Nashville tour company mourns death of beloved guide in New Orleans

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A Nashville business owner is heartbroken after the recent shooting death of one of his employees in New Orleans.

According to the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), 43-year-old Kristie Thibodeaux was fatally shot on June 30 while sitting in her car in New Orleans’ French Quarter neighborhood. She was around the same area where she spent most of her days as a tour guide for Crawl Entertainment Group.

The three suspects in the case are:

• 19-year-old Honduran national Joshua Aviala-Bonifacio who the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said has been in the country illegally since at least 2019
• an unnamed 17-year-old boy
• an unnamed 15-year-old boy with a criminal history and an ankle monitor that wasn’t working

Each of them faces charges of second-degree murder and attempted armed robbery. Brian Cain, owner of Crawl Entertainment Group, described Thibodeaux as the “life of the part” and “mother hen” all in one.

“Not only was she an employee and an integral team member, but also a close friend,” Cain said. “Everyone loves her. She just wants people to have a great time and make sure they’re careful, which is really ironic here today that she ended up being a victim.”

Cain said Thibodeaux was one of his most tenured staff members with three years of work under her belt at CRAWL New Orleans. Crawl Entertainment Group also has locations in Nashville, Austin and London. He said all of his employees at every site work hand-in-hand.

“The businesses are like family,” Cain said. “Our tour guides said she wouldn’t want us to shut down, so we wanted to continue to operate, which was a struggle for all of us because we were standing in the space where she would’ve been standing next to us, but we all pulled together. We’re just trying to find normalcy the best we can.”

Cain told News 2 that it’s tough for him to wrap his mind around what happened to Thibodeaux. He added that he fears more tragedies like this will happen if changes aren’t made.

“Something like this can happen anywhere,” Cain said. “Whether it’s downtown here in Nashville, whether it’s the French Quarter of New Orleans, or 6th Street in Austin, there needs to be more of a police presence, because I think the more that we have, the less likely these crimes will occur in these areas.”

Starting in January 2025, ACT No. 746 will take effect in Louisiana. Under the new law, electronic monitoring companies shall submit timely and accurate reports to the court exercising jurisdiction over the person being monitored.

Violators are subject to a fine of $1,000 or less, up to six months in prison and being prohibited from registering to provide electronic monitoring services in the state for five years.

According to a statement from Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, the 15-year-old suspect was supposed to be on juvenile electronic monitoring at the time of Thibodeaux’s death.

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“This is a major problem, as a young defendant under court supervision and electronic monitoring should not have been able to roam freely about the city at any hour without some form of court action or notice to law enforcement,” Williams said.

The incident also prompted Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill to order the Louisiana Department of Justice to investigate the ankle monitoring contracts with the state’s juvenile court system.

“What happened to Kristie Thibodeaux should have never happened,” Murrill said on X , formerly known as Twitter.

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