Sheriff’s Office still searching for body of Hahnville grad who jumped off bridge

Suicide note found in running car

The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office is still looking for the body of a man who jumped off the Hale Boggs Bridge in Luling early Sunday morning.

According to the Sheriff’s Office at 2:51 a.m. on Sunday deputies found an abandoned vehicle parked at the top of the Hale Boggs Bridge with its engine running and lights on. Inside was a suicide note.

Pat Yoes, public information officer with the Sheriff’s Office, said the Sheriff’s Office found a license belonging  to the car’s owner, who is missing. The man is reportedly a 2011 graduate of Hahnville High School.

The Sheriff’s Office marine division, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Port of South Louisiana are currently searching the Mississippi River for the body. The Herald-Guide is withholding the identity of the jumper until his body is found.

This is the fifth time someone has jumped to their death off of the Hale Boggs Bridge in the past two years.

In September 2012, a disabled man parked at the top of the bridge and used a wheelchair to get to the bridge’s railing. After he hoisted himself onto the railing, an officer tried to talk him down for several minutes, but the man eventually jumped into the water.

In October 2012, 20-year-old Gretna resident Jake Bodden jumped off of the Hale Boggs. His body was recovered by family members four days later.

Jack Culotta, who was the managing partner of The Culotta Law Firm, jumped off the bridge in July 2013. His body was pulled out of the river near the ADM Growmark grain elevator. A witness saw Culotta pull over his white Ford Explorer at the top of the bridge, exit the SUV and jump over the railing without any hesitation.

In August 2013 Debbie Johnson, a former teacher from Destrehan, jumped off the bridge. A witness told authorities that she saw Johnson, 55, exit the car, run to the railing and jump into the water below. Her body was recovered downriver the next day in Ama.

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