Serial Killings Suspect Caught in Atlanta

Wednesday, May 28, 2003
(4:07 AM)
By Kristen Wyatt
Associated Press Writer

”He was nice, and he had a pretty woman stay the night. I could not believe it when the police came and said he was wanted for killing women. None of us could believe it.”

Police charged Louisiana man, Derrick Todd Lee, on May 26, 2003 with raping and killing a Louisiana State University graduate student in March and said that his DNA linked him to other murders that have terrified the university community. Lee, shown in a wanted poster, was charged with first degree murder and aggravated rape of Carrie Yoder, 26, a graduate student at Louisiana State University who was abducted from her home on March 3, according to the arrest warrant. REUTERS/East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs office;Police charged Louisiana man, Derrick Todd Lee, on May 26, 2003 with raping and killing a Louisiana State University graduate student in March and said that his DNA linked him to other murders that have terrified the university community. Lee, shown in a wanted poster, was charged with first degree murder and aggravated rape of Carrie Yoder, 26, a graduate student at Louisiana State University who was abducted from her home on March 3, according to the arrest warrant.
Image Credit: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs office / Reuters

ATLANTA, Ga. -- AP
The man suspected in the killings of five Louisiana women spent at least a week before his arrest in an Atlanta motor lodge where he charmed residents, grilled ribs and chicken at a party, and set up a Bible study.

The arrest Tuesday of Derrick Todd Lee, 34, ended the manhunt in a case that terrified women across Louisiana and triggered a 10-month DNA dragnet in which police took cheek scrapings and swabbings from more than 1,000 men.

Lee was taken into custody by three Atlanta police officers about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Police Chief Richard Pennington said. He said authorities had just missed apprehending Lee at a homeless shelter and then at a motel.

“We have taken a very dangerous person that is a serial murder suspect off the streets,” Pennington said. He said Lee could be returned to Louisiana as early as Wednesday.

Residents at the Lakewood Motor Lodge said Lee had spent at least the last week there. Neighbors described him as a smooth talker 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 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?'”
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2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan