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Derrick Todd Lee

Also known as: The Baton Rouge Serial Killer, South Louisiana Serial Killer

Active
1998–2003
Region
Baton Rouge and south Louisiana, USA
States
GA, LA
Kind
Serial
Status
Convicted
Victims
7

Derrick Todd Lee was linked to the deaths of seven women in and around Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana, between 1998 and 2003. A multi-agency task force searched for the killer for more than a year before DNA evidence matched Lee to the crimes; he fled and was arrested in Atlanta on May 27, 2003. In 2004 he was convicted of the second-degree murder of Geralyn DeSoto (life without parole) and the first-degree murder of Charlotte Murray Pace (death). He died of heart disease while on death row in January 2016.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

  1. 1987
    Lee's home area, Zachary (Killer's residence, approximate area)

    Lee moved to Zachary, north of Baton Rouge, in 1987.

  2. April 18, 1998
    Mebruer home, Zachary (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Randi Mebruer disappeared from her home in Zachary. Her body has never been found.

  3. September 23, 2001
    Green home, Baton Rouge (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Gina Wilson Green was strangled in her home in Baton Rouge, near LSU.

  4. January 14, 2002
    DeSoto home, Addis (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Geralyn DeSoto was killed in her home in Addis, West Baton Rouge Parish.

  5. May 31, 2002
    Pace townhouse, Baton Rouge (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Charlotte Murray Pace was killed in the Baton Rouge townhouse she had just moved into.

  6. July 2002
    Whiskey Bay, Atchafalaya Basin (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Pam Kinamore's body was found at Whiskey Bay in Iberville Parish in July 2002, and Carrie Yoder's there ten days after she disappeared in March 2003.

  7. July 12, 2002
    Kinamore home, Baton Rouge (Abduction, approximate area)

    Pam Kinamore was taken from her home in Baton Rouge.

  8. November 21, 2002
    Cemetery area, Grand Coteau (Abduction, approximate area)

    Trineisha Colomb went to visit her mother's grave; her car and belongings were later found near the cemetery at Grand Coteau.

  9. November 24, 2002
    Wooded area near Scott (Recovery site, approximate area)

    A hunter found Trineisha Colomb's body in a wooded area near Scott, Lafayette Parish, three days later.

  10. March 3, 2003
    Yoder home, Baton Rouge (Abduction, approximate area)

    Carrie Yoder was taken from her home in Baton Rouge.

  11. May 27, 2003
    Arrest in southwest Atlanta (Arrest, approximate area)

    After a five-day manhunt, Lee was arrested in the Polar Rock neighborhood of Atlanta. He waived extradition and was returned to Baton Rouge.

  12. 2004
    Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) (Prison)

    Lee was held on death row at Angola for about twelve years. He died of heart disease on January 21, 2016, days after being moved to a hospital.

  13. August 2004
    West Baton Rouge Parish trial, Port Allen (Court / trial, approximate area)

    A West Baton Rouge Parish jury convicted Lee 11-1 of the second-degree murder of Geralyn DeSoto, which carried an automatic life sentence.

  14. October 14, 2004
    East Baton Rouge Parish trial, Baton Rouge (Court / trial, approximate area)

    An East Baton Rouge Parish jury convicted Lee of the first-degree murder of Charlotte Murray Pace and sentenced him to death. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed in 2008.

Watch, listen, read

Watch

  • Butchers of the Bayou (series, 2022, A&E)

Read

  • I've Been Watching You: The South Louisiana Serial Killer (2006, Susan D. Mustafa, Tony Clayton and Sue Israel)
  • An Invisible Man (2006, Stephanie Stanley)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.