A woman named La’Rene Austin reported the death of LaNell Barsock, telling police her boyfriend, Louis Bonheur, was responsible. But after Bonheur was arrested, police found out Austin had lied about her relationship with Barsock.
Austin ran away to Belize but was caught in 2012 for Barsock’s death.
La’Rene Austin seemed like a worried friend when she went to the police in Los Angeles with blood on her clothes. She said she had found her “best friend,” LaNell Barsock, dead.
Austin quickly told the police that Barsock’s boyfriend, Louis Bonheur, was the one who did it. She said that Barsock and Bonheur had argued about Barsock being unfaithful. Austin claimed that after Bonheur killed Barsock, he saw her and chased her in his car.
Police arrested Bonheur for Barsock’s murder. However, after checking his story, they realized he wasn’t even near the place where the crime happened. The case took a surprising turn when police kept looking into Barsock’s life and found out she had a short romance with Austin, whom she had only known for a few weeks. They soon realized Austin was the real killer. They found her DNA at the crime scene and messages showing Barsock ending their relationship.
Before police could arrest her, Austin left the country. She was later found in Belize after her case was shown on a TV show called America’s Most Wanted.
So, where is La’Rene Austin now after killing LaNell Barsock and blaming Louis Bonheur?
Austin was living in Palmdale, California, in 2010. She had money problems and couldn’t keep a job. Around that time, she put an ad on Craigslist and met Barsock.
Detective Joe Espino said that La’Rene had put an ad in the personals section, women seeking women, and LaNell answered that ad and they developed a friendship which turned into a romantic relationship.
Espino also said that Austin was involved with six other women through Craigslist. But she seemed most interested in Barsock and wanted to be with her.
Los Angeles Detective Robert Kenney added, “When she hooked up with Lanell, she thought ‘My ticket is here. I’m going to get what I want and what I deserve.’ “
Barsock was a 29-year-old nurse who worked at a health center in Los Angeles.
Espino said that she lived in a beautiful big house. Barsock’s friend Marcel Fomotar said that she helped him when he moved to the U.S. He called Barsock his “guardian angel.”
Barsock was dating Louis Bonheuer, who came from Haiti. They met at school and started dating, but their relationship had problems with money, cheating, and getting angry easily.
Detectives found out that Bonheur knew Barsock had been seeing another man. On June 16, 2010, Austin ran into the police station, covered in blood, and said she found Barsock’s body in her garage. When police got to Barsock’s house, they found she had been shot in the head.
They later found out that Barsock had been shot in her living room by someone who used a pillow to make the gunshot quieter. The killer then dragged Barsock’s body to the garage and put a bloody rug in her car.
When Austin went to the police, she immediately said that Bonheur was the killer. She said she saw Bonheur at the crime scene and that he chased her in his car.
Besides Austin’s story, police also suspected Bonheur because they found a note that seemed to show Barsock leaving Bonheur for another man.
Within hours of finding Barsock’s body, police found Bonheur at Barsock’s mom’s house. He said he had been there most of the evening. After hearing about his girlfriend’s death, he said he had nothing to do with it.
While he admitted that he had argued with Barsock earlier in the day about her cheating, he said he had been shopping at auto supply stores before going to Barsock’s mom’s house.
Even though he denied it, Bonheur was arrested for Barsock’s death and was put in jail for over a month. But as time passed, police realized there was more to the story.
The case against Bonheur started to fall apart when police got security camera footage from auto parts stores that proved he was telling the truth. At the same time, they couldn’t confirm Austin’s story that she had been in a park for several hours at the time of the murder.
When they looked into Austin’s story, they also found out that she had lied about being childhood friends with Barsock. They learned that they had met through Craigslist just a few weeks before. Investigators found messages that showed they had a short romance, but Barsock had ended it shortly before her death.
Besides the fact that Barsock had ended their romance, there was also evidence connecting Austin to the murder. Police found her DNA and a fingerprint at the crime scene. They later learned that Austin owned the same type of gun that was used to kill Barsock.
Police thought that Austin had planned her future with Barsock and hoped to take over her life after her death.
However, by the time police figured everything out, Austin had left L.A. It wasn’t until her case was shown on America’s Most Wanted that Austin was finally caught.
She was found in Belize and was arrested on January 25, 2012. She was sent back to the U.S. later that day and was arrested for Barsock’s murder.
Austin went to trial in 2015 and was found guilty of first-degree murder and using a gun to kill Barsock. She was sentenced to two 25-year-to-life prison terms.
Austin is now in prison at the California Institution for Women in Chino, California.
She can be considered for parole in February 2032, and a parole board consultation is planned for February 2027.
