November 3, 2025 • 29 mins
Derrick Todd Lee (DTL) terrorized the Baton Rouge and Lafayette Louisiana. A Serial Killer who took the lives of at least (7) women in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Lee’s reign of terror finally ended in late May of 2003 when he was captured in Atlanta, GA after being linked by DNA.
In Part 1 of this multi-part docuseries award winning host Kelly Jennings brings you inside Lee’s formative years that reflected various signs which would eventually create the monster Lee would grow up to become.
This is DTL
Hosted by Kelly Jennings and produced by the experts at Envision Podcast Productions.
For Media or Advertising Inquiries
Envisionpodcaststudios@gmail.com
Timestamps
01:09 The Birth of Evil
03:32 A Freshman's Perspective
04:41 Life on LSU Campus
07:07 Baton Rouge Serial Killers x3
09:29 DTL’s Early Life
13:13 Early Signs of Trouble
17:58 The Path to Violence
22:20 Troubled Relationships
27:47 The Shift to Murder
28:21 The Unfolding Horror
#DTL #podcast #DerrickToddLee #BatonRouge #SerialKiller #unspeakable
In Part 1 of this multi-part docuseries award winning host Kelly Jennings brings you inside Lee’s formative years that reflected various signs which would eventually create the monster Lee would grow up to become.
This is DTL
Hosted by Kelly Jennings and produced by the experts at Envision Podcast Productions.
For Media or Advertising Inquiries
Envisionpodcaststudios@gmail.com
Timestamps
01:09 The Birth of Evil
03:32 A Freshman's Perspective
04:41 Life on LSU Campus
07:07 Baton Rouge Serial Killers x3
09:29 DTL’s Early Life
13:13 Early Signs of Trouble
17:58 The Path to Violence
22:20 Troubled Relationships
27:47 The Shift to Murder
28:21 The Unfolding Horror
#DTL #podcast #DerrickToddLee #BatonRouge #SerialKiller #unspeakable
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper
secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias,
a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Dereck Todd Lee was
a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was
a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile,
led a double life that would unravel in a series
(00:31):
of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and
the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and
murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare,
igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was
just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually
known by just three letters, would reveal not only the
(00:52):
depths of Dereck Todd Lee's depravity, but also the resilience
of those most affected by his evil acts, the families
and the survivors. This is DTL. There's something about serial
killers that really gets people interested. And maybe it's a
(01:14):
mix of fear and the fact that the targets of
these killers always seem so unaware that they're going to
be the ones preyed upon. I'm not sure exactly what
it is, but it gets our attention. I really dove
into my own thoughts on the bat U serial killings
of Derek Todd Lee, and I thought that I would
give you an LSU female freshman's perspective during that time,
(01:36):
because I was that freshman. It was two thousand and
two and we had really entered the new world of
post nine to eleven. Terrorism was something that we now
were all so painfully aware of, and people around the
US were stunned at the level of violence that had
been recently inflicted upon New York, which really AKA was
(01:57):
all of us. The terrorists had an agenda, and their
hatred for Americans was obvious. Now. I was a senior
in high school when those towers were slammed by those planes,
and I will never forget that feeling of helplessness. I
didn't know what was happening, I didn't understand why it
was happening, and I didn't know what to do, and
(02:17):
really it was like, was there something even for me
to do? I remember running out of b building of
the high school. I ran down to my silver Honda
Civic and I then remember jumping in and punching every
preset radio station on my dash, but no matter what
I pressed, I heard President Bush saying we are under attack,
(02:38):
and I genuinely did not know if bombs were going
to start dropping from the sky. I was so scared.
And I bring this up because that was my first
real taste of terror. What it felt like to be
right there in the middle of minding my own business
and then to suddenly have violence and death just catapulted
(02:59):
upon me was something that my seventeen year old brain
was having a really hard time understanding. And even though
I was thousands of miles away from the towers that day,
I felt the pain and I felt the fear. I
promise you I watched people jump to their deaths from
those buildings, and it wasn't lost upon me what I
(03:19):
was seeing. It was simply unimaginable, and all I could
really do was fall back and helplessly just ask why
what did these people ever do to deserve this? Well,
some months would pass and then I, as well as
everyone in the Baton Rouge surrounding area, would be faced
with a more up close and personal form of terror.
(03:42):
Women were now going missing and ultimately they were being
found dead women like me. A majority of them were
white women. They were good women, hard working and intelligent.
Every day you wondered if this attacker would strike again,
and if it would POSSI be me that was the target. Well,
(04:04):
I graduated high school in May of two thousand and two,
and this would really begin my college experience, and it
would start on the amazing campus of LSU, which is
exactly where this story is going to begin. LSU is
the heart of Baton Rouge and it's just known for
its Southern charm. Mike the Tiger roams his large enclosure
(04:24):
with this personal waterfall and the sounds of students flying
by on their bikes and chatting it up as they
walk to class. That's the norm. That's what you hear
on the daily. But even Mike, the Big Mike the
Tiger knows that beauty and safety they don't always go
hand in hand. The beauty and the charm of campus
may lull people into a sense of security as you
(04:48):
walk around the grounds of higher education. But even Mike,
he's even had his own brush with rime. If you
didn't know this, Mike was once kidnapped from campus by
some students. Now that's a whole nother story that I
won't get into, but legend has it that he was
towed around by these students in a trailer while the
students went bar hopping. So to think an apex predator
(05:08):
was out on the loose and chilling in a trailer
is scary. And then you add drunk college kids as
his handlers, and that should have been just an epic
recipe for disaster. But luckily it ended well. Mike the
tiger was recovered and returned back to his enclosure. But
the campus in two thousand and two, y'all, that's well.
