Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre announced an anonymous tip led to the arrest of a suspect wanted for the murder of a Montegut man in May 2019. Devante Matthews, 21, of Montegut was arrested at his mother’s residence by the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday. Matthews is charged with Second Degree murder along with Terance Dupre, 22, of Montegut in the shooting death of 53-year-old Kirby Courteaux. Matthews’ mother, Rhonda Dardar, 40, of Gray is now also charged as an accessory after the fact in addition to a 16-year-old who was previously charged as an accessory.
An anonymous tip was submitted to Crime Stoppers Bayou Region indicating Matthews was at his mother’s residence in Gray. On Tuesday afternoon, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies located Matthews at the residence, and he was taken into custody. Matthews’ mother, Dardar, was present and was also arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact.
Matthews and Dardar were booked into the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex. Dardar was booked on the aforementioned accessory charge as well as a contempt warrant. Her bail is set at $251,500. Matthews was booked on warrants for Simple Robbery and Contempt of Court in Terrebonne Parish. He will later be transferred to the Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex where he will be held in lieu of $1 million bail.
As previously released, on May 14, 2019, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office began an investigation when a family member reported he had been missing since May 11. On May 15, TPSO deputies took Terance Dupre into custody after he was found driving the victim’s vehicle. This led investigators to learn of a shooting incident that occurred in Pointe-Aux-Chenes (Lafourche Parish) and eventually led to the discovery of Courteaux’s body in Morgan City.
Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives learned Dupre, Devante Matthews, and Courteaux were at a boat launch in Point-aux-Chenes on the night of May 11, 2019, when Courteaux was reportedly shot multiple times. Matthews and Dupre took Courteaux’s body and his truck. They picked up a 16-year-old male and transported Courteaux’s body to Morgan City where they left him near a wooded area.
Dupre was booked into the Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex on the charge of Second Degree Murder, and his bail is set at $1 million. The 16-year-old was charged with Accessory After the Fact to Second Degree Murder, and he was placed into the Lafourche Parish Juvenile Justice Facility in Thibodaux.
