East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s officers are continuing investigations after finding a woman who had been strangled a mile south of campus Friday.
EBRSO spokesman Capt. Paul Marranto said the woman was identified as Donna Bennett Johnston, 43, of Baton Rouge. Her body was found off Ben Hur Road between Nicholson and Burbank drives.
Two people who were looking for their lost dog found Johnston’s body in a drainage ditch, according to Associated Press wire reports. They then called the sheriff’s office.
Marranto said his office would not release details about Johnston’s body because it is considered evidence.
Randal Calais, a man who manages an oil field near where the body was found, told The Advocate he saw Johnston’s body lying naked and face-down. He said she was a white woman with red hair.
Johnston was identified as having a “high-risk lifestyle” because of her arrest record, Marranto said.
Authorities generally identify people with “high-risk lifestyles” as those who use drugs and walk the streets late at night. Many women with these types of lifestyles have been arrested for prostitution.