Louisiana
Louisiana daughter says a medium led her to missing mother’s body as she accuses sheriff of botching investigation
A Louisiana daughter has accused the local sheriff’s office of failing to fully investigate her mother’s death last year after a psychic medium led her to her mom’s half-clothed body in the woods.
The mother of three and grandmother of seven, Theresa Jones, was reported missing on Feb. 2, 2023.
Her oldest daughter Ashley Deese spent hours desperately searching for her 56-year-old mom that day and the next day the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office and a K9 unit spent more time searching for Jones, but she was nowhere to be found.
Three days after she vanished, Deese and her sister Brittany reached out to a psychic medium in Wisconsin who has a large following thanks to her success in helping to find missing people, KNOE reported.
The medium, Carolyn Clapper, talked to the sisters on the phone for 45 minutes, sharing step-by-step, detailed instructions on where to find their mom, Deese said.
“There would be a log, [Jones] kept showing me this pronounced log, a very big log in the woods. It wasn’t just little twigs and sticks, it was a log, a huge one, you know you hit this log is basically what she said, you get to this log and my body will be there. There’s water, I saw a creek,” Clapper told KNOE.
Deese set out into the woods near her mother’s house the next morning and spotted a large log.
“It’s like I envisioned what I had heard on the phone last night, that was the landmark, that was the log. So I immediately got ill, shaky, and sick, and started vomiting,” she said.
Jones was found face down and partially nude in Edmonds Creek. She only had a top on and no bottoms or underwear.
Deese called the sheriff who began investigating but never did a rape test or scraped the woman’s fingernails for possible DNA evidence.
“So there’s a woman deceased facedown in a creek, nude. All she had on was a top, no undergarments, nude. There was no rape kit, no scraping of the fingernails. I’m bothered by that,” Deese said.
Union Parish Sheriff Dusty Gates confirmed that neither test was done on Jones’ body in an interview with KNOE. He told the station that his office could have requested either test but he didn’t know if his office ever requested those tests.
The sheriff’s office reportedly told Deese that there were no signs of disturbance in the area where her mother’s body was found so investigators didn’t feel a rape kit or fingernail scraping was needed. The investigators believe her body was nude from the waist down because her bottoms were pulled off by the force of the water.
“This is an assumption or a guess, it might be a good guess, but nonetheless if there’s no clothes, shouldn’t we find the clothing shouldn’t we prove that, shouldn’t there be science behind these ideas,” Clapper said.
The medical examiner — who also didn’t do those tests — ruled that Jones’ death was accidental. She died drowning, with methamphetamine intoxication a contributing factor in her death, according to the autopsy.
Jones had a large amount of meth in her system at the time of her death but her daughter said she had been sober for 20 years after a cocaine addiction.
“It doesn’t line up, it doesn’t make sense. And if someone can make it make sense, I will sit down and listen,” Deese said.
The incident report says that Deese told deputies that her mom was back on meth and marijuana and suffered from mental illness, but “refuses to take her medication like she is supposed to.”
But Deese said she never said those things.
“I also feel that as soon as it was known that there was drugs involved, and even a history of drugs, I felt like the sobriety didn’t matter. And I feel like since there was drugs involved, it’s just one more off the street,” she said.
She also criticized the sheriff’s office for failing to speak to Clapper who has helped provide info to other law enforcement agencies that helped find missing people in the past. She said Clapper knew things about the condition of her mother’s body and toxicology report before each was revealed.
“Even if they don’t believe in psychics or they’re skeptical, you know, they still follow up on leads, so they’ll still question me if I know too much about a case and they can’t really explain how I would know the details that I know about a case, it’s their job to follow up,” the medium said.
Both she and Deese pleaded with the deputies to speak to Clapper repeatedly.
“For months, for months I tried getting in touch, for months Ashley tried following up with them, lending my name and my contact information. Months have gone by, nearly a year and a half now,” Clapper said.
Jones’ case was closed in August 2023.
But her daughter doesn’t believe her death was an accident.
“I do suspect foul play. I haven’t been proved that it wasn’t. And I will suspect that until I’m proved that it’s not,” Deeves said.
Louisiana
Three takeaways from LSU women’s basketball’s win over Louisiana Tech
LSU women’s basketball started slow but recovered Saturday against Louisiana Tech, head coach Kim Mulkey’s alma mater. Inside New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center, the No. 5 Tigers won 87-61 to improve to 11-0.
Mikaylah Williams led the team with 19 points while Flau’Jae Johnson notched her first double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Kate Koval and MiLaysia Fulwiley finished with 19 and 10 points, respectively. Jada Richard dished out a game-high eight assists.
Grace Knox, in the first start of her college career, scored four points as part of a 6-0 opening run for LSU, but three three-pointers put Louisiana Tech up with 7:19 on the clock. Back-and-forth play ensued, but the Lady Techsters led by two at the end of the first quarter. They hung around on the glass as well, limiting the Tigers to one and done most times.
LSU woke up in the second quarter and began imposing its physicality. Louisiana Tech didn’t score until the 5:34 mark and racked up fouls, including two on sharp-shooter Paris Bradley. The Tigers were in the bonus for over half of the second quarter but experienced a near-three-minute scoring drought, letting the Lady Techsters hang around. LSU led by nine points heading into the locker room. Both teams shot under 40% in the opening 20 minutes.
Louisiana Tech kept the game within reach for much of the third quarter but it eventually got away. LSU ended the frame on a 9-0 run and built a 20-point lead for good a minute into the fourth. Turnovers and mental mistakes piled up for the Lady Techsters, which gave the Tigers more chances to push the pace of play. The Tigers went on a 14-2 run over four minutes when substitutes started rolling in. They shot 58.6% in the second half.
