Whitnei Dubois as a young girl

Last Friday, the Jennings Daily News published a profile about Whitnei Dubois. Whitnei was a 26 year old mom, sister and daughter living in Jennings, Louisiana. She was also the product of horrific abuse and abandonment. In May 2007, she became the 4th of what is now currently 8 victims viciously murdered in her own hometown. Daily News editor Rebecca Chaisson who wrote this profile said today the murders were finally featured on CNN over the weekend. A blip on the news radar but it’s something.

There’s a lot wrong with this. A small town where everyone knows each other and they have a serial killer among them. So far, the police have not been able to put the town at ease. No suspects are in custody and little information has been released. The first murder took place in 2005. The last one, last month. The police have been able to drag the victims’ names through the mud though. Labeling them as having a high-risk lifestyle could this be the reason this horror story isn’t making the national news? A Yale grad student goes missing and we’ve got wall to wall coverage. Could this type of coverage help flush out the Jennings killer?

Despite their “life style” each woman had a story…sometimes tragic. That brings us back to Whitnei Dubois.

Here are some excerpts from Rebecca Chaisson’s poignant story on Whitnei.

 

She was thrown away like yesterday's trash, stripped of her clothes and then dumped in the middle of a dirt road in Jennings. By the time her lifeless body was found on May 12, 2007, it was decomposed beyond recognition.

Whitnei Dubois - commonly referred to as "victim number four" in the string of eight unsolved homicides in Jeff Davis Parish - had to be identified by fingerprint analysis and dental records. Her grieving family was forced to pay their respects to a closed casket.

Today, Whitnei's family wants to see her killer brought to justice, but they also want the public to know that their loved one was so much more than a "high-risk lifestyle."

In life - and in death - she deserved better….

… "I never expected Whitnei to become one of those girls," Brittney cried when she started discussing her sister's murder. "I had just given her a ride a week before she was found. I was excited for her because she and her new boyfriend were moving to a new home. She had gained some weight, and they were both trying to stay clean. They wanted to make a life for themselves. She wanted her daughter back. She was expecting her 'happily ever after.'"

But when Brittney learned that another body had been dumped down an isolated road in Jeff Davis Parish, she had a gut feeling. A friend telephoned her to say that the description given on the news matched a description of Whitnei. Brittney immediately began calling friends and family members to find out who had seen her last.

"I was on the phone with Maw-Maw when she said, 'I have to go. The police are here.' That's when I knew for sure," Brittney said. "I drove to her house and saw the coroner's truck. I walked inside and my grandma was crying. That's when I hit the floor."

After police questioned Brittney, she called her sister, Taylor, who still hadn't heard the news.

"That was horrible," Brittney said of their conversation over the phone. "She didn't believe it until she got to Jennings. Then, she broke down when we got to the police station. She had a panic attack."

While it was difficult to share such horrible news with Taylor, Brittney's toughest audience would ultimately be Whitnei's 5-year-old daughter.

"The next morning was Mother's Day," Brittney broke down in tears. "(She) had made her mommy a card at school and was looking for her mom because she wanted to give it to her. (She) sat on my lap and all I could tell her was that her mother went to Heaven to meet Jesus. She was smiling at first, but when I told her about her mom, her face changed. She understood what death was, and she started crying. All I could tell her was that Jesus needed her momma. I told her that 'Nanny' would be there for her now, no matter what."

Ten minutes later, the 5-year-old girl wiped away her tears and ran to the vehicle to grab her homemade Mother's Day card.

"She brought it to me and said, 'Nanny, I want you to have this,'" Brittney continued as she began to sob. "I told her to keep it, and she could bring it to the funeral home. (She) read the card in front of everyone at the funeral and then put it on top of the casket. It was so hard to explain to her why the casket had to be closed. She kept asking me, 'Why can't I see my momma?'"