French Settlement’s Kaitlin M. Aydell was strangled, Jason Ard, chief of operations of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office reported this evening.

The hush of mourning Sunday replaced the frantic sounds of the three-day search for 13-year-old Kaitlin M. Aydell.

In this sleepy bayou village of 900, the missing-person posters have been ripped from storefront windows; the sounds of four-wheelers and other search vehicles were stilled.

About 10 miles away, quiet also permeated the area near New River Bayou in Ascension Parish where Kaitlin’s body was discovered, partially submerged.

Handpicked flowers, bouquets of roses and a pink teddy bear were tied with yellow police tape to a tree near the bayou.

Now deserted, the quiet of the countryside, with moss-covered oaks and open fields, was occasionally interrupted Sunday by residents who wanted to “pay their respects.”

“If this was Baton Rouge, then I might expect something like this, but this is French Settlement,” said Sonya Akridge, who visited the crime scene with her family. “Things like this don’t happen here. They just don’t.”

The Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office said Sunday that Mark Sterling Lewis, 39, a relative of the dead girl by marriage, is the main suspect.

“As soon as we can get the evidence to charge him, we will be doing so,” said Jason Ard, chief of operations for the Sheriff’s Office.
“It may take a couple of days, but when you are dealing with murder charges you’ve got to make sure you’ve got it right.”

On Friday, Livingston deputies booked Lewis with obstruction of justice after he gave false information to authorities who questioned him about Kaitlin’s whereabouts.

For the past two years, Lewis lived in a mobile home behind Kaitlin’s home at 18219 Aydell Lane.

Investigators have said they don’t believe his alibi, and they have questions about scratch marks on his face.

Kaitlin was last seen Thursday leaving her French Settlement High School bus and walking home.

Ard said Lewis is not cooperating with the investigation and has hired an attorney. He is being held at the Livingston Parish Prison.

“Our number one priority now is to take care of this family,” Ard said. “I have kids of my own and words cannot describe what she is going through.”

Still devastated from the heartbreaking news about the death of her only child, Danette Aydell declined requests by the news media for interviews.

A small assortment of family and friends shooed reporters from the doorstep, but later Aydell and Kaitlin’s father, Chip Brewer, released the following statement:

“She always had a smile on her face. She was a unique person who had her own personality and style. Her favorite color was pink. … Kaitlin loved everyone she met. Her cats, Stripes, Patches and Pierre, were her pride and joy. … Kaitlin was very athletic.

“She played basketball and softball and was known as ‘Legs’ on her fast pitch team. She also liked to be outdoors, playing football with her cousins, riding go-carts and 4-wheelers.”

The statement went on to thank the community for its support and the volunteers who helped search for their daughter.

Harry Brignac has served as police chief of French Settlement for 23 years. He knows all the bad people, but he also knows all the good ones, he said.

Kaitlin was first-class.

“I went to every one of her basketball games here at the gym,” Brignac said. “And let me tell you, wherever she went her mother went. (Kaitlin) was a very, very intelligent young lady. She was a very polite young lady and she never had a bad word for anybody.”

Brignac also knows Lewis.

“I watched him go to school, I watched him grow up, but I never arrested him for anything,” he said. “And let me tell you, if anyone ever has a bad attitude down here, I would be the one to deal with it.”

Brignac said Lewis, who was from the nearby community of Head of Island, was an “average kid” who attended French Settlement High School.

“He was a polite young man,” Brignac recalled. “Whenever he was at a ball game we spoke casually. ‘How you doing, chief? You working?’ I’d say, ‘Yeah.’ It was just a daily conversation.”

Lewis was convicted of kidnapping and other charges involving the abduction of a woman in September 1995 and served prison time.

“In recent years, I wouldn’t see him often, but I knew about those problems he had had in the city,” Brignac said. “Like I said, he never showed me any attitude.”

The Hill Top Inn, a restaurant and bar along the Amite Diversion Canal, was ground zero for Kaitlin’s massive search party last week.

Every seat was occupied, every parking spot was taken and not a person had lost hope that she would be found alive.

“It was just incredible,” the business’s co-owner, Eric Simoneaux, said Sunday. “We were hoping for the best, but it took a turn for the worst. Now we are all in shock.”

Bustling with first-responders a day earlier, the Hill Top barely seated a dozen diners Sunday afternoon.

That didn’t stop patrons from talking about the teenager’s death. Waitresses answered questions from curious customers, while clusters of regulars huddled with their takeout boxes to exchange information.

Robin Bates said she knew Lewis well — he was her former brother-in-law.

Bates said Lewis is the father of three daughters, 14-year-old twins and a 10-year-old, with Bates’ sister, Penny Loupe.

Bates also said Lewis has two older brothers, went to church regularly and held a variety of jobs over the years — from butcher to tow truck driver.

“If you didn’t know him, and he walked in a room, you would think he was a regular guy,” Bates said. “That’s why this little girl’s death is so amazing. … I just can’t imagine.”

Bates said the couple were separated when Lewis was arrested in 1995 for abducting a woman from the Mall of Cortana, threatening her with a screwdriver.

“His girls are just devastated right now,” Bates said. “When they came to visit their father they would always go hang out with Kaitlin. I just hope for their sake, their daddy didn’t do it. That would be too much.”