By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
COVINGTON – The fact that the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office operates one of the few DNA labs in the state paid big dividends last week in making quick positive identifications of a Covington priest and his caretaker in what is being called one of the most brutal double homicides ever seen in St. Tammany.
Retired Priest Father Otis Young, 71, and his caretaker 73-year-old Ruth Prats were both discovered on Monday, Nov. 28, behind a Covington business in the downtown area, near the Tammany Trace. The bodies had been set on fire and were burned beyond recognition.
St. Tammany Coroner Dr. Charles Preston announced only days later that his department had used DNA to positively identify Prats in only 26 hours, something that used to take days or weeks to finalize.
The Covington Police Department held a joint press conference last week with the Coroner’s Office to announce the positive identifications. Young was ID’d from medical records showing surgery he had years ago, which matched identically to internal signs of the stitching, Preston said.
Prats was identified by using a DNA sample from her daughter, something that still was handled in record time by the St. Tammany Coroner’s lab staff.
“The first job for us in a case like this is to positively identify the bodies so the family can begin to have some kind of closure,” Preston said. “We were able to use a chest X-ray from Father Young that gave us a unique and certain identification from a previous surgery, and thanks to the fact we were able to use a DNA sample from Mrs. Prats daughter, we were able to resolve this in 26 hours.”
Covington Mayor Mark Johnson specifically thanked the Coroner’s Office for “great work in this case.”
Preston said that the DNA lab which is part of the St. Tammany office is one of few in the state, and “the greatest gift the taxpayers of our parish could have given to the residents in St. Tammany.” He said the unit is used 97 percent for law enforcement cases.
Covington Police arrested Antonio Tyson, age 48, in the double homicide after they quickly compiled evidence from video cameras that led them to Prats’ car, which Tyson allegedly stole.
CPD Lt. Kevin Collins told the media at the press conference that they were able to find video evidence from Prats’ home that showed her car backing out and hitting several signs after the video showed Prats coming to her front door, with Tyson waiting outside, holding a knife behind his back and crouching down.
Prats was the caretaker for the priest after he suffered a stroke years ago and lost the use of one side of his body.
Preston said the cause of death for both Young and Prats was blunt and sharp force trauma.
Surprisingly, Tyson had only gotten out of a 30-year prison term in August of this year and had Thanksgiving dinner with his family for the first time in three decades. His brother was interviewed by an online news source and said he was shocked and in disbelief that his brother would so quickly be arrested again.
Tyson went to jail when he was 18 after being convicted of pistol whipping and raping a victim at gunpoint.
He could have gotten out of jail 10 years earlier, but apparently had so many prison violations against his “good time” that they added 4,219 days to the term.
Covington Police were able to quickly arrest Tyson and link him to the murder after officers noticed the car in the parking lot of a Covington drug store. Tyson had a female accomplice with him in the vehicle, but police say they do not suspect her involvement. Additionally, Collins said they do not believe Tyson had any previous connection to the priest or Prats.
After being charged with the murders, Tyson was booked into the parish jail with no bond but was transferred to Angola Prison this past weekend after the Sheriff’s Office reported he tried to escape by damaging jail property.
Along with the murder charges, Tyson now faces additional charges for attempted escape, while another inmate, 70-year-old David Burns, was arrested and charged with one count of Principle to Attempted Escape after it was learned he assisted Tyson in his escape attempt.
In a statement released last week, Archbishop Gregory Aymond of the New Orleans Archdiocese said, “The horror of the events that have unfolded here in Covington is beyond shocking. The pain, sadness, and disbelief that something like this could happen will stay with us, but particularly those who are most directly affected for a very long time.”
Young ministered to congregations at three Louisiana churches before landing at St. Peter in Covington 10 years ago, while Prats had been a member of St. Peter school and church for roughly 40 years, working as a former teacher and administrator before taking on the caretaker duties for Young.