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Where Are The Murderers Featured In 'Serial Killer Capital: Baton Rouge' Now?
Scores of women were found dead in Louisiana in the late '90s and early 2000s. Police attribute many of the killings to Sean Vincent Gillis, Derrick Todd Lee and Jeffrey Lee Guillory. What happened to them?
From 1993 to 2004, three killers terrorized the city of Baton Rouge.
An estimated 15 people were murdered over the course of a decade, having been strangled, stabbed, or beaten, among other methods. Authorities were baffled by the deaths, partly because of the varying methods of murder, as well as the fact that the killers were operating at the same time.
Eventually, Sean Vincent Gillis, Derrick Todd Lee, and Jeffrey Lee Guillory were separately apprehended by authorities, who have since determined that Gillis was responsible for at least eight murders and Lee had separately killed seven. Authorities suspect Guillory is responsible for slaying another three women, although he has been convicted of only one of those killings. What happened to these men after they were identified as the people stalking the southern city's residents?
Where Is Sean Vincent Gillis Now?
Gillis’ killing spree began in the early ‘90s, starting with the murder of 82-year-old Ann Bryan, who was found dead in her residence at the St. James Place retirement home in March 1994. She had been stabbed more than 50 times and her throat was slit, according to CBS affiliate WAFB.
Five years later, Gillis said, he kidnapped and killed Hardee Schmidt, who was on a jog when she disappeared on the morning of May 30, 1999. An affidavit revealed that Gillis told police he hit Schmidt with his vehicle, strangled her with plastic wrap, and took her to a nearby park, where he sexually assaulted her, WAFB reported.
Schmidt’s remains were found in a St. James Parish bayou two days after her murder.
When arrested in April 2004, Gillis also confessed to strangling Katherine Hall, 29, Johnnie Mae Williams, 45, and Donna Bennett Johnston, 43.
Though prosecutors were unable to charge Gillis with all the murders he confessed to, they presented evidence at a sentencing hearing, according to WAFB.
A jury eventually found him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Johnston, a year after he pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Joyce Williams, for which he was sentenced to life in prison, reported WAFB.
He is 60 years old and currently detained at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
How Did Derrick Todd Lee Die?
Authorities believe Lee is responsible for the murders of at least seven women from the Baton Rouge area: Gina Wilson, 40; Geralyn DeSoto, 21; Charlotte Murray Pace, 22; Pam Kinamore, 44; Trineisha Dene Colomb, 23; and Carrie Lynn Yoder, 26.
He attacked another woman, Diane Alexander, at her home, but he was scared off when her son came home from school.
It’s believed that Gina Wilson Green was the first of Lee’s victims. She was raped and strangled to death in Sept. 2001.
Police obtained a DNA sample from Lee more than two months after beating, raping, and strangling Carrie Lynn Yoder at her Louisiana State University apartment in March 2003, ending his serial murders.
Lee was tried and convicted in the murders of DeSoto and Pace in late 2004. He was serving a life sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary when he died from heart disease on Jan. 21, 2016, according to WAFB.
Where Is Jeffery Lee Guillory Now?
Guillory was the last of the suspected Baton Rouge serial killers to be arrested. He was taken into custody in September 2006, after he was pulled over for a traffic stop in Baton Rouge and his fingerprints were taken, according to WAFB. Those prints were subsequently matched to those found on a beer can at the scene of Sylvia Cobb’s 2001 murder.
However, WAFB reported that there was a lack of evidence and police were unable to prosecute him for Cobb’s murder.
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Then, in December 2007, authorities say Guillory attacked a Lafayette woman, after which he was arrested and charged. While in custody, the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab ran further tests, which “eventually resulted in Guillory's DNA being matched to evidence at the [Florida] Edwards and [Renee] Newman crime scenes," said Sgt. Don Kelly with the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Renee Newman, 46, had been found dead on the side of a road in 2002, almost three years after the remains of Florida Edwards, 36, were located inside an abandoned building.
In 2010, Guillory was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder and second-degree robbery in relation to the attack on the Lafayette woman. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Then, in December 2011, he was found guilty in the 2002 murder of Newman and sentenced to life.
Guillory, who is 56 years old, is detained at the David Wade Correctional Center.
To learn more about these killers, watch “Serial Killer Capital: Baton Rouge,” premiering Saturday, December 10 at 9/8c with a two hour-special and continuing Sunday, December 11 at 9/8c.
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