Thibodaux man sentenced to life in prison for Larose woman's brutal murder

A 33-year-old Thibodaux man convicted of beating a Larose woman to death in 2018 was sentenced to life in prison Monday.

Kyron Bourda was convicted in October of second-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Rani Pinel. Her body was found Dec. 22, 2018, in her father's truck, which had been abanoned in a sugar-cane field near Lasseigne Road in Thibodaux.

During Bourda's trial, Lafourche Assistant District Attorney Shaun George told the jury police found three tire irons that had Pinell's blood on them. The shape of the tire irons matched the wounds her body sustained. Her throat had been crushed, and her body had sustained repeated blunt-force trauma and showed signs of sexual trauma, George said.

Forensic sweeps of the truck revealed blood of both Pinell and Bourda in numerous locations, the prosecutor said. Bourda's blood was found on the steering wheel, the keys and on a tire jack's handle rods. Bourda's DNA also was found on Pinell's hands and under her fingernails.

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"The details of this case were of a particularly brutal and gruesome nature," George said Monday in a statement posted to the office's Facebook page. "A life sentence was the only just sentence in that regard. We believe our community is safer with this violent criminal off our streets and behind bars."

Authorities said Pinel was last seen the afternoon of Dec. 17, 2019. She reportedly told her father she had gone to Texas to attend a funeral, the Sheriff's Office said at the time.

After her family reported Pinel missing on Dec. 22, 2019, detectives found her body in the field.

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office investigated and arrested Bourda in Pinel's murder in September 2019. At the time, Bourda was being held in a state prison on an unrelated parole violation.

Bourda received the mandatory life prison sentence during a hearing Monday before state District Judge Hugh Larose of Thibodaux.