DTL - Part 12: The Hunt Intensifies

0:09 In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias, a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Derrick Todd Lee was a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile, led a double life that would unravel in a series of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare, igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually known by just three letters, would reveal not only the depths of Dereck Todd Lee's depravity, but also the resilience of those most affected by his evil acts, the families and the survivors. This is DTL Pam Kinnimore's murder really had the community of Baton Rouge reeling if someone so good could be targeted, anyone could be just working and going home. Were now considered risky behaviors, it seemed, so what were women supposed to do. They couldn't have their family and friends serve as bodyguards day in and day out.

1:28 The fear was real, and everyone was looking for that white male in that white truck, the guy believed to be responsible for killing women. If you pulled up at a store where a white truck was parked, no thanks. If a guy asked you out after class and he wanted to pick you up in his pickup truck, what color is it was the first thought. The fear was that real. Luckily, for the women of Lafayette, Louisiana, they were just outside of the killing field. It seemed. They watched the news in horror that the killer of Pam Kennimore had come as close as the Whiskey Bay exit, which meant he likely passed through on his way wherever, and that was unsettling. Just a few days after Pam was murdered, on July fifteenth, two thousand and two, attack survivor Diane Alexander was able to give a detailed description of her attacker to Detective Arthur Boyd of the Saint Martin Parish Sheriff's Office, with this first hand account and description of the attacker, a composite sketch was created. Diane's sketch was that of a black man, but due to alleged eyewitness accounts of Pam's kidnapping and eventual murder, police were focused on a white man. Women were panicked as the ghost ran loose on the streets. But sometimes curiosity and a combination of dumb luck are a wonderful thing.

2:45 Case in point, the crime lad did something unusual, or two of their employees did, at least, but it would prove very useful in this case. While chatting it up. One day, analysts were discussing their cases when a supervisor suggested they should see if any DNA from their respective cases might possibly match to the same suspect. But this wasn't really the normal procedure, so why would he say that? But curiosity took over, and five weeks after Pam Kinnimore was murdered, analysts Angela Ross and Julia Naylor did just that. They expected nothing to come of it, really, but jaws dropped when they found they matched. Holy cow, you have got to be kidding me. But the DNA don't lie.

3:28 When the DNA reports came back from the lab. Everyone's worst fears were solidified. Whomever had killed Pam absolutely was responsible for Gina and Murray's murders as well. Everyone wondered when and where he would attack again. But police were now understanding that they in fact had a serial killer on their hands. As a listener of this series, you know there are more victims and believed victims before the last three respective murder cases. However, these three are the ones that took place consecutatively which caught the attention of law enforcement. But why now, we'll simply put it's because the time between murders was becoming shorter and shorter, as well as the victims being in relative close proximity to one another geographically. Now that the serial killer was identified by DNA link, investigators had to put a face and a name to that. DNA Cotis, the indexing system for DNA collected, came back with no hits as to who the DNA belonged to. For now, it was simply believed to be a white man driving a white truck. As such, a task force was deemed the best option in tackling this massive load. A task force isn't just a group of men sitting around a table chatting. It's much more organized and vetted than people may know. This task force was multi agency to start. Baton Rouge Police Department East Baton Rouge, Paris Sheriff's Office, the FBI, Louisiana State Police, Lafayette Peara Sheriff's Office, and the Ibberville Para Sheriff's Office

4:58 were all included. This team brought a powerhouse of experience, technology, and information to the table. Think of it like the Olympics. Great athletes are dotted all over the professional realm of sports, but the Olympics is a different animal. The best come together to create a dominating effect. This task force was just that. Sharing information is key in solving crimes that span large areas. While I find it understandable to want to solve your cases if you've dedicated your time and your drive to it, but this was too big for one man to handle. This would require a team approach. Isn't it crazy knowing that one man can cause enough death and devastation that it takes a team of experts to bring him down. That's how bad this was. If you haven't caught on yet, a task force is a well oiled machine after all of the agreements are made, and I won't bore you with those details, but I can say that this group had three hundred and sixty combined years of experience in investigation. They were trained in the most up to date investigative techniques of the time, with experience ranging from local to international levels. This team approach now offered access to technology and information sharing that one agency alone would likely never have due to the funding limitations, etc. The Task Force was made official in August of two thousand and two, right after Pam's murder was linked, and they started by creating a victim timeline, which, as far as they knew at the moment, started with

