Serial killer task force investigators said they tried for 10 months to connect the pieces of the killer’s puzzle without first seeing a picture. Throughout May, they finally were able to put together a clear image of who killed five South Louisiana women only after two outside agencies brought forth their findings.
Police arrested serial killer suspect Derrick Todd Lee, a 34-year-old St. Francisville man, May 27 outside a tire shop in Atlanta. He is allegedly connected to the murders of Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace, Pam Kinamore, Trineisha Dene’ Colomb and Carrie Lynn Yoder.
Though the arrest ended a 10-month manhunt, the steps investigators took during May to connect, identify and capture Lee have caused many to praise or criticize the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force’s effectiveness.
Lee: Identification to arrest
Chief Joey Watson of the Zachary Police Department said he was out of town when news surfaced that Louisiana State Police Crime Lab positively connected Lee to DNA found on the serial killer victims.
“We were certainly relieved and elated that we had finally gained some ground–at least with fooling with Derrick Todd Lee,” Watson said.
Watson said Zachary police, with help from Attorney General Richard Ieyoub’s office, have been investigating Lee for several years as a suspect for Zachary crimes, including the 1992 murder of Connie Warner and the 1998 disappearance and apparent murder of Randi Mebruer.
In doing so, officers learned of Lee’s record as burglar, stalker and a peeping Tom throughout south Louisiana. Evidence throughout the years never was strong enough to connect Lee to any Zachary murders or the more recent serial killings.
“We thought that we were dealing with someone who was capable of that sort of thing, but we weren’t sure,” Watson said. “We may have had some suspicions [about Lee’s connection to the serial killings] as the investigation began, but the primary focus for us investigating him was our case.”
About five Attorney General’s office investigators helping the Zachary detectives began looking at Lee as a possible serial killer suspect. The group even mentioned Lee’s name to task force members prior to May, said Pam Laborde, Ieyoub’s assistant public information officer.
Attorney General Investigator Christopher Ribera requested Lee’s criminal history May 2, and by May 5, Investigator Danny Mixon had drawn up an affidavit requesting a DNA swab from Lee.
Though the group is not part of the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force, Laborde said it started to suspect Lee as the serial killer after looking at the dates he was in prison and comparing them to with the dates the serial killings occurred.
Mixon’s affidavit states, “Lee has remained a viable suspect in the disappearance and alleged death of Mebruer and murder of Warner and a possible suspect in the deaths of five females in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana, areas that have been linked by DNA profiling to the ‘serial killer,’ operating in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas.”
Mixon personally went to Lee’s home and tested him.
At the same time, investigators from St. Martin Parish began taking a closer look at the profile of an assailant who attempted to murder and rape a woman in July 2002 in Breaux Bridge, La., said St. Martin Parish District Attorney Chester Ceaders. Investigators also suspected him for two other related incidents in the parish.
Ceaders said investigators compiled a profile and composite image of a black male who drove a gold Mitsubishi car.
Though investigators recognized similarities in the crimes committed in St. Martin Parish and Baton Rouge, Ceaders said at the time the “BOLO,” or “be on the lookout,” bulletins the task force put out called for a white male driving a white truck.
St. Martin Parish’s composite image and profile only was released as the possible serial killer suspect May 23 after one investigator resubmitted DNA evidence from the Breaux Bridge crime scene, Ceaders said.
Some of the similarities between the incidents and Colomb’s Lafayette Parish murder bothered the detective, and in late March or early April he wanted to see if Acadiana Crime Lab could uncover something on a second try, he said. At the same time, the task force changed its BOLO to include men of all races.
“At this point there was a body substance found that yielded a partial DNA profile with enough markers for the director to say he could not exclude the person who committed the crimes in Breaux Bridge as the person who committed crimes in Baton Rouge,” Ceaders said.
St. Martin Parish officials immediately met with task force detectives, resulting in the May 23 press conference where Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade announced a possible suspect in the serial killer investigation.
