Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess: [Louisiana] The Baton Rouge Serial Killer - Derrick Todd Lee

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A Little Less Mess: [Louisiana] The Baton Rouge Serial Killer - Derrick Todd Lee · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to us This Mess and the Drue
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Ground Podcast. I'm Kara Jess Kara. This is a little
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Less Mess. It's our regular episodes minus all the banter
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and silliness and my husband, so it's just me, I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: tell our case of the week and just very straightforward.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: So if you like this type, I do try to
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  Speaker 1: put them out weekly. I'm trying to get better at
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  Speaker 1: that on schedule, so look out for those. If you
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: want to hear the episode with me and my husband
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  Speaker 1: where we are silly and go off track and everything,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: those are the numbered episodes in the feed and those
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: come out usually on Thursdays each week. Before we get started.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I'd like to say thank you to everyone who's written
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: review We appreciate you. Also our patreons if you do
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  Speaker 1: This Mess podcast. It's only three dollars a month and
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  Speaker 1: at free, as well as we do a semi regular
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: shoot the Pooh, which is just me and my husband
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: talking about our lives. Sometimes we go through a true
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  Speaker 1: crime documentary things like that. We're also on Instagram, Facebook,
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  Speaker 1: and TikTok where I share our dinners each night. I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: know that's not true crime related, but that just seems
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to be what everyone's enjoying. So I do share some
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  Speaker 1: true crime documentary recommendations as well as our dinners. This week,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: we are in Louisiana. We have been covering the serial
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  Speaker 1: killers that we're operating in the area in the Baton
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  Speaker 1: Rouge area from the mid nineties to the early two thousands,
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  Speaker 1: and so we have done two of the serial killers
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  Speaker 1: so far. We'll do the other one next week. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to start with the first one, which is
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  Speaker 1: Derek Todd Lee. All Right, so let's get into it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: The story of the Baton Roots series. Their serial murders
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: began as a series of isolated investigations across southern Louisiana,
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  Speaker 1: leaving multiple homicides unresolved for over a decade. So in
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Connie Warner vanished from her home in Zachary, Louisiana.
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  Speaker 1: Her body was found a week later near a lake.
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  Speaker 1: She died from a skull fracture. Because Hurricane Andrews struck
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  Speaker 1: the region two days after her disappearance, physical outdoor evidence
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  Speaker 1: was destroyed Lacking forensic leads, police focused on Connie's ex
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  Speaker 1: boyfriend and her daughter's boyfriend. Both faced years of interrogation
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  Speaker 1: and suspicion before being cleared. In April of nineteen ninety eight,
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  Speaker 1: a second crime occurred one block from Connie's former home.
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  Speaker 1: Randy Jane Maybrewer was abducted from her residence. Her three
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  Speaker 1: year old son walked to a neighbor's house alone the
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  Speaker 1: next morning to report her missing. Police found a blood
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  Speaker 1: stained house, but Randy's body was never located. Detectives focused
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  Speaker 1: on Randy's ex husband, screening and interrogating him before ruling
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: him out. Lacking a body or weapon, the case went cold.
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  Speaker 1: In September two thousand and one, Gina Wilson Green was
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  Speaker 1: found raped and strangled inside her home near the Louisiana
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  Speaker 1: State University campus in Baton Rouge. Because Gina lived alone,
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  Speaker 1: detectives vetted local transients and professional acquaintances without success. Forensic
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: technicians extracted and preserved a seaman sample from the scene.
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  Speaker 1: Now On January two thousand and two, jare Lynn Barr
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  Speaker 1: de Soto was murdered inside her mobile home in Attis, Louisiana.
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  Speaker 1: She was beaten stabbed and her throat was slashed. Police
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  Speaker 1: immediately arrested her husband, Darren de Soto, based on a
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  Speaker 1: neighbor's report of a past argument. Darren was held under
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  Speaker 1: suspicion until initial DNA testing proved a foreign contributor killed Jarelynew.
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  Speaker 1: On May two thousand and two, Charlotte Murray Pace was
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  Speaker 1: attacked inside her her Baton Rouge townhouse. She fought her
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  Speaker 1: attacker across multiple rooms before being stabbed over eighty times.
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  Speaker 1: Forensic scientists extracted DNA from the skin tissue Charlotte trapped
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  Speaker 1: under her fingernails during the struggle. The markers matched the
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  Speaker 1: DNA profile found at Gina Wilson Green's crime scene, confirming
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: that a single, unidentified serial killer was operating in the area.
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  Speaker 1: The body count continued to rise. In July two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and two, Pamela Kennemore was abducted from her home. Her
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  Speaker 1: body was found with her throat slit near the Whisky
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  Speaker 1: Bay off ramp of Interstate ten. In November two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and two, Trenisha Denay Colombe was abducted from a cemetery
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  Speaker 1: in Grand Couteau and bludgeoned to death. In March of
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and three, Carrie Lynn Yoder was kidnapped from
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  Speaker 1: her Lsu apartment and strangled. Her body was left at
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  Speaker 1: the same Whisky Bay site. A multi agency task force
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  Speaker 1: was but investigators relied on a heavily on a profile
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  Speaker 1: from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, stating that the killer
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  Speaker 1: was a white male between twenty five and thirty five
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  Speaker 1: years old. This was supported by a witness who, under
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  Speaker 1: police hypnosis, claimed to see a white man driving an old,
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  Speaker 1: white pickup truck near a crime scene. But if you
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: are familiar with that area most work vehicles a white
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  Speaker 1: pickup truck can be seen at any time. Based on
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  Speaker 1: this profile, the task force collected DNA swabs from over
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  Speaker 1: twelve hundred white men. Investigators received multiple citizen tips naming
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  Speaker 1: a specific individual, but because that suspect was black, they
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  Speaker 1: dismissed the tips and did not test his DNA for months.