After that time, the massive, stately oak trees that fill
(05:30):
campus are seen everywhere, and the chirps of birds searching
for an easy meal that's a constant. While there are
now gates that will stop you from freely driving through
the heart of campus, in two thousand and two, you
could drive anywhere. Saturday Nights and Death Valley were experiences
that we all lived for, and we shouted calling Baton
Rouge from the tops of our lungs while we watched
(05:50):
our fighting tigers. Sure we may have ended that season
eight and five, but that's okay. Because we still felt
like we were a force to be reckoned with, and
we proudly chanted the letters of our universe. But the
reality was that behind all of those daily walks to
classes on the hot, muggy mornings, and the smiles and
the cheering for our tigers on Saturday nights, there was
hunting happening all around us. A person yet unknown was
(06:15):
watching and listening and fixating on a woman of choice,
a woman that he would attack, dominate physically, and then
ultimately kill, all for the excitement of it. For now,
no the headlines were consumed with Kmart becoming the largest
retailer in American history to file for bankruptcy. Elizabeth Smart
she had been kidnapped from her family's Salt Lake City home,
(06:37):
and whether she was alive or not, that kept us
all on the edge of our seats nationwide. But now
a new sort of headline would take over the news
and in total, thirty six women would be murdered. Now,
what was even scarier about this It was determined that
not one, not two, but three serial killers were loose
(06:59):
and batue all at one time. Everyone was a target,
but no one knew who would be next. So for
the sake of storytelling, I'm going to tell you that
two of those serial killers were caught, Sean Vincent Gillis
and Jeffrey Gilliery. But this series is going to focus
on Derreck Toddley. So let's go back to nineteen sixty eight,
(07:21):
seemingly a world away from how we live today. Hey Jude,
by the Beatles. It topped up Billboard Hot one hundred
for nine consecutive weeks, which tied the record at the time,
and the morning of November fifth was a cool, breezy
day in Saint francis Ville, Louisiana, when Florence Lee began
the labour pains required to bring new life into the world.
(07:43):
Speaking of the world. As Florence was working through the
breaths and the sweats and the pushing required during birth,
the US was also in a rebirth of sorts. Richard
Nixon was elected the President of the United States, yet
the Vietnam War was raging on halfway around the world.
For now, though Florence was fighting her own fight with
(08:04):
the promise of new life. In the end, Dereck todd
Lee would eventually make his entrance into the world and
be placed into his mama's arms, the proud son of
Samuel Ruth and Florence Lee. What should have been the
start of a life of promise and greatness would soon
fizzle with less than an epic thud. Shortly after his birth,
(08:26):
his father up and left his mom. Now, truth be told,
they all weren't that broken up over it. Because Derek's dad, Samuel,
he suffered from mental illness and that would eventually end
him up in a mental institution. But it's one thing
to be mentally ill, but it's a whole another ballgame
when you're dangerous to others as well. And this was
(08:47):
exactly the case, and this would be proven whenever he
was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of his
ex wife Florence, though she moved on and through time
she would eventually marry him man named Coleman Barrow. Now
what's funny here is that I obviously can only tell
you information from reports and from articles. What was interesting
(09:10):
to me while I was researching this was that there
are sharp discrepancies out there, and I just found this
really interesting. I decided, now I'm gonna tell you both
of them, rather than just pick one. I'm gonna tell
you both, and I'm gonna let you decide. One account
describes him as a responsible man that honorably raised Derek
and his sisters as if they were his own children,
and that he brought a focus into the home of
(09:32):
teaching the Bible and that education was paramount in start.
Contrast to that, another account from a university that put
together a timeline of Derek's life, they had more of
a negative light that shined on Derek's stepfather. See, his
mother was described as domineering and that she had to
have things her way, and the university account shows that
(09:55):
she clearly met her match in terms of negative energy
when she married Derek's stepfather. So in terms of being
a model for adult behavior, the stepfather really missed the
mark compared to the general consensus on what child upbringing
should be. So maybe Bible lessons were taught and education
was promoted. I wasn't there. But the male figure now
(10:18):
in Derek's life, according to the university, was hard nosed
in terms of punishment for misbehavior and beating Derek was
the typical experience after acting up. No lectures or general
parenting were on the option list in the household so
my gut tells me that it's probably a mix of
both accounts, because people probably are going to always do
(10:41):
the best that they can do with the tools that
they have when they're raising children, whatever it may be.
There is a stark contrast if you look at different stories.
