2 bodies may be Katrina victims - They were found at 9th Ward homes
Submitted By: 		N.O.V.A March 2006
Source:			Times Picayune 03-08-2006

**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************


Bodies of two possible Hurricane Katrina victims were found in New Orleans
on Tuesday, the Orleans Parish coroner's office said.

The latest body was found about 4 p.m. in the back yard of a home in the
5400 block of North Prieur Street in the Lower 9th Ward. A man went to the
Katrina-flooded residence to look for a friend who lived there and found a
decomposed body in a pile of wooden debris, chief coroner's investigator
John Gagliano said.

Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Frank Minyard, who has been in charge of the
search for Katrina bodies for the past several weeks, was at the scene,
Gagliano said.

Earlier Tuesday, workers for the Housing Authority of New Orleans were
removing refrigerators from flooded public housing when they found a body
on the kitchen floor at 2913 Higgins Blvd. shortly after 9:30 a.m.

The residence is about six blocks west of the old Desire public housing
complex in the 9th Ward.

The identity, gender and cause of death in each case were not known
Tuesday. Autopsies will be performed.

Gagliano said the discoveries bring to 10 the number of possible Katrina
victims found in New Orleans since the middle of February. All but one were
found by workers, friends or relatives as opposed to search teams, he said.

A body was found Sunday in the attic of a home on Fleur de Lis Drive in
Lakeview with the help of two wardens with search dogs from Maine.

In another case, the coroner's office is treating as possibly storm-related
the death of a man found Feb. 14 in a second-floor bedroom in the 2600
block of Jefferson Avenue.

As of late January, the state health department counted 1,080 Katrina
bodies in Louisiana. A total of 1,103 bodies were found, most in the New
Orleans area, but 23 died from shootings, stabbings, car crashes or other
causes unrelated to the storm.

An Army Corps of Engineers official said Saturday about 400 people remain
missing and presumed dead in Orleans Parish.