Miscellaneous
Shamekka Garnette found in Rapides Parish and William Lyles found in the Vermilion River in Lafayette Parish Louisiana. Shamekka Garnette was last seen August 13, 2004, when she left with a friend for a night out. She was found four days later in a drainage ditch off I-49. William Lyles was last seen at approximately 3a on September 10, 1995 and was found approximately 6 hours later in the Vermillion River close to I-10. While the cause of death was drowning, he had injuries consistent with a beating. www.mysteriesofthebayou.com Full Transcript Below Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (00:03): Hello, and welcome to another episode of mysteries of the Bayou. I'm Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou got a couple of a couple other short cases to cover today. Uh, the first one is going to be, uh, Shameeka, Garnette. Uh, Shameeka was, uh, 20 years old. She was last seen October 13th, 2004. This was just a few days prior to her 21st birthday. Uh, she is from the Alexandria Louisiana rapedmy parish area. So, uh, she was last seen, seen leaving home at approximately 11:30 PM with a friend in their vehicle. Uh, the vehicle was later abandoned on Lee street on the Lee street on ramp two 49 near, uh, base road. Um, the weird thing about this case is that there wasn't any other information that I could find that talked about her friend. It sounded said the car was abandoned, but they never talked about either finding this other individual, questioning them if it was man, woman or anything about it. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (01:19): So I did feel like that was a little bit strange. The, um, so, uh, on August the 17th of 2004, about four days later, her body was found in a drainage ditch off of old Boyce road. Now, um, it's uncanny. It's the other thing that's strange about this is it's very unclear who is investigating this case. When you look at most of the coverage that this received in the media, on the internet, it was credited with repeat Sheriff's department, but, um, in contacting them for more information on the case, they expressed explicitly said that the Alexandria police department was handling it. So, um, what I did was reached out to the Alexandria police department for an open records request. And they, after talking with three or four people in that, that, uh, jurisdiction told me that, that they were not handling this case. So it's a little bit strange that neither one of these, uh, agencies and, you know, before I kind of get off on a rant, I want to make sure that I'm very clear that I'm very pro law enforcement. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (02:42): I know these guys do a great job. A lot of the times there's not much to go on. And so some of these cold cases go cold, not because there really wasn't much effort. There just wasn't much to go on. But having said that, I do believe in, I do believe in, uh, law enforcement agencies honoring the open request, open records, open, you know, information requests from the public as per the statute of the state. In this case, it's our S 40 four.one. And it lays it out in very clear what is considered, um, public information now in ongoing investigations, of course, you know, they always want to hold things back. They don't want to, uh, uh, do something to jeopardize the, uh, investigation in case they worked to arrest somebody in the future. But the reality is that, that there is still information that can be released. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (03:48): And, uh, not only did they not release it, but I really felt like, and going back to the case that we had last week with, uh, Teresa Gil crease, I really feel like that the repeat Sheriff's department was just playing games. And I actually reached out to the Louisiana attorney General's office. And of course they acted like first off, they acted like they didn't know what was going on. They said they don't represent individuals. I explained to the young lady that this was a state statute, that they are the lawyers for the state and that they should be enforcing the statutes that the legislature deems necessary to put out. So in turn, they should be making sure, and then they should be investigating when agencies aren't being transparent and aren't releasing public information as they should. But needless to say, I never heard back from the investigator, supposedly that was assigned to this through the attorney General's office. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (04:55): So it's easy to understand why families get very discouraged because of the lack of information and understand have a much better understanding. Now, a while a lot of people that I know, uh, out of the Louisiana area are very distrustful of local law enforcement and of the Louisiana government structure altogether. I have, I can officially say that I have bumped into that, excuse me. And I know exactly what they're talking about, and it's just a little bit fishy that nobody knows who's got the investigation. And, um, the other thing, I guess, I kind of feel like, you know, we are trying to help the families by putting the information out there, again, giving a different format, different listeners, whatever you might call it, but, you know, we just want to help them find the answers to these questions. So if you've got as a law enforcement agency, if you have somebody that is wanting to help you publicize a 15 year old murder unsolved murder case, I would think that they would do everything that would be possible to not only help get the coverage, but to be involved and provide some details. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (06:14): And of course they were extended an offer to be on the show and turn that down as well. So anyway, sorry for the rant. Just, uh, like I said, you know, we've kind of bumped into a little bit of problems up until this point. Nothing, nothing like this. So it's just very strange, you know, the other one is that, uh, you know, we've got the Gill crease that we covered last episode, but the other thing I saw doing a little bit more research on this is that again, this is not coming from law enforcement. I think it's coming from a family member, but they said, uh, my understanding that, uh, Shameeka Garnette and Courtney Coco were friends and we haven't covered Courtney's case yet kind of in, it's been on the, uh, it's been on the agenda to take a look at, but the, um, it has been covered a lot. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (07:16): So, you know, it's kind of a deciding factor for, you know, actually taking that case on. And hopefully it will be covered in the near future on mysteries of the Bayou. But, uh, Courtney lived in from what detail little details I have, she was from Alexandria, she was going to school. Um, and it's kind of unclear where she went missing from school or home, but they found her over in Beaumont between Beaumont and Houston and then found her car in Houston. I think so, uh, it's strange, but I think that, uh, Courtney's mother and, and Courtney's death happened, uh, four months after Shameeka. And so Courtney's mother feels very strong that they were connected in some way, just because they were friends and then just the way things happen. But again, the, from what I read the repeat Sheriff's, uh, parish Sheriff's office declined to confirm that these may or may not be related. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (08:32): Anyway, if you have any information on Shameeka Garnette, uh, last seen in August of 2004, please, uh, call both the Alexandria police department and the repeat Sheriff's office, somebody, uh, hopefully we can find somebody take that information if not get ahold of the state police and let them know that you have information, uh, regarding Shameeka Garnette, or Courtney Coco or Theresa Gill crease, uh, any of those let them know for sure. So let's move on to our next case. Um, this one is William Thomas Lyles, and he was, uh, born in 1974 in Cottonport Louisiana. The, he graduated from bunkie high school and he was found deceased on September 10th, 1995, which would have made him 21 years old. He was a sophomore in college attending the university of Southwest Louisiana, Lafayette. Um, he died in, uh, he died from drowning, but it has been considered a homicide with no suspects. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (09:57): He was found early on, early on a Sunday morning in the Vermilion river, close to interstate 10, a passer-by noticed his car was partially submerged in the water and his body was found near the car, an autopsy. You know, as I said, an autopsy showed that he was a victim of drowning, but his cause of death may have been due to head injuries that were consistent with the beading. Now, uh, detectives, uh, said that they believed that his car and his body did not go into the river at the same time. The, um, witnesses had reported, uh, talking to William sometime between around 3:00 AM on Sunday morning. So there's a gap between those people that said they talked to him at 3:00 AM and him being found around 9:00 AM on September 10th. Uh, sad thing is that his mother Sharon K rentals passed away in 2012, never knowing the truth about what happened to her son. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (11:12): So again, uh, reached out to the Lafayette police department, the, uh, parish Sheriff's office said that the, uh, city police was handling it, of course never heard back from them. I think there again, there were some other red tape that they didn't want to supply the information over the internet. They wanted somebody to either come in or some kind of a deal like that. But anyway, both of these, again, uh, you know, William Thomas Lyles, this has been since 1995. So, uh, going on, uh, 25 years or just past 25 years, it would be great if we could get some information again, reached, tried to reach out to some family members and did not have any, uh, any luck in getting a hold of them, or they didn't want to speak with us either way. But if you know a family member, if you are a family member, if you're a friend, somebody that may have gone to school with either one of them, uh, you know, we, again, would be interested in speaking I'm with you to try to gain a little bit more clarity on the information surrounding the time leading up to the deaths. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (12:32): I'm sure there, uh, you know, there may have not have been anybody else that witnessed it, but again, if we could build the puzzle of it, of the, uh huh. You know, the timeframe and the events that led up to both of these deaths. Yeah. We may be able to, uh, you know, at least provide law enforcement with some other clues where they can continue in the investigation. So anyway, uh, first one Shameeka Garnette last seen, uh, August, 2004 out of Alexandria, Louisiana, or repeat, uh, parish. And again, she was found in a drainage ditch off of old Boyce road. She left home at approximately 11:30 PM with a friend in the friend's vehicle and not much other information on that. So if you can help shed some light on that, please give them a call. The second one again, William Thomas Lyles. This is from 1995, uh, found in the Vermilion river. Roy with Mysteries of The Bayou (13:39): He was a student at the university of Southwest Louisiana off yet. Um, it did look like that. He probably, I had been in a fight or just beaten, uh, prior to being thrown into the river where his car was submerged as well. Like I said, D there were witnesses that said that they had talked to him at 3:00 AM in the morning, but there's a six hour gap between 3:00 AM and 9:00 PM 9:00 AM when he was found. Uh, again, this is out of, uh, Lafayette, fairly certain the Lafayette police department is handling it. But if you have information, either reach out to Lafayette police, or you can reach out to the Lafayette parish Sheriff's office that is going to do it for this episode, I've got a couple more cases putting together for our next, the one. Um, again, you can find us@wwwdotmysteriesofthebayou.com. Of course we are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and also on, uh, have a YouTube channel where you can go actually see the, the episodes as they've been videoed. So if you have any case submissions, please, uh, email those to me@Roy with Mysteries of The Bayouatmysteriesofthebayou.com calm, or you can reach out through any one of the social media channels. Be glad to take a look again, if you or a family member know a family member or friend of Shameeka Garnette, William Laos would be interested in speaking with you about that and run a special episode with whatever information that you could provide until next time, take care of yourself, please.