EBRSO: Oscar Lozada confesses to murder of wife in 2011

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Oscar Lozada has admitted to killing his wife, Sylviane Finck Lozada, according to East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux.

Lozada returned East Baton Rouge Parish for the first time Friday afternoon since he left the country in 2011. He was questioned by East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives and confessed to the murder, Gautreaux said.

Gautreaux said the number one concern was always for the couple’s daughter. She is currently in protective custody receiving the care she needs, he added. Gautreaux said the number two agenda in this investigation was to bring Oscar Lozada to justice. He will be booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

Gautreaux also said investigators hope to find Syviane Finck Lozada’s remains to try to bring some closure in this case.

Mexican authorities arrested him for the murder of his wife, Sylviane, and turned him over to the Maverick County Sheriff’s Office in Eagle Pass, Texas in September.

A Texas judge approved his extradition to East Baton Rouge last week. In the arrest warrant, EBRSO accused Oscar Lozada on one count of second degree murder.

Sylviane Finck Lozada, a teacher at Brusly High School in West Baton Rouge Parish, disappeared on July 5, 2011.

Major Todd Morris, a detective with the EBRSO, had been tracking Lozada for years and located him in Mexico with the help of several U.S. federal agencies.

Detectives allege surveillance video from the Lowe’s store on South Mall Drive in Baton Rouge shows Oscar, accompanied by his daughter, walking into the store on July 6, 2011 and purchasing 15 bags of concrete and nine 5 gallon buckets with lids and luggage locks.

Following the trip to Lowe’s, the warrant says Oscar and his daughter, then 4-years-old, went to lunch at Chuck E. Cheese. The next day, the warrant alleges Oscar Lozada sent a text message to his boss saying he would be out of work for two to three weeks for surgery.

On July 9, 2011, Oscar and his daughter boarded a flight to Venezuela, the warrant says. Detectives searched the Lozada home in Baton Rouge on July 22, 2011. “During the search of the garage, crime scene analysts located suspected blood in at least nine different areas of the garage,” the warrant says.

The warrant also states blood was tested at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab and belonged to Sylviane.

There has been no activity on Sylviane’s bank account or credit card since her disappearance, detectives say. EBRSO detectives say they spoke to Oscar Lozada several times since his wife’s disappearance and each time, he said he did not know where she was.

Detectives say a search of records showed police had been called to the couple’s home several times for domestic disturbances prior to Sylviane’s disappearance. That includes an incident in 2009 when detectives noted in their report that Oscar allegedly admitted he “snapped” and struck Sylviane, the warrant says.

In a Facebook message to then WAFB anchor, Andre Moreau, in 2014, Oscar denied ever harming Sylviane. “I never touched Sylviane in a violent way,” Oscar Lozada said.

The two had been married for six years at the time Sylviane disappeared.