Crime Stoppers: What happened to James Guinn?

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office and Crime Stoppers of Central Louisiana need your help solving a case from 2016.

According to the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, on Sept. 5, 2016, Louisiana State Police responded to a report of a man dead in the road on Highway 181 around 10 p.m. The spot was just off of the Cheneyville exit on I-49 South. It was 49-year-old James Guinn.

“First of all, they thought the victim had been ran over,” said Major Mark Baden with the sheriff’s office, who is now trying to crack the case. “But, since then some information has come forth that possibly he might have been struck and he was the victim of a homicide.”

Major Baden said the spot isn’t a place where you would see people walking. It also wasn’t far from where Guinn had been living at the time.

“It was a rural stretch of road,” he said. “Very, vary dark at approximately 10 p.m. when this happened. Not a place you would see people walking.”

The case hits close to home for the sheriff’s office, as Guinn once worked for them.

“He was a very good deputy from what I found out talking to his counterparts,” said Major Baden.

Major Baden said he’s trying to close the case so the family can find closure...or justice.

“Somebody had come forward with some information that possibly he was struck and it might be a homicide. Initially, it looked like a fatality on the roadway,” he said.

Major Baden said how Guinn died is still something he wants to be certain of.

“That’s our job as cold case detectives, to try to put this thing to bed and find out if in fact he was hit by a vehicle or somebody might have killed him,” he said.

If you have any information that could help the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office solve the case, you can contact them at 318-473-6700 or Crime Stoppers of Central Louisiana at 443-STOP. You can remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers, and your tip that leads to an arrest or indictment could lead to a reward of up to $2,500.

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