A man and woman initially described as "persons of interest" in the recent stabbing death and dismemberment of 22-year-old exotic dancer Jaren Lockhart are now being considered suspects, investigators in Hancock County, Miss., confirmed Thursday. Meanwhile, WWL-TV reported Thursday that Hancock County authorities are looking into surveillance video that may show Lockhart with the couple -- Terry Speaks and Margaret Sanchez -- in Mississippi after they were seen leaving Bourbon Street together the night of Lockhart's disappearance. Speaks and Sanchez were taken into custody Wednesday on unrelated charges after authorities received a tip that they were at a place of business near Loranger in Tangipahoa Parish.
Both had apparently dyed their hair -- his a reddish color, hers blue -- after they were captured on a surveillance camera in the French Quarter the night Lockhart disappeared.
Tangipahoa sheriff's deputies followed the couple's car as they drove away from the business in Loranger, and pulled them over in a routine traffic stop.
Speaks presented the officer with false identification and then ran across a field and into woods beside the road, where officers apprehended him, authorities said.
Sanchez also presented an invalid ID, but remained inside the car and was cooperative.
Speaks faces a federal charge of failing to register as a sex offender, a charge that originated in Surry County, N.C., in February, according to court documents filed Wednesday in federal court. A detention hearing is set for today, and Speaks is due to be arraigned June 22. Details were not available about the original sex offense that required Speaks to register.
Sanchez is a person of interest in the death of Jaren Lockhart. Lockhart was last seen by her boyfriend June 5, about 8 p.m. at a Mid-City motel where the couple was living. Parts of her dismembered body washed ashore in Mississippi days later. Kenner home searched for possible clues in murder gallery .
Court documents show Speaks, 39, was last employed at My Bar, 635 Bourbon St., where neighbors say he worked as a bouncer. Speaks indicated on the documents that his employment ended in April, and that he earned $600 per month there.
Meanwhile,
Sanchez, 28, of Kenner, was booked with resisting an officer, said Glenn Grannan of the Hancock County Sheriff's Office, chief investigator on the case.
Lockhart, who was a Bourbon Street dancer, went missing last week. Two days later, her dismembered torso washed ashore in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Two days after that, Lockhart's head was found in Long Beach.
Two pieces of her leg were found the same day in different locations in Pass Christian.
Hancock County officials said she had been stabbed in the chest.
FBI agents and Kenner police on Wednesday descended upon the Kenner home Speaks and Sanchez shared to execute a search warrant in the investigation into Lockhart's death.
The two are believed to be the last people known to have seen her alive.
Lockhart's fiance last saw her June 5 at the Tulane Avenue motel where they stayed. She worked her shift as a dancer at Temptations in the 300 block of Bourbon Street that night. Her fiance reported her missing when she never returned from that shift.