S1: E25 – The South Louisiana Serial Killer, Part 2

Summary

American Homicide
Episode: S1:E25 – The South Louisiana Serial Killer, Part 2
Release Date: April 10, 2025

Introduction

In this gripping second part of the South Louisiana Serial Killer saga, journalist Sloane Glass delves deeper into the harrowing case that terrorized Baton Rouge and its surrounding areas in the early 2000s. This episode unpacks the intricate investigation, the challenges faced by law enforcement, and the ultimate pursuit of justice against Derek Todd Lee.

Background of the South Louisiana Serial Killer

During the early 2000s, Baton Rouge became a hotspot of fear as women lived under the constant threat of a serial killer. Sloane Glass sets the stage by recounting the murders of Gina Wilson Green (01:09), Charlotte Murray Pace (01:11), and Pam Kinemore (01:20), highlighting the proximity of these crimes to LSU campus, which intensified the community’s anxiety.

Formation of the Task Force

Detective David McDavid (01:09) explains how the Baton Rouge Police Department, recognizing the pattern of a serial killer, established a specialized task force. Their mission was clear: identify and apprehend the elusive murderer responsible for at least five victims.

Identifying Derek Todd Lee as a Suspect

Detective McDavid details the breakthrough moment when DNA evidence connected Derek Todd Lee to the murders (04:36). Despite Lee being a black man, which conflicted with the FBI profiler’s description of a "white male with a white truck" (06:26), McDavid insisted on pursuing Lee as the prime suspect. “People look at the serial killer as a white male, and that’s where people got thrown off on this case,” McDavid states (06:43).

DNA Evidence and Investigation Challenges

The investigation faced significant hurdles due to racial profiling and limited evidence. However, the persistence of Detective McDavid and his team led to the collection of crucial DNA samples. “If we could get his DNA evidence and connect him to the crime, I knew we could get him arrested, get him off the street,” McDavid asserts (06:43).

Arrest and Nationwide Manhunt

After matching Lee’s DNA to the crime scenes, the task force attempted to apprehend him. Unfortunately, Lee evaded capture initially, prompting a nationwide manhunt. “I think the day we got his DNA, he took off,” McDavid reflects (10:05). The manhunt culminated in Lee’s arrest in Atlanta (12:21), but not before significant fear had gripped South Louisiana.

The Trial

The trial of Derek Todd Lee was marked by high stakes and intense courtroom drama. Prosecutor John Sinkfield (16:28) led the prosecution, focusing on compelling DNA evidence and the testimonies of survivors like Diane Alexander. Lee’s defense team, despite being highly experienced, struggled to counter the overwhelming evidence presented.

Key Testimonies and Evidence

Diane Alexander’s testimony was pivotal. She recounted her terrifying encounter with Lee (20:20), describing how he “pushed his way in her door and attacked her” (21:13). Her detailed account, coupled with DNA evidence found on the victim, solidified the prosecution’s case. John Sinkfield emphasized the uniqueness of the DNA match: “You see a woman like Charlotte Murray Pace... some men will kill her just for a few minutes of sexual gratification with her,” he explained (28:06).

Conviction and Death Sentence

After less than 80 minutes of jury deliberation, Derek Todd Lee was convicted of first-degree murder (30:43). The prosecution successfully argued for the death penalty, despite the defense’s attempts to portray Lee as mentally challenged. “What I'm about to say is not politically correct, but I'm gonna say it anyway... Derek Todd Lee did,” Sinkfield declared (29:51). The jury unanimously agreed to impose a lethal injection sentence (31:13).

Aftermath and Impact on Victims' Families

The conviction brought a sense of closure to the families, though the journey was fraught with emotional turmoil. Ann Pace, mother of victim Charlotte Murray Pace, expressed both relief and lingering pain (33:08). Melinda Delot, a journalist covering the case, highlighted the prolonged battle faced by the families: “We had spent 11 years in court, which means every time your life gets a little bit normal, you're snatched back into the nightmare,” she shared (35:19).

Derek Todd Lee’s Death

In a swift turn of events, Derek Todd Lee passed away in prison in 2016 due to heart disease (34:34). His death marked the end of a decade-long ordeal for the victims' families, who had hoped for finality and justice. Ann Pace reflected on the unresolved grief: “The end of the fight feels like a loss. Feels like I'm armored for battle, only to find you have no opponent,” she mourned (35:01).

