38-year-old unsolved case reaches climax

LAFOURCHE PARISH (Golden Meadow) — Nearly four decades after Paula Boudreaux disappeared, law enforcement has arrested an ex-husband and ex-wife in connection with her murder.

A journey into the past
Paula, who was 22 at the time of her disappearance in August 1986, vanished after attending a Catholic church fair in her hometown of Golden Meadow with one of her sisters.

“She was brought home by one of my sisters who was still living there with my mom and everything…,” said Van Boudreaux, Paula’s older brother, “and she was actually lured – we thought he lured her there, and they murdered her.”

Van is the third of seven children. It was on that day in August that he last saw Paula. “She’s the second to last on the list in terms of age.”

In July, Van explored his old Golden Meadow neighborhood, a place filled with memories of Paula, with KATC Investigates.

As he drove through familiar streets, the truck approached his childhood home and old shrimp shop. “That’s where my parents’ house was, right across the street, you know?” Van pointed out.

Paula was allegedly killed in the house directly across the street from the Boudreaux home. “That’s the house where she was murdered. That’s where they found the DNA.” No evidence has reportedly been found inside the house to date.

Boudreaux State
At the time, Paula was rumored to be dating a man named Russell Lee, who was married to a woman named Judith Weiser. Weiser allegedly threatened Paula with a candy cane knife before she disappeared.

Four days after her disappearance, Paula’s family reported her missing. Three years later, in 1989, skeletal remains were found by hunters in the woods of Slidell, but it would take more than 30 years for those remains to be identified as someone other than “Jane Doe.”

“People were shocked.”

“Can you just tell me how you remember Paula?”

“A quiet little girl; you never heard her, she was very reserved.”

Longtime neighbor and relative Etatl Boudreaux expressed her heartfelt condolences, saying she truly understands the profound loss the Boudreaux family has suffered.

“I still have my boys, but my daughter died 21 years ago… so I know what it feels like to lose a child. We are a difficult family, we all grew up in difficult circumstances.”

In 2022, more than 30 years after her disappearance, the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office submitted the 1986 skeletal remains to the LSU FACES lab for DNA testing.

When Paula’s DNA was compared to that of her relatives, her identity was confirmed. “That’s when she became the Jane Doe we were looking for,” Van said.

According to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, “Investigators concluded that the couple killed Paula, dismembered her body and dumped her remains in Slidell.”

Where are we now?
After Paula was identified, Lee and Weiser emerged as persons of interest, and in July, Van received a call from a Lafourche Parish detective.

““…I wanted to let you know that we are going to make arrests,”” Van told KATC, quoting the detective.

On July 9 and 10, 2024, Lee and Weiser were taken into custody—Lee in Missouri, Weiser in Tennessee—and extradited to Lafourche Parish. They are both charged with second-degree murder and obstruction of justice, and their bail is set at $1.1 million each.

No formal charges have been filed to date.

“It’s kind of like a sigh of relief, in a way,” Van said. “This is what we’ve been shooting for this whole time… and it would have been really cool to come home and have her here and have her back,” he said.

According to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, Lee and Weiser are awaiting trial at the Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex in Thibodaux.
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