Marcus Spears, 55, an employee of the East Baton Rouge School System, disappeared after telling his roommate on the evening of Saturday, October 5, 2024, that he was going to Baton Rouge. He failed to return the next morning and did not report for work on Monday, October 7, prompting a missing-person report to the Addis Police.

Investigators found Spears’s vehicle abandoned on Avenue L in the Scotlandville area of Baton Rouge with blood inside. On Wednesday, October 9, officers searching a wooded area along Mason Avenue discovered Spears’s body; he was later confirmed to have been shot. Authorities identified 19-year-old Jaymie Thomas as a suspect, and, following a public tip, Thomas was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder.

A scheduled sanity hearing for Thomas was set for September 29, 2025, to address his mental competency to stand trial. Anyone with information about Spears’s movements on October 5–9, 2024, or about the incident is asked to come forward.