Who killed Teresa Marie Gilcrease? In the summer of 2002, forty-four-year-old Teresa Marie Gilcrease, a Caucasian female, was nearing the end of a month-long visit with her family in Louisiana. On the night of June 9th, after driving her daughter's friend home, she made her way to Alexandria. She was seen at a local pool hall and bar called The Stick, where she was observed leaving with an unidentified man in the early morning hours of June 10th.
This would be the last time she was seen alive.
Later that morning, her body was discovered on the side of a rural road on the outskirts of Alexandria. The scene was one of extreme violence; she had been stabbed multiple times and run over with a vehicle. Her rental car was later found in the parking lot of the bar where she had spent her final hours. The brutality of the crime led investigators to initially believe it was a personal attack, though the possibility of a random act of violence was also considered.
The investigation into Teresa's murder explored several avenues. For a time, detectives considered a possible link to the then-unidentified Baton Rouge serial killer, but this theory was eventually dismissed. The case generated a number of tips, and investigators looked at approximately 50 potential suspects. One of these individuals, a Louisiana State Trooper named Jason Wayne Alston, became a significant person of interest. He had reportedly been at the same bar as Teresa on the night of her death. Alston voluntarily provided a DNA sample, which cleared him of any involvement in the Baton Rouge serial killings. While he remained a suspect in Teresa's case for a period, no DNA evidence was recovered from the scene of her murder, and no charges were ever brought against him in connection with her death.
Despite the initial flurry of leads and the focus on a person of interest, the investigation grew cold. No arrests have ever been made in the murder of Teresa Gilcrease, and her case remains unsolved. Her family has continued to advocate for justice, feeling that the person responsible was interviewed by police in the year following her death but that not enough evidence was gathered to secure a conviction. The identity of the man she was seen leaving with on that fateful night, and the person or persons responsible for her brutal death, remains a mystery.
