Derrick Todd Lee
Derrick Todd Lee | |
|---|---|
Mug shot of Lee in 2003 | |
| Born | November 5, 1968 |
| Died | January 21, 2016 (aged 47) Zachary, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Other names | The Baton Rouge Serial Killer |
| Convictions |
|
| Criminal penalty | Death + life imprisonment |
| Details | |
| Victims | 7+ |
Span of crimes | April 18, 1998 – March 3, 2003 |
| Country | United States |
| State | Louisiana |
Date apprehended | May 27, 2003 |
Derrick Todd Lee (November 5, 1968 – January 21, 2016), also known as The Baton Rouge Serial Killer, was an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least seven women around Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana, between 1998 and 2003.
Before his murder charges, Lee had been arrested for stalking women and watching them in their homes. Despite this arrest, he initially was overlooked by police because they incorrectly believed the killer was white. Lee was linked by DNA tests to the deaths of seven women in the area in Louisiana and in 2004, he was convicted in separate trials of the murders of Geralyn DeSoto and Charlotte Murray Pace. The Pace trial resulted in a death sentence.
Newspapers suggested Lee was responsible for other unsolved murders in the area, but the police lacked DNA evidence to prove these connections. After Lee's arrest, it was discovered that another serial killer, Sean Vincent Gillis, was operating in the Baton Rouge area during the same time as Lee.
Lee spent twelve years on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary before dying of heart disease at a hospital in 2016.