'I miss her so much': Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate

Yahoo

18-03-2025

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and Molly Elliott was getting ready to go out on a date night with her husband.
The 28-year-old advertising executive left her office in the French Quarter in New Orleans and headed to her car. But instead of driving to dinner, a parking lot attendant kidnapped Elliott, raped her and dumped her nude body along the East Pearl River near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line.
A duck hunter found her at 7:45 a.m. the next day on Thanksgiving, 1996.
The murder shocked Elliott's family and friends, who described her as a vivacious, warm, loving woman.
"Molly was a cherished person who missed out on motherhood, a promising and successful career, and a life in the country on the property we bought together," her husband, Andy Elliott, told USA TODAY in a statement on Thursday. "Hers was a life that was so full of hope and promise for a beautiful future. The loss of Molly is a scar we will forever carry, and it will never heal."
Now nearly 30 years later, Elliott's killer is set to become the first inmate in Louisiana history – and only the fifth in the U.S. – to be executed by the controversial nitrogen gas method. Jessie Hoffman is scheduled to die on Tuesday despite a judge's order last week temporarily halting the execution in a ruling that was overturned by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. The matter will head to the U.S. Supreme Court by Monday, Hoffman's attorney vowed.
As Hoffman's death approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at who Elliott was and what happened her.
Elliott, whose full name was Mary Margaret Murphy Elliott, grew up in Phoenix and landed a top position at a prestigious Los Angeles advertising agency before she met her husband. The couple moved just north of New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana, in 1994, according to an archived story in the Times-Picayune newspaper.
As a baby, her mother told jurors that her daughter "was this wonderful, baldheaded bundle of energy and laughter and joy."
When she grew up, she had "fabulous little freckles on her face and the smile that would just absolutely break your heart," said Roxie Stouffer of Phoenix, according to court records.
"When Molly walked into a room and smiled, the whole room just lights up," Stouffer said. "It's just the most amazing thing to see.'
Elliott's husband, Andy Elliott, told jurors that his wife "was a very intelligent person, a very warm person, a very trusting person."
'I never knew anybody who was a better person," he said. "She was the kind of person that usually looked for the good in any person and would generally opt to trust someone rather than not trust them."
He said that she was quick with a laugh and that the couple used to love playing jokes on each other. They cherished their sprawling country home surrounded by land and animals.
"She was a very loving person. I think that's why we had all the animals," he said, according to court records. "It was just an outlet for us to have more things to love and be around us."
In a 2013 Facebook post, Stouffer said she was thinking about her girl: "Wishing my sweet daughter Molly were here to celebrate her 45th birthday. I miss her so much."
Elliott left work at Peter A. Mayer Advertising Inc., around 5 p.m. on Nov. 27, 1996, and walked to the Sheraton hotel garage where she parked her car. She was supposed to meet her husband at his office at 6 p.m. so they could go out to dinner together, police told reporters at the time.
Hoffman, who was just 18 years old and had worked at the garage for about two weeks, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to withdraw about $200 from an ATM, prosecutors said. Even if Hoffman had let her go at that point, prosecutors said it would have been "the most horrific night of her life."
"The ATM video tape shows the terror on Ms. Elliott's face as she withdrew money from her account, and Hoffman can be seen standing next to his victim," prosecutors said in court records.
After getting the cash, Hoffman forced Elliott to drive to a remote area of St. Tammany Parish as she begged him not to hurt her, prosecutors said, citing Hoffman's eventual confession to the crime. Hoffman then raped Elliott and forced her to get out of the car and walk down a dirt path in an area used as a dump, prosecutors said.
"Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style," they said. "Ms. Elliott likely survived for a few minutes after being shot, but she was left on the dock, completely nude on a cold November evening, to die."
Her husband identified her body after she was found on Thanksgiving Day, prosecutors said.
Hoffman contended at the time that he didn't rape Elliott because she had "offered herself to him" and said she was killed after his gun accidentally went off. A jury rejected those arguments, convicting Hoffman of first-degree murder and recommending that he be sentenced to death.
Hoffman now acknowledges the crime and is deeply remorseful, his attorney, Cecelia Kappel, told USA TODAY.
"He takes full responsibility for this very tragic, awful crime," she said. "He is so sorry to the family of Molly Elliott and he wishes to have opportunity before he dies to have a face-to-face conversation where he can apologize in person."
If Hoffman's execution proceeds on Tuesday, it will come 29 years after Elliott's murder.
In his statement to USA TODAY, Andy Elliott said that after so much time has passed, he has "become indifferent to the death penalty vs. life in prison without possibility of parole," but that he's in favor of the execution if it the easiest way to end "the uncertainty that has accompanied these many years."
"But, his death will not provide closure," he continued. "Anyone who has experienced a tragedy of this magnitude will recognize the absolute truth − Molly's and my families and friends lost a great human being to a senseless series of crimes, the reasons for which we still don't know. The pain is something we simply have learned to live with."
He added that "all we want is finality, so we can stop dreading the reminder of the tragedy every time the subject of his execution re-emerges."
"My sincere hope is either to get the execution done or commute his sentence to life in prison without parole, one or the other, as soon as possible," he said. "Then, we can put Molly's brutal death in the past. That's not closure, but it's the best we can hope for."
Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Remembering Molly Elliott, killed by Louisiana Death Row inmate