Conclusion

This episode of American Homicide masterfully chronicles the relentless pursuit of justice against the South Louisiana Serial Killer. Through detailed interviews and compelling narratives, Sloane Glass paints a vivid picture of the fear, determination, and eventual triumph that defined this harrowing case. For those seeking to understand the complexities of such investigations and their profound impact on communities, this episode serves as a poignant and informative listen.

Notable Quotes:

• Detective David McDavid: “People look at the serial killer as a white male, and that’s where people got thrown off on this case.” (06:43)

• John Sinkfield: “What I'm about to say is not politically correct, but I'm gonna say it anyway... Derek Todd Lee did.” (29:51)

• Ann Pace: “The end of the fight feels like a loss. Feels like I'm armored for battle, only to find you have no opponent.” (35:01)

• Melinda Delot: “We had spent 11 years in court, which means every time your life gets a little bit normal, you're snatched back into the nightmare.” (35:19)

Listen to American Homicide on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform to stay informed about America's most mysterious and iconic murder cases.

Transcript

[Larison Campbell]

In Mississippi. Yazoo clay keeps secrets.

[John Sinkfield]

7,000 bodies out there. Or more.

[Larison Campbell]

A forgotten asylum cemetery.

[Melinda Delot]

It was my family's mystery.

[Larison Campbell]

Shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep. Until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell, and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nancy Grace]

Foreign Grace this is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us. Listen to crime stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or radio. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sloane Glass]

During the early 2000s, women in Baton Rouge lived in constant fear of the South Louisiana serial killer.

[Detective David McDavid]

Police found Gina Wilson Green strangled to.

[Nancy Grace]

Death on September 24th of 2001 in her home. In May, police found Charlotte Murray Pace stabbed to death.

[Dana Cummings]

Pace had just completed her MBA at.

[Sloane Glass]

Lsu, and with the proximity of the Pace and Green murder scenes, female students were terrified. That terror grew when Pam Kinemore became the third victim. Kinamore disappeared from her Baton Rouge home in 2000. Two days later, her body turned up in Whiskey bay under the I10.

[Nancy Grace]

After investigators determined that the suspect was.

[Sloane Glass]

Most likely a serial killer, they formed a task force.

[Dana Cummings]

Their goal, to find the man who.

[Sloane Glass]

Had spread so much fear across South Louisiana with at least 5, 5 victims. The task force had a big job to do, but it would be a small police department outside Baton Rouge that ultimately would solve this case. I'm Sloane Glass and this is the conclusion of the South Louisiana Serial Killer on American Homicide. A note that this episode contains some graphic content. Please take care while listening. In 2003, the Baton Rouge PD was actively hunting a serial killer. Someone who was able to get in and out of victims homes without forcing entry. DNA connected him to five women, but authorities did not know who the killer was, so they asked for help. The Baton Rouge PD invited detectives from numerous suburban police departments to a meeting to share information about other unsolved cases. They hoped hearing about those cases could unlock a connection.

[Detective David McDavid]

You know, people wanted this saw because, I mean, it was. It was very bad at the time, very scary.

[Sloane Glass]

Detective David McDavid attended that meeting.

[Detective David McDavid]

Women here, they were afraid. They were afraid to go out and walk. They were afraid to go shopping. They were afraid to go anywhere by themselves. You saw parents questioning if they were going to send their daughters to LSU because several of the crimes happened close to LSU campus.

[Sloane Glass]

Detective McDavid worked for the Zachary Police Department, a small city about 15 minutes north of Baton Rouge.

[Detective David McDavid]

Zachary's on the outskirts. I mean, we've probably in my career had 10 or less murders.

[Sloane Glass]

And he felt like one of those murders might be the work of the serial killer. The case involved a divorced moment named Randy mee Brewer. In 1998, the police found a trail of blood at her home, but no sign of Randy. Based on the evidence, the police believe Randy was killed and then removed from her home.

[Detective David McDavid]

The body was dragged from the bedroom throughout the house and through the dining, living room area. And you could see where the body was set outside the front door. And her child was left there at the house.

[Sloane Glass]

Police believe Randy's 3 year old son was asleep at the time his mother was murdered.

