Message to all

Eddie Landry handled the funeral arrangements last year after his wife was found strangled in their New Iberia home, including the engravings that mark her tomb.

But in the year following Judy Blanchard Landry’s unexplained death, Eddie says he has not mustered the strength to visit her grave in St. Martinville.

Frustrated at the pace of the investigation, Judy’s family purchased a much more public epitaph to serve as a reminder of the unresolved circumstances of her death. A billboard unveiled Wednesday near the Port of Iberia displays her name, photograph and, in bold red letters, the word “Murdered.”

The placement of the sign is no coincidence. Family members have long blamed Eddie for Judy’s death, and the billboard was placed on South Lewis Street so he would see it each morning on his drive to work.

“It’s an ‘in-your-face’ type thing,” Judy’s brother, Whitney Blanchard, said in a telephone interview from Huntsville, Ala. “Let him remind himself of what he’s done.”

Wednesday marked the first anniversary of Judy’s death. She was found dead in her Robert S. Drive house around the same time Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal was being sworn into office. The Iberia Parish Coroner’s Office determined the cause of death — strangulation — but did not determine whether she committed suicide or was killed.

Eddie, 69, maintains his innocence, but the Sheriff’s Office still considers him a person of interest in his wife’s death. And though Judy’s family has expressed a lack of confidence in the authorities, the Sheriff’s Office recently forwarded a case file to the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office containing mostly circumstantial evidence against Eddie.

Blanchard said a neighbor claims he saw Eddie’s vehicle parked in front of his house around the time he says he was at work. The Sheriff’s Office would not confirm that account and prosecutors declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

The evidence also could include DNA analysis conducted on the zip ties found around Judy’s neck. If nothing else, the ligature marks left by the ties have been a point of interest for investigators, authorities said. Ackal said last year the marks indicate someone might have pulled the ties from “up over the top of her head,” a scenario he said seems unsupportive of a suicide.

Though Judy, 61, battled depression for years, Blanchard said he also cannot believe his sister took her own life.

“Everyone agrees it’s not the manner in which one would go about committing suicide,” Blanchard said. “There were other means by which she could have committed suicide. She had medications in her possession. She had a gun in her possession.”

No charges have been filed. Prosecutors have met on several occasions to review the evidence and are still discussing whether they have a strong enough case to present to a grand jury.

“I believe it’s her husband,” Ackal said Wednesday. “But I’d hate to take him to court and lose the thing.”

Meanwhile, detectives continue to investigate the death. Eddie has been called in for questioning and says his work phone and computer also were taken. He says the computer will only prove he was at work the morning his wife died.

“They haven’t proven nothing,” Eddie said by telephone Wednesday. “What it is is what it is.”

Eddie said he is devastated at his wife’s passing and that he has coped mostly by drinking more than ever.

“I used to drink once a week when she was alive. I don’t got nothing to live for,” he said. “I still cry every now and then when I’m by myself, when I miss her. I’m getting over it, it just takes time.”

As for the billboard designed to catch his eye, Eddie said he did not notice it on his way to work Wednesday and added he does not take Lewis Street to work.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Eddie said. “I know I didn’t do it. I don’t know what else they want.”