The woman known as the ‘Bourbon Street Hustler’ might have a more sinister past than previously thought.
Danette Colbert, who was seen on security footage walking into a hotel with Telemundo reporter Adam Mananzo – who was later found dead in a room, is under investigation for another mysterious death of a football fan that occurred in December 2024, police said.
In new footage that was released on Wednesday, Manzano was seen smiling while carrying a plastic shopping bag, walking behind Colbert into the room in a New Orleans-area hotel that he would be found dead in on Feb. 5.
Colbert, 48, was later found with the 27-year-old Kansas City native’s cellphone and credit card. Investigators have said they are investigating whether she drugged and robbed the reporter.
Colbert, who is known to locals as the “Bourbon Street Hustler,” also is being investigated over the mysterious death of John Jenkins, a 55-year-old Maryland man who was found dead from cocaine and ethanol toxicity in a French Quarter hotel on Dec. 15, NOLA.com reported.
“We suspect she may be related to the case,” Kenner Police deputy chief Mark McCormick said of the earlier case, which initially was classified as an accidental death.
Jenkins had been visiting New Orleans for a football game between the Saints and Washington Commanders. When he was a no-show for the event, his concerned friends requested a wellness check.
Jenkins was then found unresponsive in his hotel room, McCormick said.
NOLA.com reports that Kenner detectives are working with the Louisiana Attorney General’s office and State Police Troop Nola to investigate Jenkins’ death and possible ties to Colbert.
Following Manzano’s death, several other alleged victims of Colbert have come forward.
David Butler said that he met Colbert in the French Quarter and she offered him a cocktail that made him feel disoriented and in need of help to get home.
“She ushered me into some kind of black Suburban that was literally right there,” he told NBC News. “And that’s the last thing I remember that night.”
A property manager found Butler passed out on the floor and shook him awake, with the man finding his phone and wallet gone. Butler’s credit cards allegedly had been used to make thousand-dollar purchases at Best Buy and Walmart, while more than US$80,000 that he had stashed away in a cryptocurrency account for retirement was also gone, he said.
An earlier video, which was obtained by the Daily Mail, shows Colbert with Manzano in the lobby of a hotel in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, police said.
The footage shows the two entered the Comfort Suites hotel around 5 a.m. on Feb. 5 and, over the next few hours, Colbert left the room, came back, and left again.
Manzano, 27, appears coherent in the footage, following Colbert through the lobby to his room. It remains unclear where the pair met.
Authorities said the investigation “is still ongoing” and her charge may be upgraded when police obtain a coroner’s report, which could take weeks.
“As soon as the coroner finishes with his findings, he will classify it as either a homicide or whatever death the evidence leads him to,” Conley said.
Manzano’s wife died in April 2024 in a car crash. The couple had a two-year-old daughter, who also was injured in the crash.