Jessica "Jess" Hawk, Murdered, Aug. 7, 2008, N. Orleans, (Unsolved)

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/Maverick1862/Jessica%20Hawk/jessica17.jpg

Jessica Hawk (32) stabbed multiple times and her murderer is still at large


Date: Aug 11, 2008
Cause of Death: Stabbed
Location: New Orleans, LA

A native of Lebanon is dead, the victim of a murder in her New Orleans, Louisiana home.

32-year-old Jessica Hawk died of apparent stab wounds. She was found at 9:40 a.m. Monday, on the floor of her home in the Bywater section of the city, near the French Quarter.

Jessica's brother Brandon tells Local 12 Jessica moved to New Orleans four to five years ago after getting a Botany degree from Miami University. Brandon says Jessica was supposed to come home to Lebanon for a visit yesterday. The family kept calling all weekend and couldn't get ahold of her. She also didn't show up at restaurant for dinner date Sunday night.

Jessica's family and her boyfriend called police in New Orleans on Monday morning to check on her.. that's when her body was found.

There is no word from New Orleans police on any arrests or suspects in her murder. Funeral arrangements are pending.

http://www.mydeathspace.com/article/2008/08/23/Jessica_Hawk_(32)_stabbed_multiple_times_and_her_m urderer_is_still_at_large

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Who Killed Jessica Hawk
Dec. 1, 2008

Jessica L. Hawk whose lifeless body was discovered by police at 9:40 Monday morning, August 11, 2008.

Jessica lived halway between my home by the Sound Cafe and my former office by the satellite dishes on Chartres. She lived two doors away from Dr. Bob, who police questioned Monday morning, and who I spoke with this morning after visiting the stoop at 3013 Chartres to pay my respects to the woman who sold flowers from Harold’s up on Saint Claude.

Jessica Hawk was murdered. Stabbed multiple times. Dr. Bob visited the crime scene with detectives before her body was removed. He said her naked body was propped-up. Since he is sharing this news with neighbors, it is no longer the private knowledge of detectives.

This is our murder investigation. We are entitled to know the facts of what happened, as police are able to reveal them.

Have the police asked NOCCA for surveillance video? They are located right down the street and usually have a night guard. Did the guard at NOCCA see anything? How about the drivers who pick up produce at AJ’s on Chartres in the early hours of the morning — every day? Do they have video tape? Did they see anything?

How about the soldiers headed to the Navy base on Poland at 7:15 every weekday morning? Did they see?
Or the military recruits marching the warf where homeless live? Did they see anything? Did the Harbor Police see anything? Do they have surveillance video?

Has anyone looked in the overgrown trenches that line the levee along the route from NOCCA to Poland? That’s where criminals have been found and arrested in the past. Has anyone searched the abandoned Rice Mill across the street?

This is our neighborhood and our murder investigation. We are entitled to know the facts of the case and to contribute to its solution.

Do police have a suspect? Do they suspect an acquaintance? Did Jessica have a car? Where is it? Was anything stolen? Is there a time of death?

The investigation and prosecution of a murder is a public act.
It is not the private property of the police or the media.
We deserve to hear answers and find answers to this crime.

Please.

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Jessica was a young, vibrant woman that enjoyed simple things: a good talk with a friend, a nice afternoon at the quarter, a beautiful garden, and a good meal. As a friend Jessica never asked me for anything, on the contrary she always wanted to do whatever I wanted to do, she was always looking to please me. During a couple of weeks that I had a strong craving for Indian food, she would tell me to stop by her house after school, she would prepare a whole Indian meal for me. She was my source of beautiful plants, never asking for anything in return.

Jessica had a degree in Botany from the University of Florida, and was going to come back to school to finish her Master at UNO. She was going to be one of our future experts in Pollination, subject in which she had published most of her scientific papers in. She loved bees and plants, and was an eager reader. Virginia Wolff was her favorite writer; her books were a treasure for her, before I left NOLA to come to Colombia for the summer I gave her back some of her books I had…. now I wish I had kept them.

