Transcription
[Music] On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of Erica Hunt, who was 20 years old when she disappeared from Opelousas, Louisiana, in July 2016.
The day before Erica was last seen, she attended a 4th of July party with her family. After the party, she dropped her 2-year-old daughter off at her mom's house. Erica was supposed to come back and pick her daughter up the next morning, but she never came back. Two years later, during a search for a missing child, Erica's remains were found. She had been murdered. Her case remained unsolved for almost a decade until a shocking confession revealed the truth. This is Erica's story.
I first covered the disappearance and murder of Erica Hunt in March 2022, but just a few days before this update was recorded, there was a break in the case. On November 21st, 2024, Louisiana State Police said that they interviewed 33-year-old Jordan Barnes, and during that interview, police say that he confessed to murdering Erica. According to news sources, Jordan Barnes is Erica's brother-in-law and one of the last people to have admitted seeing her alive. The investigation is still ongoing, and despite the arrest, there seem to be even more questions. But with the arrest and confession, hopefully, Erica's family will finally get the answers that they deserve.
In the years after Erica's murder, her family never stopped fighting to keep her story in the public eye and honor her memory. Like I've said before, when a cold case is solved, it is proof that while every cold case won't be solved, solving a cold case is not impossible, especially when there are people out there who refuse to give up until justice is served. This week, because of the recent update, we are re-releasing Erica's episode for those who have not heard it before or for those who may have forgotten the details of what happened to her.
Erica Hunt was born on July 10th, 1995. She was one of three girls who grew up very close to each other. She had an excellent relationship with both of her sisters. In 2016, she was living in Opelousas, Louisiana, with her 2-year-old daughter, Briana. Erica, who was described as the firecracker of the family by her sister, was someone who was always smiling. She loved being around family and friends, and she loved being a mother. Her mom, Shannon, said that Erica was a well-rounded person who knew a lot of people and who, as far as she knew, got along with everybody.
In the summer of 2016, Erica was getting ready for her 21st birthday, which we all know is a big deal, and she wanted to celebrate by having a party at a local club. According to her family, she was excited and was making plans for her future. On July 3rd, 2016, Erica's uncle had a cookout to celebrate the 4th of July. She, along with several of her family members, attended the party, and according to those who saw her that day, Erica appeared to be having a good time. Shannon said that Erica was in a good mood and was talking about her plans for her upcoming birthday. Her mother also recalled her saying that she had recently applied for housing for her and Briana and was looking forward to getting her own place because, at the time, she and her daughter were living with a roommate. Shannon said that Erica also mentioned to her that she had plans to go to Lake Charles with a friend of hers who also had a child, and the next day, their plan was to spend the holiday with the kids at the water.
After the party was over, Erica dropped her daughter Briana at Shannon's house to spend the night. She was planning to come back the next day to get her so that they could go to Lake Charles. It's not clear what time Erica dropped Briana off at her mom's house or where she went after she dropped her daughter off, but she had made plans to hang out with some friends the next day, July 4th. Erica made several Facebook posts. The first one was at 10:00 a.m. Now, a quick look at Erica's Facebook page told you that she was very active on Facebook and would typically post several times a day, so this was pretty normal.
Now, the next part of Erica's story, with what we know now, has a whole new meaning. Two years ago, we had no idea what any of these things meant or how they were connected to Erica's murder. And even though we still don't have all of the details, based on the information we have from before and now, the confession, it's not hard to figure out now. Based on what we originally knew about the last time Erica was reportedly seen on July 4th, is that according to Erica's brother-in-law, Jordan Barnes, at some point that morning or early afternoon, Erica came by where her sister and brother-in-law lived. Now, according to Barnes' original account, he said Erica came there and asked to borrow $3 for cigarettes, and then he said she left. But when recounting the story, he said that he did not see which direction she had went in after she had left, and he didn't know how she got there. Barnes said in later interviews that usually, when Erica would come by, she would ask for a ride, but this time she didn't.
