IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

New Orleans sees first murder since Katrina

A woman was stabbed to death in what New Orleans police said Tuesday is the first slaying there since Hurricane Katrina.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A woman was stabbed to death in what police say is the first slaying in the city since Hurricane Katrina.

Police said they found the woman dead inside the home of New Orleans poet Jon Newlin, 56. Newlin had been beaten, they said, and was in critical condition at a hospital.

Friends told authorities they discovered the two Tuesday when they went to Newlin’s home. Newlin hadn’t shown up for a breakfast date with a friend or work at a French Quarter bookstore that day.

One or both of the victims may have known their attacker, police spokesman Juan Barnes said. The woman’s name was not released.

The killing is the 205th for the city this year, compared with 225 by the same time last year, police said. The previous killing in New Orleans was on Aug. 27, two days before the hurricane struck.