A Louisiana woman with a history of "drugging men" and stealing their credit cards was arrested after the death of a TV reporter who was New Orleans for the Super Bowl, police said Friday.
Hotel security video showed Danette Colbert, who lives in nearby Slidell, with Kansas City Telemundo's Adan Manzano, 27, and entering his room at 4:35 a.m. Wednesday, Kenner police chief Keith Conley told reporters.
Detectives discovered that the credit card Manzano used to check into the Comfort Suites wasn't on his body or in the hotel room, according to Conley.
Colbert used Manzano's credit card "at several stores in the New Orleans area," Kenner police said in a statement.
Colbert has been “charged with property crimes, including fraud and theft-related offenses," though "this investigation remains ongoing," according to the police statement.
Kenner police have not said how Manzano died.
"You asked if this was a homicide, I don't know where it's going to end up. We're going to let the evidence lead us to the end result and not speculate," Conley said.
"As soon as the coroner finishes with his findings and they will classify it as either homicide or whatever death the evidence leads him to and then these charges could be upgraded."
The suspect has an arrest record "that includes allegations of drugging men, theft of currency, fraudulent use of credit and debit cards, and other financial crimes," said Kenner police, which asked that "anyone who may recognize Danette Colbert and has any information regarding her involvement in these crimes to call" investigators.
In 2022 in Nevada, police said Colbert was "charged with introducing a substance, a foreign substance" into a victim, Conley said, "and the other one was in Jefferson Parish, I believe it was two years ago."
Colbert was booked on suspicion of simple robbery, access device fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, bank fraud and computer fraud, the police chief said.
It wasn't immediately clear Friday afternoon if Colbert had hired or been assigned an attorney to speak on her behalf.
Manzano's death came just months after his wife, Ashleigh Boyd, was killed in a car crash in Topeka, officials said. Boyd, 24, was a second-grade teacher with Topeka Public Schools.
The couple has a young daughter who survived the car crash.
