She Vanished After Being Seen In Her Affair Partner’s Car: He Was Later Found Murdered And There Were Signs Of A Struggle
In 1956, Audrey Alta Moate was a 31-year-old mother living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and working as a buyer at Kaiser Aluminum.
But while she was divorced from her ex-husband, George Moate Sr., she’d been seeing Thomas Adolph Hotard Sr., a 46-year-old married man with two children.
Audrey and Thomas’ families thought they were merely good friends. Instead, the pair were involved in an affair for two years and typically met up on Saturdays when Thomas’ wife believed he was at work.
So, it was Saturday, November 24, 1956, when Audrey and Thomas were last seen alive together. That morning, they were spotted at Frenier Beach, close to Laplace, Louisiana, by a hunter and his son. They were sitting in the back seat of Thomas’ car, a blue 1953 Nash Rambler.
Later that afternoon, the hunter came upon the Nash Rambler, which was still parked in the same location, with the front passenger side door left open.
It wasn’t until the hunter returned the following day and saw the vehicle again that he realized something was wrong. He approached the Nash Rambler and found Thomas’ dead body inside.
The car’s keys were still in the ignition, and a basket of food had been packed, seemingly for a picnic. The front seat was also folded backward to form a bed, with a sleeping bag and pillow on top.
Thomas’ remains were lying across the sleeping bag. He’d been dead for between seven and 30 hours after someone pressed a 16-gauge shotgun against the rearview window and shot him in the back. His wallet, including his credit card, ID, and some cash, was still inside his pocket.
Outside of the Nash Rambler, there was women’s clothing, items from a woman’s purse, glasses, and shoes. Small footprints were found on the ground as well, and the larger strides indicated a woman had been fleeing the scene.
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The woman’s footprints appeared bare; meanwhile, there were separate tracks left by a man’s boots. Additionally, there were signs of a struggle about five feet away from the Nash Rambler, and a set of car keys were discovered.
The footprints were followed to a road with a single-tire track, which led to a main highway. In the wake of Thomas’ murder, Audrey vanished, and her whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.
Leading up to her disappearance, Audrey and her kids had been living with her mom in Baton Rouge. She’d been picked up by Thomas at a cafe on November 24, 1956, where she left her own car, a 1949 Oldsmobile. Soon, investigators determined the car keys found at the scene of Thomas’ murder fit Audrey’s car.
Aside from her affair with Thomas, though, it came out that Audrey was hiding other parts of her life from her family. She’d previously discussed adopting a baby girl named Jacqueline after experiencing a nervous breakdown and receiving treatment at a St. Louis, Missouri, facility.
The police realized this story was fake after probing Audrey’s personal life. It came out that Audrey had never gone to Missouri; instead, she’d been renting a Baton Rouge apartment only one mile away from her mother’s house.
Moreover, Jacqueline, who was just 1 year old at the time Audrey disappeared, wasn’t adopted. Rather, Jacqueline was Audrey and Thomas’ biological daughter.
Audrey had delivered Jacqueline at a local hospital, where she was admitted under the name Audrey A. Hotard. Thomas was listed as Jacqueline’s father on her birth certificate, which authorities recovered from Audrey’s safety deposit box.
Even stranger, two weeks after Audrey went missing, her mother-in-law, Norma “Mary” O’Reilly Moate, received a phone call from a woman claiming to be Audrey on December 6, 1956.
The woman reportedly stated, “Mom, this is Audrey. I’m in very bad trouble, and I need help.” According to Norma, Audrey had an unmistakable accent and had always referred to her as “mom.”
In response, Norma asked, “Where are you, Audrey?” but the caller hung up. Norma believes it was really Audrey who phoned her, yet the caller’s true identity has never been confirmed.
Investigators determined the call had come from a neighborhood close to New Orleans’ French Quarter. They began interviewing locals, and two employees at the Cafe du Monde claimed to have served a customer who looked like Audrey the night before the caller contacted Norma.
The customer reportedly appeared disheveled, sat at the counter, and only ordered donuts with coffee. Then, she left the cafe without finishing the food.
Authorities also spoke to a New Orleans housewife. A woman resembling Audrey visited the housewife’s residence on December 6, the same day as the phone call, and inquired about renting a room. Plus, she asked to use the housewife’s phone.
The woman proceeded to stay for dinner, eating with the housewife and her husband. She talked about how her mother had resided in Baton Rouge. As for her name, she supposedly said something that sounded like “Mrs. Moate” or “Mrs. Moore.”
Despite it seeming like Audrey was still alive, though, investigators didn’t think she murdered Thomas. She didn’t have a motive to kill, and she didn’t take any of her money from her savings account with her.
The police looked into Audrey’s ex-husband, George, but he insisted he hadn’t seen her since their divorce, which was amicable. George had an alibi, too, so authorities ruled him out as a suspect.
Over two years after Audrey vanished and Thomas was killed, another similar murder occurred near Frenier Beach in March 1959.
A couple, Frank and Leonie Martinez, were at the beach together. Frank was fishing; meanwhile, Leonie was sitting in their nearby parked car. She was subsequently shot in the shoulder by a .38 caliber revolver. The shooter, a man, had fired the weapon through the car’s glass window and tried to open the locked vehicle.
Leonie pressed down on the car’s horn to alert her husband, who ran to the car. At the same time, the shooter fled, running back to his car and driving off.
Thankfully, Leonie survived, and the police were able to identify the shooter as Edmond Joseph Duhe. Strangely, he’d been a volunteer who assisted in the search for Audrey years earlier.
After searching his home, authorities discovered a collection of explicit photos, more than a dozen adult magazines, 50 lipstick applicators, and five women’s purses. There were more purses in the trunk of Edmond’s car, too, one of which had plain black cloth, like Audrey’s missing purse.
Edmond confessed to shooting Leonie but denied having any involvement in Thomas’ murder or knowledge of Audrey’s whereabouts. He underwent two polygraph examinations about the case and reportedly failed both times. Nonetheless, he was never charged in relation to Audrey’s disappearance.
Edmond pled guilty to Leonie’s attempted murder, and he served 10 years behind bars before dying in 2003.
Three decades after Audrey vanished, there seemed to be another potential break in the case. A woman named Marvelle Caronna came forward in 1989, alleging her father, Ernest Acosta, had information.
Ernest lived less than a mile away from where Thomas was killed, and prior to his death, he claimed to have helped his late wife, Caroline Schloesser Acosta, cover up the murder of Audrey and Thomas. He allegedly stated that Caroline had killed the pair outside of their house.
Following the murder, Ernest allegedly drove Thomas’ body to Frenier Beach. As for Audrey’s remains, Ernest and Caroline allegedly hid her body in a metal fish trap on their property. Then, they put Audrey’s remains in a 9-foot Civil War cannon the following day and sunk it in a swamp.
In 1977, a cannon matching this description was found in Ruddock and placed on display in Laplace, where it stood until 2019.
However, given the cannon’s weight, it would’ve been too heavy to be moved without the help of machinery. The details provided by Marvelle also didn’t make sense since the evidence showed Thomas had been shot inside his car.
So, while some suspect Ernest was involved in the crime, the theory has never been confirmed.
Audrey’s case has gone unsolved for over 68 years now, and what really transpired on November 24, 1956, remains a mystery.
Her older children stayed with her mother-in-law after she vanished. Jacqueline, on the other hand, lived with Audrey’s mother until she was later adopted by relatives.
Anyone with information regarding her case is urged to contact St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office at (985) 652-9513.
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