‘Unsolved Mysteries’ query about 2010 Louisiana cold case leads to arrest, interest in second case

KENNER, La. — When producers from Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series reboot called Kenner police asking about the 2010 double murder of Hermania Ellsworth and Charles Davis, detectives had long run out of leads on the unsolved crime.

That call to authorities in March led investigators in the New Orleans suburb to shake the dust off the case files. On Friday, barely a month after the case review began, detectives announced they’d made an arrest.

Dernell Nelson, 35, of LaPlace, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, police officials said in a statement. On Tuesday, he remained in the Jefferson Parish Jail, where he’s being held without bond.

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Nelson is also considered a possible suspect in a double murder that took place three weeks after Ellsworth and Davis were slain. According to NOLA.com, newlyweds Herbert Glass and Lynette Williams lived on the street where the first murders took place.

Williams may have been a witness to the crime.

“This is now a very active investigation after laying dormant for years,” Kenner police officials said. “Additional arrests are expected.”

Authorities said cold case homicide Detective Nick Engler, who was assigned the Ellsworth-Davis case, reviewed investigative reports, lab results, phone records and witness statements.

“Detective Engler was able to connect Nelson to the Kenner homicide by DNA and additional circumstantial evidence,” the police statement read.

Nelson’s name had long been tied to the case, which began around 1:30 a.m. June 17, 2010, when patrol officers were dispatched to a report of gunfire in the 600 block of Farrar Avenue. When the officers arrived, they found a car crashed into a tree in front of a home at 700 Farrar Ave.

Ellsworth, 29, and Davis, 38, were dead in the front seats of the car. Ellsworth had been shot in the torso and Davis suffered bullet wounds to the throat, shoulder and hand.

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The former couple’s son, 3-year-old Charles Davis Jr., was found unrestrained in the back seat of the car.

The toddler was not shot, but he suffered a torn liver in the crash, NOLA.com reported. He was hospitalized but recovered from the injury.

Family members told investigators that even though the couple were no longer dating, they were friendly and co-parented their son together. They had taken him along on a trip to a nearby convenience store, the news site reported.

Detectives who initially investigated the case suspected stolen money had been the motive for the double homicide, according to police. They also suspected the shooting was tied to the double murder of Glass and Williams three weeks later.

‘She may have known something’

The tree that Ellsworth and Davis struck when they were shot stood in front of Glass and Williams’ home, NOLA.com reported. Glass and Williams were last seen alive on July 7.

The couple, who had been married for about a month, were reported missing by their families on July 9. Later that same day, a construction crew working on the Interstate 10 twin-span over Lake Pontchartrain spotted their bodies in the water.

Glass, 58, and Williams, 42, had been bound by duct tape and shot in the head, execution-style, before being dumped, the news site said. Kenner detectives believed they’d been killed on the south shore and their bodies had floated into the St. Tammany Parish side of the lake.

The couple’s Toyota Camry had been found the day before their bodies surfaced, authorities said. The car, found off an Interstate 59 exit near Pearl River, had been burned.

Investigators in both Kenner and St. Tammany Parish believed the two crimes were related because of where Glass and Williams lived.

Relatives told police that they suspected Glass and Williams may have been targeted because of a large insurance settlement Glass had received after his mother’s death. The couple had met when Williams, a home health care worker, cared for Glass’ ailing mother, NOLA.com previously reported.

After the killings, the family found a hole in the couple’s ceiling where Glass had stashed the cash, which they had been spending on gifts for family members and a honeymoon trip to Hawaii scheduled for the month after they died. They’d also bought a $2,000 parrot the week of the murders.

The couple had been openly talking about the inheritance Glass had received.

There were rumors, however, that Glass and Williams were killed because Williams had witnessed the Ellsworth-Davis murders, NOLA.com reported. She was the first person on the scene after the gunfire, and she had called the couple’s relatives to inform them of the shooting.

“They thought she may have known something,” Williams’ sister, Sherry Williams, told the news site in 2015.

“A joint investigation was conducted among the two agencies,” Kenner police officials said. “Suspects were developed in 2010, however, no arrests were made at that time.”

Nelson was one of the suspects developed in 2010. Authorities have not said what, if any, evidence has linked him to the Glass-Williams case.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact Kenner cold case detectives at 504-712-2222 or send a tip through the department’s website at kennerpd.com. Tipsters can also call CrimeStoppers of Greater New Orleans at 504-822-1111 or submit a tip online here.

Cox Media Group