College student missing in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La., March 5 (UPI) -- Members of a serial killer task force Wednesday joined an investigation into the disappearance of a 26-year-old Louisiana State University student from her home near the Baton Rouge campus.

Carrie Lynn Yoder was reported missing about 9 a.m. Wednesday and there was no evidence to link it to the serial killings of four women in the Baton Rouge area since September 2001, said Cpl. Don Kelly, a police spokesman. "It's a missing person case," he said.

But the special federal-state task force created to catch the serial killer was called to join the search of Yoder's home near the LSU campus, Kelly said. Investigators would not disclose whether any significant clues were found to Yoder's whereabouts.

Yoder, a graduate student in plant biology, was reported missing by her boyfriend who had heard from her Monday evening before she left for the grocery store, according to police.

The most recent victim of the serial killer was Trineisha Dene Colomb, a 23-year-old woman whose body was found Nov. 21 in a wooded area near Lafayette, about 60 miles west of Baton Rouge. The other victims were all killed in Baton Rouge.

DNA linked the killing of Colomb to the previous slayings of Gina Wilson Green, 41; Charlotte Murray Pace, 22, and Pam Kinamore, 44, since September 2001. The task force was created last summer.

FBI profiles indicate the killer may be a white man, about 30 years old, who follows women and gains their trust. Witnesses have reported a white pickup truck near some of the crime scenes.