Sheriff details motive after missing friends found shot dead in submerged car

ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. -- Police say two Louisiana friends found dead in a submerged car Monday were ambushed and shot by masked assailants after setting up a meeting to sell the car last month.

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith told reporters that a dive team found the bodies of 28-year-old Dustin Hartline and 20-year-old Raegan Elizabeth Day, who went missing Feb. 15, at the East Pearl River Boat Launch near the Mississippi state line on Monday afternoon. CBS affiliate WWL-TV reports police arrested 18-year-old Jason Landry, 25-year-old Brittney "Beezy" Savell, 22-year-old Derrion Lemoine and 27-year-old Steven "Stevie" Oliveieri in connection with the double homicide investigation.

Police suspected foul play when the pair was reported missing Feb. 16 because they couldn't find cell activity on either victim, Smith said, and immediately launched an investigation and search.

"When you lose a phone signal – two phones – when you lose that without any trace, in today's world, today's technology, that's why we jumped on it right away," Smith said.

Smith said earlier Monday that a tip had come in about Day's 2011 Chevrolet Camaro, which the two friends were last seen in when they left their Pearl River home. Investigators say Day and Hartline had been going to a relative's home in Kenner.

Day was found inside the car, shot in the front and back of the head, a coroner said. Hartline was found in the trunk, shot once in the back of the head. The bodies had a "significant" amount of decomposition due to the length of time they had been submerged, but they were positively identified through "very distinctive" tattoos, said the coroner, Chuck Preston.

Preston said investigators made the decision to move the car with the bodies still inside to the coroner's office before extricating the remains in order to preserve as much evidence as possible.

Smith said investigators believe the murders happened Feb. 15 in a remote, wooded area near a Slidell subdivision. Day, who was friends with Slavell, had set up a meeting with her about possibly selling the Camaro. But Smith said it was a setup, and the suspects had planned all along to steal the car. The victims were ambushed by armed, masked assailants and shot and killed in the "carjacking gone bad."

Their bodies were put in the car before the car was disposed of in the water at the boat launch, Smith said. Smith said investigators had already been searching area waterways after uncovering the Slidell crime scene when the tip about the submerged car came in. 

Smith wouldn't specify which of the suspects are alleged to have fired the fatal shots. He said robbery of the car was the apparent motive, but said he didn't know why the suspects didn't take the car.

"This is a very sad situation and it's unfortunate that two people lost their lives and that four others are facing life in prison over a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro," Smith said.

The suspects, all Slidell residents, were found "hiding" in Mississippi and arrested on murder warrants with the help of the U.S. Marshal service and location authorities, Smith said. Three weapons were uncovered during the investigation, two of which are believed to be the murder weapons, Smith said.

"It's not the ending that we hoped for, but at least now we can bring closure to these families," Smith said.