La. boy may have been burned alive

updated 2:55 a.m. ET July 4, 2006

COUSHATTA, La. - Investigators believe a 5-year-old boy was kidnapped in a “vendetta” against his mother and burned alive in an abandoned house, where police found his small body tied to a leather chair.

The child was snatched from his mother’s home in Natchitoches about 9 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. His body was found the following morning in the home in northwestern Louisiana’s Red River Parish.

Sheriff Johnny Ray Norman said Monday that 26-year-old Terrence Carter, arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing, had been talking to investigators.

Carter was being held without bond and in isolation until his arraignment, likely Wednesday because of the Independence Day holiday, Norman said. The warden’s office at the Red River Parish jail said he did not have an attorney on record Monday.

'Just a vendetta'
Carter, who lived with his mother next door to the abandoned house, was arrested after the boy’s body was found. Norman said investigators determined that the abduction and killing followed a dispute between Carter and the boy’s mother.

“It’s a useless deal — just a vendetta, I guess you’d call it,” Norman said. “He was trying to get back at his girlfriend.”

The boy, Corinthian Houston, was found tied to a leather chair. Norman said an electrical cord was wrapped around the child’s neck, but he was not believed to have been strangled. An autopsy was pending.

The boy’s body was discovered by one of Carter’s brothers, and their mother called police, Byron Carter, another of his brothers, told The Times of Shreveport.

Terrence Carter and a co-worker, George Herring III of Coushatta, were arrested on kidnapping warrants Sunday, and Carter was booked on a count of first-degree murder, Natchitoches police Lt. Chris Stanfield said.

Norman said of Herring: “Right now, all they can tell he did was furnish a vehicle used for the kidnapping. We can’t tie him to the murder.”

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