PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. — There has been an arrest in last week’s burglary and fire at Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser home in Plaquemines Parish.
According to the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office, Robert Kelly, 43, and Angela Goodfellow, 43, of Slidell were picked up Wednesday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The couple is accused ransacking Nungesser’s home and April 14, stealing what they could, then starting a fire in his kitchen. Nungesser says they stole valuables including political memorabilia, rare gold coins and framed jerseys signed by Drew Brees and Pete Rose.
“They left the parish with a stolen dump truck, followed by a jeep and some of the stuff from home was in the dump truck when it was recovered,” Nungesser told WWL-TV. “They ditched the dump truck when they were on the run.”
Law enforcement found the truck abandoned in Pearl River County in Mississippi. Nungesser says it was stolen from a lot across the street from his house on Louisiana Highway 23 in Pointe Celeste.
“I believe several of the trucks that are working in the levees and the LNG plant in Plaquemines are stationed in a vacant parking lot, across from my house. Evidently, they were casing the house from that parking lot and were able to see that nobody was at home.”
PPSO Investigators worked with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department (Mississippi) and the Tuscaloosa Police Department (Alabama) to apprehend Kelly and Goodfellow without incident.
Nungesser says the dump truck owner saw Tuesday’s story about the break in on WWL-TV and recognized the stolen items left in the back of his truck.
“We would have never tied it to the dump truck had it not been for the report you did in showing those items that were missing, he said. “There was a white garbage can that actually came out of my kitchen and the pictures of that frame of duck stamps, he saw the duck stamps and the liquor and things in that garbage can that we reported missing from the house. So, he knew something was up and called the sheriff’s office and said I think I know who broke into the house.”
Lieutenant Chaun Domingue from the PPSO said “Kelly and Goodfellow will be extradited and transported to Plaquemines Parish to face the Simple Burglary and Simple Arson charges relative to the Nungesser case.”
Additional charges are pending.