Loretta Lynn Chaisson Lewis, 28, was found floating in a canal on the outskirts of Jennings, Louisiana, on May 20, 2005. A fisherman discovered her significantly decomposed body; she was identified by fingerprints and was wearing a white short-sleeved blouse and blue jeans. The state of the remains made a precise cause of death difficult to determine, though some investigators have suspected asphyxiation.

Lewis was the first of eight women later linked by investigators as the Jennings 8, a group of victims found murdered in Jefferson Davis Parish between 2005 and 2009. Many of the women shared histories of poverty, drug addiction and work as police informants, which led to competing theories that the killings were the work of a serial killer or part of a conspiracy to silence women with knowledge of criminal activity. The broader investigation has been shadowed by allegations of mishandled evidence and possible law enforcement misconduct.

No arrests or convictions have been announced in Loretta Lewis’s death. Information about other suspects and past arrests in related cases—some of which were later dropped—has not produced a resolution for her murder. Does anyone have information about Lewis’s life in the months before May 2005 or recall anything unusual near Jennings at that time?