A Louisiana prisoner kidnapped and killed an assistant warden’s 18-year-old stepdaughter after he escaped from prison, PEOPLE confirms. 
 
 Deltra Henderson, 39, was later found dead following a shootout with law enforcement. 
 
 “It has been a terrible couple of days in Claiborne Parish,” Sheriff Ken Bailey tells PEOPLE. “This was a senseless killing. That is all this was. Senseless.” 
 
 Bailey says Amanda Carney was at the home she shared with her parents — across from David Wade Correctional Center in Homer where some prison employees live — when Henderson, a prison trustee, abducted her Thursday afternoon. 
 
 “She lived on the compound and he was a trustee and he worked cleaning flower beds and mowing grass,” he says. “He was on the other side of the prison and they have trustees that go over there and work in the flower beds. He abducted her and got in her car and left.” 
 
 “They are trustees and they gain trustee status from having good behavior,” adds Bailey. “I think they need to change the word because they can’t be trusted.” 
 
 Carney’s body was found about two and a half miles from the prison in an oil field underneath pine needles. She had been stabbed numerous times in her neck, according to Bailey. 
 
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 Bailey says shortly after the abduction, Henderson crashed Carney’s car in nearby woods, abandoned the vehicle, and then returned to prison grounds and stole a car from Carney’s neighbor. The inmate then crashed the second car and entered a nearby trailer and found a gun. As prison guards closed in on him, Henderson fired at the guards and then barricaded himself inside the trailer. 
 
 “He fired the first shots because they were walking around, looking around trying to find him,” Bailey says. “He fired but didn’t hit them. And they went inside the trailer and engaged gunfire.” 
 
 Bailey says Henderson was fatally shot during the encounter. 
 
 Henderson, who had been incarcerated since 2001, was serving time on one count each of attempted armed robbery, aggravated burglary, and cocaine distribution. 
 
 He was due to be released on March 28, 2025. 
 
 Secretary James M. Le Blanc of Department of Public Safety and Corrections said it was a “dark day” for the prison. 
 
 “Our hearts hurt today as we grieve, and mourn the loss of one of our own,” he said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this young lady, David Wade staff, and all those affected by this tragedy.” 
 
 Carney had just graduated high school in the spring and had plans to go to college in Arkansas to study nursing in the fall. 
 
 “I was at the high school graduation and I saw her walk across the gym,” says Bailey. “She was athletic, a softball player, and she was a good all around kid.” 
 
 “It was wrong place at the wrong time,” he adds. “It is just tragic.” 

 BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A prisoner abducted and killed an assistant warden's teenage stepdaughter after he escaped from a Louisiana prison, authorities said Friday. The inmate was later found dead after a standoff with police. 
 
 Deltra Henderson, 39, walked away from his prison assignment at David Wade Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon, stole a car and kidnapped Amanda Carney, the Claiborne Parish Sheriff's Office said in a statement. 
 
 The 18-year-old's body was found in a wooded area near the prison where Henderson crashed the car. Sheriff Ken Bailey said during a telephone interview that investigators believe Henderson stabbed Carney to death, but they're awaiting autopsy results. 
 
 Henderson stole a second vehicle and crashed it, too, before he entered a nearby home on prison property and found a gun, authorities said. He barricaded himself inside after a gunfight with prison guards. Police found his body inside the home after the standoff ended. 
 
 Investigators suspect Henderson was fatally wounded while he traded gunfire with prison guards, before police arrived, according to the sheriff. 
 
 Carney recently graduated from a local high school and was enrolling at Southern Arkansas University in the fall to study nursing, the sheriff said. 
 
 "Everybody knows everybody (here)," the sheriff said. "It's just tragic." 
 
 The corrections department is offering grief counseling to staff members and inmates at the prison in Homer, which is in north Louisiana and can house up to 1,244 inmates. 
 
 Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc said it was a "dark day" for the state's prison system. 
 
 "Our hearts hurt today as we grieve, and mourn the loss of one of our own," LeBlanc said in a statement. 
 
 Henderson had been an inmate at the prison since June 2001. He arrived there about a month after he began serving a 30-year prison sentence for convictions on charges of cocaine distribution, attempted armed robbery and aggravated burglary. 
 
 Henderson had a potential release date of March 28, 2025, the corrections department said. 
 
 The News-Star reported that Henderson pleaded guilty to a 1999 armed robbery at a Farmerville home where a 14-year-old girl and her mother were seriously wounded by gunfire during the robbery. 
 
 In 2015, Henderson petitioned a judge for a reduced sentence, expressing remorse and highlighting his status as a first offender, the newspaper reported. 
 
 In his petition, Henderson wrote that he had completed programs in prison "to become a better person" and said he had been a "young man, running around with the wrong crowd" at the time of his offenses. 
 
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 This story has been corrected to reflect that the victim was the stepdaughter of an assistant warden, not the warden, and that she was 18, not 19.
– A prisoner abducted and killed an assistant warden's teenage stepdaughter after he escaped from a Louisiana prison, the AP reports. Deltra Henderson, 39, walked away from his prison assignment at David Wade Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon, stole a car, and kidnapped Amanda Carney, per the Claiborne Parish Sheriff's Office. The 18-year-old's body was found in a wooded area near the prison where Henderson crashed the car. Sheriff Ken Bailey tells People Carney and her parents lived in a home across from the prison. Henderson "was a trustee and he worked cleaning flower beds and mowing grass. ... They have trustees that go over there and work in the flower beds. He abducted her and got in her car and left." Bailey says Henderson stabbed Carney repeatedly in the neck and covered her in pine needles. Henderson stole a second vehicle and crashed it before he entered a nearby home on prison property and found a gun. He barricaded himself inside after a gunfight with prison guards. Police found his body inside the home after the standoff ended. Investigators suspect Henderson was fatally wounded while he traded gunfire with prison guards, before police arrived. Carney recently graduated from a local high school and was enrolling at Southern Arkansas University in the fall to study nursing. "Everybody knows everybody (here)," the sheriff says. "It's just tragic." Henderson, who arrived at the prison in June 2001, was serving a 30-year sentence for cocaine distribution, attempted armed robbery, and aggravated burglary.