6:29 Gina Green. As they jumped into action and began chasing down tips and random leads, they had some very straightforward information for the public. Be careful, stay vigilant, and lock your doors. Truth was, they had no clue who this monster was yet, But all of this terror paled in comparison to the fear a young woman in Lafayette was already facing one girl who, now despite the well publicized killings happening, had already been rocked by death. But not one of the victims in the series thus far, it was her very own mother. The fear of facing life without her mama was so heavy that a serial killer was the last thing on her mind. Trenisha Denay Cologne was a pretty vibrant and outgoing young woman, but her upbeat outlook on life had been severely damaged in recent time when her loving mother, Verna, passed away after a long battle with breast cancer in April of two thousand and two. We all have that person who is our rock and our point of calm in a messy and difficult world. Trenisha, who was known by her family as Denay, felt that her mother was that person, and now she was gone. Denay felt lost and as if she were going through the motions of life, but everything felt dull and colorless without her mama. Yes, she had a loving father and brother, but that wasn't going to fill the void.

7:52 A girl just needs her mom. But this much I know, Denay, while devastated, should have also been holding her head high. She was living proof, flesh and bone that her mama was everything worth grieving and that she raised one hell of a young lady. Denay had been adopted as a baby chosen handpicked, if you will, by her parents. Imagine being so wanted and so loved that two people would look at your face and instantly know they were unable to live without you. That was beautiful Denay. When Mamma Verna and Daddy Sterling Senior lay eyes on her, they knew she was meant to be their baby girl, even if her life came via someone else's womb. Miss Verna had some complications when she had Dnay's older brother, Sterling Junior, and they didn't want to risk that again. They knew they wanted a daughter, and adoption made that happen. Denay was raised on morals and standards with high expectations. She was a queen, gentle and kind, but disgustingly bright, with ambition overflowing a little bit more about this girl. She was someone we all would appreciate. She chased knowledge with a vengeance and loved to learn about culture and people.

9:08 At just twenty three years old, she was blazing a path to success. She was an avid reader and lover of languages. She was bilingual, but continued to teach yourself new languages in her free time. But she wasn't a straight up book nerd. If that's what you're thinking, No way. She was multifaceted, competitive, and a young woman filled with patriotism. She had joined the army two years prior to the story taking place, and was a force to be reckoned with. When she completed her obligations with the army, she returned home for a brief stay with her dad, and in a short time she would be heading out on her new adventure, joining the few the proud, the Marines. She was a testament to her family's belief in service above self.

9:52 She fully intended to serve both you and I for some time to come. While she was certainly in an emotional rut, she kept her chin up and she never folded under the pressure of life. She walked and even crawled if she must, but she never stopped moving. Her mother wouldn't have wanted her to quit or fall apart, and she knew that. But she was still human, and the heart wants what it wants, and Dnay's heart desperately wanted her mama back, just one more hug and one more I love you. She wasn't ready to say goodbye, and she didn't want to let go, But as many of us have had to, learn cancer doesn't care what we want, does it. Denay loved the character Tweetybird and even gotten a tattoo of it, amongst many others. And she had that quirkiness about her that you couldn't put your finger on. Years back, Dnay comically decided that she was going to try out for the show Survivor. And I say comically because her tryout video was flat out hilarious.

