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Police: Suspect in Louisiana serial killings arrestedMarshals source: 'It appears that he is Derrick Todd Lee'
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Atlanta police arrested a man Tuesday who authorities believe is Derrick Todd Lee, the suspect in five serial killings in Louisiana, a source from the U.S. Marshals Service told CNN. The source said authorities are working to verify the man's identity through fingerprints. "Initially, it appears that he is Derrick Todd Lee," the source said. "It was a tip from the public that busted this guy." The Atlanta Police Department's Metro Fugitive Squad, working in conjunction with FBI and U.S. Marshals agents, made the arrest about 9 p.m., the source said. Lee, a father of two, disappeared shortly after he voluntarily submitted to DNA testing May 5. Officials have said they believe he went from Baton Rouge to Chicago, Illinois, and then to Atlanta.
Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Lee on Monday, saying his DNA matched samples found at the scenes of five killings in the Baton Rouge area. The manhunt largely focused on Atlanta in recent days. Lee, 34, checked out of the Lakewood Motor Lodge in southwest Atlanta on Monday, leaving shortly before authorities arrived, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. One official said authorities missed him by just an hour or two. FBI spokesman Joe Paris said Lee had been at the motel about a week when he hurriedly left around midday Monday. Witnesses there said he told them he was going to his mother's home in Louisiana. Video from his motel room showed his clothes and boots were left behind. Federal officials had announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture. David McDavid, the chief of detectives in Zachary, Louisiana, said Lee is considered a suspect in the deaths of two women there --one in 1998, the other in 1992. He said police are trying to compare DNA from those crime scenes to Lee's. "Unusual genetic markers"
The task force said DNA evidence links Lee to the killings of Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace, Pam Kinamore, Trineisha Dene Colomb and Carrie Lynn Yoder. A task force member told CNN that the DNA tests showed "highly unusual genetic markers." He said the chance that someone other than Lee could have those markers is "something like one in 4 billion." Lee's most recent address was in St. Francisville, Louisiana, 40 miles from Baton Rouge, police said. Police have searched his home, the home of his mother, and a nearby apartment they believe belongs to his girlfriend. The killings began in Baton Rouge in September 2001, when Green, 41, was found strangled near the campus of Louisiana State University. In May 2002, Pace, 22, was found stabbed to death in her home, also near the LSU campus; and in July, Kinamore, 44, was abducted and found with her throat slit. Kinamore's body was found 30 miles east of Baton Rouge. The body of Colomb, 23, was found in a wooded area November 24, about 20 miles from where her abandoned car was discovered. The body of Yoder, 26, an LSU graduate student, was found in March near the Whiskey Bay Bridge off Interstate 10 outside Baton Rouge, the spot where another victim was found. An autopsy found Yoder was strangled after being beaten and raped. -- CNN correspondent Art Harris contributed to this report.
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