On a Sunday in March of 2016, the search for a missing Mandeville woman came to a tragic end in New Orleans. Thirty-one-year-old Haley Saltaformaggio, a mother to a young son, was discovered deceased inside her locked car on March 27th. The vehicle was located in a parking lot in the 2500 block of Elysian Fields Avenue.
Authorities found Saltaformaggio unresponsive, having sustained a single gunshot wound to her head.
A handgun was also recovered from the front seat of the car, near her body. Friends and family had grown concerned after she had not been seen or heard from since a Friday night outing in the French Quarter and Mid-City areas of New Orleans, which prompted them to report her missing over the weekend.
Haley Saltaformaggio had been a dedicated public servant, working for the state's Department of Public Safety since 2013. She began her career in corrections and later became a probation and parole officer in the Covington district office. Her death was a shock to her colleagues and loved ones, who remembered her as a bright and helpful person. While the coroner's office was to confirm the official cause of death, the initial findings at the scene did not lead to any arrests or the naming of any suspects by the New Orleans Police Department.