Louisiana Crime Stoppers Brings Home Two National Awards Tied to Cold Case and Senior Safety

A Cold Case Gets the Spotlight — and a Trophy

A small-parish crime prevention program in Louisiana is making a very big name for itself on the national stage. St. Landry Crime Stoppers returned home this week with two prestigious national awards after attending the 50th Crime Stoppers USA National Training Conference in Washington, D.C. — and one of those honors traces back to a decades-old missing persons case that still hasn't been solved.

Major Mark LeBlanc and Lt. Elizabeth Bernard represented the program at the 50th Crime Stoppers USA Conference in Washington, D.C., bringing home two national awards: one for Radio Public Service Announcement and one for the St. Landry Parish TRIAD Community Initiative. The 2026 conference, held September 17–20, marked 50 years of empowering anonymous reporting and building safer communities across the nation.

The Radio PSA award resulted from a 21-year-old cold case involving missing person Sandra Burris, which was featured on the nationwide podcast "The Deck." The Deck is a weekly podcast that focuses on cold cases with few leads, an idea developed by its creator while volunteering with Crime Stoppers, where she first encountered cold cases featured on playing cards distributed to prisons. The connection between a local Louisiana radio announcement and a nationally distributed true crime podcast illustrates just how powerfully modern media can amplify cases that might otherwise stay buried in filing cabinets.

Protecting Seniors, Winning Awards

The TRIAD Community Initiative award recognized the program's efforts to bring the best possible vendors, services, and anti-crime awareness to senior citizens, with events held every three months in Arnaudville, Port Barre, Eunice, and Opelousas — offering free food, live entertainment, door prizes, and resources from vendors and state agencies.

TRIAD is geared toward seniors 60 years old and older and represents an agreement between the National Sheriff's Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the American Association of Retired Persons — implemented to protect senior citizens through activities that inform them of the latest fraud and scam tactics. The workshops cover a full day of information on fraud, identity theft, drug awareness, personal safety, and other safety and health issues concerning senior citizens.

A Program That Keeps Stacking Up Wins

Under the direction of Deputy Chief Thibodeaux, St. Landry Crime Stoppers has won every category under Crime Stoppers USA, with awards voted on by the national awards committee in recognition of a program's work to help law enforcement solve crimes. Since 2017, the program has won Best Crime of the Week in Television three times, Radio four times, Print Media three times, Social Media, and the Community Service Award (TRIAD) in the 0 to 100,000 population category.

Sheriff Guidroz stated that he is "very proud of the exceptional work" the St. Landry Crime Stoppers Board, Major LeBlanc, and Lt. Bernard bring to the job, adding that Crime Stoppers entities throughout the world work consistently to get anonymous tips to law enforcement to prevent and stop criminal activity. The program encourages citizens to volunteer vital information to law enforcement, with callers able to remain anonymous and eligible to receive a cash reward if their information leads to an arrest or grand jury indictment of a felony offender.

As for Sandra Burris — the woman at the heart of the award-winning Radio PSA — her case remains open after more than two decades. The national attention generated by both the podcast feature and the award may be exactly the kind of renewed momentum that finally brings her story to someone who knows something. That's the quiet, persistent power of programs like this: they don't just collect trophies — they keep knocking on doors that have been closed for years.