deputies saw the crime scene through the office window, and forced open a door.
Wiley said his detectives believe there was more than one attacker because Dooley was a large man and would not have been easily subdued. Wiley also noted that only the safe was missing from the home. All other valuables were left untouched.
Matt Michel, who lives just down the road, said the neighborhood is in shock.
“I mean, you hear about this kind of thing happening in New Orleans all the time. It just doesn’t happen here,” he said. “We made the mistake of telling our kids about it.
“We didn’t give them too much detail, but word got around pretty fast. We had to tell them,” Michel said. “It’s a very quiet little street.”
Michel said he heard about the attack from deputies when he was driving home from work Sunday night.
This is the first murder of the year in Gonzales, a town that logged only seven murders in 2011 and one murder in 2010.
While deputies do not have photos of the coins, Wiley’s office was able to release several photos of coins that look like some from the stolen collection, which included $5, $10 and $20 liberty-head coins minted between the late 1800s and the early 1900s.
Wiley said that any pawn shops, gold-buyers or jewelers in the area should call Crime Stoppers to report anyone trying to sell rare gold coins.
Anyone with information about the attack should call the Sheriff’s Office at (225) 621-4636 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.