How did The Baton Rogue serial killer Derrick Todd Lee die? Whereabouts explored ahead of Butchers of the Bayou on A&E

Derrick Todd Lee
Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee died while on death row (Image via Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images)

Convicted Baton Rogue serial killer Derrick Todd Lee died of heart disease in January 2016 while on death row. In 2004, Lee was found guilty of the murders of two women, Geralyn DeSoto and Charlotte Murray Pace. In DeSoto's case, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and in Pace's murder, he was handed a death sentence via lethal injection.

Lee was also connected to multiple other killings in the Baton Rogue area, where he operated between 1992 and 2003. The serial killer was only arrested after he attempted to r*pe Dianne Alexander in July 2002. Alexander described the attacker and had a sketch made, which was circulated around Louisiana. Lee was arrested in Zachary.

Butchers of the Bayou, a two-night event scheduled to premiere on A&E, will revisit the crimes of Derrick Todd Lee this 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."

Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee died of natural causes while on death row in Angola

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Derrick Todd Lee was serving time on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola when he died of natural causes on January 21, 2016. Reports state that heart disease complications caused his death after being taken to a hospital outside the prison facility.

After a three-day trial in August 2004, a jury found Lee guilty of the first-degree murder of Geralyn DeSoto, who was found beaten to death in her home on January 14, 2002. He was handed a life sentence. Three months later, a different jury convicted Lee of the attempted murder of Dianne Alexander and the first-degree murder of Charlotte Murray Pace, who was slain on May 31, 2002.

Louisiana's deputy attorney general, John Sinquefield, was one of two state prosecutors who obtained murder convictions against Lee in two separate trials. Sinquefield brought evidence from multiple other killings during that trial to persuade the jury that Lee deserved to be executed. Lee filed unsuccessful appeals over the next decade before his death in 2016.


Who were the alleged victims of Derrick Todd Lee?

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Southeast Louisiana's Baton Rouge and neighboring areas were infested with serial killers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Unidentified predators, including Derrick Todd Lee, killed almost 30 women. The killing continued until 2003, when authorities identified him as a suspect and ultimately arrested him after drawing connections between him and at least seven slayings.

Connie Warner, 41, from Zachary, is considered Lee's first victim. She disappeared from her home on August 24, 1992, and her body was found about a week later near a lake. She died of a skull fracture. Lee then kidnapped Randi Mebruer, 28, who lived in the same Zachary suburb, on April 18, 1998. Detectives found blood throughout her home, although her body was never found.

Lee brutally murdered six more women between 2001 and 2003. His victims were Gina Wilson Green, Geralyn Barr DeSoto, Charlotte Murray Pace, Pamela Kinamore, Trineisha Dené Colomb, and Carrie Lynn Yoder, a 26-year-old grad student. In 2002, he attempted to r*pe Dianne Alexander, but she survived. Alexander later assisted authorities in locating the serial killer.


A&E's Butchers of the Bayou airs on Thursday, March 16, 2023.

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Edited by Shreya Das
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