NEW IBERIA — A New Iberia family is looking for answers about what happened to their loved one, Kitty Rideaux.
The 51-year-old was found dead near an abandoned home on Lombard Street on June 4th. The coroner ruled she died of blunt force trauma to the head.
On Tuesday, New Iberia police closed a part of Field Street as they searched a home. Police are not saying what they were investigating inside the home. A spokesperson tells KATC no bodies or human remains were found during that search. They did confirm Rideaux lived there with her boyfriend.
"They set up a big tent, big white tent, had their shoes on investigating. I don't know why. He had nothing to do with it, but he was her boyfriend," Rideaux's cousin, John Thomas, said.
Thomas and Brenda Chargois-Thomas, another of Rideaux's cousins, were outside the house on Field Street as police were searching. They say they watched as police took a number of things from the home.
"They took his dogs in cages and mostly his tools," said Thomas. "They broke a lock."
Rideaux's body was found just two blocks from where police searched Tuesday. Family members say they still remember hearing their loved one was dead.
"They came and knocked on the door and said 'Do you know what happened?' I said 'no,' she said 'They killed Kitty'," Chargois-Thomas said.
New Iberia Police say there are no arrests; there are currently persons of interest, according to a spokesperson.
"Whoever you are, you have a mother, a sister, a daughter, an aunt," said Chargois-Thomas. "You had no right to take my cousin-in-law's life. You have no right to take nobody's life."
