SLIDELL, La. —
A health care worker and registered nurse is facing some troubling allegations after allegedly drugging one of his former coworkers at his fishing camp in Lacombe on October 7th, according to St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith.
During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Smith outlined some of the details of the incident, where John Jacob Jenkins, 48, allegedly gave Jennifer DeBlonde Jacob, 37, a deadly mixture of several drugs including meth, a sedative known as GHB and heroin before she died of an apparent drug overdose.
“Anyone who gives, injects or issues illegal drugs to anyone that causes their death will be charged with a homicide,” said Smith.
The St. Tammany Parish Coroner says the case only gets worse, alleging that Jenkins sexually abused the victim before and after her death.
“This victim had not only been drugged but had been sexual abused both pre-mortem and post mortem,” said St. Tammany Parish Coroner Charles A. Preston.
The incident happened shortly before noon on October 7th. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call made by Jenkins informing them of an unresponsive Jacob.
They attempted to revive her but were unsuccessful. The following day, the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy on Jacob’s body. A ruling on cause and manner of death was deferred at that time, pending the results of toxicology.
Those results, which were made known to the Sheriff’s Office in late November, showed traces of narcotics in Jacob’s system at the time of her death, however, it became apparent that this was no common overdose, according to Smith.
During the course of the investigation, a search warrant was obtained for John Jacob Jenkins’ residence. Deputies found several items that they referred to as “evidence” including electronic devices containing pornographic images of human beings engaging in sexual contact with animals.
On December 3, the Coroner’s Office ruled the cause of death of Jacob as Poly-Substance Drug Toxicity and the manner of death as a homicide, and a warrant was issued for the arrest of Jenkins.
Smith says the evidence collected shows a pattern.
“We’re not sure of the motive but it seems there is a pattern with this individual to use illegal narcotics to subdue his victims and then prey upon them for sex,” said Smith.
Now — the sheriff's office is trying to figure out if there are more victims.
“There is a strong possibility that there are other victims that have not come forward yet,” said Smith. “Some of the electronic evidence that we collected indicates there is possibly other victims that did not die from the injections, there may be other victims out there.”
According to public records, Jenkins is a registered nurse. He was working at Lakeview Regional Medical Center in Covington where he was arrested this morning.
A spokesperson with the hospital says they are fully cooperating with law enforcement and that based on the information released Jenkins has been fired.
An obituary for Jacob says she was originally from Chalmette but lived in Covington. She was married with three kids and a graduate of the Charity School of Nursing.
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