Des Allemands mother wants answers to daughter’s murder

Friends set up trust fund for victim’s young son

When friends reported that a burning vehicle found in New Orleans East looked like her daughter’s car, Jolene Dufrene said, “I knew in my heart that was it.”

By 9 a.m. Monday, June 22, Dufrene identified Lindsay Nichols’ body based on her tattoos, clothes and petit build at the New Orleans Coroner’s Office.

Finding her dead in the trunk of a burning car on a lonely stretch of road was in shocking contrast to a mother’s recollections of her only child, her little girl “with the good heart,” who always wanted to put money in every collection can, gave blankets to the homeless and fed them at Thanksgiving.

“I really don’t know what to think – that’s the hardest part,” said the Des Allemands resident. “Was it someone she knew? She was a very trusting person. If someone needed a ride, she’d probably do it. She believed in people and she would help anybody. She said she could handle anything even though she was only 98 pounds. She was a little firecracker, which probably got her in trouble. We’ll never know for sure.”

Dufrene said detectives have told her they have good leads and are hopeful in the case, but little information was available at the time.

What she does know is her daughter had just returned to Des Allemands from a six-week shutdown job in Texas for a month off until her next job.

Nichols processed payroll at work sites for the main office of a Texas construction company, work she had been doing nearly nine months, and she was eager to celebrate how well things were going in her life.

Nichols had just bought a mobile home, filled it with new furniture and was anticipating a comfortable summer with her 9-year-old son, Peter Paul Rose Jr.

By Saturday, she went out with friends to a club in New Orleans.

Dufrene said she was told around 1 a.m. that morning, Nichols’ friends wanted to leave, but she stayed out longer. She believes her daughter may have left the club with someone who killed her.

“She had a lot of friends in the city,” her mother added.A friend said Nichols apparently responded to a text around 4:50 a.m.

Then she was not heard from again.

About 7 a.m. that Sunday, a caller notified New Orleans police about a burning vehicle at the intersection of Michoud and Lake Forest boulevards in New Orleans, according to Office Garry Flot. It’s an area apparently known for vehicles being set ablaze.

Firefighters extinguished the fire and made the gruesome discovery of Nichols’ body in the trunk.

By noon that day, Dufrene found it odd she hadn’t heard from her daughter and even odder that she didn’t answer her phone. Instead, a call came from the man who had bought her house saying police had come by and inquired about Nichols.

A frantic Dufrene started calling New Orleans Police, but “they wouldn’t tell me anything.” She told them she was upset and “needed someone to tell me something,” but she got no information.

It wasn’t until she and her husband drove to the Coroner’s Office the next day and demanded information about Nichols that she was able to confirm her daughter was not only dead, but had been murdered.

By that afternoon, New Orleans Homicide Detective Robert Barrere confirmed he was investigating the crime.

Dufrene wants answers about what happened to her daughter.“They were looking for me originally, but I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t tell me why they were looking for me or call me back,” she said. “It’s horrible. You can’t imagine the grief we’ve been going through.”

By 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, New Orleans Coroner Jeffrey Rouse identified Nichols as the body found in the burning car in a press release.

Nichols was one of three people that Rouse listed as gunshot victims that Sunday in New Orleans. NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble said it was a busy day with homicide detectives working the murders. They were also on a manhunt for the man who apparently shot New Orleans Police Officer Daryle Holloway in the line of duty.

Tragedy is becoming commonplace in New Orleans, but in the neighboring parish of St. Charles in Des Allemands, Dufrene said they are struggling to reconcile how dramatically life changed for her daughter and grandson.

“Everything is sinking in a little more that she’s gone,” Dufrene said of Nichols’ son, Peter Paul, who will be cared for by his father and the Dufrenes.

He’s beginning to realize his mother isn’t coming home.A longtime family friend, Laura Sampson of Slidell, has started a fund on Gofundme.com in hopes of establishing an education trust for Peter Paul. By Tuesday, the fund was at $4,348, which is at www.gofundme.com/xrm6pa.

According to Sampson, “We have always been there for one another throughout all these years. This was just a small token of love for this family and the great heartbreak I feel for Lindsay and Lindsay’s son. He is too young to understand what’s really happening, but hopefully one day when he is older this fund will let him realize how many people, even strangers, cared about this tragic loss.”

But for Dufrene, the murder of her daughter is a shocking turnaround.

“She was 31 years old,” Dufrene said. “She was so excited about her job, getting on her feet and getting the trailer.  Everything was looking up. Everything was the way she hoped it would be. It was like everything was lined up for her.”

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply