REPORT: Police release details of 2011 murder of Sylviane Finck

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Detectives have released more details surrounding the 2011 murder of Sylviane Finck after Oscar Lozada, who was interviewed for several hours Friday, October 5, reportedly confessed.

An affidavit from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office states Lozada murdered Finck by use of force and disposed of her remains in an unknown location.

On July 18, 2011, concerned family members and friends filed a missing persons report for Finck, a teacher at Brusly High School, and her daughter, who was four years old at the time. Friends, family members, and coworkers hadn’t heard from Finck since July 5. Also, Finck’s family hadn’t heard from her husband, Lozada, or their daughter, Angelina. The last known communication with Finck was to her mother, who lives in Belgium, on July 5, 2011.

During the course of the investigation, police say detectives learned Finck, a Belgium citizen, and Lozada, a United States and Venezuelan citizen, had been married for about six years.

On July 6, 2011, Oscar, accompanied by their daughter, went to Lowe’s on S. Mall Drive in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Lozada purchased 15 bags of Quickset Concrete and nine 5-gallon buckets with lids and luggage locks. Lozada purchased two round-trip tickets to Caracas, Venezuela on the same day.

Video surveillance of a Chuck E Cheese located in the same shopping area of the Lowe’s shows that Lozada and Angelina were there from 12:56 p.m. to 2:24 p.m.

On July 7, 2011, Oscar and Angelina returned to Lowe’s and purchased six large plastic bins. Lozada also forwarded a text message to his boss saying he’d be out of work for two or three weeks due to surgery.

On July 8, Oscar took their daughter to a McDonald’s on Burbank Drive.

Detectives say they interviewed three cooperating individuals who say they were sent by Lozada to the family’s residence on Springlake Drive on July 8 in a small U-Haul truck. Lozada instructed them to load up the contents of the house and bring them to a specific storage facility. Those three individuals said there was no sign of Finck at the house, other than her car, which was parked outside. In his haste to leave town, officials say Lozada gave one of the cooperating witnesses his vehicle, a Nissan Xterra.

On July 9, at 10:06 a.m. Lozada and their daughter boarded a flight to Dallas, Texas. At 2:05 p.m., they boarded a flight to Caracas, Venezuela.

Detectives say Lozada left a voicemail on a neighbor’s cellphone on July 11, saying, "I’m is out of town with Sylviane and Angelina.”

However, detectives verified that only Lozada and Angelina’s passports were used to leave the country. Additionally, on July 11, Lozada deleted his Facebook account.

On July 22, 2011, a search warrant was obtained for their house on Springlake Drive. Finck’s vehicle was parked outside and her cellphone was found inside the house.

Inside the garage, crime scene analysts found suspected blood in at least nine different spots. Swabs of blood were collected from seven different spots on the floor, including a stain next to some cleaning supplies. Swabs of blood were also collected from a window pane, two walls, and the ceiling. Analysts say the blood on the ceiling is consistent with wet blood traveling through the air and striking the ceiling.

“This would have been done with enough force to propel the blood vertically to impact the ceiling,” the report states.

Louisiana State Police DNA analysts identified all of the suspected blood as Finck’s.

Finck was never heard from again, despite being in constant contact with her mother, due to her mother’s declining health. There hasn’t been any activity on her bank accounts or credit cards.

According to one of Finck’s closest friends, she was always with Angelina. If Lozada took Angelina somewhere, Finck would accompany them.

Detectives did not find any area where Lozada used the bags of concrete or the buckets. There were no signs of new construction at the house where the concrete could’ve been used. Associates of the couple had no knowledge of where Lozada used the concrete or the buckets bought from Lowe’s, including his place of employment.

During the early months of the investigation, Lozada was in contact with the lead detective, Major Todd Morris. Lozada categorically denied knowing the whereabouts of Finck. He said he came home from the store and she was not there.

Over the next several months, Lozada e-mailed and called Maj. Morris. Lozada said he’d bring Angelina to Baton Rouge and meet with the detective about Finck. Detectives purchased plane tickets for Lozada and Angelina twice. Both times, they failed to board.

Maj. Morris was in contact with Lozada until 2016, when he stopped hearing from Lozada.

Detectives began investigating whether Lozada had ever previously been violent toward Finck, due to the mounting evidence that he was responsible for her murder.

On July 21, 2009, EBRSO deputies were dispatched to a local hospital. Lozada started an argument and became angry and violent because Finck wanted to bring Angelina to the hospital for “extreme nausea.” Lozada told detectives that he “snapped” during the argument and struck Finck. She refused to press charges.

In December of the following year, deputies were dispatched to the couple’s house. Finck called police because Lozada was throwing and breaking things inside the house. Only a few weeks later, detectives went to a local hospital because Finck had been injured by Lozada. She insisted that police not contact Lozada because “that would make matters worse,” the report says.

A co-worker of Finck, who’d known her for 15 years, had been helping her document the domestic abuse caused by Lozada. She was documenting the case so she could file for divorce and custody of Angelina. Finck kept all of the records on two portable thumb drives in her office to keep Lozada from finding them. On the thumb drives were pictures of broken furniture from the previous incident. On several pages, Finck documented receiving verbal and physical abuse from Lozada. Finck wrote the “outburst of violence” was “witnessed by her daughter.” Photographic copies of the emergency room discharge papers for both visits to the hospital for assault were included. Finck had obtained copies of the police reports and included them on the thumb drives as well.

Finck called her co-worker after numerous incidents of physical and verbal abuse, the report states. Her co-worker drove to her house to check on her. One time, the witness says Lozada left, angrily, with Angelina. The witness said one time Angelina asked why “Dad was always yelling at her.” The witness remembered one specific incident where Finck said Lozada confronted her while she was laying down and stood over and choked her.

Lozada was arrested in Mexico and recently transported to EBR Parish. Angelina saw a child psychologist while in Mexico and was in foster care until a relative of Finck’s was reunited with her.

On October 5, Lozada confessed to murdering his wife.