In the late autumn of 2023, the community of New Iberia, Louisiana, was unsettled by the untimely death of Kameran James Bedsole. A 36-year-old male, Bedsole was known to those close to him as a man who worked with his hands, having learned the trade of bricklaying at a young age before moving on to offshore work in the oil and gas industry. He was a father, leaving behind a daughter he adored.
Friends and family remembered him as a jokester, someone who found joy in making people laugh and who loved to cook for and spend time with his loved ones.
The discovery of Bedsole's body on November 14, 2023, inside a residence on Jasper Road, marked a grim turn of events. The Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office responded to a call and found him deceased with several gunshot wounds, immediately launching a homicide investigation. The quiet life of this New Iberia native, born and raised in the area, had been violently cut short, leaving a void in the lives of his family, including his mother, stepfather, stepmother, and half-brothers.
The investigation into Kameran Bedsole's death soon took a shocking and tragic direction. Approximately two weeks after the discovery of his body, authorities announced the first arrest in the case. An 11-year-old girl, formerly a resident of Iberia Parish, was taken into custody in Lafourche Parish and charged with first-degree murder. The community was left reeling from the news of such a young suspect in a violent crime. She was placed in a juvenile detention facility, her identity protected due to her age.
The case continued to unfold with further arrests that painted a familial picture of the alleged crime. The 11-year-old's 15-year-old brother was apprehended in Houston, Texas, also facing a charge of first-degree murder in connection with Bedsole's death. He was subsequently transported to a juvenile detention center in Jackson Parish. The children's mother, 40-year-old Sabrina Washington, was also arrested in Iberia Parish. She faced two counts of being an accessory after the fact, with her bond set at four hundred thousand dollars. As the legal process began for the three suspects, a community was left to grapple with the loss of a man and the deeply troubling circumstances surrounding his death.
