Police hunt man accused of killing five women
Derrick Todd Lee, 34, was charged in a warrant issued on Monday with murder and aggravated rape in the killing of Carrie Yoder, 26, a Louisiana State University graduate student believed to be the fifth victim of a serial killer.
The FBI also issued a nationwide fugitive warrant for Lee. Police released his photo and asked the public to help locate him.
"He is to be considered armed and dangerous," said Police Chief Pat Englade, head of the task force investigating the killings.
The warrant accuses Lee only of Ms Yoder's murder, though it says DNA evidence removed from her body matched that taken from the other four victims.
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-defence classes and bought pepper spray and handguns.
In a 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. Defence attorneys have questioned the legality of the search.
Two more victims were connected to the serial killer later. 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 women
The warrant says a DNA sample was taken from Lee on May 5 but did not say why or under what circumstances.
Police refused to answer questions about the DNA testing, but The Advocate newspaper yesterday reported the sample was originally taken in connection with an unrelated case involving a missing woman.
The DNA match to Lee, a black man, conflicts with descriptions in an FBI profile released months ago that said the killer likely was white. Police said after Ms Yoder's murder that the killer could be of any race.
Ms Yoder, from Tampa, Florida, 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, Ms 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," he said.
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