ST. GABRIEL - A suspected drug dealer was arrested in Ascension Parish after police determined he sold narcotics to a woman just hours before she died in Iberville Parish.

The St. Gabriel Police Department said officers first investigated the death on June 4, after the victim — 36-year-old Laura Aucoin — was found unresponsive at a home on Lucy Lane. Detectives later determined that Beau Jon Babin, 29, of St. Amant had sold the victim illegal drugs just hours earlier that same day.

Babin was taken into custody with the help of the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office on Wednesday. At his home, they found several illegal substances, including methamphetamine, Xanax and Clonazepam.

He was booked into the Ascension jail for drug possession and will be booked again in Iberville Parish upon his release for second-degree murder and drug charges.