LSU lacked success in transition
LSU relies on getting into track meets with opponents quickly to build a comfortable cushion. That didn’t happen Saturday as Louisiana Tech hit its shots to open the game. Even when the Lady Techsters missed, they were comfortable going one-and-done most times as they prioritized getting numbers back to defend. That’s how they kept the score close in the early goings.
In the first half, LSU scored just six points in transition and 11 points off turnovers. The Tigers stepped up on the defensive end in the second half. Even though they didn’t produce the fast break opportunities they’re used to, they were more patient on the offensive end and knocked down their open shots.
Koval, Joyner didn’t get enough touches
As in most of its nonconference games, LSU possesses a substantial size advantage inside. That was the case Saturday but the purple and gold struggled to get the ball inside to Koval and Joyner. When the pair had touches, they often either finished, kicked out for an open shot, or drew a foul. They combined for 21 points on 21 shots from the field and 10 free-throw attempts. LSU scored just 36 points in the paint over the entire game.
Likely driven by Mulkey’s comments at the break. LSU made a concerted effort to pounce on the ball inside. Koval scored over half of her points in the final two quarters. She easily worked with passes over the top of Louisiana Tech’s Averi Aaron and in the high-low when the Lady Techsters went to a zone. The Tigers need to learn from their lack of post play and use their advantage inside, especially as they prepare to play in the SEC.
Williams led LSU throughout the game
LSU struggled to find rhythm on both ends of the court in the early goings but Williams put the team on her back in the middle two frames. She scored 13 points, including two triples, on four of seven shots from the field. She added five rebounds and three assists over the same span.
Williams played a team-high 32 minutes on Saturday and she played all but two minutes in the first half. The junior displayed much-needed poise to an LSU team that couldn’t settle into the way it wanted to play initially. She also locked in on the defensive end, switching onto Bradley and locking her down for the back half of the contest. Her play in all facets gave the Tigers the confidence that they needed to pull ahead in the second half.
Louisiana
Photos: LSU women defeats Louisiana Tech in the Smoothie King Center, 87-61
Kramer Robertson, son of Kim Mulkey, New Orleans Pelicans and Saints owner Gayle Benson and Mayor-Elect Helena Moreno sit on the sidelines during the first half of a Compete 4 Cause Classic basketball game between the Louisiana State Tigers and the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Louisiana
Kim Mulkey set to lead LSU women into rare matchup with her alma mater Louisiana Tech
The opportunity to play a road game against Louisiana Tech has presented itself to coach Kim Mulkey before, but she has always turned it down.
Mulkey is willing to put the Lady Techsters on one of her nonconference schedules. She has already done so during her time at Baylor, and she did again ahead of this Tigers season. However, the LSU women’s basketball coach will never stage a game in Ruston — the small town in North Louisiana where she played her college hoops and launched her Hall-of-Fame coaching career.
“There’s too many emotions there,” Mulkey said. “There’s too many. I couldn’t walk in that gym and be a good coach.”
So, a neutral site will have to suffice instead. At 5 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU), the Smoothie King Center will host only the second matchup between one of Mulkey’s teams and her alma mater, Louisiana Tech. The No. 5 Tigers (10-0) and the Lady Techsters are set to meet in the Compete 4 Cause Classic — a doubleheader that also features a 7:30 p.m. men’s game between LSU and SMU.
Mulkey is a Louisiana Tech legend. She played point guard for the Lady Techsters from 1980-84, then worked as an assistant coach for the next 16 seasons. Tech reached the Final Four 11 times in the 19 total seasons Mulkey spent there and took home three national titles (in 1981, 1982 and 1988).
In December 2009, Mulkey’s Baylor team defeated the Lady Techsters 77-67 in Waco, Texas.
Mulkey hasn’t faced her alma mater since, not even after she left the Bears in 2021, so she could revive LSU’s women’s basketball program. The Tigers faced almost every other Louisiana school — from Grambling and UL-Monroe to McNeese and Tulane — in her first four seasons, but not the storied program that plays its home games about 200 miles north of Baton Rouge.
“The history of women’s basketball in this state doesn’t belong to LSU,” Mulkey said. “It belongs to Louisiana Tech. (The) Seimone Augustus era was outstanding. Our little five-year era here is outstanding, but when you take the cumulative history of women’s basketball in this state, go look at what Louisiana Tech was able to accomplish.”
The Lady Techsters were a national power under legendary coaches Sonja Hogg and Leon Barmore. Hogg guided them to a pair of national championships and more than 300 wins across nine seasons, then turned the program over to Barmore, who led them to another national title and 11 30-win campaigns. Hogg and Barmore were co-head coaches from 1982-85.
Mulkey almost took over for Barmore in 2000. She had turned down head coaching offers before to stay in Ruston, but when it came time to choose between her alma mater and Baylor, she decided on coaching the Bears. Louisiana Tech, at the time, wouldn’t offer her the five-year deal — and the extra job security — she wanted.
Their paths then diverged. Mulkey won three national titles at Baylor and one at LSU, while Louisiana Tech hasn’t made it back to the Final Four. The Lady Techsters haven’t even advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament since 2004, and they’ve cracked that field of teams only twice in the last 20 seasons.
Mulkey, on the other hand, has spent those two decades chasing championships. The fifth of her head coaching career could come as soon as this season — a year that includes a rare matchup with the program that shaped her.
“I’ve been here five years now,” Mulkey said, “but your memories last forever, and the memories I have of my 19 years at Louisiana Tech will never dissolve.”
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