Some weekends we would spend long nights dancing at her house her favorites: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, or would head to the quarter for salsa dancing. I loved to see her happy, laughing to tears.

I will miss my friend everyday of my life, her emails, her jokes, I will miss her saying “ohhh my God, Ivonne stop!!!” while I shared with her all my drama.

The only thing Jessica asked us was to love her, the only thing she needed to live. We loved her and will love her forever. Whoever did this to my friend has to be sure we will not forget Jessica and he/she will not run away with this murder.

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Garden for Jessica

A year after the brutal murder of Jessica Hawk in her Bywater home, a group of about fifteen of her friends gathered on the neutral ground of St. Claude Avenue on Sunday, August 9, to plant a garden in her memory.

It was a fitting gesture for Hawk, a botanist and horticulturist who worked at Harold’s Indoor-Outdoor Plants nearby at St. Claude and Press Street, and the effort was organized by local writer and editor, Lee Horvitz, Hawk’s former fiancée. A guava tree and several other smaller plants were placed in the ground in a small, roped-off area of the neutral ground between Press and Montegut streets. Over the next thirty days or so, the city’s Parks and Parkways Department will monitor how well the small garden is maintained and, if it is, the garden will be allowed to expand to a larger area that will contain more trees, plants, benches and other amenities.

Horvitz and Hawk’s other friends who had gathered on the site held hands and sang “Amazing Grace” and one of Hawk’s favorite songs, Billie Holiday’s “Ain’t Nobody’s Business.” Prominent among those in attendance was noted local standup comedian Chris Champagne. Horvitz then delivered a eulogy for Hawk, citing her accomplishments and recounting his most pleasant memories of her.

Hawk was stabbed to death in her home on Chartres Street over the weekend of August 10, 2008 and the case is still unsolved. She and Horvitz had moved to New Orleans from the Cincinnati area about five years earlier and both of them had assimilated into the city’s cultural scene and nightlife. In addition to working for Harold’s Plants, Hawk was also a member of the original staff that helped open the Audubon Insectarium in June 2008 and she was taking Masters level classes in Botany at the University of New Orleans. She scheduled to start a job at the New Orleans Botanical Garden the week she was murdered.

In a plea that was televised over two New Orleans stations, channels 6 and 8, Horvitz made an appeal to Hawk’s killer to turn himself in, holding up pictures of her and explaining how much the tragedy had impacted her family and others to whom she had been close. In a statement given to Fox8 News, a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department said the case has been turned over to NOPD’s Cold Case Unit and he expressed confidence that the perpetrator would be caught.

Those wishing to make donations of plants or trees in Jessica Hawk’s memory can do so by calling Harold Appelwhite at Harold's Indoor-Outdoor Plants, 504-947-7554.

http://www.neworleans.com/index.php?opti....260&Itemid=2322

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DNA tests slow process of solving Hawk murder
Apr. 2009

New Orleans - Since Katrina, the NOPD has had to send it's DNA evidence to a crime lab in Baton Rouge for testing. The results can take months to come back to New Orleans.

The long wait has at least one murder victim's family and friends frustrated. They believe the DNA evidence holds the key to who killed 32 year old Jessica Hawk.

Hawk was stabbed to death inside of her home on Chartres Street back in August of last year. The Ohio native was in the Master program at the University of New Orleans and about to graduate.

After the murder, Hawk's friends wanted answers and they pressed the police. They even held a Second Line in her honor.

Eight months later and police still have not made an arrest. They begin talking to investigators to find out why it was taking so long. The friends were told that the DNA evidence had to be sent to a Baton Rouge lab and the results still had not come in.

Chief Warren Riley says that the NOPD does have a functioning crime lab on Elysian Fields. The problem is that lab can not tackle DNA evidence because the DNA Director left New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Chief Riley hopes to hire a new director soon but Hawk's friends say they want justice for what happened.

Friend of Hawk, Kelly Jean Sherman, says, " This person is out in the community and is a threat to not only us, they are a threat to themselves. I mean there's a problem here and it needs to be taken care of."

http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story....7scrzbubVw.cspx