Has been caught!
FINALLY
Serial killings
suspect arrested
Derrick Todd Lee seized in Atlanta
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
ATLANTA, May 27 — The man suspected of killing six women in Louisiana was arrested in Atlanta on Tuesday, the FBI said.Derrick Todd Lee, 34, was taken into custody about 8:30 p.m. by Atlanta police working with a joint FBI-metropolitan Atlanta task force, FBI spokesman Joe Parris said.
PARRIS SAID he did not know where Lee was arrested. The suspect had been living in a dingy Atlanta motel but left Monday about the time a federal fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest.
Lee spent at least the past week in the motel, where he charmed residents, grilled ribs and chicken at a party and set up a Bible study. He left abruptly Monday — the day authorities released his photo, filed a warrant for his arrest and traced a call he made from a cell phone.
Police and federal agents had fanned out across Atlanta on Tuesday after uncovering evidence that the suspect in the serial killings of five women in southern Louisiana fled to the city by bus. Earlier, police said that Lee, whom they described as armed and dangerous, also is suspected in a sixth death more than a decade ago and the disappearance of another woman.
In the FBI’S Atlanta office, agent Theodore Jackson had said Lee, 34, was last seen around midday Monday at Lakewood Motor Lodge, in the southeastern part of the city. The FBI obtained a warrant for Lee after it was learned he traveled from Louisiana to Atlanta by bus, he said.
By the time marshals got to the motel, Lee was gone, taken to a train station by a resident who thought he was headed to Louisiana to see his sick mother.
A CONCEALING CONGENIALITY
‘This guy, he was handsome. He would go to the ladies and say, “You married? You married?”’
— BUBUKUTTY IDICALLA
manager of an Atlanta motel where Lee was sighted At a news conference, Vernon Keenan, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Lee apparently had been in Atlanta for about a week, working construction jobs in the downtown area. He warned that Lee is outgoing and charming, traits that conceal his dangerous side. “Everybody likes him,” he said. “He’s very congenial.”
Neighbors described Lee as a handsome, smooth-talking man who dated several women and promised them cognac if they would come to his room.
“This guy, he was handsome,” said Bubukutty Idicalla, manager of the Lakewood motel, where Lee paid $135 cash for a week in a one-room efficiency. “He would go to the ladies and say, ‘You married? You married?”’ Police traced a call made from Idicalla’s cell phone.
Lee was charged in a warrant issued Monday with murder and aggravated rape in the killing of Carrie Yoder, 26, a Louisiana State University graduate student who became the serial killer’s fifth known victim in March.
Authorities in Zachary, a Baton Rouge suburb, said police obtained a DNA sample from Lee — which linked him to the five slayings — because they were investigating him for what they believed to be an unconnected disappearance in their town.
Zachary police Chief Joey Watson said Tuesday that a detective in neighboring East Feliciana Parish was given a tip from one of Lee’s relatives that Lee was discussing the disappearance of Randi Mebruer, 28, who vanished from her home in April 1998.
DNA SAMPLE OBTAINED
The tip, combined with a review of Lee’s criminal history led police to seek a DNA sample from Lee, and a court order was obtained, Watson said Tuesday. The sample was obtained May 5, authorities said.
That same day, Lee abruptly pulled his two children out of school in St. Francisville, saying he was moving to Los Angeles, according to Lloyd Lindsey, superintendent of the West Feliciana school system.
Keenan said authorities believe Lee’s children are with his wife at an undisclosed location. He said Lee apparently traveled to Chicago and at least twice to Atlanta after leaving Zachary on or soon after May 5.
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He said Lee has no known family or friends in Atlanta. Zachary police also suspect Lee is connected to the murder of Connie Warner, 41, who was killed in September 1992, also in Zachary, Watson said.
The Warner and Mebruer cases have not officially been linked to the serial killer, but Watson said he believes they were all connected. Watson said DNA evidence in the Mebruer case is still being tested. He had no details on whether DNA tests were also pending in the 1992 case.
“There wasn’t enough to say with all certainty, but there’s enough to suspect that they’re all related,” he said.
Local coverage
• New Orleans: Suspect's mother: Turn yourself in
Lee was named as a suspect nearly a year after police linked the murders of three Baton Rouge women to a single DNA profile, creating a frenzy in the area as women flocked to self-defense classes and bought pepper spray and handguns.
In a massive 10-month DNA dragnet, police took cheek scrapings and swabbings from more than 1,000 men. The search led some men to complain they felt pressured to volunteer their DNA to rid themselves of suspicion. Defense attorneys have questioned the legality of the search.
DIFFERENT METHODS
‘We don’t want people celebrating too soon because we need the public’s help in apprehending him ... ’
— ED WHITE
brother-in-law of murder victim Pam Kinamore Two more victims were later connected to the serial killer. Monthly rallies to remember the victims often led to accusations the police weren’t using enough outside help to track the killer, who used different methods to kill his victims: strangling, stabbing and beating the five known women he murdered.
The DNA match to Lee, who is African American, conflicts with descriptions in an FBI profile released months ago that said the killer likely was white. Police said after Yoder’s murder that the killer could be of any race.
Yoder, from Tampa, Fla., was severely beaten, raped and strangled. The other victims were Gina Wilson Green, 41; Charlotte Murray Pace, 22; Pam Kinamore, 44, all of Baton Rouge; and Trineisha Dene Colomb, 23, of Lafayette.
Ann Pace, mother of the killer’s second victim, said she was “overwhelmed and nauseated” when she heard a suspect was named in the case. “Of course, I wish it had happened sooner,” she said.
Ed White, Kinamore’s brother-in-law, said his family wouldn’t be “totally elated” until Lee was captured, and warned women not to let down their guard.
“We don’t want people celebrating too soon because we need the public’s help in apprehending him, because he’s on the run,” White said.
The photo of Lee bears a similarity to a sketch of a possible suspect police circulated on Friday, a sketch of a man sought in connection with a rape of a woman, and improper advances made against two others. On Monday, however, police said they had not connected Lee to those encounters, which occurred in June and July 2002 in St. Martin Parish.
HOME ABANDONED
Lee’s home in St. Francisville, a small town north of Baton Rouge, was abandoned Monday. A reporter walking through the house found carpets ripped up, siding from the walls torn away, wires exposed, cabinets open, window shades ripped down and light fixtures torn out. Sherman Drury, a neighbor, said he had not seen Lee in about a week.
Records show Lee and his wife filed for bankruptcy in November 2002, and a court order to allow foreclosure on his house was signed May 16. Bankruptcy records listed Lee’s occupation as a truck driver.
Jane Lee, who identified herself as Lee’s grandmother when contacted by phone in St. Francisville, said her grandson and his wife have two children. She said she was concerned about the warrant but wouldn’t answer further questions.
St. Francisville Police Chief Wendell Fontenot said Lee had “miscellaneous run-ins over time” with police, but he said he was unable to give further details.
Newspaper accounts show Lee has a record of arrests on charges of peeping into homes, stalking, burglary and criminal trespassing. After a fight in a bar, he was arrested for allegedly running a roadblock and accused of attempted first-degree murder of a policeman, according to The Advocate.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/918226.asp?0cv=CB10
Serial killings
suspect arrested
Derrick Todd Lee seized in Atlanta
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
ATLANTA, May 27 — The man suspected of killing six women in Louisiana was arrested in Atlanta on Tuesday, the FBI said.Derrick Todd Lee, 34, was taken into custody about 8:30 p.m. by Atlanta police working with a joint FBI-metropolitan Atlanta task force, FBI spokesman Joe Parris said.
PARRIS SAID he did not know where Lee was arrested. The suspect had been living in a dingy Atlanta motel but left Monday about the time a federal fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest.
Lee spent at least the past week in the motel, where he charmed residents, grilled ribs and chicken at a party and set up a Bible study. He left abruptly Monday — the day authorities released his photo, filed a warrant for his arrest and traced a call he made from a cell phone.
Police and federal agents had fanned out across Atlanta on Tuesday after uncovering evidence that the suspect in the serial killings of five women in southern Louisiana fled to the city by bus. Earlier, police said that Lee, whom they described as armed and dangerous, also is suspected in a sixth death more than a decade ago and the disappearance of another woman.
In the FBI’S Atlanta office, agent Theodore Jackson had said Lee, 34, was last seen around midday Monday at Lakewood Motor Lodge, in the southeastern part of the city. The FBI obtained a warrant for Lee after it was learned he traveled from Louisiana to Atlanta by bus, he said.
By the time marshals got to the motel, Lee was gone, taken to a train station by a resident who thought he was headed to Louisiana to see his sick mother.
A CONCEALING CONGENIALITY
‘This guy, he was handsome. He would go to the ladies and say, “You married? You married?”’
— BUBUKUTTY IDICALLA
manager of an Atlanta motel where Lee was sighted At a news conference, Vernon Keenan, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Lee apparently had been in Atlanta for about a week, working construction jobs in the downtown area. He warned that Lee is outgoing and charming, traits that conceal his dangerous side. “Everybody likes him,” he said. “He’s very congenial.”
Neighbors described Lee as a handsome, smooth-talking man who dated several women and promised them cognac if they would come to his room.
“This guy, he was handsome,” said Bubukutty Idicalla, manager of the Lakewood motel, where Lee paid $135 cash for a week in a one-room efficiency. “He would go to the ladies and say, ‘You married? You married?”’ Police traced a call made from Idicalla’s cell phone.
Lee was charged in a warrant issued Monday with murder and aggravated rape in the killing of Carrie Yoder, 26, a Louisiana State University graduate student who became the serial killer’s fifth known victim in March.
Authorities in Zachary, a Baton Rouge suburb, said police obtained a DNA sample from Lee — which linked him to the five slayings — because they were investigating him for what they believed to be an unconnected disappearance in their town.
Zachary police Chief Joey Watson said Tuesday that a detective in neighboring East Feliciana Parish was given a tip from one of Lee’s relatives that Lee was discussing the disappearance of Randi Mebruer, 28, who vanished from her home in April 1998.
DNA SAMPLE OBTAINED
The tip, combined with a review of Lee’s criminal history led police to seek a DNA sample from Lee, and a court order was obtained, Watson said Tuesday. The sample was obtained May 5, authorities said.
That same day, Lee abruptly pulled his two children out of school in St. Francisville, saying he was moving to Los Angeles, according to Lloyd Lindsey, superintendent of the West Feliciana school system.
Keenan said authorities believe Lee’s children are with his wife at an undisclosed location. He said Lee apparently traveled to Chicago and at least twice to Atlanta after leaving Zachary on or soon after May 5.
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He said Lee has no known family or friends in Atlanta. Zachary police also suspect Lee is connected to the murder of Connie Warner, 41, who was killed in September 1992, also in Zachary, Watson said.
The Warner and Mebruer cases have not officially been linked to the serial killer, but Watson said he believes they were all connected. Watson said DNA evidence in the Mebruer case is still being tested. He had no details on whether DNA tests were also pending in the 1992 case.
“There wasn’t enough to say with all certainty, but there’s enough to suspect that they’re all related,” he said.
Local coverage
• New Orleans: Suspect's mother: Turn yourself in
Lee was named as a suspect nearly a year after police linked the murders of three Baton Rouge women to a single DNA profile, creating a frenzy in the area as women flocked to self-defense classes and bought pepper spray and handguns.
In a massive 10-month DNA dragnet, police took cheek scrapings and swabbings from more than 1,000 men. The search led some men to complain they felt pressured to volunteer their DNA to rid themselves of suspicion. Defense attorneys have questioned the legality of the search.
DIFFERENT METHODS
‘We don’t want people celebrating too soon because we need the public’s help in apprehending him ... ’
— ED WHITE
brother-in-law of murder victim Pam Kinamore Two more victims were later connected to the serial killer. Monthly rallies to remember the victims often led to accusations the police weren’t using enough outside help to track the killer, who used different methods to kill his victims: strangling, stabbing and beating the five known women he murdered.
The DNA match to Lee, who is African American, conflicts with descriptions in an FBI profile released months ago that said the killer likely was white. Police said after Yoder’s murder that the killer could be of any race.
Yoder, from Tampa, Fla., was severely beaten, raped and strangled. The other victims were Gina Wilson Green, 41; Charlotte Murray Pace, 22; Pam Kinamore, 44, all of Baton Rouge; and Trineisha Dene Colomb, 23, of Lafayette.
Ann Pace, mother of the killer’s second victim, said she was “overwhelmed and nauseated” when she heard a suspect was named in the case. “Of course, I wish it had happened sooner,” she said.
Ed White, Kinamore’s brother-in-law, said his family wouldn’t be “totally elated” until Lee was captured, and warned women not to let down their guard.
“We don’t want people celebrating too soon because we need the public’s help in apprehending him, because he’s on the run,” White said.
The photo of Lee bears a similarity to a sketch of a possible suspect police circulated on Friday, a sketch of a man sought in connection with a rape of a woman, and improper advances made against two others. On Monday, however, police said they had not connected Lee to those encounters, which occurred in June and July 2002 in St. Martin Parish.
HOME ABANDONED
Lee’s home in St. Francisville, a small town north of Baton Rouge, was abandoned Monday. A reporter walking through the house found carpets ripped up, siding from the walls torn away, wires exposed, cabinets open, window shades ripped down and light fixtures torn out. Sherman Drury, a neighbor, said he had not seen Lee in about a week.
Records show Lee and his wife filed for bankruptcy in November 2002, and a court order to allow foreclosure on his house was signed May 16. Bankruptcy records listed Lee’s occupation as a truck driver.
Jane Lee, who identified herself as Lee’s grandmother when contacted by phone in St. Francisville, said her grandson and his wife have two children. She said she was concerned about the warrant but wouldn’t answer further questions.
St. Francisville Police Chief Wendell Fontenot said Lee had “miscellaneous run-ins over time” with police, but he said he was unable to give further details.
Newspaper accounts show Lee has a record of arrests on charges of peeping into homes, stalking, burglary and criminal trespassing. After a fight in a bar, he was arrested for allegedly running a roadblock and accused of attempted first-degree murder of a policeman, according to The Advocate.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/918226.asp?0cv=CB10
