Jaren Lockhart Case: Couple Kills New Orleans Stripper & Toss Body Parts From Bridge


A couple has been charged with allegedly killing a stripper in New Orleans and tossing her body parts off of the Bay St. Louis Bridge. According to authorities, the couple allegedly invited the stripper to perform at a private party, then stabbed her and cut her up into pieces, according to UPI.

The indictment handed up yesterday in Jefferson Parish charged Margaret Sanchez, 30, and Terry Speaks, 41, with second-degree murder. Sanchez is currently being held in lieu of $1.5 million in bail in Jefferson Parish while Speaks is being held in a federal prison in New York.

Jaren Lockhart, 22, was the couple’s alleged victim. Lockhart was a stripper working at Temptations Gentlemen’s Club in the French Quarter.

At a news conference yesterday, Kenner Police said they believed Sanchez and Speaks lured Jaren Lockhart to their apartment near Louis Armstrong International Airport on June 6 under the pretext of Jaren dancing privately for them. While she was there, Sanchez and Speaks stabbed her in the chest, cut her up, and dumped her off the Bay St. Louis Bridge.

On June 6, Jaren Lockhart — who had a child — told her fellow employees at the Temptations Gentlemen’s Club that she was leaving to “go make rent.”

She was never seen alive again.

Jaren Lockhart (22)
Jaren Lockhart (22)

Terry Speaks was indicted immediately upon arrest for failure to register as a sex offender when he moved to Louisiana from North Carolina, according to the Times Picayune. He was convicted in 2003 of sex with a minor, and is scheduled to be released for registration violation in October. Given the grand jury indictment in the Jaren Lockhart case, however, there’s a good chance he won’t be going anywhere.

While incarcerated in Otisville, New York, inmates at the prison overheard Speaks making incriminating statements about Lockhart. When police investigated, they started putting the pieces together of what happened the night that Jaren Lockhart disappeared, including how Speaks and Sanchez were seen via highway cameras traveling into Mississippi State on the Bay St. Louis Bridge and then returning to Louisiana a very short time later.

Hancock County Detective Steve Saucier testified before the grand jury. On June 7, beach restoration workers found a human torso washed up on shore. The head was severed, as were the arms at the shoulders and the legs at the hips. Skin was also removed in the exact spots where Lockhart was known to have tattoos, Saucier testified. Other body parts washed up on shore between Long Beach and Pass Christian, and DNA testing matched all the parts to the missing Jaren Lockhart.

[Images via NOPD]

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