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Robert Brunson Blair, 71, has been arrested in the July 1989 disappearances of his estranged wife, Isabelle Mansell Blair, and 31-year-old Marian Elizabeth Coutee, both of whom were last seen near Blair's Louisiana home on US 71 South, according to the Associated Press.
The case had gone cold for 30 years as police searched for the two women, who had been marked as missing.
Sheriff William Earl Hilton of the Alexandria, Louisiana Police Department said police were led by an anonymous tip given to the case's original investigator, Rapides Parish Sheriff's Major Mark Baden, two months ago. The tip led police to a remote portion of land near Blair's home, which once belonged to his family. In a lake on that property, they found a truck belonging to one of the women, which both women were using during the time of their disappearances.
Baden had attempted to question Blair in the case and also considered him a suspect due to the rocky nature of the Blairs' marriage at the time, according to the Alexandria Town Talk, but was unable to do so.
"Blair was very evasive at that time about the women and where they were at and when he'd last seen them and things like that," said Hilton to the Town Talk. "I think there were some marital problems ... and maybe he had filed for a divorce just a few days after they had went missing.
"But we just never could get to him at that time to even make him a strong suspect in this, until this week."
According to court records posted by the Town Talk, Blair and Isabelle Marcell were issued a marriage license on May 13, 1985. It was recorded as having been returned on May 28, 1985. Blair subsequently filed for separation on June 2nd, 1989.
"Major Baden, along with our detective division here, started working the case again," said Hilton at a Wednesday press conference announcing the arrest. "As they worked it, it became more positive that it was going to lead to something related to the information that he had received."
Blair is being held on a $2 million bond on charges of first-degree murder. Deputies say the investigation is ongoing, according to KATC.
"There are a lot of factors that go into determining whether or not we seek the death penalty. The man is 71 years old, lot of factors," said Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell at the same press conference. "I don't mean to be evasive, but I don't want to say anything about the investigation or our strategy in handling the case that might cause us a problem down the road."
Baden's only regret, he told the Town Talk, was that the parents of Marcell and Coutee were not alive to see the arrest. Isabelle Blair's mother would regularly call to beg him to solve the case before she died.
She passed away 12 years ago.
