JEANERETTE, La. (KLFY) – The body of an elderly man who had been missing since Christmas Day has been found inside a trash can located in on his back porch, according to the Iberia Parish Sheriff.
Deputies made the grisly discovery this morning just hours after they arrested 23-year-old Jeffery Lee Marks, of Jeanerette, for the first-degree murder of 75-year-old Howard Poche.
Sheriff Louis Ackal says that Marks was booked into the Iberia Parish jail without bond. The sheriff said investigators had determined a motive in Poche’s murder but will not be releasing it at this time.
Poche was reported missing when he did not attend 8 a.m. Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church on Christmas Day.
A priest asked members of the congregation to check on Poche when he didn’t show up for 8 a.m. Mass.
Ackal said when a parishioner arrived at Poche’s home they found his housekeeper, Michele King, cleaning up a “considerable amount of blood.”
King is now in the parish jail on charges unrelated to Poche’s death but Ackal said it’s possible she could be charged in the case.
The investigation into Poche’s disappearance is far from over.
