UPDATE: Vermilion victim in burned vehicle was murdered

A suspect has been identified for the first-degree murder of a victim whose body was burned in a vehicle discovered on Adier Road, northeast of Abbeville at the end of last month.

According to Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon, detectives with the Sheriff’s Office, as well as officers with the U.S. Marshals Service and Abbeville Police Department are searching for the suspect, Ferdinand Nickles, who is believed to be involved in the case where a body was found burned beyond recognition in a pickup truck off of Adier Road north of Abbeville shortly after midnight on Sept. 28.

Couvillon says that this case has been investigated as a homicide from the onset, and, although the victim has yet to be positively identified by the Coroner’s Office, information obtained through witness accounts indicate the victim to be Ernest Guidry Jr., 20, a black male whose last known residence was 301 E. Lafayette Street in Abbeville.

Couvillon further stated that from the onset of the investigation, evidence at the scene on Adier Road suggested that this was not the primary crime scene, and now has reason to believe that Guidry was shot and killed in Abbeville, and his truck, a 2003 Ford F-150, was driven by the perpetrator to Adier Rd. were it was set ablaze.

Sheriff Couvillon said an arrest warrant with a $2 million bond has been issued for the murder suspect, Nickles, 29, a black male whose last known residence is 1610 Martin Luther King No. 172 in Abbeville.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division, Intelligence Unit, and deputies with the U.S. Marshals Service are now utilizing all available resources to locate and apprehend Nickles.

Couvillon concluded the investigation is ongoing, and additional arrest may be forthcoming; however, no additional information will be made public at this time so as not to hamper the investigation.