So from the age of three to roughly thirteen, Derek's
life was marked with struggle, even though sometimes it was
self induced. So as you can imagine, the nineteen seventies
(11:03):
weren't the best times for kids with development challenges in school.
I do want to take a second to address this
because I want you to understand I'm not saying this
as an excuse, but as facts of life at the
time and the role that this could have played in
long term outcomes for Derek. So in the nineteen seventies,
kids with disabilities or mental delays were looked at as
(11:25):
non contributors to society as far as education was concerned.
And I don't mean this meanly, I'm being just direct
and how things likely went at school for him on
the daily because Derek was labeled as delayed and he
was placed in special education classes when he started school.
So back then, life skills were thought of as more
important than actual academics, like teaching kids with delays how
(11:49):
to microwave meals and why hygiene matters. Well. There was
a huge civil rights movement that would begin at this
time for people with disabilities in terms of educational experience
and the Idea Act, which is Education for all handicapped children.
The name Did Change of nineteen seventy five started the
process of implementing specialized education and plans, but that would
(12:12):
take years to implement and to quote unquote standardize across
all students. So Derek, in the meantime was in that
group of kids segregated from the regular school population. He
was placed in a minimally stimulating environment and then basically
stigmatized by other students. So now kids get what are
called IEPs, individualized education plans, which are meant to give
(12:34):
them a uniquely modified experience. That this was not the
case back then. No extra time on tests, no varying
punishments for varying mental capacities and such. So I'm telling
you this because Derek's IQ was estimated to be in
the low seventies. For perspective, While this isn't the medical
(12:55):
or professional way of explaining this, I'm just gonna, in
brief explain that an IQ in this sixty to seventy
range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.
So don't, for a second, though, think that I'm telling
you he acted like a child in an adult body. No, no, no.
He was well aware of the difference between right and wrong,
(13:18):
but complex intelligence in terms of educational thinking was lacking.
There were aspects of school, though, that he really did enjoy.
He really enjoyed participating in the school band. He may
have struggled academically, but he loved music. He had a
younger sister, and while she may have been younger than him,
(13:38):
she was advanced academically, which left him feeling outshined for
lack of a better term, and he was reportedly bullied
and called quote unquote retarded by classmates while at school.
So why do I share this, Well, he was miserable
at home with his mother and his stepfather, and then
he went to school where he was also miserable. I
(14:00):
think we can all agree that this is an obvious
negative for a kid psychologically during a great period of
growth in their life. So his foundation was basically broken.
As a former teacher, I was told something one time,
and I want to share it with you because it
always stuck with me. Kids who are loved at home
go to school to learn. Kids who are not loved
(14:23):
at home go to school to be loved. And trust
me when I say I could write a book on this,
And how real that statement is? Well, what if I
told you Derek called his teacher mama. Obviously this was strange,
but knowing what I know, maybe she gave him a
sense of security that he longed for and he felt
(14:43):
like he didn't have at home. She was motherly to him.
She was a mom to him. He also sucked his thumb,
which made him an even bigger target for bullying. So
what do kids do when they feel like they are
in an environment where they are being attacked? We all
know what it is. It's act up. When they aren't
taught social emotional tools for emotional regulation, kids impulsively react. Well,
(15:09):
this was the epitome of Derek Toddley. While his actual
school discipline record I don't have. He's no unicorn of misbehavior. Okay,
kids act up and then they are disciplined. How he
was disciplined, however, would not have been modified in any way,
so he got suspended or he got detention. All of
(15:30):
that happening for misbehavior would leave negative lasting effects on students.
And then you may not know this, or maybe you do,
but kids that are constantly in trouble are more likely
to suffer academically drop out of school and you could
probably guess this one, but they're more likely to be
involved in the criminal justice system. And that's why this
(15:51):
totality of circumstance to me matters, and why I'm sharing
it all with you because it makes you wonder does
society possibly aid in times at building killers? Because failure
to identify key elements that are common amongst them is
kind of interesting. Most serial killers have a high school
education or less. That said, they aren't unintelligent. They just
(16:16):
often display a cunning mentality and use intelligence to evade
detection despite not having high levels of formal education. Again,
this was Derek. He may have been academically delayed, but
he wasn't unintelligent. And this is why the schooling disparity
would matter. We have to feed young minds. They aren't less,
(16:39):
they're just different. So with a lack of real guidance
at home and the need for more stimulation. He wanted
something actually exciting. Derek then would go off and start
making his own excitement. See he was still in elementary
school when he started finding excitement and peeping in windows,
spying on people and watching them without their knowledge. He
(17:02):
thought it was fun. He could see people in the
way that they acted when they thought that they were alone.
And if he was peeping, he couldn't be shunned. He
wouldn't be excluded if they never knew that he was
there to begin with. How could they? He wouldn't always
get away with it, though, And because of his treatment
as a quote unquote special kid, he learned something very quickly.
