R.I.P.

African-American Museum Founder’s Death Ruled a Homicide

Police say she was likely suffocated.

The death of 75-year-old Sadie Roberts-Joseph, creator and curator of Baton Rouge’s black history museum, has been ruled a homicide. Police say Roberts-Joseph, who was found in the trunk of her own car, was likely suffocated. “None of us understand why anybody would do this to an elderly lady who has done nothing but good for her community,” said Shane Evans, chief of investigations for the coroner’s office. The Baton Rouge African American Museum, which she founded, traces the history of African-Americans in Louisiana, from growing cotton to city bus boycotts. The city is in an uproar over her death. “This is senseless,” Shane Evans, chief of investigations for the coroner’s office, told The New York Times on Monday. “None of us understand why anybody would do this to an elderly lady who has done nothing but good for her community.”