Advertising Exec Died Of One Gunshot Wound Garage Worker Booked In Death Times Picayune 12-1-1996 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Mary Margaret Murphy Elliott, an advertising executive found murdered Thanksgiving morning after leaving her New Orleans office Wednesday night, died of a single small-caliber gunshot wound to the head, the St. Tammany Parish coroner's office said. St. Tammany authorities Saturday booked New Orleans parking lot attendant Jesse Hoffman, 18, with murder, aggravated rape and kidnapping in the death of Elliott, who lived north of Covington with her husband. Hoffman worked at the garage where Elliott parked her car. St. Tammany authorities said Friday that Hoffman confessed to the crimes. Hoffman, wearing a blue T-shirt and cutoff jeans, was whisked from a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office patrol car in handcuffs into the booking area of the parish jail Saturday shortly before 11 a.m. Hoffman appeared slightly startled when confronted by television cameras as he was escorted from the back seat of the patrol car. He refused to answer questions from reporters. An autopsy conducted Saturday revealed the cause of death, said St. Tammany Parish Coroner Ted Brustowicz said. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman James Hartman said Hoffman apparently had worked for about two weeks as an attendant at a parking garage in the 200 block of Camp Street, where Elliott parked her car. She was an accounts executive for Peter A. Mayer Advertising Inc., 324 Camp St. The 28-year-old woman's nude body was found Thursday about 7:45 a.m. by a fisherman in the East Pearl River along U.S. 90 at the Mississippi-Louisiana border. Hoffman apparently has no adult criminal record, Hartman said. It is unknown if he has a juvenile record. Hoffman was picked up Friday about 3 p.m. by New Orleans police at the Fischer public housing complex in Algiers and, according to authorities, confessed hours later to the crimes. Elliott's disappearance and murder has sent shock waves through the city and the community of commuters who travel from the suburbs into New Orleans daily for work, as Elliott's professional associates and friends share their grief. Hartman said authorities believe Hoffman intended only to rob Elliott as she prepared to get into her car shortly after leaving her office Wednesday at 5 p.m. Then, when Elliott had no money, he kidnapped her, planning to force her to use an automatic teller machine bank card to get money, authorities said. "But at some point it appears things went way beyond that," Hartman said. From the Central Business District parking lot, authorities believe Hoffman drove Elliott's car out of the city and along Chef Menteur Highway and east long U.S. 90 toward Mississippi. On Wednesday about 8 p.m., some residents of eastern New Orleans found clothing and items belonging to Elliott in a vacant lot near U.S. 90 and U.S. 11, known as Powers Junction. New Orleans Police Lt. Marlon Defillo said Saturday he still is trying to determine if the residents called police with that information Wednesday night. According to some reports, the people who found the items were told officers were too busy to respond and they took the items to 7th District headquarters Thanksgiving morning. By that time, Elliott's body had been found in St. Tammany Parish. Elliott's ATM card played a key role in leading detectives from St. Tammany, Jefferson and New Orleans to Hoffman, Strain said. Authorities said Hoffman used the card at a Regions Bank branch at 8324 Morrison Road in eastern New Orleans on Wednesday at 6:18 p.m. and a video camera got his picture. It is unknown if Elliott was alive at that time. It would have been slightly more than an hour after she apparently was kidnapped and about 15 miles from where her body was found. Investigators took the bank-camera photo to the parking garage, where employees were able to identify Hoffman. Authorities speculate that after killing Elliott and leaving her body at the dock, Hoffman drove her car back into the city. At a news conference Saturday in Covington, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said it would be purely speculation whether rapid response by New Orleans police Wednesday night could have saved her life. "We probably will not ever know," he said. Defillo said Elliott's black 1991 Nissan 240SX was found abandoned Thursday at 11:45 p.m. in the 400 block of Treme Street, across Rampart Street from the French Quarter. St. Tammany Sheriff's Office Maj. Freddy Drennan said Hoffman's quick arrest was the result of strong cooperative efforts between three agencies. Maj. Fred Williams of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said at the Saturday news conference that the victim's husband, Andrew Elliott, filed a missing person's report with the Sheriff's Office on Wednesday about 10 p.m. Authorities said Elliott was to have left her office Wednesday about 5 p.m. and driven to her husband's office in Marrero where, about 6 p.m., the couple planned to leave for dinner in New Orleans before returning to their home on Pat O'Brien Road. When she did not arrive, authorities said, Elliott called friends and business associates looking for her, then called the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office to report her missing. Contacted Saturday morning at his home, Andrew Elliott said, "This is all just too painful. I am just not ready yet to speak about it. I just have no statement at this time." Neighbors along the short road connecting Old Military Highway and Louisiana 1081, described Mrs. Elliott as outgoing and vibrant. She left a top position with the prestigious ChiatDay Advertising agency in California in 1994 to marry Elliott, and the two moved to New Orleans. They lived near Covington for about 1 1/2 years. She was a native of Phoenix and he is from Dallas. Elliott said Saturday that funeral arrangements still are being planned for his wife. Mrs. Elliott's death marks the 13th homicide this year in St. Tammany, more than double totals of the past several years. Strain said that while the crime is horrible and the loss to the Elliott family horrendous, he is pleased three agencies working together booked a suspect so quickly. Strain said Hoffman confessed to Mrs. Elliott's murder, rape and kidnapping. But Strain, Drennan and the other detectives declined to reveal specifics of the confession. "We will save that for the grand jury," Drennan said. Initially, authorities believed Mrs. Elliott might have been a victim of carjackers, but Hoffman is not being booked with carjacking, Hartman said Saturday. Authorities said Elliott's abduction better fits the definition of a kidnapping, not a carjacking.