(17:27):
Rather than addressing his behavior as wrong, he found that
he could just talk his way out of most things
because people took pity on him and the fact that
he was just a kid, right, Well, he was smart
enough to recognize that pattern and he would use it
to his advantage. Based on this, I guess we would
call it skill. Derek was never really forced to take
(17:48):
responsibility for any of his misbehavior. No consequences was the
usual outcome, and his parents didn't care as long as
he was not bothering them. So as he grew and
he got older and he turned into a young teen,
a new behavior began to arise. It's the age old
one that we all know and we all attribute to
(18:10):
future serial killers. You guessed it. Torturing animals. See, Derek
had dogs when he was young, and those dogs would
often have puppies, and he found that he got a
sixth sense of joy out of the control that he
could place over the animals. Just like people hurt him,
he could now do that to those he had power over,
(18:32):
and the puppies they would be the one to pay
the price. But starting in November of nineteen eighty one,
Derek would be arrested for the first time. He was
only thirteen years old at his first arrest, and he
had been booked with burglary and vandalizing a candy store.
Now that may seem rather minor on the big scale
(18:53):
of things, but his violence would escalate, especially towards women.
In August of nineteen eighty five, just a few short
years later, because a woman caught Derek peeping in windows,
and she did as any concerned woman would do. She
wanted to speak to his mother. So she goes to
(19:13):
the house and, as this woman explained, the circumstances, without warning,
Derek turned and attacked this woman, physically attacked her right
in front of his mother. Now what happened as a
result of that? What was done to him for physically
jumping on a woman. I'm glad you asked me, because
it would result in nothing consequentially, but it started a
(19:37):
new era in response for Derek. If someone was to
accuse him of something, they would pay the price one
way or another. Now, something a lot of people don't
know is that in August of nineteen eighty five, when
Derek was sixteen years old, he was arrested for attempted
second degree murder. So what happened in that case. I'm
(20:00):
not going to go through the entire story. I'm going
to give you the basics. He pulled a knife on
a boy during a fight, and he was arrested, but
he was then released and nothing really came of it. So,
not deterred by that scare or potential for lock up,
he then decided he needed to make some money, and
(20:20):
he decided that he would then go light his own
car on fire and collect insurance money. Neither of these
crimes are those kids will be kids. Crimes Things like
drag racing or underage drinking are nothing compared to the
criminal pace that Derek was setting. So by the time
he was in high school, he wouldn't remain there long.
(20:42):
He would become a high school dropout. But he would
have multiple complaints, multiple arrests, but he was never sent
to a juvenile detention center, nor did he ever face
any real time for his behaviors. So in July of
nineteen eighty eight, now nineteen years old, he was again
arrested for attempted burglary. Whenever he went to court, those
(21:03):
charges were reduced and he got an unauthorized entry. Basically nothing,
Nothing happened to him two months later. As incredible as
this may seem, Derek was able to lock down a
woman for life, but not the murder Kanye calm down
in this instance, I mean marriage. So on September seventeenth,
nineteen eighty eight, he married Jacqueline Simms in Solitude, Louisiana,
(21:27):
A town named Solitude also was some type of poeticness
I think, in that he would spend a lot of
time in Solitude, both physically and metaphorically. Why because he
couldn't keep a damned job. His marriage started out with
no work ethic and a lack of income. So rather
than assess the situation and make changes that would warrant
(21:49):
better job opportunities, he instead took to his traditional route
of blaming others for his shortcomings. Documentation shows that in
February of nineteen eighty nine, he began harassing none other
than his own mother. He wanted her to pay. He
wanted her to know just how bad of a job
she did at raising him, and that she was the
(22:11):
root of all of his problems, and specifically, he wanted
her to know that his childhood relationship with his stepfather
was a lot to blame. Now, this harassment wasn't just
like phone calls or drop him by the house. No,
this was really, really bad, and this harassment got to
the point that law enforcement had to intervene. So charges
(22:33):
were pressed upon him, and he faced multiple charges, but
they were all classified as misdemeanors, the lowest of crimes.
He went to court and he pled guilty to trespassing.
So what was he sentenced to for this? Well, he
was sentenced to therapy. I guess so far everything that
(22:55):
was in his record told the judge that maybe he
just needed to talk about it. I'm not sure why
it was therapy. Maybe the judge thought we could therapize
his demons right out of him. Well could that have worked?
Maybe he needed to hug a teddy bear. We don't know.
And the fact is were never gonna know because he
never showed up to therapy. And this is where I wonder,
(23:19):
where is the follow up? He blatantly disregarded and ignored
a judge's orders, yet no accountability. It was never followed
up on you and me, we would be under the jail.
But Derek, Nope, he just kept being free doing what
he did. The only encounter he would have with law
(23:40):
enforcement would be a month and a half later when
his wife called nine one one pleading for help. So
what was the emergency? I mean, they were newlyweds. They
were newlyweds and already nine one one is already having
to intervene. Well, yes, they had to show up after
Derek had slapped her around and really her up during
(24:00):
an argument. See, women, they're no match for the solid,
twenty year old muscle of Derreck Lee and he knew it.