10:49 Did she climb a mountain or run a marathon to show her skill? Nah, that was child's play. She decided, in order to make the cut, she should make a video of herself wrestling a pig in the mud. Daddy was cracking up laughing as he filmed her in the slop with that pig at her grandparents house. Now that's not something you see every day now. Dennay was just as smart as she was beautiful. Her brother was older and was in college, but he would still call his little sister in high school to help him with his coursework. She was always willing to help out too. She was everything a likable woman, in my opinion, should be. But the moments of hilariousness had passed and today had hit rock bottom. Her depression had gotten so bad that she recently decided she didn't want to live anymore without her mom, and she attempted to end her life. She grieved so hard for five months and it was September of two thousand and two when she overdosed on pills, just trying to make the pain stop, anything to make her daily agony continue no more. But on the flip side, she was fiercely loved by her daddy and her brother. In her personal journey with grief, she was temporarily blinded to the aftermath her death would have brought her family again.

12:02 Denay wasn't a quitter and she didn't give in. But love in its purest form is the devastation that a company's losing someone you love with all of your heart, and she just wanted to be with her mom. Thank God, the attempt was unsuccessful and her family breathed a sigh of relief when she recovered. And this is one of those things I think we can all understand in a way. Life is hard, and no one, no matter how tough, is bulletproof. Denay was now making strides though, to not move on per se, but to move forward. Simple thoughts helped to keep her on track. Mama may be gone, but I will see her again someday, one day at a time. And it's okay to feel the emotions, work through them, don't fall into despair. And one way she chose to channel her emotions was by visiting her mother's grave to be as close to her physical body. Although she knew her spirit wasn't there either way, it still brought her comfort and for the last two weeks leading up to this story unfolding, Denay had a routine which included visiting her mother's grave daily. November twenty first, two thousand and two, was no different. Denay had plans for the day. First, she was going to spend some time at the library around eleven am. Afterwards, she was going to spend some time at her mother's grave, and then she would be completing a shift at Helping Hands before meeting up with her brother. In general, Helping Hands was a community support center that helped people with specific services like emergency financial aid for utilities, a food pantry, and

13:34 things like senior care coordination. But Denay was a doll like that. She loved helping people. But when Denay never returned home that evening, her family became extremely concerned, especially when she had plans to go and spend the night with her brother, Sterling Junior. Denay wasn't want to just leave or run away, and she wouldn't ignore her family's attempts to contact her, and when she never returned her daddy's calls, the alarm bells were going off. But because Denay was an adult, she was allowed to leave if she wanted to, and the twenty four hours would have to pass before a missing person's report could be filed. There was no evidence of foul play nor anything else, thus there was no impending circumstance to warrant breaking that policy.

14:16 But the next day things would change, and that's because her car was located in Grand Coutou, right near the Saint Charles Barromeo Cemetery, the very place Dunay's mother had been buried. Grand Coutou is a small town population of less than a thousand, and roughly fifteen miles from Lafayette, almost fifty miles from Baton Rouge. It's a slow place with farmland, and unlike the hustle and bustle of nearby larger cities. Inside her car, her purse and her keys were still there, which meant she either walked away and didn't return, or she rode away with someone else. But even in both of those scenarios, a woman would take her purse, especially when it contained her wallet. Denay wasn't in the car, nor was she anywhere in the area, so this only added to the concern. Her daddy at this point called police and was able to file that missing person's report. As you can imagine, everyone started looking for Denay. Her family and police went all out searching for her. In the area was rural, there was lots of land to cover, which they did search in force. Friends, family, and the police. Together they all worked to find her.

15:25 Police even loaned four wheelers to Denay's family for them to help cover more ground in their search. Helicopter's word overhead looking from the air as well, but nothing was ever located. No one knew for certain what had happened to her, but her brother thought he had an idea. See. Two thousand and two was the time of chat rooms online. People didn't really understand the dangers of it like we do now, and Denay was known to meet people in these chat rooms a time or two. A guy she met even came over to the house and hung out. Sterling Junior thought in the back of his mind that maybe one of those guys had kidnap, but there was no evidence to support this, just a gut feeling that someone had taken his sister against her will. The search would continue and along three days would pass before any new information came to light. This new information, however, wouldn't be coming from anywhere near the abandoned location of Dney's car. Scott, Louisiana, is about nineteen miles from Grand Couto. A hunter was walking the woods when he stumbled upon the body of a dead female lying in a wooded area near a field.

16:30 Police were called, and as they cordoned off the scene, it was obvious that whoever she was, she had fought for her life. She was a light skinned female in her early twenties, dressed only in a T shirt. She was still wearing her bra and her socks and her tennis shoes, but no pants or underwear. Immediately this screamed foul play, as no one dresses this way, and her location wasn't near anything for her to have come from, nor to be traveling towards. No pants would make the average person think sexual assault, which would be likely considering. Investigators located a pair of fleece pants and a pair of underwear in some underbrush near the body. Continuing to scour the ground, they also located a pool of blood roughly thirty feet from where the body lay. Drag Marks in the mud were proof that she'd been drug some distance.

17:22 The body was taken for autopsy, and everyone searching for Denay had gathered at her daddy's house during a break. When the phone rang, police broke the news that a body had been found, but they were clear they weren't sure who it was yet. Sterling Senior felt that sick feeling of oh my god, what if they found my baby girl dead? Within six months, this man had lost his wife and now possibly his daughter. There is no way the world could be this cruel to one family. But he would have to wait for an identification. As the death made news, a witness came forward and reported seeing a white pickup truck park behind Denay's car on November twenty first, which raised eyebrows. For sure, a neighbor of the Cologns happened to be someone with a cousin who was a coroner. And that person went to ide the body. When the call came back, devastation set in.

18:16 It was in fact beautiful Denay, and her death was anything but quick. Based on the autopsy and combined with the evidence at both locations, Denay had gone to the cemetery to visit at her mother's grave when someone lay eyes on her. How he located her in such a rural area, Linn's one to believe that he must have been watching her. When her visit with her mom was completed, she returned to her car when the man approached. Whether he asked for directions or maybe help with something isn't known, but Denay was kind, compassionate, and also trusting. When he saw that the coast was clear, that person grabbed Denay and forced her into his truck. It only took seconds for her to be pushed into his vehicle and he told her to shut up or be stabbed. She likely complied in an effort to survive the encounter, and as the truck took to the interstate, Denay knew this wasn't good, but she sat there wishing and more likely praying, that he would let her go. How could she get away from him? Her mind raised as the vehicle sped ahead on the interstate. She had no idea where he was taking her, but she knew he would hurt her if she tried to fight him. They rode nearly twenty miles together, Denay surrounded by people in cars, but certainly all alone, and she was getting more desperate by the minute. Eventually, her abductor hit his blinker and the truck took the Scott Exit, where it slowed to a stop at the juncture.

19:41 He turned and would eventually find himself with his victim on a desolate road, running alongside a field, perfect no one to see what he had plans to do. Get out, simple words that she followed so as to not be harmed. If Denay was already hurt at this point, that's up for space vlation. But the man came around the truck where he demanded she'd get out, take off her pants and her panties. In shock, initially, he demanded it again, where she did as she was told, but her mind was reeling a mile a minute. She slid off her fleece pants and then her panties. Each leg pulled over her tennis shoes one at a time, until she stood there exposed. She didn't remove her shoes because she knew in the back of her mind she may need them, but she felt so humiliated and vulnerable, and she knew she was about to be raped. But Denay had no plans to stay. Evident shows She took off running at some point, her legs feeling like lead, and she had no clue where she was going, but she was digging in and giving it all she had. A soldier doesn't give up. They fight. She ran hard, but her kidnapper chased her down step for step, where his two hundred and sixty pound body tackled her much smaller one. They smashed to the ground, both of their adrenaline pumping, but for much different reasons, and she clawed and screamed at the man while he got more and more excited at her fear. The more she fought, the more excited and powerful he became. Armed with an unknown object. Dereck todd

21:12 Lee took it and began smashing Denay about the head with brutal accuracy. The blunt force trauma so extensive that it would eventually kill her, but not before she collapsed, agonizing in pain to the ground as her captor then raped her viciously. De Day, no doubt, cried and moaned, but that was of no consequence to Dereck Todd Lee. Matter of fact, he loved it. At some point, Denay stopped responding and breathing ceased, but Dereck Lee didn't stop what he was doing until he was satiated sexually. As he completed the rape of this innocent girl, he watched as she would die on the ground next to a field.