At around 12:50 p.m., Erica makes what would be her last Facebook post. In the post, Erica wishes a friend a happy birthday, but she also said that she was in the bed where she had been unable to get out of. Now, none of the source info I could find originally said anything about the exact time that Erica was alleged to have gone to her sister and brother-in-law's house, which we now know is a significant part of the timeline in the story. However, attention shifted from Erica's stop at her sister's house, where she encountered Barnes, because witnesses would later come forward and say that Erica had been seen behind a store between 11 and 1 p.m. Now, if Erica had not specifically said that she was in the bed in her last Facebook post, you might assume that she was posting from her phone and therefore could have been anywhere. But her saying that she was in the bed suggested that she was home at the time she posted the status, which would then call the timing of the witness sighting of her into question. But for nine years, the assumption had been that Erica left her sister and brother-in-law's house and then vanished.
That morning, Erica was supposed to pick her daughter up from her mom's house, but there was never an explanation for why instead of picking up her daughter, she allegedly went to her sister's house. We now know that it's possible that none of what Barnes said before was true. But that same day, Erica had also made plans to braid a friend's hair. However, when she didn't show up to braid her hair, her friend called her several times. However, Erica didn't pick up. When Erica's sister found out that she hadn't showed up to braid her friend's hair, she too started to call her, but she wasn't getting an answer either. She said the phone would just ring, and then it started to go to voicemail. Her sister knew that something wasn't right. She told Dateline in 2020 that even if Erica's phone ran out of minutes or if her battery died, she would always find a way to contact her family, especially to check on her daughter. But when hours went by and Erica still had not connected with her family, their concern began to grow.
When the next day came and she was still not back, Erica's family was more than concerned. No one had seen her since the day before, and she had not done any of the things that she had planned to do that day. And more importantly, she never came back for her daughter and she had not called to check in. Also, for a person who was very active on social media, the fact that she had not posted since early in the afternoon of the 4th was a huge red flag. It had been almost two days with no posts for Erica.
On Tuesday, July 6th, Erica's family filed a missing person's report. By this time, it had been two days since anyone had seen or spoken to Erica, and her roommate had found her wallet inside the house, which was another indication that Erica had not just left. Police in Opelousas took the report, but as usual, they did not actually begin to investigate what happened to Erica. In the first few weeks, weeks after her disappearance, her family and friends searched for her themselves. They turned to social media and organized searches to look for her, but there was no sign of Erica, and no one was coming forward with any credible information.
When telling the stories of these missing women and unsolved murders, it's so hard not to repeat the same things about their cases or sound redundant when telling these stories. But the problem is that these stories have very consistent themes, especially in the beginning. Many of these families have similar experiences when it comes to how the police treated and prioritized their loved ones' case. No matter what the circumstances surrounding how or why these women and girls go missing, regardless of the city or department, most of these families are left alone in those first few weeks.
When Erica went missing, her family didn't get much help from police. Erica's brother-in-law, Jordan Barnes, was one of the last people to see her, but according to him, it was a month before the detectives came and spoke with him or Erica's sister. Barnes later told a local news station that he even thought it was strange that he would not have been the first person police wanted to speak to after receiving the report. Barnes said that even once police did speak to him, they seemed like they had already pretty much made up their minds about what happened to Erica, which is even more significant now, considering that nine years later, he would confess to her murder. But at the time, investigators said that they had spoken to all of Erica's friends and family, and in the weeks after she vanished, however, none of them had any information that they deemed useful.
There had been several alleged sightings of Erica around town, but none of the sightings could ever be confirmed. Investigators insisted that they were doing everything in their power to find Erica, but her family did not agree. They believe the fact that they had waited almost a month before they started the investigation caused them to lose potentially critical information about Erica's last movements. There isn't any information about their investigation, however, and so it's not clear what the police did to look for Erica. It's not clear if they pulled cell phone records or not, but the information about where Erica went on July 4th remained a mystery. When Erica was last seen, it was believed that she was on foot, but no one knew whether or not she was alone or with someone, and no one knew where she went when she allegedly left her sister and brother-in-law's house.
