CrimeCrimeNew Orleans

New Suspect In Case Of Jaren Lockhart, Dismembered New Orleans Dancer

Warrant Issued In Case Of Mutilated Exotic Dancer
Michael McLaughlin
By 

Reporter, HuffPost

In this undated booking photo provided by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriffs Office, Terry Christopher Speaks is seen. Speaks and Margaret Sanchez, both 28, are being held in Louisiana as suspects in the death of a Bourbon Street stripper whose body parts recently washed ashore on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an investigator said Wednesday, June 13, 2012. They are being held on charges unrelated to the death of 22-year-old Jaren Lockhart and have not been charged with her death but are suspects, said Hancock County, Miss., Sheriff's Department chief investigator Glenn Grannan. The two are seen on a video from the club where Lockhart worked leaving with Lockhart early June 6, according to Hancock investigators. (AP Photo/Tangipahoa Sheriff via the Hammond Daily Star)
In this undated booking photo provided by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriffs Office, Terry Christopher Speaks is seen. Speaks and Margaret Sanchez, both 28, are being held in Louisiana as suspects in the death of a Bourbon Street stripper whose body parts recently washed ashore on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an investigator said Wednesday, June 13, 2012. They are being held on charges unrelated to the death of 22-year-old Jaren Lockhart and have not been charged with her death but are suspects, said Hancock County, Miss., Sheriff's Department chief investigator Glenn Grannan. The two are seen on a video from the club where Lockhart worked leaving with Lockhart early June 6, according to Hancock investigators. (AP Photo/Tangipahoa Sheriff via the Hammond Daily Star)

Authorities obtained an arrest warrant for a man long suspected in the stabbing death and dismemberment of a New Orleans strip club dancer whose body parts washed up along the Gulf Coast.

Terry Speaks, 41, who's currently in a New York prison on unrelated charges, is accused of the second-degree murder of Jaren Lockhart in 2012, TV station WWL reports. He's also accused of obstruction of justice for allegedly tampering with evidence by cutting up the young mother's body and scattering it in waters off Mississippi's shores.

Last month, police arrested Margaret Sanchez — Speaks' girlfriend when Lockhart was killed — and slapped her with the same charges.

Sanchez, now 30, and Speaks were seen together on June 6, 2012 at the French Quarter gentleman's club where Lockhart worked. Authorities contend that the 22-year-old dancer left with them to perform at a private party in exchange for money.

stripper dismembered
Margaret Sanchez

The next day, Lockhart's torso drifted ashore. Her head and parts of legs were found days later.

Numerous dancers at two strip joints had declined Speaks and Sanchez's alleged offer before Lockhart accepted, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Though police believed Speaks was the killer within weeks of Lockhart's death, they announced an arrest warrant on Thursday after two inmates at a federal facility in Otisville, N.Y. alleged that Speaks said Lockhart died following a fight with Sanchez.

Speaks is locked up for failing to register as a sex offender in North Carolina and was due to be released in October.

He is expected to be extradited to New Orleans to face the murder and obstruction of justice charge.

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