Basic biology gave him the upper hand automatically. But now
insert his father in law, and things shifted during this
event because once his father in law came into the
(24:24):
scuffle to defend his daughter. Now it became a man
on man situation, and Derek showed that he would dominate
no matter what. He wasn't going to do hand to
hand combat with another man. No, he pulled out a
gun and he threatened his father in law within an
inch of his life. So when the police got there again,
(24:44):
he was arrested and he was charged. What was he
charged with? Disturbing the peace? So how much jail time
did that give him? None? Y'all. If you pull a
gun on somebody that is not just disturbing the piece,
I hope we can all agree on that. Well, five
(25:05):
months later, still free and out doing what he wanted,
Derek went to a place he loved, and this was
the local bar Saint Francisville, Louisiana. Y'all. It has so
much charm and character, but like any other place, it
also has its pain in the ass. Locals the ones
that cops know by name and they have watched grow up,
(25:27):
and Derek was one of them, those frequent flyers that
law enforcement deal with all the time. It's the same
twenty percent of the population committing one hundred percent of
the crimes. After all, well, Price's Bar was a local
watering hole that Derek frequented, and that's where he ended
up in a fistfight with another patron. Bad tempers and alcohol.
(25:49):
We all know how that's gonna go. So it got
bad enough that police were called and he was again
arrested for disturbing the peace. The reality of Derek's life
at this point was that he was an adult who
did basically whatever he wanted. He had a wife and
two children by now, but husband and father, those were
(26:10):
only really half of his gig. He was also filling
a lot of his time searching for women to rendezvous
with and to spark up new love interests with. While
his wife and his kids were back at home, he
would get all dolled up. He would go hit the bars,
drinking and flirting. He was known to have numerous affairs.
While Jacqueline remained devoted to him as a wife, she
(26:32):
also knew that he had a propensity for being arrested,
and she just dealt with that every time that had happened.
But things took a turn when in nineteen ninety six,
Jacqueline's dad was killed in a plant explosion. As a result,
she and Derek were awarded a quarter of a million
dollars in damages. Never being accustomed to having such finances
(26:53):
at his fingertips, Derek really lost control and went on
spending sprees. He bought cars, he bought nice clothes, and
he also spent a lot of his wife's award money
on his side chick. Her name was Cassandra Green. While
this is unacceptable where I come from, Jacqueline pretty much
just stomached his disgusting behavior. As you can imagine, he
(27:17):
blew through all the money and they were back broke
in no time. But now there was an added pressure
because Derek had a third mouth defeed, not with his wife,
though with his side chick. Yes, Cassandra got pregnant and
gave birth to a son, who they named Dedrick Lee
in nineteen ninety nine. So there you have it. From
(27:40):
birth to nineteen ninety nine. Derek Lee is now a
full grown man, and he has his eyes set on
bigger goals like murder, feeling like he's capable of making
his own sick mark on the world and knowing that
consequences thus far are a total joke, Derek decides South Louisiana,
They're gonna remember his name, because why remain a petty
criminal who abuses just your woman when you could potentially
(28:03):
instill fear in an entire community. Coming up on the
next episode of DTL, the TV hummed on as Connie
(28:23):
focused on her cross stitch when she heard something. Was
that a knock at the door or was that a
car door shutting? She decided to investigate. They went through
the open doorway and the sight of the mattress was unsettling.
It was pushed off the bed frame as if someone
(28:45):
had bumped into it, but hard, and her clothing was
dumped on the floor. Brown hair was what was found
on the hood of Connie's car, and the hair was
consistent with hers, and it looked to a forcibly pulled
out by the route. The trucker had parked and was
(29:08):
getting out when something in the distance caught his eye.
He couldn't make it out, but something was weird about it,
so he decided to go and check it out. He
exited his truck and as he got closer, he slowed
up a bit. He stepped up cautiously, and he leaned in,
and he realized the horror that he had just stumbled upon.
(29:33):
She had suffered an absolutely tragic and brutal beating. There
was extensive head trauma, and it was insanely violent. This
wasn't a fistfight or a struggle. This was a murder
in every sense of the word.
In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper
secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias,
a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Dereck Todd Lee was
a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was
a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile,
led a double life that would unravel in a series
(00:31):
of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and
the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and
murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare,
igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was
just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually
known by just three letters, would reveal not only the
(00:52):
depths of Dereck Todd Lee's depravity, but also the resilience
of those most affected by his evil acts, the families
and the survivors. This is DTL. There's something about serial
killers that really gets people interested. And maybe it's a
(01:14):
mix of fear and the fact that the targets of
these killers always seem so unaware that they're going to
be the ones preyed upon. I'm not sure exactly what
it is, but it gets our attention. I really dove
into my own thoughts on the bat U serial killings
of Derek Todd Lee, and I thought that I would
give you an LSU female freshman's perspective during that time,
(01:36):
because I was that freshman. It was two thousand and
two and we had really entered the new world of
post nine to eleven. Terrorism was something that we now
were all so painfully aware of, and people around the
US were stunned at the level of violence that had
been recently inflicted upon New York, which really AKA was
(01:57):
all of us. The terrorists had an agenda, and their
hatred for Americans was obvious. Now. I was a senior
in high school when those towers were slammed by those planes,
and I will never forget that feeling of helplessness. I
didn't know what was happening, I didn't understand why it
was happening, and I didn't know what to do, and
(02:17):
really it was like, was there something even for me
to do? I remember running out of b building of
the high school. I ran down to my silver Honda
Civic and I then remember jumping in and punching every
preset radio station on my dash, but no matter what
I pressed, I heard President Bush saying we are under attack,
(02:38):
and I genuinely did not know if bombs were going
to start dropping from the sky. I was so scared.
