LARTO – Usually the most-talked about item in this south Catahoula Parish community is whether the white perch are biting. That changed Monday when three people were shot do death after a fight got out of hand.

Catahoula sheriff’s deputies are searching for Lee Ponthieux, Jr., 42. He is suspected of killing John Ellard, Jr. 45; his wife Edris Ellard, 51, both of Monterey, and her mother, Anne Adams, 74, of Jonesville.

The shotgun slayings occurred about 3 a.m. Monday, according to Sheriff James Kelly.

Ponthieux, Kelly said, was in a fight with the others and left the scene on a motorcycle later found in a nearby ditch.

Bloodhound-led officers searched the remote area for Ponthieux, who has an arrest record for disturbances and fights, with no success.

Kelly said the suspect had been in touch with a sister and told her “he really messed up this time.”

Larto lies beside a lake of the same name in a largely unsettled area, surrounded by some timber and thousands of acres of cleared agricultural land.