April 21, 2008, was the last time 22-year-old Jarnell Sanders and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Candice Gillard, were known to be alive. Four days later they were reported missing. By then, New Orleans police had already located the couple.
Officers received a call about a torched rental car sitting alongside Interstate 10. Records indicated that Gillard had rented the car. After having the car towed back to the rental service, an employee noticed a foul odor. Inside the bodies of both Sanders and Gillard were found. Their bodies had been dismembered and badly burned. Upon closer examination, the couple had been shot before the car had been set ablaze.
The case didn’t take long to go cold. It wasn’t until police began investigating an unrelated case that they had located one of the suspects involved in the unsolved homicides.
At the time of the murders, Timothy Webb had been running an auto repair business named “Tim’s Auto.” The business has since been alleged to be a front for a “chop shop” – a location where people like Webb disassemble stolen cars and sell the parts. According to Webb, the couple had gotten into a disputed with him about money.
Sanders had asked Webb to do some work on his Corvette. When the work did not go as he had hoped, Sanders demanded both his car and his money back immediately. Webb says it was after this altercation over the phone that Webb called Chukwudi “Chuck” Ofomata down to his shop “for protection.” A short while later, Webb, Ofomata, and another accomplice identified as Allen Lewis were confronted by Sanders. Sanders, who had come into the shop waving a gun at the men, was shot by Ofomata. He then went outside and shot Gillard, who had been waiting in the rental car.
Webb goes on to say that he and Lewis then cleaned up the crime scene. The bodies were removed and torched in the rental car. He and Lewis then disposed of a Sanders’ Corvette before returning to the shop.
Ofomata is already in jail while facing charges involving trafficking of a minor and Lewis has since been taken into custody. Webb is currently facing charges including two counts of second-degree murder.