And I bring this up because that was my first
real taste of terror. What it felt like to be
right there in the middle of minding my own business
and then to suddenly have violence and death just catapulted
(02:59):
upon me was something that my seventeen year old brain
was having a really hard time understanding. And even though
I was thousands of miles away from the towers that day,
I felt the pain and I felt the fear. I
promise you I watched people jump to their deaths from
those buildings, and it wasn't lost upon me what I
(03:19):
was seeing. It was simply unimaginable, and all I could
really do was fall back and helplessly just ask why
what did these people ever do to deserve this? Well,
some months would pass and then I, as well as
everyone in the Baton Rouge surrounding area, would be faced
with a more up close and personal form of terror.
(03:42):
Women were now going missing and ultimately they were being
found dead women like me. A majority of them were
white women. They were good women, hard working and intelligent.
Every day you wondered if this attacker would strike again,
and if it would POSSI be me that was the target. Well,
(04:04):
I graduated high school in May of two thousand and two,
and this would really begin my college experience, and it
would start on the amazing campus of LSU, which is
exactly where this story is going to begin. LSU is
the heart of Baton Rouge and it's just known for
its Southern charm. Mike the Tiger roams his large enclosure
(04:24):
with this personal waterfall and the sounds of students flying
by on their bikes and chatting it up as they
walk to class. That's the norm. That's what you hear
on the daily. But even Mike, the Big Mike the
Tiger knows that beauty and safety they don't always go
hand in hand. The beauty and the charm of campus
may lull people into a sense of security as you
(04:48):
walk around the grounds of higher education. But even Mike,
he's even had his own brush with rime. If you
didn't know this, Mike was once kidnapped from campus by
some students. Now that's a whole nother story that I
won't get into, but legend has it that he was
towed around by these students in a trailer while the
students went bar hopping. So to think an apex predator
(05:08):
was out on the loose and chilling in a trailer
is scary. And then you add drunk college kids as
his handlers, and that should have been just an epic
recipe for disaster. But luckily it ended well. Mike the
tiger was recovered and returned back to his enclosure. But
the campus in two thousand and two, y'all, that's well.
After that time, the massive, stately oak trees that fill
(05:30):
campus are seen everywhere, and the chirps of birds searching
for an easy meal that's a constant. While there are
now gates that will stop you from freely driving through
the heart of campus, in two thousand and two, you
could drive anywhere. Saturday Nights and Death Valley were experiences
that we all lived for, and we shouted calling Baton
Rouge from the tops of our lungs while we watched
(05:50):
our fighting tigers. Sure we may have ended that season
eight and five, but that's okay. Because we still felt
like we were a force to be reckoned with, and
we proudly chanted the letters of our universe. But the
reality was that behind all of those daily walks to
classes on the hot, muggy mornings, and the smiles and
the cheering for our tigers on Saturday nights, there was
hunting happening all around us. A person yet unknown was
(06:15):
watching and listening and fixating on a woman of choice,
a woman that he would attack, dominate physically, and then
ultimately kill, all for the excitement of it. For now,
no the headlines were consumed with Kmart becoming the largest
retailer in American history to file for bankruptcy. Elizabeth Smart
she had been kidnapped from her family's Salt Lake City home,
(06:37):
and whether she was alive or not, that kept us
all on the edge of our seats nationwide. But now
a new sort of headline would take over the news
and in total, thirty six women would be murdered. Now,
what was even scarier about this It was determined that
not one, not two, but three serial killers were loose
(06:59):
and batue all at one time. Everyone was a target,
but no one knew who would be next. So for
the sake of storytelling, I'm going to tell you that
two of those serial killers were caught, Sean Vincent Gillis
and Jeffrey Gilliery. But this series is going to focus
on Derreck Toddley. So let's go back to nineteen sixty eight,
(07:21):
seemingly a world away from how we live today. Hey Jude,
by the Beatles. It topped up Billboard Hot one hundred
for nine consecutive weeks, which tied the record at the time,
and the morning of November fifth was a cool, breezy
day in Saint francis Ville, Louisiana, when Florence Lee began
the labour pains required to bring new life into the world.
(07:43):
Speaking of the world. As Florence was working through the
breaths and the sweats and the pushing required during birth,
the US was also in a rebirth of sorts. Richard
Nixon was elected the President of the United States, yet
the Vietnam War was raging on halfway around the world.
