LACOMBE, La. (WGNO)— Three people are in custody after St. Tammany detectives say a body recovered from a Florida waterway was that of a Lacombe man who was killed earlier in the week.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office reports the body was recovered on Tuesday by Santa Rosa County detectives in the Florida Panhandle.
After deputies were able to identify the body of the Lacombe man, whose name has not yet been released, a joint investigation revealed two men as suspects in the case.
STPSO reports that the two men, 35-year-old Patrick McCarty and 36-year-old Jason James, are accused of beating the victim at a home in the 60000 block of Williams Drive in Lacombe.
Detectives say the two then drove the body to Florida, where they reportedly dumped it into the water of a rural area. McCarty and James are also accused of trying to hide the crime by destroying evidence.
A third victim, a 17-year-old male from Slidell, is also believed to have been involved in the man’s death and was taken into custody.
McCarty and James were booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center while the juvenile was booked into the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center. All three face charges of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice.
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