On June 23, 2021, 47-year-old Rachelle Arceneaux Hills of Opelousas, Louisiana, was shot to death inside her home on East Prudhomme Street. Hills, used an AK-47 style rifle to fire multiple rounds, and that her daughter and grandson were present in the residence during the attack.

A neighbor who heard the gunfire ran to the nearby St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Complex to summon deputies. Deputies found Rachelle deceased from three gunshot wounds. Video shown at trial reportedly captured Derrick Hills leaving the home with the weapon and driving off in his wife’s truck before going to his brother’s house in Alexandria; he later turned himself in to Rapides Parish authorities.

Derrick T. Hills was charged with murder and, after a St. Landry Parish trial, jurors convicted him of second-degree murder. On July 13, 2023, District Judge Gerard Caswell imposed a life sentence without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Did anyone in the Opelousas area know Rachelle or have information about the events that night?