| By Drew Broach | Deputy metro editor
AUTOPSY AND ARREST: New Orleans police suspected from the get-go that something was up with Benjamin Beale, at whose house they found a bus and, inside it, a freezer containing human body parts. But it was not until Friday night, after authorities identified the body as that of Julia Dardar and determined she had been been beaten and strangled, that they had enough evidence to book Beale with second-degree murder.
WHALE OF A HOTEL: Owners of the Omni Hotels chain are discussing building a major hotel in New Orleans on a giant parking lot between the Hilton Riverside Hotel and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Tourism officials and real estate developers have long eyed the prime piece of riverfront land, which currently provides more than 1,000 parking spaces for The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk, the Convention Center and other nearby attractions in a space known as the “whale lot,” because it is fronted by a huge mural featuring the frolicking mammal.
'NOT GUILTY': The defense attorney for Ernestine “Teena” Anderson-Trahan, the New Orleans small-claims court judge who is charged with tax fraud, asserted her innocence Friday. His statement came after the Louisiana Supreme Court, acting on a request from Anderson-Trahan, suspended her while the criminal charges are pending.
Welcome to the weekend. Check the latest news all day on NOLA.com. D.B. | 
