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Victim in Old Jefferson homicide feared for life after ex's threats

He eventually killer her and her unborn child, as well as her parents

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series on domestic violence and how state lawmakers are trying to protect victims.

NEW ORLEANS -- The calls began to pour into the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s 911 center in rapid succession the afternoon of Nov. 7, 2016.

First was a request for a wellness check on 20-year-old Sydney Hanson. Her colleagues at the Audubon Zoo were concerned since she failed to show up for her shift and a baby shower they planned for her. They also knew Hanson, who was seven months pregnant, recently filed a temporary restraining order against her ex-boyfriend.

Soon dispatchers would answer calls about a fire a few miles away at a home in Old Jefferson. There were reports of bodies there. The women and men had apparently been shot and stabbed.

Finally, the calls urged investigators to find the man against whom Hanson had filed the restraining order: Jatory Evans.

Detectives would later arrest Evans for the murder of Sydney Hanson, her unborn child, and her parents.

The fate that met Hanson and her family is one that happens all too often in domestic violence cases, leading state lawmakers to launch new efforts to better protect victims.

EARLY WARNING SIGNS

Those who knew Hanson said there were obvious warning signs that Evans would resort to violence after she filed the restraining order against him.

“I knew that there was danger looming between Evans and the family,” said Dina DiMartino, who was Hanson's best friend from their days growing up in St. Bernard Parish.

But Hanson never got a chance to explain.

Her parents, Samantha and Dwayne Hanson, planned to visit DiMartino at her home in Key West, Florida. They were scheduled to fly out the day after they were killed.

DiMartino said that any recent calls between her and Sydney Hanson in the weeks prior to her death were similar.

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“There's some drama. There's some issues,” she recalled Hanson telling her. “And that all came up in the last two weeks before their death.”

‘HE JUST SLOWLY LOST IT’

Evans had a history of domestic violence.

Hanson's friends and coworkers told investigators he was abusive toward her, oftentimes becoming jealous and controlling when she ended their relationship.

In newly-released JPSO documents, a sergeant who served with Evans in the Army National Guard told investigators that Evans expressed anger towards Hanson. Evans reportedly said he felt Hanson’s baby was not his.

About a month before she was murdered, Hanson told friends Evans slashed her tires and poured bleach in her gas tank. Fearing for her life, she filed for the temporary restraining order.

Evans allegedly told Hanson that if she ever got a restraining order, he was going to kill her and hurt her family.

This was not the first time one of Evans’ former relationships spiraled out of control.

Abbie Merritt said that when she began to date Evans, things were “perfect.”

Evans came from a great family and never forgot Merritt’s birthday. When the relationship soured and the couple broke up, Merritt said, things took a dangerous turn.

“He just slowly lost it,” Merritt said, recounting a similar pattern as the one Evans followed after Hanson broke up with him.

“That was when he had slashed the tires on my car. He broke into my house and stole our laptops and a TV,” Merritt recalled. “He threatened to kill me. He said I will be dead in six months.”

Merritt said she called St. Tammany Parish deputies on Evans at least 10 times.

“He threatened to light my house on fire. It was just in a phone call. I just remember it,” she said. “And the only reason I remember it was because he did light a house on fire. And hurt, Sam, Dwayne, and Sydney and the baby.”

In Merritt’s case, she said Evans eventually moved on. When she heard the news about the Hansons and saw the flames on TV, her heart dropped.

"I was really hurt that this happened to an unborn child. That's what got me the worst,” she said. “Before I knew any of the family, before I … even had names of the victims or anything, I just knew there was a baby involved.”

A GRUESOME SCENE

At the Hanson home, Evans went on a violent rampage.

Outside the front door, investigators found the body of Samantha Hanson, Sydney Hanson’s mother, shot and stabbed multiple times. Inside, her father, Dwayne Hanson was shot twice in the head.

Sydney Hanson and her unborn baby were killed in an upstairs bedroom, according to JPSO documents. She was stabbed repeatedly before Evans set the home on fire and fled.

In an apparent final act of defiance, Evans tossed the restraining order near Hanson’s body.

As word of the killings made its way to members of the Hanson family, there was little doubt about who was responsible.

“I need to talk to who’s handling this,”Dawn Hanson, Sydney Hanson’s aunt, cried to a JPSO dispatcher. “I know who did this. I have his freaking address. I know his mother’s address.”

After a daylong manhunt, authorities arrested Evans in New Orleans.

Former JPSO Sheriff Newell Normand said there were signs of a struggle in the Hanson home.

“He (Evans) had some physical injuries, consistent with some sort of altercation. Some scratches to his arm. Cuts to his hands,” Normand said in announcing Evans’ arrest.

The Hanson family said they wanted justice for Sydney, her unborn child, Dwayne and Samantha. All they can do, though, is mourn.

In September 2017, Evans hanged himself in his jail cell while awaiting trial on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree feticide.

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