21:53 He got up, put on his pants and sipped them closed, panting and now done with this prey, Derek didn't want to leave her where she could easily be found. Her head wounds had poured out a lot of blood, but her body was the issue for him. He looked around and then grabbed her by her ankles, dragging her the thirty feet to a less conspicuous area of brush, before dropping her legs and walking back to his truck. He started it up, and he was now on his way home for the evening. Denay lay out in the elements for the following three days until the hunter spotted her body, but even that delay couldn't stop nature. Science was still available, and an analyst at the Acadiana Crime lab would write a solid report on her findings. A rape test kit was performed on Denay at the morgue and those samples were sent to analyst Carolyn Booker, who was able to locate, identify, and also obtain a genetic profile of the man who deposited his seamen inside young Dnay against her will. As this was being completed, beautiful Denay was laid to rest right next to her beloved mama. Her family and friends were in mourning, but also at the same time they felt sorry for all of the women being murdered by a serial killer in Baton Rouge. What they were about to shockingly find out was that they themselves were closer to those murdered women than they knew. The DNA collected from Dnay's rape kit was run against the serial killer's DNA, and it was a match that Baton Rouge serial killer

23:25 had now claimed another victim, Trenisha Denay Cologne, whoever murdered Gina Green, Charlotte Murray Pace and Pam Kinnemore, had also murdered Denay. The task force was steadily working the previous murders when Dnay's murder was added to the already large caseload. They knew they had to stop this guy, but at least they had a solid shoe print from the scene. Really, it was all they had in conjunction with the DNA profile, but it was something. But now the argument amongst the task force was what to do with the shoe information? Do we release it in hopes of someone recognizing it or do we keep it hush as we investigate men and see if we can find a match to the print.

24:08 While this information was debated, a profile of Dnay and the other women's killer was being developed. The Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI created a profile to give more insight to the man believed to be hunting women. That profile was as follows. Because Dnay's abduction was believed to be around one point thirty in the afternoon, this killer was starting to partake in very high risk behavior. For this offender, why while people were working and conducting normal business in the area, Yet he still took the massive risk of driving to another location with his victim in his vehicle during the daytime where they could easily be seen. The killer also felt comfortable enough to take her to the area she was killed, which was rather rural This meant he was hunting on familiar ground to him, either he lived or he worked in that area. The killer would likely be paying attention to the news and would have some obvious personality traits, one of them being he acts suddenly, seemingly without deliberation. He tends to disregard the consequences for his behavior. He likely has a history of domestic violence, workplace violence, and threatening behavior, and he's likely emotionally shallow and cold towards those even the ones he supposedly cares about. His method was to follow women and watch them without being noticed, yet come across as a nice guy. This is to blend in with the community.

25:35 How accurate do you think the behavioral profile is to this point? Seems pretty good to me. For now, though, the only new information for the public was that the white truck may have a small fish symbol on the upper left portion of the tailgate and possibly a license plate with the characters JT, three, four and one. Everyone was paying attention to the news. Getting any new information on the killings was a must so women could keep themselves safe. Women just like sixty five year old Mary Ann Fowler. Coming up on the next episode of DTL investigators on the Baton Rouge Serial Task Force were in the throes of their investigation when Leeds came in that would pull them in all different directions. DNA had confirmed that the same man killed Denay, Pam Gina, and Murray just two days before Christmas. Everyone would learn that Dnay's death was now tied to the case for sixty five year old Mary and Fowler visiting her husband in federal prison for Christmas wasn't the type of holiday memory she had hoped, but it was what she had to work with, So she swung into a strip mall on Highway four fifteen that held a subway sandwich shop where she could

27:07 get a bite to eat. It was about five thirty PM and not very busy, considering it was Christmas Eve. The movement of the camera would capture Mary Anne walking to the parking lot and approaching her car. At that moment, only the lower half of a man would appear to approach her from behind, but it was obvious he was grabbing her in some way because the camera caught her dropping her food and struggling, But then it panned away