Home of the Happy: A Murder on the Cajun Prairie
Friday, April 4th
10:30AM – 11:15AM
Bayou Teche Museum, 131 East Main Street
Born and raised in the culturally rich region of Acadiana in South Louisiana, Jordan LaHaye Fontenot’s work as a writer and editor is an ongoing exploration of how the past interacts with the present, in a place where tradition reigns.
A graduate of Louisiana State University and the recipient of the 2018 Sarah Sue Goldsmith Award for Nonfiction, her writing has appeared in regional and international publications including inRegister, Atlas Obscura, and the Oxford American.
She was a Writer-in-Residence at NUNU Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville in 2022 and 2023 and a featured writer at the 2021 annual Society of Professional Journalists Conference, the 2023 Louisiana Book Festival, and the 2023 Delta Mouth Literary Festival. Her work has been published most extensively in the Louisiana arts and culture magazine Country Roads, which she has overseen as editor since 2018.
Jordan is the author of the forthcoming (April 1, 2025) HOME OF THE HAPPY: A MURDER ON THE CAJUN PRAIRIE—an investigative memoir that follows her journey as she unravels the mysteries surrounding the 1983 kidnapping and murder of her great grandfather, Aubrey LaHaye in Mamou, Louisiana.
About the event:
In January of 1983, my great grandfather Aubrey LaHaye, age 70, was forced out of his home at knifepoint and never seen alive again. After an extensive investigation by local law enforcement and the FBI his body was discovered, sunk in the Bayou Nezpique, ten days later. Though a man was ultimately convicted for the crime, the case is riddled in unanswered questions and shrouded in mystery—leading to a proliferation of conspiracy theories that involve a collection of local criminals, the Dixie Mafia, the Cajun Mafia, and even Carlos Marcello himself. My book HOME OF THE HAPPY, published on April 1, 2025, follows my investigation of this event and it’s impact on my family and community. My presentation will focus on the characters posed as potential suspects for this crime.