[Detective David McDavid]

The child had walked over to the neighbor's house and wanted to come over and play. And the neighbor, you know, let's go ask your mama. And he said, well, my mama's not there. The neighbors walked in. There was blood in the house, everywhere. You know, one thing that really bothered us is the killer looked in on the child. You could see where he went into the bedroom with the blood droplets on the child's door.

[Sloane Glass]

The police never found Randy's body, but they found the killer's DNA at the scene.

[Detective David McDavid]

I told my partner, said, you know who it is? There was no doubt in our mind. It was Derek Todd Lee.

[Sloane Glass]

Derek Todd Lee, he was the suspect in Randy's murder, and he was also someone the Zachary PD had dealt with for years.

[Detective David McDavid]

He was committing burglaries as a juvenile, breaking into homes, peeping time. But he also had a violent side to him. He beat up on some people, so he spent a little time in jail, but you could see the pattern progressively getting worse as time went on and he just get more violent.

[Sloane Glass]

Derek Todd Lee went from being charged with peeping into women's homes to stalking and beating up multiple women. The Zachary police got a tip that Derek Todd Lee had something to do with Randy M.E. brewer's murder. And since they had previously arrested him for peeping into homes in the same neighborhood where Randy lived, detectives questioned him and searched his home the whole time.

[Detective David McDavid]

You know, he acted like he was innocent. You know, he didn't do nothing wrong. The look he had, you could tell he was, you know, he was just evil. Just talking to him, my hair stood up on the back of my neck.

[Sloane Glass]

Halfway through their search of his home, Derek Todley told the cops to leave. He lawyered up and stopped cooperating with their investigation. And that's where things ended. Detective McDavid told the Baton Rouge PD how they never had enough evidence to charge Lee, but they kept an eye on him. And based on how the serial killer was operating, he believed it was Derek Todd Lee. And Lee drove a white truck.

[Detective David McDavid]

A trucker had saw a white truck on the Whiskey Bay Bridge with what appeared be a white male with a naked female in the passenger side. And, you know, that's what was given to the FBI profilers who come up with a profile.

[Sloane Glass]

Detective McDavid shared why he thought Derek Todd Lee was the serial killer. If you remember, the serial killer was thought to be a white male with a white truck. But the Baton Rouge team did not pursue the lead because Derek Todd Lee was black and didn't fit the profile.

[Detective David McDavid]

People look at the serial killer as a white male, and that's where people got thrown off on this case. Here they were looking for a white male. It bothered me somewhat, but there was no doubt in our mind it was Derrick Todd Lee. We knew that he was doing stuff. If we could get his DNA evidence and connect him to the crime, I knew we could get him arrested, get him off the street. So he began to be our main focus.

[Sloane Glass]

The Zachary PD continued to do surveillance on Derek Todd Lee. And the following spring, he was back to his old tricks.

[Detective David McDavid]

I got a call from a lady here in town, and she stated she'd been jogging every morning. A white truck was following her. So, you know, we did some surveillance there. We never did see him, but, you know, we showed her a picture and she swore him down that was him that was following her in a white truck.

[Sloane Glass]

Investigators searched around her home and found some boot prints right outside her window, leading them to believe some someone had been peeping.

[Detective David McDavid]

Evidently, he saw her and kind of got attached onto her and was watching her and probably finna make his move. He was very careful in how he got in the area and got back out without being seen.

[Sloane Glass]

Law enforcement suspected Derek Tudley, but once again, they didn't have enough to arrest him. So they tried a different approach. They still had that DNA evidence from Randy Mead Brewer's house and wanted to test it against Derek Todd Lee's. But they needed a judge to sign off on a subpoena to get that swab. So they put together a timeline of the unsolved murders and compared it to what was going on in Derek Tide.

[Detective David McDavid]

Lee's life, what vehicle he was driving, what job he was working at. Was a body found during that time was he fired from his job? Was he laid off? So with that, I began seeing a pattern with Derek Todd Lee.

[Sloane Glass]

The pattern showed the traumatic events in Derek Todley's life, like getting fired or filing bankruptcy. Well, they all happened right before the serial killer struck. Was it simply a coincidence? Detective McDavid didn't think so.

[Detective David McDavid]

I knew right then and there it was Derek Todd Lee.

[Sloane Glass]

His team presented the information to a judge, and the judge ordered Derek Todd Lee to be swapped. Almost three weeks later, Detective McDavid got a phone call from the task force.

[Detective David McDavid]

Look, we just want to let y'all know the DNA y'all got is a confirmed match.

[Sloane Glass]

Derek Todd Lee's DNA matched the DNA found on all five victims. Meaning the small group from Zachary, Louisiana, had unmasked the South Louisiana serial killer.

[Detective David McDavid]

This has been the most serious case, tough case that I've ever worked on. I mean, the stuff he did, where he dumped the bodies at, in the bayous, waterways. I mean, he was smart. And just the stress and what this area went through in the Baton Rouge area and the citizens of this state went through, because, I mean, he was everywhere committing crimes. He just didn't know where he was going to show up next.

[Sloane Glass]

And that was their next problem. Nearly three weeks had passed from the time they swapped his DNA to when they got the results. So when police went to arrest Derek Todley, his home appeared to be abandoned, and a foreclosure notice was stuck to the front door.

[Detective David McDavid]

I think the day we got his DNA, he took off.

[Sloane Glass]

The man believed to have killed five women in south Louisiana over the course of 18 months had again slipped out of reach. That's when the Baton Rouge police chief went on tv.

[John Sinkfield]

An arrest warrant has been issued for the arrest of Derek Todd Lee. He is to be considered armed and dangerous, and authorities should be notified immediately.

[Sloane Glass]

That began a nationwide manhunt.

[Detective David McDavid]

I said, look, I'm telling you something. If he knows he's about to be caught, he's probably going to kill again. Y'all need to find him.

[Larison Campbell]

There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's got a reputation.

[Sloane Glass]

It's terrible, terrible dirt.

[Larison Campbell]

Yazoo clay eats everything. So things that get buried there tend to stay buried until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.

[John Sinkfield]

7,000 bodies out there or more, all.

[Larison Campbell]

Former patients of the old state asylum. And nobody knew they were there.

[Melinda Delot]

It was my family's mystery.

[Larison Campbell]

But in this corner of the south, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets. Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information. When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's Yazoo Clay, nothing's ever as simple as you think.

[Dana Cummings]

The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that.

[Larison Campbell]

I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to under yazukle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away, guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us. Listen to Crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Sloane Glass]

Just one day into a nationwide manhunt for Derek Todd Lee. Police arrested him without incident in Atlanta. And when his mugshot hit the news, all of south Louisiana couldn't believe it.

[Ann Pace]

Well, none of this matches anything the police had told us for a very long time, and it just didn't piece together and it didn't make sense.

[Sloane Glass]

Journalist Melinda Delot had covered the story for nearly a year. Most of that time, she reported that the police were looking for a white male in a white truck.

[Ann Pace]

The police in Baton Rouge led people down a lot of rabbit trails that ended up not being credible. So they got a lot of blowback about that. The police chief and a lot of other people who had been very engaged in that case got very defensive of what they had done and how they had handled it. There was just a lot of mishmash of emotions. It was relief for the families because I knew how much they needed to see somebody arrested for this. And there was just a lot of frustration vented at the Baton Rouge Police Department because this police officer in Zachary is the one who sought the DNA swab of Derek Todd Lee and ended up being the person who connected all the murders.

[Sloane Glass]

At the time of his arrest, Derek Todd Lee was 34 years old. He was married. He even had children and a girlfriend on the side. Here's prosecutor Dana Cummings.

[Dana Cummings]

I found that really bizarre that somebody that was actually married and in relationships was doing that.

[Sloane Glass]

The profile said that this was someone who would be a loner, and this was a man who was surrounded by women. You have a married father of two who also had a girlfriend on the side, charged with killing a handful of women in south Louisiana.

[Dana Cummings]

You know, you can understand people that do things in, like, heat of passion, like somebody walks in and finds their spouse Cheating, you can understand that you don't like it, but you can understand that they may lose it, they may get emotional and they may do something that they regret later. But I don't remember anything that I learned of him to say, oh, well, no wonder, no wonder he did that.

[Sloane Glass]

Derek Todd Lee was born in South Louisiana. His troubles began at the age of 11 when he first started peeping into the windows of girls. Growing up, he attended special education classes. He later dropped out of school and married his high school sweetheart. A year later, she accused him of abusing her. Journalist Melinda Delot interviewed people who knew Derek Todley.

[Ann Pace]

People said nice things about him.

[Sloane Glass]

His neighbors, for example, called him polite, friendly and well dressed.

[Ann Pace]

So despite how he came across to people, he clearly had a background of some disturbing behavior regarding women because he had been arrested before for trespassing and peeking into houses and stalking as part of the peeping Tom kind of allegations. And then he was accused of beating up a woman like some sort of fight in a bar. He was convicted and he was sentenced to jail for that one. You know, hindsight's always 20 20, but like, obviously there was a trail of some arrest records that probably could have drawn some attention if they knew they were looking for, for a Black man.

[Sloane Glass]

By 2004, Derek Todd Lee's DNA connected him with the murders of two more people, another LSU grad student and a 28 year old woman from Zachry. That was now seven women that Lee was accused of killing. But prosecutors decided to only try the cases they believed had the best shot at winning.

[John Sinkfield]

I'm John Sinkfield. I'm a prosecutor in Louisiana since 1971. I specialize in trying capital murder cases in East Baton Rouge Parish. And I had three people actually executed that I prosecuted.

[Sloane Glass]

In the fall of 2004, Derek Todd Lee stood trial for the murder of Murray Pace. She was the 22 year old Ellis Ugrad, who was sexually assaulted and stabbed 81 times. John Sinkfield was the lead prosecutor.

[John Sinkfield]

I give the analogy it's like a gold miner. A gold miner's got to work where there's gold. A murder prosecutor's got to work where there are murders. And Baton Rouge was a good place.

[Sloane Glass]

For my career in this case. The prosecutor was seeking capital punishment.

[John Sinkfield]

And I had no problem asking these jurors to return a death penalty against Derek Todd Lee based on the evidence that I thought proved beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty that he had committed all these crimes.

[Sloane Glass]

This throughout his trial, Derek Todd Lee sat quietly and appeared emotionless. He was represented by a team of public defenders.

[John Sinkfield]

You may have heard bad things about public defenders, but not in this case. He had a top notch team.

[Sloane Glass]

In fact, neither the lead defense attorney nor the prosecutor had ever lost a capital case.

[John Sinkfield]

They set it up as a mano a mano contest, almost like a sporting event. And headlines were Two very experienced lawyers will face each other off tomorrow in a Baton Rouge courtroom. Neither one of them has ever lost a capital case. In this case, one of them is going to lose.

[Sloane Glass]

After weeks of jury selection and a short delay from a hurricane, the case involving the murder of Murray pace began in October 2004.

[John Sinkfield]

In that trial, Murray I had some.

[Sloane Glass]

Hard decisions to make, specifically whether to call some eyewitnesses who reported seeing someone outside of Murray Pace's home.

[John Sinkfield]

There's three or four witnesses that claim to have seen Derek Todd Lee in that area around her condo in the days previous to the assault and murder. But they had given some descriptions that didn't exactly match. So they had some vulnerability, I thought. And then I made a decision one night during that trial not to use the eyewitnesses to go just with the DNA.

[Sloane Glass]

For the first few days of the trial, that's what the prosecution did. They called witness after witness to speak about the DNA evidence.

[John Sinkfield]

We put on the DNA evidence only have them put on a defense saying that our criminalists who examined the DNA evidence were young and inexperienced, that there were some sloppy procedures in the lab, that a swab was found in one of the boxes which wasn't related to the cases, that our computer systems that analyzed this evidence was old and out of date. And there was some attempt, you know, like possibly to frame him or something like that.

[Sloane Glass]

As the defense attacked his DNA evidence, it left the prosecutor second guessing his strategy.

[John Sinkfield]

I've eliminated three or four eyewitnesses and I put on this powerful case of the DNA, only to sit there and pray that my career wasn't going to go straight out the window. Because I had never seen a DNA defense like that. And you're praying that the jury don't buy it.

[Sloane Glass]

The prosecution saved their star witness until the very end. That's when they called a 46 year old nurse named Diane Alexander.

[John Sinkfield]

Diane Alexander explained what it was like, in her words, to be attacked by Derek Todd Lee and survive.

[Sloane Glass]

Diane reported being attacked by Derek Todd Lee during the summer of 2002. It happened inside her home about an hour outside Baton Rouge. And her testimony was huge for prosecutors. Although we don't have that audio, Diane described the attack on a Series called LA Gospel Beats.

[I]

There was a knock at the door. So when I opened the door, there was this fair, complected young man standing outside my door.

[Sloane Glass]

Diane said she didn't recognize the man.

[I]

And he said, hi, my name is Anthony. I'm looking for the Montgomerys, and I'm supposed to do construction for them.

[Sloane Glass]

Diane told him he must be at the wrong house. She didn't know the Montgomerys.

[I]

And he said, do you think your husband might know? And I knew my husband was at work, but I just told him, my husband doesn't know who these people are.

[Sloane Glass]

And then he asked Diane one more.

[I]

Time, are you sure your husband doesn't know who those people are? I said, look, my husband's not home.

[John Sinkfield]

And boom, all hell broke loose. He was strong. He was bigger. He pushed his way in her door and attacked her. Within just a few seconds or minutes, he had her down, trying to strangle her with a phone cord.

[I]

His intentions was to rape and kill me. That was his intentions.

[Sloane Glass]

Over the next few minutes, he struck Diane on her head and stomped on her chest. All the while, he threatened to stab her in the eye with his knife.

[I]

And in my left ear, he whispered. He said, I've been watching you.

[Sloane Glass]

And then all of a sudden, the sound of a car pulling into the gravel driveway made him freeze.

[I]

And not long after, my son showed up.

[Sloane Glass]

Diane's son was a college student who came home early that morning. He chased the man but lost him. He reported seeing his mother's attacker drive off in a gold colored sedan with a beige telephone cord hanging out the window. In a dramatic moment, the prosecutor asked Diane if her attacker, who claimed his name was Anthony, was in the courtroom that day.

[John Sinkfield]

She looked right at Derek Todd Lee, and she said, that's him.

[Sloane Glass]

It was powerful testimony, but things wouldn't go as smoothly during cross examination.

[Larison Campbell]

There's a type of soil in Mississippi called yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's got a reputation.

[Sloane Glass]

It's terrible, terrible dirt.

[Larison Campbell]

Yazoo clay eats everything. So things that get buried there tend to stay buried until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.

[John Sinkfield]

7,000 bodies out there or more, all.

[Larison Campbell]

Former patients of the old state asylum, and nobody knew they were there.

[Melinda Delot]

It was my family's mystery.

[Larison Campbell]

But in this corner of the south, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets. Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information. When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's yazoo clay, nothing's ever as simple.

[Dana Cummings]

As you think the story is much more complicated and nuanced than that.

[Larison Campbell]

I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to under yazukle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away, guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us. Listen to Crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sloane Glass]

Jurors heard several DNA experts describe how Derek Todd Lee's DNA was found on the victim, Murray Pace. As you can imagine, that testimony was complex. But when Diane Alexander took the stand, she provided something no other witness could do. She described how Derek Todd Lee was able to get inside her home. Here's prosecutor Dana Cummings.

[Dana Cummings]

So he goes to the door and he's asking her questions and asking her, I'm looking for somebody. And she said he was very, very polite at first, well spoken. I mean, that's the way he came across. And then when he said, well, ask your husband. And I think she said, he's not home or something to that effect. And that's when he just changed his personality, forced his way into the trailer and started attacking her, just viciously tried to rape her. But her son drove up. She had like, a gravel driveway, and he drove up the driveway and Derek Tudley got up and ran. And her testimony was very compelling because the science is great, but to hear somebody actually describe how he operated, and it just made sense in all the other cases.

[Sloane Glass]

And Diane's testimony came with another key piece of evidence.

[Dana Cummings]

He used a cord, a foam cord to try to strangle her. And that phone cord, when he left, he grabbed it and took it with him. As a matter of fact, the son who came home described a cord hanging out of the vehicle. And that's important because three days later, he attacked Pam Kennamore.

[Sloane Glass]

Diane Alexander was attacked on July 9th. Pam Kinnemore was attacked and killed July 12th. Pam's body was later found in Whiskey Bay.

