BATON ROUGE- The quiet but eccentric neighborhood of Spanish Town could be harboring a killer---of trees.

Resident Marie Constantin says about two weeks ago she discovered that about a dozen mature trees--oaks, maples, magnolias--in the empty lot next door to her home had been vandalized.

"Someone came on to another person's property and they basically drilled holes into 13 trees that didn't belong to them," she said. "Very sad that someone would do this. It's illegal," Constantin said.

But not just because the trees were on someone else's property, but because the trees in the historic neighborhood are protected.

"This is basically the same thing they did to those trees in Alabama," Constantin said.

In 2011, an Alabama fan infamously killed dozens of oak trees at Auburn by drilling holes into them and inserting poison.

Constantin says an arborist is doing tests to find out if these trees were poisoned, but it wouldn't matter anyway.

"He said, basically when someone does something like this, you can't save the tree. They don't know if they injected poison into them or not, but even if they didn't--the 13 trees will die."

In fact, some are already seeing insect infestations and losing leaves.

When they do die, Constantin estimates it will cost the property owner thousands to have them cut down and removed.

She and the rest of the neighborhood are hoping someone saw the crime take place and that the person responsible will at least pay for the damages.

You can call 225-975-0390 if you have any information. There is a reward if the person is caught.

TONIGHT AT 10: There's a (TREE) killer on the loose in Spanish Town, and neighbors want justice. @wbrz pic.twitter.com/8hb0NdoQYm

— Bess Casserleigh (@BCasserleigh) August 18, 2020