OK everyone. I finished my first version of his timeline. What I have nailed down is he spent pretty much all of his adult life in California after getting discharged from the military due to heroin addiction. I have no records of him committing crimes outside of California or spending much time outside California after leaving Louisiana.
That being said, I am still going to consider him for crimes in Louisiana because of his connections and the fact that he lived there as an older teenager and young adult.
This is a long one and some of the dates are not exact (I did my best to nail them down), so if you have any corrections or recommendations to make,
please let me know!
Finished the Chouest timeline. If you have any recommendations or corrections to know, please let me know ASAP. Would love to have you hop over to the Chouest thread (
CA - Wilson Chouest, suspected SK, known murder victims in Kern and Los Angeles Counties, 1980s).
Timeline
December 2, 1951: Born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 1968 - December 1970 (Age ~17-19): In U.S. Army (undisclosed location). Discharged in December 1970 for heroin addiction.
1972 (Age ~20/21): Moved to Los Angeles, California.
1972 (Age ~20/21): Arrested for and convicted of fraud (Los Angeles, California) (unknown prison). Prison sentence was suspended, and he was released on parole.
1974 - 1975 (Age ~22-25): Violated probation terms of release and was sent to unknown prison (California) for 22 months.
April 24, 1976 (Age 24): Daughter is born.
~ 1977 - 1980 (Age ~25-28): Chouest briefly is employed at an automobile junkyard in the San Fernando Valley.
October 12, 1977 (Age 25): Kidnaps and rapes 20-year-old near Topanga Mall (Canoga Park, California). The victim is driven to the Calabasas-Woodland Hills area and left to die, but survives.
October 15, 1977 (Age 25): Arrested for kidnapping and rape of Topanga Mall victim.
October 1978 (Age 26): Pleads guilty to kidnap and assault of Topanga Mall victim with a deadly weapon. Rape charged is dismissed due to a plea agreement. Sentenced to 4 years in unknown state prison.
June 15, 1980 (Age 28): Released from prison, paroled, and begins to live with a woman, CB, in Lemoore, California.
July 13/14, 1980 (Age 28): Murder of Shirley Soosay (Delano, California). Shirley Soosay is employed at an apple orchard under the name “Rebecca/Becky Ochoa”, was known to have been in the area for at least several weeks, and meets Chouest at a bar in Hanford, California. From there, she is abducted, raped, and stabbed to death by Chouest before being dumped in an almond orchard.
July 14/15/16, 1980 (Age 28): Chouest forces CB's sons to clean blood from his car, claiming he struck a deer, but confessing to one person that the blood was from Shirley Soosay (then unidentified).
July 17/18, 1980 (Age 28): Murder of the pregnant Lyra Jade (Westlake Village, California). Chouest claims she was picked up hitchhiking in Visalia, but evidence emerges showing she likely met Chouest at Tiny Naylor’s burger joint close to Koreatown (Los Angeles, California), where her baby’s father lived at the time. Lyra Jade is raped, strangled, and stabbed to death by Chouest before being dumped in the Westlake High School parking lot.
August 1980 (Age 28): Approaches a woman leaving the College of the Sequoias (Visalia, California) and threatens her with a knife, attempting to force her into his car in front of witnesses. She gives Chouest her wallet, which he uses to take her contact information and call to taunt her about taking her money.
September 16, 1980 (Age 28): Abducts at knifepoint a woman leaving a night class in the College of the Sequoias (Visalia, California), and robs and rapes her in a cornfield in rural Tulare County. When she expresses her husband would worry, Chouest apologizes and drives her back to Visalia.
September - December 1980 (Age ~28/29): Chouest is arrested and sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of rape.
2005 (Age ~53/54): Denied parole.
2012 (Age ~60/61): DNA from Lyra Jade’s rape kit (found on her clothing and body and underneath her fingernails) matches Chouest’s DNA in the system. He is identified as a suspect in her murder.
2013 (Age ~61/62): Chouest is interviewed by investigators from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office and claims he had never met or had sex with Lyra Jade. He also denies claims made by CB's sons that he killed a woman (Shirley Soosay) and that they were forced to clean blood from his car. He provides investigators with another DNA sample.
September 30, 2015 (Age 63): While imprisoned for his life sentence, Chouest is charged with the murders of Shirley Soosay and Lyra Jade. He is ordered to serve two life sentences.
April 23, 2021 (Age 69): The Delano victim known as “Rebecca/Becky Ochoa” is identified as Shirley Soosay missing from Seattle, WA. Shirley is one of the first missing First Nations people to be identified through forensic genealogy.
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