Linda Mayes, 56, was found dead in a Baton Rouge hotel room at the Regency Inn on Gwenadele Avenue shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 12, 2025. Responding officers recorded that she had sustained trauma to her body, and the death was investigated as a homicide.

The investigation led to the arrest of 31-year-old Donald Ray Walker. On Friday, January 24, 2025, the U.S. Marshal’s Office and Baton Rouge Police took Walker into custody in front of the Lake Towers Apartment Complex on North 9th Street. He was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and faces second-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with Mayes’s death.

The investigation is ongoing as authorities continue to piece together events that led to her death. If anyone has information about Linda Mayes, her movements on January 12, 2025, or the Lake Towers area around January 24, please share what you know.