[Dana Cummings]

They're looking out there at Whiskey Bay and on, like, a roadway, there is a cord. And sure enough, they were later able to match it to the cord that was back at Diana Alexander's house. So that was a nice little piece of evidence because, you know, it was fine to have the DNA, and DNA is such incredible evidence, but it was also nice to have a little bit different piece of Evidence that will corroborate that.

[Sloane Glass]

During her time on the stand, Diane was calm and spoke matter factly. Here's lead prosecutor John Sinkfield.

[John Sinkfield]

After she testified. If I'd had any doubt about the DNA part or other parts of the evidence to myself, I said, this case is over.

[Sloane Glass]

But it wasn't. During cross examination, Diane slipped up. She gave conflicting information about what Derek Todd Lee wore the morning he attacked her. The defense also questioned why Diane told medical personnel she couldn't remember any details about the attack. Diane explained that she was hospitalized for five days and was in and out of it. Things got so tense during cross examination that Diane asked the defense lawyer, why are you trying to confuse me?

[John Sinkfield]

I was sitting up in my office saying, well, you know, wonder what the opportunities like in Minnesota, you know, for a guy with my accent are, because if I lose this case, I may be out of here.

[Sloane Glass]

During closing arguments, prosecutor John Sinkfield reminded the jury of what he called the.

[John Sinkfield]

Silent witness, Derek Todd Lee's DNA. When Derrick Todd Lee pushed his way in her door and attacked her, he picked the wrong woman that day, over and over, over again. She was stout, she fought back, and she scratched him. And when she scratched him, she got skin cells with DNA off of him. If you take the population of the earth and multiply it by 514,000 times, you wouldn't find another DNA match the Derek Todd Lee. He was one person out of 3.6 quadrillion.

[Sloane Glass]

The defense never called any witnesses. They simply picked apart the prosecution's case, suggesting that there were errors collecting and processing that DNA.

[John Sinkfield]

We put on 70 witnesses, 100 pieces of evidence, and 200 photographs in that trial. And then, of course, we had Diane and Alexander, which explained what it was like, in her words, to be attacked by Derek Todd Lee and survive. She was the only person alive that had survived.

[Sloane Glass]

In their closing arguments, the defense questioned how a special education dropout like Derek Todd Lee could murder all these women without leaving behind a fingerprint, a tire track, or any trace of evidence. They also reminded the jury that for years, the Zachary Police Department placed Derek Todd Lee under heavy surveillance. So with all those eyes on him, how could he have killed Murray Pace or any of the other victims? But prosecutor Sinquefield got in the final word.

[John Sinkfield]

I told him, let me tell you something. What I'm about to say is not politically correct, but I'm gonna say it anyway. You see a woman like Charlotte Murray Pace, she's beautiful, she's smart, she's accomplished, she's well dressed. Men will kill each other over a woman like her. And some men will kill her just for a few minutes of sexual gratification with her. And that's what the evidence has shown that Derek Todd Lee did. There's no doubt that she lost her life in a fight. Fight's not over yet. When she clawed evidence from his skin, she sent the fight to you. Who wins it? Your decision.

[Sloane Glass]

After less than 80 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned on the count of first degree murder. They convicted Derek Tudley.

[John Sinkfield]

When the verdict came out, the real issue, I think, is, is he gonna receive the death penalty?

[Sloane Glass]

Throughout the trial, the defense claimed Derek Todd Lee was mentally challenged, and that would take the death penalty off the table and trigger an automatic life sentence. Here's prosecutor Dana Cummings.

[Dana Cummings]

They tried to say he's mentally challenged and should not be executed.

[Sloane Glass]

In 2002, the US Supreme Court ruled that executing anyone with an intellectual disability was unconstitutional.

[Dana Cummings]

And so we had a long hearing about whether or not he was actually mentally incapable. There were various reports about his iq, but it was just so clear that he could pull off these crimes without being seen. I mean, that did take planning, and that did take a certain amount of intelligence.

[Sloane Glass]

An hour and a half later, the jury returned. They all agreed that Derek Todd Lee should die by lethal injection. As he was led out of the courtroom, the usually stoic Derek Todd Lee erupted. Journalist Melinda Dellott was there that day.

[Ann Pace]

He held up a V for victory kind of sign, and he shouted to his family something about, God, don't sleep, and they don't want to tell you about the DNA that they took. I don't know that we ever really got a good explanation, but clearly he was trying to get at that suggestion that somehow law enforcement planted the DNA evidence that convicted him.

