Serial Killer Suspect In Atlanta

The man suspected of the serial killings of at least five Louisiana women spent at least the past week in a dingy Atlanta motel, where he charmed residents, grilled ribs and chicken at a party and set up a Bible study.

Neighbors described Derrick Todd Lee as a handsome, smooth-talking man who dated several women and promised them cognac if they would come to his room.

"This guy, he was handsome," said Bubukutty Idicalla, manager of the Lakewood Motor Lodge, where Lee paid $135 cash for a week in a one-room efficiency. "He would go to the ladies and say, 'You married? You married?'"

He left abruptly Monday — the day authorities released his photo, filed a fugitive warrant for his arrest and traced a call he made from Idicalla's cell phone.

By the time marshals got to the run-down motel, Lee was gone, taken to a train station by a resident who thought he was headed to Louisiana to see his sick mother. Authorities believe Lee, 34, is still in Atlanta.

"We have not actually laid eyes on him. Right now we're in his wake — we're right behind him," U.S. Marshal Richard Mecum said Tuesday.

Authorities suspect Lee of killing at least five southern Louisiana women since September 2001, as well as two earlier slayings.

A 10-month Louisiana DNA dragnet of potential suspects linked Lee to the killing of Carrie Yoder, a 26-year-old Louisiana State University graduate student, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara.

The same DNA matched to the killer of 23-year-old Trineisha Colomb of Lafayette and three Baton Rouge women: Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace and Pam Kinamore.

Kinamore's mother, Lynne Marino, expressed frustration Tuesday with the way authorities have handled the case.

"I'm sorry, they have made so many mistakes. I wonder how many of these women could have been saved," Marino said in a telephone interview. "They talk about five (victims). I guarantee there's way more than five."

Another warrant was issued Tuesday by authorities in St. Martin Parish who accuse Lee of attempted murder and attempted rape in a July attack that led authorities to release a sketch last week that resembled Lee.

The serial killings unnerved Louisiana women and triggered a DNA search in which police took cheek scrapings and swabbings from more than 1,000 men.

But Lee, who has prior arrests for stalking, peeping into homes, burglary and attempted murder, gave his DNA not to the police task force, but to an attorney general's investigator looking into a case that had not been linked to the serial killings.

Zachary, La., Police Chief Joey Watson said one of Lee's relatives gave a detective a tip that Lee was discussing the disappearance of Randi Mebruer, 28, who vanished from her home in April 1998. Police also suspect Lee in the 1992 slaying of Connie Warner, 41, who lived in the same Zachary subdivision as Mebruer.

Investigator Danny Mixon obtained a court order for Lee to give a DNA sample, which Lee provided May 5 without incident, state Attorney General Richard Ieyoub said.

The day Lee gave his DNA, he abruptly pulled his two children out of school in St. Francisville, La., according to Lloyd Lindsey, superintendent of the West Feliciana school system. Lee said he was moving to Los Angeles. Authorities said they do not know the whereabouts of Lee's wife and children.

Over the last few weeks, Lee traveled by bus from Louisiana to Chicago and then to Atlanta, Mecum said. Lee had been in Atlanta at least a week, and he may have worked construction or concrete contracting jobs that pay cash, authorities said.

Lee made friends with many of the 50 or so residents of the Lakewood Motor Lodge.

"He wasn't violent-acting. He didn't talk about violence," resident Brenda Jones said. "He talked about the Bible a lot. Let me tell you, he knew the Bible."

On Sunday, neighbors said Lee led a Bible study at a birthday party for Idicalla, during which he also grilled chicken and ribs.

Lee entertained several women in his room, neighbors said. He would often compliment their hair and offer them drinks.

"He was nice, and he had a pretty woman stay the night," Idicalla said. "I could not believe it when the police came and said he was wanted for killing women."