For now, though Florence was fighting her own fight with
(08:04):
the promise of new life. In the end, Dereck todd
Lee would eventually make his entrance into the world and
be placed into his mama's arms, the proud son of
Samuel Ruth and Florence Lee. What should have been the
start of a life of promise and greatness would soon
fizzle with less than an epic thud. Shortly after his birth,
(08:26):
his father up and left his mom. Now, truth be told,
they all weren't that broken up over it. Because Derek's dad, Samuel,
he suffered from mental illness and that would eventually end
him up in a mental institution. But it's one thing
to be mentally ill, but it's a whole another ballgame
when you're dangerous to others as well. And this was
(08:47):
exactly the case, and this would be proven whenever he
was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of his
ex wife Florence, though she moved on and through time
she would eventually marry him man named Coleman Barrow. Now
what's funny here is that I obviously can only tell
you information from reports and from articles. What was interesting
(09:10):
to me while I was researching this was that there
are sharp discrepancies out there, and I just found this
really interesting. I decided, now I'm gonna tell you both
of them, rather than just pick one. I'm gonna tell
you both, and I'm gonna let you decide. One account
describes him as a responsible man that honorably raised Derek
and his sisters as if they were his own children,
and that he brought a focus into the home of
(09:32):
teaching the Bible and that education was paramount in start.
Contrast to that, another account from a university that put
together a timeline of Derek's life, they had more of
a negative light that shined on Derek's stepfather. See, his
mother was described as domineering and that she had to
have things her way, and the university account shows that
(09:55):
she clearly met her match in terms of negative energy
when she married Derek's stepfather. So in terms of being
a model for adult behavior, the stepfather really missed the
mark compared to the general consensus on what child upbringing
should be. So maybe Bible lessons were taught and education
was promoted. I wasn't there. But the male figure now
(10:18):
in Derek's life, according to the university, was hard nosed
in terms of punishment for misbehavior and beating Derek was
the typical experience after acting up. No lectures or general
parenting were on the option list in the household so
my gut tells me that it's probably a mix of
both accounts, because people probably are going to always do
(10:41):
the best that they can do with the tools that
they have when they're raising children, whatever it may be.
There is a stark contrast if you look at different stories.
So from the age of three to roughly thirteen, Derek's
life was marked with struggle, even though sometimes it was
self induced. So as you can imagine, the nineteen seventies
(11:03):
weren't the best times for kids with development challenges in school.
I do want to take a second to address this
because I want you to understand I'm not saying this
as an excuse, but as facts of life at the
time and the role that this could have played in
long term outcomes for Derek. So in the nineteen seventies,
kids with disabilities or mental delays were looked at as
(11:25):
non contributors to society as far as education was concerned.
And I don't mean this meanly, I'm being just direct
and how things likely went at school for him on
the daily because Derek was labeled as delayed and he
was placed in special education classes when he started school.
So back then, life skills were thought of as more
important than actual academics, like teaching kids with delays how
(11:49):
to microwave meals and why hygiene matters. Well. There was
a huge civil rights movement that would begin at this
time for people with disabilities in terms of educational experience
and the Idea Act, which is Education for all handicapped children.
The name Did Change of nineteen seventy five started the
process of implementing specialized education and plans, but that would
(12:12):
take years to implement and to quote unquote standardize across
all students. So Derek, in the meantime was in that
group of kids segregated from the regular school population. He
was placed in a minimally stimulating environment and then basically
stigmatized by other students. So now kids get what are
called IEPs, individualized education plans, which are meant to give
(12:34):
them a uniquely modified experience. That this was not the
case back then. No extra time on tests, no varying
punishments for varying mental capacities and such. So I'm telling
you this because Derek's IQ was estimated to be in
the low seventies. For perspective, While this isn't the medical
(12:55):
or professional way of explaining this, I'm just gonna, in
brief explain that an IQ in this sixty to seventy
range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.
So don't, for a second, though, think that I'm telling
you he acted like a child in an adult body. No, no, no.
He was well aware of the difference between right and wrong,
(13:18):
but complex intelligence in terms of educational thinking was lacking.
There were aspects of school, though, that he really did enjoy.
He really enjoyed participating in the school band. He may
have struggled academically, but he loved music. He had a
younger sister, and while she may have been younger than him,
(13:38):
she was advanced academically, which left him feeling outshined for
lack of a better term, and he was reportedly bullied
and called quote unquote retarded by classmates while at school.
So why do I share this, Well, he was miserable
at home with his mother and his stepfather, and then
he went to school where he was also miserable. I
(14:00):
think we can all agree that this is an obvious
negative for a kid psychologically during a great period of
growth in their life. So his foundation was basically broken.
As a former teacher, I was told something one time,
and I want to share it with you because it
always stuck with me. Kids who are loved at home
go to school to learn. Kids who are not loved
(14:23):
at home go to school to be loved. And trust
me when I say I could write a book on this,
And how real that statement is? Well, what if I
told you Derek called his teacher mama. Obviously this was strange,
but knowing what I know, maybe she gave him a
sense of security that he longed for and he felt
(14:43):
like he didn't have at home. She was motherly to him.