[Sloane Glass]

Outside the courtroom, Lee's lawyer addressed the media.

[Ann Pace]

His lawyer said he wasn't surprised by the verdict, but that Derek Todd Lee cried after he left the courtroom. We did not see that.

[Sloane Glass]

Prosecutor John Sinkfield also spoke to the media.

[John Sinkfield]

The question they asked me was, were you worried? Did this make you nervous? Rather than saying, yes, I was about to jump off the seventh floor of the courthouse. My answer was tonight. The South Louisiana serial killer got South Louisiana justice. He got the death penalty.

[Sloane Glass]

Here's audio from Murray Pace's mother, Ann, from that press conference, I think we.

[Melinda Delot]

Thought when it came back so quickly, I just can't believe it's finally happened. I'm overwhelmed.

[Sloane Glass]

Throughout the trial and even during the press conference, Ann was surrounded by the families of the other victims. In a Separate trial, Derek Tudley was convicted of murdering LSU student Jerilyn De Soto. He was sentenced to life in prison. And just like during her daughter's trial, Ann was there to support Jerilyn's family.

[Melinda Delot]

We formed, like a sort of fraternity that you don't want to be in, where everybody felt very close to everybody else, because who in the world understands that but us? We called it the Casablanca Question. Of all the gin joints in all the world, how did he pick my daughter? And why? That's one of the questions you never have an answer to.

[Sloane Glass]

Ann planned to be there the day Derek Todd Lee was executed. But that day never came. We're interrupting your program with what will be a sigh of relief for many.

[Dana Cummings]

Families here in South Louisiana.

[Detective David McDavid]

Serial killer Derek Todd Lee died at.

[Sloane Glass]

A hospital in Zachary this morning.

[Detective David McDavid]

He had been there since Saturday.

[Ann Pace]

Derek Todd Lee was 47 years old.

[Sloane Glass]

He'd been on death row since that conviction a decade ago. In 2016, Derek Todd Lee died in prison. His cause of death was heart disease. And for Ann Pace, that news was bittersweet.

[Melinda Delot]

All of it was truly like stepping off the edge of a cliff into an alternate universe in which you had no control whatsoever.

[Sloane Glass]

She told a local newspaper. The end of the fight feels like a loss. Feels like I'm armored for battle, only to find you have no opponent. The years of legal wrangling over Derek Todd Lee's execution came to an abrupt ending.

[Melinda Delot]

We had spent 11 years in court, which means every time your life gets a little bit normal, you're snatched back into the nightmare.

[Sloane Glass]

With the nightmare over, Ann finally began the healing process.

[Melinda Delot]

It was like literally falling off the edge of the world. And all of a sudden, you came to live in a new world that was darker and hotter and had sharper edges. And that stays with you. You don't get to leave that world when it's over.

[Sloane Glass]

Anne had Murray's remains cremated. The reasons to heartbreaking. She said it was the only way she could get rid of every molecule Derek Tudley left on her daughter. She sprinkled her daughter's ashes in London, Paris, and Egypt, places Murray always wanted to visit but never got the chance.

[Melinda Delot]

I can truly say I've never had a day that I don't think of her more than once, sometimes several times. And I think, you know, when somebody you love like that dies, that some of you goes with them. I don't think they go along. I think you keep the memories and send the rest with them.

[Sloane Glass]

Next time on American Homicide. After a teenager's death was ruled a suicide. Her mother goes on a decades long crusade to find the truth. We'll head to Anchorage, Alaska for the case of who Killed Bonnie Craig? I'm Sloan Glass. That's next time on American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by emailing [e-mail] that's AmericanHomicidePodmail.com American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloan Glass and is a production of Glass Podcast, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Ganz. The series is also written and produced by Todd Ganz with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our Associate producer is Kristin Melchuri. Our I Heart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynchak. Audio editing, mixing and mastering by Nico Aruka. American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noiser Music Library, provided by Mime Music. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Larison Campbell]

In Mississippi, Yazoo clay keeps secrets.

[John Sinkfield]

7,000 bodies out there or more.

[Larison Campbell]

A forgotten asylum cemetery.

[Melinda Delot]

It was my family's mystery.

[Larison Campbell]

Shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us. Listen to Crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.