On the night of April 14, 2017, a domestic dispute at a home on Tantela Ranch Road in Folsom, Louisiana, ended with the death of 27-year-old Cody Couch. The argument began after Couch went out with friends instead of staying home with his fiancée, Kristin Copeland, and escalated through angry calls and texts. Copeland reportedly set some of Couch’s clothes on fire in the yard while drinking with her friend Margaret Stockstill.

When Couch returned he was initially locked out, then re-entered through a back door and became involved in a physical brawl with Copeland and Stockstill that moved through the house and damaged furniture while a child was present.Couch was struck by a single .22 caliber bullet fired by Stockstill, wounded in the lower abdomen and later died at a local hospital. Friends described Couch as a hardworking offshore worker and a devoted father who was not violent. Stockstill was arrested and charged with manslaughter, later indicted for second-degree murder; a jury convicted her and sentenced her to life, but the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned that conviction in 2020 and a new trial began in April 2023.

What information do readers who knew Cody or were in that neighborhood that night have to share?