FOLEY, Ala. — Just days after the city’s first homicide of 2009, Foley police are conducting yet another death investigation.

Foley police are calling the death of Michael Andre Saucier, 54, “suspicious.” Saucier’s body was found by a family member on Friday afternoon, Jan. 23, at the duplex where he lived at 1157 S. Bay St. This week, however, Police Chief David Wilson said local law enforcement is proceeding on the assumption that Saucier was murdered.

Autopsy results are pending in the case. A press release issued Saturday morning by Foley Police Department noted Saucier’s body had an injury to the neck. It was undetermined whether or not the wound was “self-inflicted or foul play,” the release said. A release issued Saturday afternoon noted there was trauma to Saucier’s “head and neck area.”

The city’s first homicide of the new year occurred just days before Saucier’s body was found. FPD responded to a death scene at Victoria Place Apartments on South Juniper Street on the night of Jan. 20. The body of Quintessa Shaylene Pickens was found inside the residence.

Autopsy results on Pickens confirmed she had been strangled. The victim’s boyfriend, Jontez Torrell Holt, was arrested and charged with her murder. Holt confessed to strangling Pickens with a jump rope, according to a FPD release issued Jan. 21.

As in Saucier’s death, Pickens’ body was discovered by a family member, in this case her mother.

On Monday at a press conference at FPD, Wilson noted Saucier had lived in Foley for 18 months and had spent most of his life in the Pensacola area.

“He moved to Foley to be near his son. His life here in Foley has been mostly that of a reclusive nature with the majority of his associates living in Florida,” Wilson said.

“We are running down his friends and acquaintances but it is taking some time because they almost all live out of state.”

Noting that the City of Foley had two homicides each in 2007 and 2008 and perhaps two already in the first month of 2009, Wilson sought to reassure citizens that safety remains FPD’s number one priority.

“We have no evidence to suggest that this suspicious death is a random act of violence,” he said. “I cannot comment any further on that as it might jeopardize the case.”

The release from the afternoon of Jan. 24 regarding Saucier’s death noted that other police agencies were called on to send additional investigators in what the release described as a “task force concept” for the investigation.

Among the agencies looking into Saucier’s death with FPD are the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Daphne Police Department, Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office, FBI, and Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

Anyone with information concerning Saucier’s death is asked to call FPD at 251-943-4431.

Concerning Pickens’ death, Jontez Holt was booked into the Baldwin County Corrections Center on Jan. 22. The 25-year-old, who has a Cantonment, Fla., address, remains in jail.

On Monday, the only charge listed for Holt on the Corrections Center Web site was giving false information.

Holt was stopped by Elberta Police Department at 1 a.m. on Jan. 21 and gave Elberta officers a different name in an effort to get away, according to an FPD release issued that afternoon. Foley police identified him and arrested him on the false information charge.

Foley police search teams did find Holt’s wallet, identification and other belongings he allegedly hid in a culvert during his flight on foot from the murder scene, according to the same release.

Referring to the deaths of Pickens and Saucier, Wilson said on Monday, “The first one last week was domestic violence-related and is nearly impossible to prevent if the police have never been called before. This second death involves a person new to our city with mostly acquaintances that come here from out of state.”

Chief: 2008 crime trends down

Faced with the possibility that two homicides have occurred in Foley in the first month of the year - as many as occurred in each of the past two years - Police Chief David Wilson said Monday the city’s 2008 Crime Report shows a “significant reduction in crime.”

Wilson’s comments were made at a press conference Monday afternoon in connection with the suspicious death of 54-year-old Michael Saucier of South Bay Street.

Noting that an increase in crime nationwide is expected during 2009 as a result of economic woes, Wilson sought to allay any fears the public might have.

“I want our citizens to know that we are working hard to protect them and reduce crime and we are doing just that,” he said.

Referring to this past December, Wilson said FPD reduced theft by nearly 40 percent compared to December 2007.

“We still have additional officers in the street and will keep them there for 2009,” he said.

Other examples Wilson cited where crime dropped in 2008 include a 21 percent drop in robbery from 2007 and 53 percent drop from 2006.

Felony assault is down 8 percent from 2007 and down 15 percent from 2006, while misdemeanor assault is down 57 percent and down 62 percent from the same years.

Burglaries were reduced 48 percent from 2007 and 58 percent from 2006, while sex crimes were reduced by 20 percent from 2007 and by 40 percent from 2006.

Domestic violence was decreased by 35 percent from the two previous years and has “about leveled off” and remained the same for 2008, Wilson said.