Metropolis Reality Forums - Manhunt for suspected serial killer

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 24^th, 2024, 9:59am

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Manhunt for suspected serial killer ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   Manhunt for suspected serial killer

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: Manhunt for suspected serial killer (Read 198 times)

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Manhunt for suspected serial killer
« on: May 27^th, 2003, 11:35am »

Quote

Modify

DERRICK TODD LEE
Police said Lee is considered armed and dangerous. He is black, 6 feet 1, with short hair, a light-to-medium complexion and a muscular build. Anyone with information should call:
•Local law enforcement
•Special task force: (866) 389-3310
•FBI violent crime squad: (404) 679-9000

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Law enforcement officials were hunting Tuesday for a 34-year-old Louisiana man wanted in five killings in south Louisiana.

An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Derrick Todd Lee, 34, who authorities said has been linked by DNA lab tests to the killings.

FBI officials said Tuesday they believe Lee is still in Atlanta after police said Monday the suspect was spotted in Georgia capital.

He has experience in construction and may be working day labor jobs that pay in cash, the FBI officials said.

Asked why Lee would be in Atlanta, one FBI agent said: "We think it was just an easy place he thought he could fade into."

A task force spokesman said DNA tests showed "highly unusual genetic markers." He said the chances that another person besides Lee could have those markers is "something like one in four billion."

Lee's most recent address was in St. Francisville, Louisiana, 40 miles from Baton Rouge, police said.

Based on a tip, law enforcement officials called Lee in for questioning two weeks ago, and he voluntarily submitted to DNA testing before being released, a member of the serial killer task force said.

Lee disappeared shortly after the DNA test was taken. People who know Lee told the task force that he had fled to the Atlanta area.

Lee is also wanted on federal charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Police said Lee is considered to be armed and dangerous.

Police have searched Lee's home, the home of his mother and a nearby apartment where Lee is believed to have had a girlfriend.

Connecting killings
At a news conference in Baton Rouge on Monday, police identified Lee as the prime suspect in the killings of Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace, Pam Kinamore, Trineisha Dene Colomb and Carrie Lynn Yoder, all killed in the past two years.

Officials said several samples taken from Lee matched DNA evidence taken from the five killings under investigation by the task force, a source said.

According to the arrest warrant, lab tests first linked Lee to Yoder, 26, a graduate student at Louisiana State University, whose body was found a week after her disappearance. An autopsy determined Yoder was strangled after being beaten and raped.

The warrant states DNA swabs from Yoder's body matched the DNA evidence from the four other killings.

A task force of local police, state police and federal officials also has been investigating to see whether any other slain women are connected to the killer.

The killings began in Baton Rouge in September 2001, when Green, 41, was found strangled near the LSU campus.

Home invasion cases
Police hunting the killer released a sketch late Friday of a man responsible for three home invasions they think might be connected to the slayings. The sketch matches the description of Lee given Monday.

Authorities in Baton Rouge said Friday that in the three home invasion cases last year, the man gained access to women's homes by introducing himself -- in two cases as "Anthony" -- and extending his hand to shake theirs when they opened the door.

The man asked to look at a phone book and use the phone, and asked whether the woman's husband or boyfriend was at home. Once satisfied that there was nothing to deter him, he struck, the sheriff said. In one of the cases, he assaulted the female victim.

Officials said there is no conclusive evidence that connects the killer to the home invasions, but they also said the suspect could not be ruled out.

-- CNN Correspondent Art Harris contributed to this report.

IP Logged

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Manhunt for suspected serial killer
« Reply #1 on: May 28^th, 2003, 9:47am »

Quote

Modify

Serial killings suspect waives extradition
Tip helped lead to Lee, authorities say
Wednesday, May 28, 2003 Posted: 10:06 AM EDT (1406 GMT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Derrick Todd Lee, accused of five serial killings in Louisiana, waived extradition at a hearing Wednesday, and was expected to travel back to Louisiana.

Atlanta police arrested Lee Tuesday in southwest Atlanta about 8:45 p.m. after receiving a tip he was in the area. "He was actually sitting behind the tire store talking to a young lady when they arrested him," said Mike Richards, a supervisory deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service.

He did not resist and was carrying his Louisiana identification.

"He just said he was the person," Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said.

Lee, 34, will face first-degree murder and aggravated rape charges, said Pat Englade, the police chief of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Louisiana's serial killer task force said DNA evidence links Lee to the killings of Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace, Pam Kinamore, Trineisha Dene Colomb and Carrie Lynn Yoder. (Victims)

The killings began in Baton Rouge in September 2001, when Green, 41, was found strangled near the campus of Louisiana State University.

"I know now that we have taken a very dangerous person that's a serial murder suspect off the streets of Atlanta, and I'm sure the citizens of Louisiana are proud as well that we've taken this very dangerous person off our streets," Pennington said.

David McDavid, the chief of detectives in Zachary, Louisiana, said Lee also is considered a suspect in the deaths of two more women there -- one in 1998, the other in 1992. He said police are trying to compare DNA from those crime scenes to Lee's.

Near misses
The serial murder case actually got its first big break at the beginning of the month, when law enforcement officials -- acting on a tip in the serial killings investigation -- called Lee in for questioning.

Lee voluntarily submitted to DNA testing before being released, a member of the task force said, but disappeared soon afterward.

