5 Missing Teenage Girls Recovered, 30 Arrested in U.S. Marshals' Louisiana Task Force Operation

A U.S. Marshals-led task force conducted a months-long operation resulting in the recovery of five missing teenage girls and the arrests of 30 people in the New Orleans, Louisiana area. 

Several law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force, the New Orleans Police Department, Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, and the Louisiana State Police participated in the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) annual Operation Boo Dat 2021 from mid-October to December 24.

Five missing and endangered teenagers, aged 14 to 17, were rescued during the investigation, according to a statement from the Marshals Service. 

Two of the recovered girls were sisters, ages 15 and 16. The teens were found in a Baton Rouge apartment with assistance from the Marshals Service Middle District of Louisiana and the Baton Rouge Police Department, according to the statement. 

Seventeen of the 30 people arrested during the operation were charged with felony sex offender registration violations. 

Lorenzo Oliver, who's classified as a Tier 3 sex offender, the most serious classification according to federal law, was arrested on a December 2021 felony warrant from the New Orleans Police Department, alleging first-degree rape of a 12-year-old girl in an abandoned residence.  

Oliver had been arrested in 2013 for following an adult female into the bathroom of the Westwego, LA library and attempting to rape her, authorities said. He was convicted in 2015 of attempted forcible rape and sexual battery and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life, according to the statement from the Marshals Service. 

The task force also made another high-profile arrest during the operation. Lamonte Versill Morris was wanted on a San Patricio County, Texas warrant from June 2021 for the alleged aggravated sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl. Morris had fled the county knowing he was wanted. He was arrested at a residence in New Orleans on Oct. 29, according to authorities. 

During the operation, over 100 sex offender compliance checks were also attempted or completed in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes.

"With critical assistance from our state and local partners along with Crimestoppers GNO we continue our daily efforts to make the Eastern District of Louisiana safer," said Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Marshal Scott Illing. "The results of this operation were only accomplished via law enforcement teamwork and USMS New Orleans Task Force along with our local, state, and federal partners continue to support the Sex Offender Investigations and Missing Child Unit missions of the USMS along with ongoing investigations of violent felony offender fugitives across the Eastern District of Louisiana."

Marshal Illing also noted the death of USMS Senior Inspector Jared Keyworth, who died in a line of duty automobile accident in Mississippi, while working during post-Hurricane Ida recovery and amid COVID-19 issues. 

"We believe that Senior Inspector Keyworth would be proud of the continuing work to reduce violent crime across the nation and dedicate the results of Operation Boo Dat 2021 to his memory," Illing said. 

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