Three Found Dead For 'Several Days' In Home As Police Launch Murder Probe

Three people found dead in a Louisiana home had been left there for "several days" before they were found, according to police.

New Orleans Police were alerted by residents and carried out a wellness check at a home in the 1700 block of Gentilly Boulevard at 9:18 a.m. on Tuesday.

According to Fox8, police have launched a murder investigation after they found several bullets inside the home.

Deputy Superintendent Hans Ganthier told the network they could not even identify the victims' genders.

Ganthier said: "There were three bodies inside, right now we're treating it as a homicide—solely because there were some bullets on the ground.

"We can't even tell the gender, or the sex, of the people we are looking at right now. So, again, this is very early. Our homicide [team] is on scene."

He later added: "We're really looking for help on this. Apparently, they've been dead for several days. That's all we know and that's why it is hard to determine the gender."

Anyone with any information about the deaths has been encouraged to call Crimestoppers at 822-1111, the New Orleans homicide division, or the first district station in New Orleans.

Newsweek has contacted the New Orleans Police Department for comment.

According to the Sun Herald, as of the afternoon of December 31, New Orleans had registered 265 murders in 2022, 70 killings for every 100,000 people in the city. This is the highest rate in a decade and a half, and one of the highest rates ever recorded in New Orleans.

According to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, while violent crime has surged across the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, Louisiana has experienced very high rates.

It added that by September 2022, New Orleans had seen its homicide rate increase by 141 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

But New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has pushed back against claims that the city is the nation's murder capital.

In a September 27 press conference, Cantrell said: "I don't embrace it at all. The data that is used is on government terms for that and not based on what is actually happening."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Louisiana has one of the highest homicide rates in the country when adjusted for population.

It said in 2020 there were 873 homicides in the state, which represented a death rate of 19.9 for every 100,000 people.

A May 2021 post on the website of Louisiana-based legal firm Ambeau Law says numerous factors could explain the state's high crime rate, one of which is poverty.

The United States Census Bureau noted that 19.6 percent of Louisiana's population lived in poverty in 2021.