Genetic test results subsequently linked Lee to the five slain women. DNA tests showed Lee had "highly unusual genetic markers," a task force member said, and the chance that someone other than Lee could have those markers is "something like one in four billion."

Federal officials announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to Lee's capture.

Atlanta police narrowly missed apprehending Lee earlier Tuesday.

"We missed him on two different opportunities," Pennington said. "One, he was at a homeless shelter, we were told. We missed him shortly there. And then another hotel that we arrived [at] about two hours later, and we were told that we just missed him."

FBI Special Agent Joe Parris said Monday that Lee had been staying at the Lakewood Motor Lodge in southwest Atlanta for about a week when he hurriedly left around midday Monday. Witnesses there said he told them he was going to his mother's home in Louisiana.

Authorities praised the cooperation among law enforcement agencies -- a multi-agency Louisiana task force, Atlanta police, the federal marshals and the FBI. They also applauded the cooperation of the public and news media.

-- CNN Correspondent Art Harris contributed to this report.

IP Logged

Addams
You Bet Your ASS Team
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 5398

Re: Manhunt for suspected serial killer
« Reply #2 on: May 28^th, 2003, 9:54am »

Quote

Modify

prayers for the families of the many victims. So many lives and futures destroyed.

IP Logged

Pocket
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 1437

Re: Manhunt for suspected serial killer
« Reply #3 on: May 28^th, 2003, 2:15pm »

Quote

Modify

I'm so relieved they found this guy before he could commit more murders and shatter more families.

IP Logged

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Manhunt for suspected serial killer
« Reply #4 on: May 29^th, 2003, 9:58am »

Quote

Modify

Serial killings suspect described as charming
Lee had history as peeping Tom
Thursday, May 29, 2003 Posted: 7:26 AM EDT (1126 GMT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Residents at the Lakewood Motor Lodge in southwest Atlanta described their neighbor Derrick Todd Lee as "very handsome," a "good preacher" who "made friendships with everyone and everything."

That's why they were stunned to learn that Lee had been arrested and accused of five serial killings in Louisiana, with authorities across the United States reviewing unsolved murders to see if he might be connected to them as well.

"He was my friend. He said he was from Mississippi and he and his wife were having problems," said motel resident Vallerie Ann Thwaites. She described him as "a very handsome black dude."

Just last Sunday, Lee manned the grill at a birthday party for motel manager Bob Idicalla.

"He is a good preacher. He made friendships with everyone and everything," said Idicalla.

Residents said Lee also liked to invite women to his room for cognac, and said he was attracted to Tammy Hill, who spurned his advances.

"He scared me," Hill told CNN. "He actually asked if he could come visit me a couple times over here. I was like, 'No.'"

Lee was talking to another woman at a tire store when he was arrested late Tuesday.

Until he was handcuffed, the prime suspect in the Baton Rouge serial killings of five women had spent three weeks a step ahead of the law.

Police say he went on the run after voluntarily giving a DNA sample to authorities investigating two other slayings of women in the small Louisiana town of Zachary, just north of Baton Rouge.

Authorities say Lee criss-crossed the country by bus, from Louisiana to Chicago and back again, before heading to Atlanta where he was finally caught.

Rap sheet fueled detective's suspicion
Lee has long been familiar to Zachary authorities, with a rap sheet that includes arrests for burglary, stalking and "peeping Tom" incidents. He spent two years in prison for a 1992 home burglary.

It was the Zachary Police Department and a few lucky breaks that helped bring the serial murder investigation together.

Detective David McDavid told CNN he considered Lee suspicious for years because of his arrest record. But McDavid said investigators never had enough evidence to connect him to two women's killings in 1992 and 1998 -- both unrelated to the serial killer investigation.

It wasn't until May 5 that Zachary police got a court order to take a sample of Lee's DNA.

While Zachary authorities waited for the DNA test results, police in nearby St. Martin Parish released the composite sketch last week of a man suspected in the attack and attempted rape of a woman there.

Zachary police believed the sketch looked like Lee -- but his DNA sample was just one of many waiting to be tested by the Louisiana state crime lab, sources close to the investigation told CNN.

Zachary police then huddled with the serial killings task force, urging that Lee's DNA analysis be moved to the head of the line.

On Sunday night, Mike Barnett, the chief criminal deputy for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Department, said he got the news of a DNA match to the five woman killed in the area.

"We were elated," he told CNN.

But Lee was nowhere to be found, having begun his travels by bus to Illinois and Georgia.

School officials said Lee and his wife pulled their children -- a 13-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl -- out of school soon after his DNA test. His wife and children are believed to be safe but in hiding, police say.

Lee and his wife -- who works at a local post office -- filed for bankruptcy in November 2002. According to court records, they were almost $85,000 in debt. At the time, Lee drove a truck for local construction companies.

Wednesday, Lee was extradited to Louisiana for the five serial killings that had terrified the Baton Rouge community beginning in September 2001. (Full story)

More than two dozen unsolved murder cases in the Baton Rouge area are being re-examined, as are several in the Atlanta area.

"What will happen now is we'll try to identify every city, every place that this individual has been. Try to link any unsolved murders that may have been accomplished by this individual," said FBI special agent Charles Cunningham.

-- CNN Investigative Correspondent Art Harris contributed to this report.

IP Logged

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »