Thomas Rolfes died of a gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.
Thomas Rolfes went to New Orleans to plan his wedding.
His fiancee, who arrived on a separate flight, stayed in while Rolfes went out on the town Friday to meet up with friends.
But the Missouri native never returned to the couple's hotel room in the French Quarter: Around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, police found his body at an intersection in another part of town.
Rolfes died of a gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.
"We believe the motive is robbery, and at some point, the robbery turned deadly," New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said at a Monday news conference. "Rolfe's wallet was missing, and by the injuries on his hands, it appears that may have been some type of struggle."
Rolfes's fiancee, Elizabeth Fried, told the Advocate that she woke up on Saturday morning to discover that Rolfes hadn't come back to the couple's hotel.
"I didn't even get to see him," Fried said.
Harrison said he met with Rolfes's family on Monday. "As you can imagine," the police superintendent said, "they are devastated over this tragic incident and they can't understand why this happened."
His mother, Julie Rolfes, told WDSU that "he was here to start the next chapter of his life. He was meeting his fiancee to visit venues for their wedding."
She added: "It was the next chapter; our firstborn was marrying this beautiful girl."
Fried met Rolfes while attending Tulane University in New Orleans, she told the Advocate.
The 25-year-old worked as a project engineer at Clayco, a construction firm in St. Louis. The company posted a statement Monday about Rolfes's recent promotion, "which motivated him to propose to his sweetheart."
"We have watched with pride as Tom became a loved and respected force in our organization," Clayco Chairman and CEO Bob Clark said. "Words can not express our feelings of loss."
Rolfes also worked on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. The Republican referred to his death as "a senseless and tragic loss."
"His warm smile and engaging personality lifted our spirits," Romney said in a statement. "His commitment and dedication to our effort made him an invaluable part of the campaign."
Rolfes' death marks the 40th murder reported in New Orleans this year, Harrison said.
"While that number is down 33 percent, it is still way too high," the police superintendent said Monday. "One murder is way too many. We are committed to doing everything that we can to prevent violence across this city."
A total of 164 people were murdered last year, according to the Times-Picayune.
Last month, retired New Orleans Saints player Will Smith was shot and killed during an apparent traffic dispute. His high-profile death came during a particularly violent period in the city; 59 shootings were reported during a six-week span in March and April.
Investigators looking into Rolfes' death still have a number of unanswered questions, including how the St. Louis native got from Uptown, where he was with friends, to the intersection of South Claiborne Avenue and Amelia Street, where his body was found.
Surveillance footage from a gas station a block from where Rolfes was found shows the Tulane graduate purchasing two bottles of water. There's a roughly hour-long gap between when the video was recorded and when police were called about "a male victim at the intersection."
Harrison said investigators are searching for more surveillance footage and are working to establish what happened during that gap.
"The big unknown is what happened in that hour, and how he even got there in the first place," Fried told the Advocate. "So I want to make sure his story gets out. We need to catch the person who did this."
It's unclear exactly how long Rolfes had been dead before police were called, Harrison said at Monday's news conference.
Rolfes' father, Ron Rolfes, joined Julie Rolfes and Fried in asking anyone with information to come forward.
"I don't want this to happen to anyone else's son," Ron Rolfes told WDSU. "I want whoever did this to be put away, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else."
© 2016 The Washington Post
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