In the spring of 2016, the life of Estelle Webb, an 88-year-old African American woman from New Orleans, came to a tragic and violent end. Ms. Webb was last seen on April 28, 2016, and concern for her welfare grew when she was officially reported missing by her family on May 6. The search for the elderly woman took a grim turn when, on May 4, railroad workers discovered a body in the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish.
Using DNA evidence, authorities were able to identify the remains as those of Estelle Webb. The discovery confirmed the worst fears of her loved ones, and the case was officially ruled a homicide.
The investigation into her death quickly focused on a person of interest, a 27-year-old woman named Lovezella Shantell Bartholomew. Authorities believed that Bartholomew may have been with Webb around the time of her disappearance and was possibly driving Webb's missing 2008 Pontiac G5. As the investigation progressed, the New Orleans Police Department secured a warrant for Bartholomew's arrest on a charge of second-degree murder, elevating her from a person of interest to the primary suspect in the case.
A significant break in the case came in May 2017, a year after Estelle Webb's death, when Lovezella Shantell Bartholomew was located and apprehended in Pearland, Texas. At the time of her arrest, she was facing a local charge of threatening a public servant. Following her arrest in Texas, information regarding her extradition to New Orleans to face the second-degree murder charge, and any subsequent trial, conviction, or sentencing, is not available in the public records that have been accessed. The final legal resolution to the tragic death of Estelle Webb remains unclear.
