Volunteers in boats combed a wooded area near the St. Helena Parish line Sunday without success in their search for a missing Sunday school teacher authorities fear may have met with foul play Friday.
Livingston Parish Sheriff's detectives planned to organize a more extensive search today for the 58-year-old widow and Sunday school teacher who was last heard from just before noon Friday. Barbara B. Blount, a resident off La. 1036 north of Holden, is described as 5-foot-seven-inches tall with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She wears glasses and the last known contact with her was sometime around 11:30 a.m. Friday when a neighbor spoke to her by phone, Sheriff's Office spokesman Perry Rushing said..
Her abandoned silver 2006 Toyota Camry 4 door was located in a wooded area near her home Friday afternoon.
Her car was discovered about 4:15 p.m. abandoned and partially hidden on a "logging road" about a quarter mile from her home, Rushing said. The vehicle was towed to the State Police Crime Lab for analysis. Due to the extremely heavy thunderstorms that dropped more than two inches of rain on the area Friday night and early Saturday morning, the area where the car was found is currently under as much as six feet of water, thus hampering search efforts by the estimated 100 volunteers from the area, Rushing said.
Resources being used in the search range from volunteers on horseback to people on 4 wheelers to friends and even strangers in small boats. The Sheriff's Office Air Support Helicopter has also been used. Authorities were waiting for the water to recede enough to conduct a grid search of the area. Three dogs from the Slidell-based Louisiana Search and Rescue team were used to search the area Sunday with no result.
Anyone with any information is urged to call the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office at 1-225-686-2241 or 1-800-443-7681
Source: Livingston Parish News
