The serial killer task force recently has taken DNA swabs from at least half a dozen black graduate students from the continent of Africa, according to the members of the University’s international community and its officials.
The tests come two months after the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force asked the community to broaden its description of the serial killer’s race. They are consistent with speculation that the task force has determined the ethnicity of the killer, a man known to have murdered four women in Baton Rouge and one in Lafayette since 2001.
International Services Office Director Natalie Rigby said both she and the University administration are aware that some of her students have been tested because one student who was concerned he was unfairly targeted because he was not American reported the incident to her.
“Our office did touch base after that one incident was reported,” Rigby said. “We were reassured that this was part of the task force’s investigation and that American students were being tested as well.”
But one African graduate student from the French Department, who gave his DNA to police but didn’t give want his name used in this story to avoid association with the serial killer, said he was told the tests were random. However, he knows of several African international students who were tested.
During the spring semester, ISO had 135 African non-immigrant students with temporary visas registered. Those students represent 27 different countries on the continent. The majority of those students also are male and in graduate degree programs, according to Rigby.
Baton Rouge Police Department Cpl. Mary Ann Godawa said she could not comment on why the task force was testing students from countries other than America or on rumors that the task force had the capability to determine the ethnicity of the serial killer.
Godawa said the task force had not yet determined the race or skin color of the killer but is doing everything it can to get a full description of the killer to release to the public.
She still encourages members of the community to look at all information on the profile and not just race or ethnicity.
Abimbola “Abby” Sokunbi, outgoing president of the African Student Organization, also said she was aware that a group of African graduate students had been tested. But as a leader of a predominately undergraduate organization, she knew little of the details.
No undergraduate African students reported being tested to Sokunbi.
Godawa said she does not think a high ratio of Africans has been tested. She said the increase in tips involving people other than white men came because task force asked the community to broaden its description of the killer.
“Whenever we put out information, that’s what kind of information that comes back in,” Godawa said.
She also said members of the LSU community naturally have become targets in the investigation because of the proximity of campus to the home of Carrie Yoder, the killer’s last victim. More calls have come in associated with campus, she said.
“And we follow up on every single lead,” Godawa said.
But the African students who have been tested still are concerned about the task force’s methods; some think they have been unfairly targeted because they are from another country.
The French Department grad student said the fact that he was tested is very humiliating for him and the other African students because only those involved in “shady things” deal with the police in his culture. For him, being tested for homicide is difficult to comprehend even though he has been living in the United States for several years.
The student said he spent a long while trying to calm down one of his friends who also was tested.
“It takes your morale really down,” he said. “Even if they tell you it’s voluntary, you are more afraid as an international student.”
Another African graduate student from the Chemistry Department who thought the release of his name would cause others to unjustly accuse him of being the killer said task force members stopped him on the highway and later showed up at his home.
“[The killings] are a tragedy and they are just trying to find answers, but they are being unfair,” he said.
He thinks DNA testing students from other countries is illogical because has only been living in the United States for three years and he knows of others who were tested who have only been in the country for about a year and a half.
“We feel that they are picking on us because we are vulnerable,” he said. “We are human beings and we have human rights. My nationality has nothing to do with what kind of person I am.”
Godawa said no one tested has anything to worry about unless he is the serial killer because a false DNA match would prove his innocence. But the student thinks this method of searching for a suspect contradicts the U.S. justice system by holding people suspicious until proven innocent.
“The indignity could kill someone,” he said.
Rigby said the purpose of her office is to help those students from different cultures who are concerned or upset. However, she feels things were handled professionally and does not think the students were targeted because of their nationality.
The fact that the students have been tested does not cause concern for her because she believes the task force is just following up on tips called in by the community, she said.
Chancellor Mark Emmert said he was not aware of these particular tests but said he was aware the task force has been operating on and around campus.
“We are trying to be as cooperative as possible while still maintaining the student’s privacy,” Emmert said. “Any time we’ve been asked for assistance or brain power, we’ve cooperated. But when we are asked for student, faculty or staff members’ information, we encourage them to go through proper authority.”
The International Services Office did not release names of any international student to the task force, but Rigby assumes the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly Immigration and Naturalization Services, did.
Visitors to the United States sign forms allowing the release of their records through BCIS, but the University cannot release students’ information because of the Buckley Amendment, Rigby said.