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  Speaker 1: The investigation was further complicated because other serial killers were
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  Speaker 1: active in the Baton Rouge area at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: Sean Vincent Gillis, a white male, murdered eight women between
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four and two thousand and four. Because Shawn
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  Speaker 1: Mauch the FBI profile. His crime skewed the task force data,
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  Speaker 1: causing police to treat separate murder patterns as the work
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  Speaker 1: of one person. A third killer, Jeffrey Lee Gilliery, was
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  Speaker 1: also active, creating further forensic overlap. The breakthrough in the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: case finally came from a surviving victim and new technology.
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  Speaker 1: In July of two thousand and two, a man entered
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  Speaker 1: the home of Diane Alexander under the ruse of using
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  Speaker 1: her phone. He attacked her, but Diane fought back, delaying
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  Speaker 1: him until her son arrived and scared the assailant away.
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  Speaker 1: Diane survived and worked with a sketch artist to create
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  Speaker 1: a composite drawing. Because her case occurred in a different parish,
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  Speaker 1: the task force did not immediately cross references. Desperate for leeds,
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  Speaker 1: the task Force bypassed the FBI profile and sent the
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  Speaker 1: crime scene DNA to a private lab for DNA phenotyping.
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  Speaker 1: The results showed in eighty five percent probability that the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: killer had African ancestry, with the white male theory disproven.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators reviewed the ignored tips and found the name Derek
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  Speaker 1: Todd Lee and matched his photograph to Diane's composite sketch.
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  Speaker 1: On May twenty, two thousand and three, police obtained a
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  Speaker 1: court order for his DNA which matched the crime scenes.
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  Speaker 1: The unidentified killer was officially identified as Derek Todd Lee.
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  Speaker 1: When the DNA match was confirmed, Derek fled Louisiana. The
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  Speaker 1: US Marshall's Service Fugitive Task Force, the FBI, and the
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana State Police tracked him using cell tower pings from
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: a burner phone and a wire transfer. Derek traveled north
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  Speaker 1: to Chicago, Illinois, using an alias. Realizing authorities were tracking him,
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  Speaker 1: he changed direction and took a bus south through Mississippi.
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  Speaker 1: Triangulation eventually placed him in Atlanta, Georgia, where he checked
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  Speaker 1: into the Lakewood Motor Lodge under a fake name. To
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: avoid suspicion. He hosted Bible studies for other guests. On
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  Speaker 1: May twenty seven, two thousand and three, Derek saw his
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  Speaker 1: photograph broadcast on a national news segment in the motel lobby.
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  Speaker 1: He fled his room, leaving behind his clothes, boots, and
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  Speaker 1: a bible. Within minutes, U s Marshals and Atlanta police
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  Speaker 1: flooded the area. Officers spotted Derek walking down a sidewalk
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  Speaker 1: near a tire shop. Agents surrounded him and Derek surrendered
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  Speaker 1: without resistance. Following his arrest, the details of Derek's upbringing
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: an early criminal record were fully integrated into the case file.
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  Speaker 1: Born on November fifth, nineteen sixty eight, in Saint Francis Fvie, Louisiana,
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  Speaker 1: Derek was raised by his mother after his father, who
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: suffered from schizophrenia and psychosis, abandoned the family. Derek had
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  Speaker 1: learning disabilities, attended special education classes, and dropped out of
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  Speaker 1: school in the eleventh grade. Forensic psychiatric evaluations later estimated
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: his IQ at seventy five. His criminal trajectory began in
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: his youth with a fixation on voyeurism. Throughout the late
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, police in Zachary and Saint
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  Speaker 1: Francisville received multiple complaints regarding Derek looking through windows. He
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: was arrested for voyeurism, prowling, and stalking. His behavior escalated
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  Speaker 1: over the years to include residential burglary, criminal trespass, and
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  Speaker 1: domestic violence, culminating in a two thousand conviction for severe
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  Speaker 1: battery against his girlfriend. Because these early offenses occurred across
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: separate local jurisdictions, they were treated as isolated incidents, allowing
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  Speaker 1: him to refine his stalking and surveillance methods undetected before
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  Speaker 1: escalating to homicide. Derek was extradited to Louisiana and tried
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  Speaker 1: in two thousand and four. In August of two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and four, he was found guilty of first degree murder
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  Speaker 1: for the death of Jarrelyn bar DeSoto and sentenced to
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  Speaker 1: life without parole. In October two thousand and four, he
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: was convicted of first degree murder for the death of
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  Speaker 1: Charlotte Murray Pace, where the DNA under her fingernails proved
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  Speaker 1: his identity and he received the death penalty. Derek remained
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola
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  Speaker 1: for over a decade. On January twenty first, twenty sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: he died at the age of forty seven from complications
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  Speaker 1: of heart disease before his execution could be carried out.
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  Speaker 1: And that's our case for this week again. If you'd
• 10:37
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  Speaker 1: is all, so we'll see you next time. Buy everyone,
• 10:57
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