Erica's disappearance had taken a toll on her family. They had gone from celebrating the 4th of July all together to searching for Erica within days. Erica's 21st birthday, that she had been looking forward to, had come and gone. There was no party and no celebration because Erica wasn't there anymore.
In August 2016, Erica's family was interviewed by a local news station, and her mom, Shannon, spoke about how difficult the past few weeks had been for them. She said that everyone had been lashing out in their own way. Briana, Erica's daughter, was only two, but after her mother had been gone for over a month, it was starting to affect the 2-year-old also. Erica was always with her daughter; she had never gone anywhere near this long without seeing her. Shannon told the news station that Briana went quiet after Erica first disappeared, something that was completely out of the ordinary for the very active 2-year-old. But she knew something was really wrong when Briana began calling Erica's sister her mom.
In August 2016, Erica's family and friends also created a Facebook page to gather information and get the word out about Erica missing. Over the next several months, her family continued to search for her, but months eventually turned into a year, and then two, and no new information was found about Erica or her disappearance. But in 2018, two years after Erica was last seen, police got a tip that they believed may be what they needed to get to the bottom of what happened to Erica.
In September 2018, a tip came in that Erica's body was at a property in Opelousas, but not just any property; it was a home that Erica apparently previously lived in and had been searched two years before in connection to her disappearance. This time, however, police were armed with a warrant and cadaver dogs. After two long years, Erica's family wanted closure; they wanted answers. They just didn't know how much longer that journey would take.
On July 4th, 2016, 20-year-old Erica Hunt disappeared from Opelousas, Louisiana. The day she was last seen, she allegedly went over to her sister's house to borrow a few dollars and was supposed to braid a friend's hair and then go to the lake. But Erica never made it to either place, and no one ever saw Erica again.
In September 2018, investigators, along with cadaver dogs and forensic teams, searched the home where they had received a tip about Erica's body being there. Cadaver dogs during the preliminary search of the property indicated that there were possibly remains there, but after hours of searching, they were only able to find animal remains. For Erica's family, it was both a relief and a disappointment because, as much as they wanted closure, they also did not want to find Erica's body; they wanted to bring her home alive. Her family had mixed emotions. After two years, they really did just want closure, but they didn't want to believe that Erica was no longer alive. Investigators turned to the public and asked them for help in getting information about what happened to Erica, but after the search of the property, no new tips came in.
In December 2018, two months after investigators searched the home for Erica's remains, a 9-year-old boy went missing in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. Evangeline Parish is about 45 minutes from Opelousas. Police there had received the report of a missing child, and so they were out looking for the missing 9-year-old around the parish. While searching for the child, who was later found at a friend's home after running away from his neglectful parents, a search team volunteer stumbled upon skeletal remains that had been partially buried in a rural part of the Evangeline Parish. All that had been located was a human skull, and so there was absolutely no way to identify the remains without extensive forensic tests.
After the skull was discovered, State Police and the medical examiner were notified, and the scene where the remains was found was secured until they could be exhumed. The Louisiana State University forensic anthropology team came to exhume the body and then take the remains to the lab for testing so that they could try to identify the body. When the remains were found, the connection to Erica wasn't immediately made, and investigators who were working the Jane Doe case didn't know how the person whose remains had been found died. Now, according to the Doe Project, the remains were located on land owned by local farmers. Initial tests determined that the body belonged to a woman of Cajun, French, and African-American descent, but they were unable to identify the body, and so they called the woman the Evangeline Jane Doe.
Meanwhile, Erica's family was still desperately searching for her. It's not clear if they knew about the skeletal remains being found in Evangeline Parish at the time, but from everything I could gather, they were not aware that a body had been found in a town right next to where they lived. Erica's family had not stopped searching for answers, and they were still looking for her.
In July 2020, a year and a half after the skeletal remains were found, Erica's family was interviewed by NBC's Dateline about her disappearance. In the interview, Erica's family spoke about her disappearance and their search for answers about where she was and what happened to her. Dateline also spoke to a detective working the case, and he said, quote, "This is still considered an outstanding missing person case, and we invite anyone with information to contact us. This young lady deserves to be returned to her family." There was no information mentioned about the remains found in 2018, which gives me reason to believe that Erica's family wasn't aware that the remains had been found and that they were currently at a lab being tested at the time the Dateline interview took place.
It had been four long years since Erica disappeared, and investigators didn't seem to be any closer to finding her or what happened to her. The LSU anthropology team had been testing the remains found in Evangeline for months but had been unsuccessful in finding a usable DNA sample to test. In May 2019, the Louisiana State Police contacted the nonprofit organization called the DNA Doe Project for help in testing and identifying the remains. It would take over a year before the DNA Doe Project would begin testing the remains that had been found.
In November 2020, through the use of a relatively new method called genetic genealogy, the DNA Doe Project began testing the remains that had been found almost two years before. The DNA Doe Project used something called GEDmatch, which uses a free genetic genealogy service that takes consumer DNA from services like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. For three months, the DNA Doe Project spent countless hours trying to identify the remains, and on February 5th, 2021, they finally identified the Evangeline Jane Doe. It was Erica Hunt.
Almost five years after Erica was last seen by her family, her remains were positively identified. Five days after her body was identified, Opelousas police announced that they were officially investigating Erica's death as a homicide. The news of her remains being found was a heartbreaking conclusion to her story, but her family would at least be able to lay her to rest. The police partnered with the local Crime Stoppers to create flyers to solicit information about Erica's disappearance and murder. In March 2021, her family held a vigil for her to honor her and ask the public for help and information about what happened to her. During the vigil, her aunt spoke to KLFY10 and she said, quote, "We prayed and we asked God to please bring her home. Now her remains are home, we can give her a proper burial, but now we still need justice for Erica." Despite the tragedy that had fallen on the family and the devastating loss of their beloved Erica, after five long years, they were happy just to have some closure and the ability to lay her to rest. Her uncle Tyrone also spoke to the KLFY news station and he said, quote, "It was troubling. A lot of people wanted us to give up. A lot, they just thought that she went on a joy ride and wasn't going to come back. Those rumors were just put aside. Whenever I spoke to Miranda, we just kept hope alive. And thank God, thank God they found the remains. Now we can properly put her to rest the right way. The family can have some closure. But it isn't over. It isn't over because somebody did it."
When Erica disappeared in 2016, her family did not know that it would take five years to find her. But now that they had, they needed to find whoever took her. In the years following Erica's remains being found and identified, little information was released about her case. Her family continued to do work in the community to keep this story out there, but as time went on, they couldn't help but wonder if they would ever get answers and find the person who killed Erica.
After years of silence about this case and virtually no information about the investigation, on November 21st, 2024, police announced that an arrest had been made and that Jordan Barnes, Erica's brother-in-law, had confessed to her murder. As I said at the beginning of this episode, no further information about a motive or why Barnes was being questioned again nine years later has been released, but the investigation is still ongoing, and so hopefully, more information will be revealed soon.
Erica Hunt was only 20 years old when she disappeared, leaving behind her then 2-year-old daughter. Her family never once thought she left on her own, but after five years of searching, their efforts came to a tragic end. The fact that her family was able to bring her home and lay her to rest gave them some peace. And now, nine years later, her family finally knows who took her life. But knowing that it was her own brother-in-law who has now confessed, I'm sure, is another layer of pain and anger for Erica's family.
Erica's case is no longer cold; it has been solved. And hopefully, with the resolution, her loved ones can begin to find some sense of closure. While the pain of her loss will always remain, the truth provides a path forward in ensuring that Erica's story is not forgotten and that justice prevails. May Erica Hunt rest in peace.
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