Alabama Man Held In 30-Year-Old Louisiana Slaying

HOUMA, La. (AP) — An Alabama man has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman whose nude body was found tied to a cinder block in a Louisiana waterway more than 30 years ago.

The Terrebonne Parish sheriff says 54-year-old Ricky D. Brown, of Vinemont, Ala., was arrested last week and booked with murder in the drowning death of 22-year-old Edith McElroy West, also of Alabama. West's body was found in the canal on Sept. 27, 1980.

Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois told The Courier that investigators are not releasing much information now. However, retired sheriff's detective Godfrey Buquet said that the suspect and victim were among a group of visiting motorcyclists.

Brown is jailed in Cullman County, Ala., pending court proceedings to return him to Louisiana.