Louisiana State Police crime scene investigators and New Iberia Police Department officers blocked off the apparent scene of a crime between S. Corrine Street and St. Jude Avenue Tuesday morning.

Louisiana State Police crime scene investigators and New Iberia Police Department officers blocked off Field Street Tuesday morning between S. Corinne Street and St. Jude Avenue, focusing their efforts on a house near the corner of Field and S. Corinne streets.

Officers on the scene from NIPD would not give any details of the operation underway, which involved more than a dozen individuals moving from a canopy with screens to block the public’s view and the decaying Victorian house.

Police also blocked off Robertson Street between S. Corinne Street and St. Jude Avenue. In addition to the crime scene processing going on at ground level, police launched a drone that floated above the two blocked streets, hovering about 150 feet up as it filmed the scene below.

When asked, officials referred all questions to the department’s public information officer, Sgt. Daesha Hughes. Initially Hughes would only confirm that the activity was part of “a continuing investigation,” but would not divulge any other details.

“State Police came to assist us with a current investigation,” Hughes said.

Among the residents of the area gathered outside the yellow crime scene tape, rumors were rampant. Hughes sent out a press release around 2 p.m. debunking some of the unfounded stories.

“To clear-up circulating rumors, no human remains or bodies have been located,” Hughes said in an emailed statement. “State Police and detectives with NIPD are still actively processing the scene.”

But several members of the community did confirm that the house at the center of the activity had been the residence of a boyfriend of Kitty Rideaux, 51, whose body was found behind an empty house on Lombard Street on June 5.

The preliminary autopsy in Rideaux’s death found that she died of possible blunt force injuries. The report stated that Rideaux had died on June 4, two days prior to the discovery of her body.