A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder of a popular Georgia social media influencer who was found dead earlier this week after her vehicle was set on fire.
On Saturday, Louisiana police said they took 21-year-old Eugene Louis-Jacques into custody for allegedly murdering 22-year-old Beauty Couch, whose body was found Wednesday near a burned vehicle in Cobb County, Georgia.
“Let the message be that we do not take kindly to people who think they can commit a crime elsewhere and try to hide in St. Tammany Parish,” Sheriff Randy Smith said, according to WWL. “We were happy to help our counterparts in Georgia by locating this suspect.”
Although local officials couldn’t describe the nature of Louis-Jacques’ relationship with Couch, some national publications said he was her boyfriend; he is from Naples, Florida, according to WDSU-TV. She appeared to reference a boyfriend in one of her final Instagram posts, writing “He said I look good in red, might as well call me sexy redd” on a bikini shot.
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Jail records say Louis-Jacques is being held on a fugitive warrant pending extradition to Georgia, where he is charged with murder, arson, and aggravated assault.
Couch lived in Austell, Georgia, and was known as an influencer on Instagram, where she had nearly 150,000 followers and posted videos of herself dancing and roller skating, WSB-TV reports.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, firefighters responded to a report of a brush fire in Austell around 12:18 p.m. Wednesday. Police were dispatched to the address tied to the vehicle’s registration and discovered that the owner’s daughter, Couch, usually drove it.
She had not been seen since the previous day.
Upon returning to the scene of the fire, officers searched the area and found Couch’s body.
“She was a sweet girl, she never bothered nobody,” Couch’s mother, Kimberly Couch, told WSB-TV. “She never bothered nobody. She was a friend to everybody. She loved going skating. She loved going to work. She loved her clothes. She loved wearing her hair so pretty.”
Kimberly Couch said her daughter’s death has been devastating to the family.
“They took my baby’s last breath. Why would they do that? Why would they do this to my baby? That’s my baby, they took my heart away from me,” the grieving mother told 11Alive.
Additional reporting by KC Wildmoon.
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[Feature Photo: Beauty Couch/GoFundMe]
