NEW ORLEANS, May 26 (UPI) -- A multi-agency task force named a suspect Monday in the Baton Rouge, La., serial killing investigation.
The Baton Rouge Advocate said an arrest warrant has been issued for Derek Todd Lee, 34, of St. Francisville, La. The bulletin on the online Advocate described Lee as a black male, armed and extremely dangerous.
The New Orleans Times Picayune said officials have used DNA to link the killings of four Baton Rouge women and one Lafayette, La., woman since September 2001.
However, the task force was late in linking the serial killings to an attempted rape and beating of a woman in Breaux Bridge, La., which is near Lafayette and less than an hour's drive from Baton Rouge, the Times Picayune said.
The St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Office Friday for the second time released a sketch of the man wanted in the Breaux Bridge sexual assault.
"DNA tests of evidence from the Breaux Bridge case were inconclusive," the Times Picayune said, "meaning officials are unable to either identify or eliminate the suspect as the serial killer. Police think the same man approached two other women as possible rape victims in the Breaux Bridge area last year. "
The Breaux Bridge attacker is the latest focus of the serial killer investigation, the newspaper said before Monday's announcement.
