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Charlotte Murray Pace, who had just graduated from Louisiana State University, was found stabbed to death by her roommate in the condo that they shared. The roommate found Pace, who had been stabbed multiple times, in their house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in May 2002.
Pace's killing was followed by several other murders. While they were different from one another, the murders seemed connected and suggested the involvement of a serial killer.
As police launched an investigation into the case, a man named Derrick Todd Lee was arrested in 2003. His arrest came after DNA samples from multiple crime scenes and details from one of his survivors were used to locate him in Zachary, Louisiana. Along with Pace's murder, Derrick was linked and convicted of several other killings and was sentenced to death in October 2004.
A&E's upcoming two-night special event, titled Butchers of the Bayou, will revisit the crimes of one of the most notorious Baton Rouge serial killers, Derrick Todd Lee. It will especially focus on the killing of Charlotte Murray Pace, one of his many victims.
Butchers of the Bayou premieres on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at 9 pm ET. The synopsis states:
"Charlotte Murray Pace, an LSU graduate, is found dead in her home on May 31, 2002, and the brutality of the crime scene reminds police of the unsolved case of Gina Wilson Green."
Charlotte Murray Pace's death was connected to an unsolved killing from the year before using DNA
On May 31, 2002, 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace, an LSU graduate assistant, was fatally stabbed in her townhouse on Sharlo Avenue. She was killed exactly one week after receiving a Master's degree in business administration. Charlotte was the youngest person ever to receive an MBA in business administration from the university.
According to reports, Charlotte, who had just moved into the townhouse, returned home at around noon on May 31, 2002, for lunch. Authorities believed that she was killed sometime between noon and 2 pm that day. Her roommate found her at approximately 2:15 pm.
From the looks of the body and the crime scene, investigators suggested that a struggle took place between Pace and her attacker. They believed that Pace even tried to escape the townhouse based on what they could see inside.
Autopsy reports confirmed that the victim had been r*ped and stabbed 83 times with a flathead screwdriver. DNA collected from the crime scene was later used to make a connection between both Charlotte Murray Pace and Gina Wilson Green's murders. The latter was killed in September 2001.
Investigators focused on the similarities found between Green's unsolved killing and Pace's murder in the weeks after the DNA connection was established. Both victims once lived three doors down from one another on Stanford Avenue as neighbors and owned BMWs.
However,, given that there was no indication of a forced entry, authorities speculated that they likely knew their killer. They also established that the two women didn't know each other.
Notorious Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee was sentenced to death in Charlotte Murray Pace's murder
In the months that followed, investigators were able to establish links between multiple murders including Charlotte Murray Pace's and Gina Wilson Green's murders. They just needed a name and a face to make an arrest. This was made possible after Dianne Alexander's attempted r*pe in July 2002.
Alexander was able to describe the attacker to a police sketch artist. Until then, all authorities knew about the serial killer was that he was a charming black man who sweet-talked himself into women's lives. After the sketch was sent out, a man named Derrick Todd Lee was arrested in Zachary, Louisiana.
The East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office only pursued an indictment of Pace's murder. They did so because they only had solid evidence linking him to Charlotte's murder, which would help secure a conviction. While they had DNA that indisputably linked Lee to six murders, they didn't believe it would help secure the conviction.
The evidence included surveillance footage of Pace at a nearby Baton Rouge carwash shortly before she was murdered. It also included eyewitnesses placing Lee in the victim's neighborhood hours before the attack, and a bloody shoe print inside the condo the same size and style that Lee wore.
In October 2004, Derrick Todd Lee was named a Baton Rogue serial killer and convicted of the r*pe and murder of Charlotte Murray Pace. He was sentenced to death via lethal injection.
Butchers of the Bayou on A&E will shed more light on the crimes of the Baton Rogue serial killer this Thursday at 9 pm ET.
