Boutte’s mother mourns her son’s unsolved murder

Dawn Bailey composed herself as she remembered a day when she would have given anything to erase it and the torment it caused her.

“My son was over there in the water – found in a ditch,” Bailey said.

December 17, 2021 marks the third anniversary of the murder of Ellington Lockett, affectionately known as AL by those who knew him best. The Boutte man was 31 years old.

His body was found in a drainage canal near the 100 block of Spruce Street. An autopsy revealed he had been stabbed.

The case remains unsolved and Bailey still has no sense of closure.

“I came home from work and didn’t see him. My other kids had seen him the day before, but not that day,” Bailey said. “And he’s an adult, he doesn’t have to go back home if he doesn’t want to… but then it happened again and I felt like ‘Oh no, something’s wrong’.”

Bailey called police to report Lockett missing. As she spoke to a dispatcher, her neighbor overheard the conversation and called Bailey.

“She had found the handkerchief he was wearing on his head (at the ditch),” Bailey said. “And I sent my other son to check and… it was horrible,” Bailey said. “In fact, my son was in the water.

“It’s not right. Someone took my son’s life.”

Lockett was last seen several days earlier, on December 14, 2021. He was reportedly seen twice that day – the morning when he was riding his bike on Magnolia Avenue toward Highway 90, and then the night when investigators believe he was headed to South Kinler to pick up his bike.

Bailey said she has called St. Charles Parish investigators regularly to stay updated, but nothing has come up.

“Last month I called and asked how far they had come in the investigation. Then I said I would like to know everything,” she said. “They told me they couldn’t do that because the case was still open. Someone has to know something. Three years, on December 17th it will be three years.”

Bailey said her son was a humble person who went out of his way to help others.

“If people didn’t see him, he would do something to make people see him,” Bailey said. “Whoever needed help, he raised his hand and said, ‘I will help’.”

Emotionally, she says, it hasn’t gotten any easier.

“It’s very difficult,” she said. “After it happened, I took a leave of absence from work for about a month. After that I know I have to move on with my life, I know I have to pay my bills. But it’s hard. It’s still hard.”