She was a mom to him. He also sucked his thumb,
which made him an even bigger target for bullying. So
what do kids do when they feel like they are
in an environment where they are being attacked? We all
know what it is. It's act up. When they aren't
taught social emotional tools for emotional regulation, kids impulsively react. Well,
(15:09):
this was the epitome of Derek Toddley. While his actual
school discipline record I don't have. He's no unicorn of misbehavior. Okay,
kids act up and then they are disciplined. How he
was disciplined, however, would not have been modified in any way,
so he got suspended or he got detention. All of
(15:30):
that happening for misbehavior would leave negative lasting effects on students.
And then you may not know this, or maybe you do,
but kids that are constantly in trouble are more likely
to suffer academically drop out of school and you could
probably guess this one, but they're more likely to be
involved in the criminal justice system. And that's why this
(15:51):
totality of circumstance to me matters, and why I'm sharing
it all with you because it makes you wonder does
society possibly aid in times at building killers? Because failure
to identify key elements that are common amongst them is
kind of interesting. Most serial killers have a high school
education or less. That said, they aren't unintelligent. They just
(16:16):
often display a cunning mentality and use intelligence to evade
detection despite not having high levels of formal education. Again,
this was Derek. He may have been academically delayed, but
he wasn't unintelligent. And this is why the schooling disparity
would matter. We have to feed young minds. They aren't less,
(16:39):
they're just different. So with a lack of real guidance
at home and the need for more stimulation. He wanted
something actually exciting. Derek then would go off and start
making his own excitement. See he was still in elementary
school when he started finding excitement and peeping in windows,
spying on people and watching them without their knowledge. He
(17:02):
thought it was fun. He could see people in the
way that they acted when they thought that they were alone.
And if he was peeping, he couldn't be shunned. He
wouldn't be excluded if they never knew that he was
there to begin with. How could they? He wouldn't always
get away with it, though, And because of his treatment
as a quote unquote special kid, he learned something very quickly.
(17:27):
Rather than addressing his behavior as wrong, he found that
he could just talk his way out of most things
because people took pity on him and the fact that
he was just a kid, right, Well, he was smart
enough to recognize that pattern and he would use it
to his advantage. Based on this, I guess we would
call it skill. Derek was never really forced to take
(17:48):
responsibility for any of his misbehavior. No consequences was the
usual outcome, and his parents didn't care as long as
he was not bothering them. So as he grew and
he got older and he turned into a young teen,
a new behavior began to arise. It's the age old
one that we all know and we all attribute to
(18:10):
future serial killers. You guessed it. Torturing animals. See, Derek
had dogs when he was young, and those dogs would
often have puppies, and he found that he got a
sixth sense of joy out of the control that he
could place over the animals. Just like people hurt him,
he could now do that to those he had power over,
(18:32):
and the puppies they would be the one to pay
the price. But starting in November of nineteen eighty one,
Derek would be arrested for the first time. He was
only thirteen years old at his first arrest, and he
had been booked with burglary and vandalizing a candy store.
Now that may seem rather minor on the big scale
(18:53):
of things, but his violence would escalate, especially towards women.
In August of nineteen eighty five, just a few short
years later, because a woman caught Derek peeping in windows,
and she did as any concerned woman would do. She
wanted to speak to his mother. So she goes to
(19:13):
the house and, as this woman explained, the circumstances, without warning,
Derek turned and attacked this woman, physically attacked her right
in front of his mother. Now what happened as a
result of that? What was done to him for physically
jumping on a woman. I'm glad you asked me, because
it would result in nothing consequentially, but it started a
(19:37):
new era in response for Derek. If someone was to
accuse him of something, they would pay the price one
way or another. Now, something a lot of people don't
know is that in August of nineteen eighty five, when
Derek was sixteen years old, he was arrested for attempted
second degree murder. So what happened in that case. I'm
(20:00):
not going to go through the entire story. I'm going
to give you the basics. He pulled a knife on
a boy during a fight, and he was arrested, but
he was then released and nothing really came of it. So,
not deterred by that scare or potential for lock up,
he then decided he needed to make some money, and
(20:20):
he decided that he would then go light his own
car on fire and collect insurance money. Neither of these
crimes are those kids will be kids. Crimes Things like
drag racing or underage drinking are nothing compared to the
criminal pace that Derek was setting. So by the time
he was in high school, he wouldn't remain there long.
(20:42):
He would become a high school dropout. But he would
have multiple complaints, multiple arrests, but he was never sent
to a juvenile detention center, nor did he ever face
any real time for his behaviors. So in July of
nineteen eighty eight, now nineteen years old, he was again
arrested for attempted burglary. Whenever he went to court, those
(21:03):
charges were reduced and he got an unauthorized entry. Basically nothing,
Nothing happened to him two months later. As incredible as
this may seem, Derek was able to lock down a
woman for life, but not the murder Kanye calm down
in this instance, I mean marriage. So on September seventeenth,
nineteen eighty eight, he married Jacqueline Simms in Solitude, Louisiana,
(21:27):
A town named Solitude also was some type of poeticness
I think, in that he would spend a lot of
time in Solitude, both physically and metaphorically. