COVINGTON, LA (WGNO) St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain says his deputies were working a mystery Saturday night. Strain says his office received a call from a woman that led to an overnight search.
“A family member called and said that she believed her nephew stabbed someone and had no idea of where the body would be,” Strain recalled.
According to the sheriff, the woman received a call Saturday night from a friend of her 17-year-old nephew asking her to pick up the teen and drive him to a family camp in Mississippi. After giving the nephew a ride, she called the sheriff’s office.
“She could tell that something was wrong by his conduct and, quite frankly, (he) probably still had some blood on him,” Strain said.
Monday afternoon, Strain joined two deputies and the parish coroner to discuss how the mystery was solved.
Strain said that the teenaged nephew stabbed a man to death along an abandoned stretch of railroad tracks in the Slidell area. According to Strain, the a group of at least five people gathered on the tracks and were trying to work out a plan to buy some drugs when two of them got into a fight.
Strain says 17-year-old Clayton Maricle stabbed and killed his victim while others who were there took off running.
Coroner Charles Preston says the victim was stabbed at least 15 times.
“One of the injuries was to his neck. It cut his internal jugular and his carotid artery,” Preston said Monday.
Deputy Matthew Vasquez helped lead the investigation. He says the victim’s body was discovered early Sunday morning.
Maricle was arrested at the family camp. A second suspect, 41-year-old Marty Anderson also faces charges in the case. Anderson is accused of helping Maricle hide evidence.
“Everyone who was involved in the case is cooperating so far now with given statements, either confessions or providing more information,” Vasquez said.
According to the sheriff, Maricle was serving time for car burglary at a boys group home in Labranche, Louisiana. Strain says Maricle was out on a weekend furlough at the time of the murder.