Tip lines starting ringing after officials released the composite. Between the Friday afternoon when the sketch was released and May 30, Cpl. Mary Ann Godawa, task force spokeswoman, said almost 1,800 calls came in.
And though Watson originally told media someone from Zachary police called the task force that day to identifying Lee as the person pictured, he cannot confirm that any of his officers actually did so, he said.
Instead, tipsters like a St. Francisville woman who used to work at a truck stop where Lee frequented gave task force members the information they needed to piece together the puzzle.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she recognized the description the police gave as that of Lee and was especially struck by the vehicle they described. She knew Lee’s wife drove a gold Mitsubishi with the same “Hampton has it” license plate as profiled, she said.
“They described him, and when I saw all that then saw the picture, I called my sister,” she said. The two then identified Lee through the tip line.
Following the sketch release and calls, State Police Crime Lab DNA analyst Tasha Poe worked until late evening on May 25 testing Lee’s DNA samples, said Crime Lab Cpt. Brian Wynne.
Though no one would say whether Poe began testing that weekend or just finished at that time, Wynne said Lee’s test results probably were not processed sooner because analysts often have full schedules, and other cases they work on sometimes require more attention.
Lee officially did not become a serial killer suspect until sometime between May 23 and May 25.
However, Wynne said the lab was filled with “a sense of accomplishment” when Poe and others noticed Lee’s samples matched the most recent DNA taken from Yoder’s body.
“They had done something to contribute to the investigation,” he said.
The next morning on May 26, Baton Rouge Police obtained an arrest warrant for Lee in connection with Yoder’s murder. Englade said task force members began working to track down Lee.
Investigators now have learned Lee left town sometime after May 5 and traveled to Chicago, back to Baton Rouge and then to Atlanta by May 27, Englade said.
Chicago officials still are unsure what Lee did or why he was in Chicago.
The task force notified Atlanta police Tuesday morning that Lee could have fled to the city. Coupled with a tip called in to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Englade said the Atlanta police had enough information to stake out an area.
“After surveilling the area for a period of time, Derrick Todd Lee was spotted crossing a parking lot at approximately 8:45 p.m.,” Englade said. “Lee was arrested without incident.”
The arrest was the Atlanta police’s third attempt to capture Lee. They first missed meeting him at a homeless shelter and then arrived at his hotel room two hours after his departure, said Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington.
Pennington said when Lee finally was arrested he spoke little during the arrest. He was unarmed and presented a Louisiana ID with his real name.
“He knew that we were looking for him. Once his photo went on news media, he knew he was a wanted person,” Pennington said. “If he was in Atlanta, we were gonna find him, based on information we received.”
Atlanta officials booked Lee into Fulton County Sheriff’s Department jail as a fugitive from Baton Rouge on first-degree murder and aggravated rape charges.
Lee appeared before an Atlanta court May 28 and the FBI flew him by jet back to Baton Rouge later that day.
Effectiveness of the manhunt
Englade came close to tears the day after Lee’s arrest when many officials, including Gov. Mike Foster and Baton Rouge Mayor Bobby Simpson complimented task force members for their speed and effectiveness in catching Lee.
“This is a very bittersweet moment for me,” he said. “It’s been a very tough investigation, but with the help of all these people, we’ve accomplished something.”
Englade said his team did so by focusing on its No.1 issue — working for the victims.
Task force members according to Charles Cunningham — an acting special agent from the FBI New Orleans office — worked so effectively that he considers the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force to be leading the nation in task force operations.
“When I visited this task force, they had everything running the exact way it was supposed to be running,” Cunningham said.
He compared the 10 months the task force spent following up on leads to the years other task forces spend.
For example, the Unabomber task force spent 17 years following leads before Ted Kaczynski emerged when his brother turned him in. Police searched for Ted Bundy in Seattle for 19 months and Robert Yates in Spokane, Wash. for almost 3 years before they both were stopped for traffic violations.
United States Attorney General David Dugas then expressed his appreciation of the way federal, state and local agencies worked together on the case.
“Despite the color of the uniform or the shape of their shield, they all pulled together for one goal,” Dugas said.
But despite praise, it seems just as much criticism has been directed toward the task force. Some say lives could have been saved if connections were made sooner.
Rebecca, a mass communication senior, placed an emergency call from her Sharlo Apartment home the day before Pace was murdered in her Sharlo townhome. She saw a black man, who she now identifies as Lee, wearing only tube socks and masturbating in his vehicle near her apartment.
“I gave them a very detailed description and that would make me think they would call,” she said. “At the time they didn’t know the importance, but if they would have looked back at the records or called back they could have caught him faster.”
She is glad police have arrested Lee but thinks someone should have followed up on her complaints.
Baton Rouge Police Department authorities said they have no record of the call or any dispatch.
Many of the victims’ family members, including University student Sterling Colomb Jr., Trineisha Dene’ Colomb’s brother, also wonder if the task force could have done more.
“If they would have been faster, they could have saved someone, but I don’t want to bash the cops,” Colomb said.
Englade recognized the task force spent some time investigating bad leads and admitted the release last December of the “person of interest” sketch confused people. He said tipsters misunderstood the sketch.
The “person of interest” sketch described someone police only wanted to question and was not a picture of the person police thought murdered the women. However, many people called the tip line with what proved to be false leads about the sketch.
The task force looked into every lead it received and Englade assured it did its best to prioritize investigations.
“Many times you do not get opportunities to present to the public the investigative techniques because you don’t want to expose them to the perpetrator,” Cunningham said in Englade’s defense.
Criticism from national media also caused Baton Rouge Mayor Bobby Simpson to express his disgust during the May 28 press conference.
“I watched [Chief Englade] smile for the first time in 10 months. I watched the relief that came over him. And I watched the national media discuss the inadequacies of this group and my elation turned to disgust,” he said in response to national reports that victims’ family members were the driving force behind Lee’s capture.
But Chancellor Mark Emmert, who worked closely with the task force, said he is just glad Lee has been captured.
“The fact that this has taken longer than we hoped is frustrating, but I’m pleased with their performance,” Emmert said.
Investigation enters Phase II
Englade expects the second phase of the serial killer investigation probably will be just as tough as the first.
Though Lee remains without bond in East Baton Rouge Parish prison, investigators now must collect the evidence needed for Lee’s prosecution.
Godawa said all members of the task force are “thrilled” about the arrest, but are ready for more work — work Englade said could last the next six months.
“We’ve got a lot of work left to do. We’ve got a lot of pieces left of the puzzle to put together,” Englade said.
Questions such as how Lee could have entered victim’s homes, how he could be connected to the women or what his motives could have been remain unanswered.
Godawa could not comment on the investigators’ progress because it is still ongoing, she said.
Since police obtained the original warrant, authorities now have charged Lee with kidnapping, burglary, rape and first-degree murder accounts for Green, Pace, Kinamore, Colomb and Yoder.
In addition, Ceaders said Lafayette Parish officials obtained a warrant May 27 for Lee’s arrest in connection with the Breaux Bridge incidents. Law enforcement has not yet executed that warrant.
Zachary police and Attorney General investigators still are following up on leads about Lee in the Mebruer and Warner cases, Watson said.
Officers turned up concrete in Jackson, La. and behind Lee’s St. Francisville home during the first week of June in hope of finding Mebruer’s body. Several people have offered investigators tips that Lee could have buried Mebruer’s body beneath one of several seemingly unnecessary slabs poured just after her disappearance, Watson said.
Human remains have yet to be found.
“We are hoping for an opportunity to talk to Derrick Lee at some point and hope he will set the record straight in our case,” Watson said.
In the meantime, Baton Rouge District Attorney Doug Moreau is preparing for Lee’s serial killer trial and hopes to hold it in East Baton Rouge Parish. He expects to seek the death penalty.
Public Defender Mike Mitchell will represent Lee and reportedly will focus on DNA science and whether or not police groundlessly targeted Lee.