Elmo Patrick Sonnier - Crime

Crime

On the evening of Friday, November 4, 1977, David LeBlanc, age 16, and Loretta Ann Bourque, age 18, attended a high school football game. Later that evening, they parked in a remote area of St. Martin Parish, known by many young couples as a "lover's lane". Later that night, at approximately 1 am Saturday morning, Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Eddie James Sonnier, who were rabbit hunting together, came across the couple's car. Using a badge one of the brothers had obtained while working as a security guard, and both armed with 22-caliber rifles, the two posed as police officers and approached and entered LeBlanc's car. The victims were informed that they were trespassing and that they would have to be brought to the landowner to determine if the landowner desired to press charges. They also confiscated each of the teens' driver's licenses to further their act. Miss Bourque and Mr. LeBlanc were then handcuffed and placed in the back seat of their own car.

Leaving their own car behind, the Sonnier brothers drove the couple 21 miles to a remote oilfield located in Iberia Parish, an area known well to the defendants. Once at the oilfield, both victims were removed from the car. David LeBlanc was taken into the woods and handcuffed to a tree. Loretta Bourque was taken a short distance away and raped by Eddie Sonnier. She then reluctantly agreed to have oral sex with Eddie Sonnier on the condition that they would safely release her and Mr. LeBlanc afterwards. Upon completion of the rapes, Patrick Sonnier removed their handcuffs and brought them back toward the road where the car was parked.

At that point, Patrick Sonnier told his brother that he feared he would be "sent back to Angola" (the Louisiana State Penitentiary) should the victims notify police. David LeBlanc and Loretta Bourque were then forced to lie side by side, face down, and were each shot three times at close range in the back of the head.

The Sonniers then drove Mr. LeBlanc's vehicle back to the original site where the couple was first accosted in order to pick up their own vehicle. Finding their car with a flat tire, the brothers used a jack from the LeBlanc vehicle to apply a spare tire. (The jack was later seized by police from the trunk of Sonnier's car.) The brothers then destroyed the victims' driver's licenses and the following day buried the rifles in a separate remote area. Investigation also revealed that between $30–$40, which was in the possession of the victims prior to the abduction, could not be accounted for.