NEW ORLEANS — Kristie Gioe Thibodeaux, 43, may have grown up in St. Bernard Parish and migrated to her new home in Slidell, but her heart was in the French Quarter, where she gave tours as an employee of Crawl New Orleans.
“She was a fixture in the community,” said her friend and Crawl’s owner Brian Cain. “She was very loved and known. It makes it that much more difficult that she is someone who likely gave advice to people about being careful and watching your surroundings.”
Thibodeaux was sitting in her Jeep in familiar surroundings in the Quarter when she was fatally shot at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
Joshua Bonifacio, 19, and Jerben Albarec, 17, were booked Monday with second-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in Thibodeaux's killing along with a 15-year-old who was booked into the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, the city’s juvenile lockup.
In an affidavit for an arrest warrant obtained by WWL Louisiana, the two adult suspects admitted to detectives that they were engaged in a robbery spree in the French Quarter both telling officers that the juvenile was the one who fired the fatal shot as Thibodeaux sat in her car on St. Peter Street near Royal Street.
Detectives wrote that they obtained video of the attackers' Black Camaro and using the car's distinctive decals, they then traced it to a traffic stop a month ago by Jefferson Parish deputies. Armed with that information, the detectives found the car at Bonifacio's address in New Orleans East.
The detectives wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit that the three suspects were in a car “riding around looking to commit robberies” and prior to the botched hold-up of Thibodeaux, the juvenile held up three men at gunpoint, taking a bag.
“This is not a standalone incident, unfortunately,” Cain said. “And it's something that we're seeing more and more often. And something that legitimately needs to be addressed.”
Cain said word spread quickly about the tragedy among Thibodeaux's circle of family and friends.“
“It's devastating,” Cain said. “You never want to hear this happening to anyone, let alone someone who is really dear to myself and to our team.”
Bond has been set at $1.1 million each for Albarec and Bonifacio, which breaks down for $100,000 for armed robbery and $1 million for second-degree murder apiece.
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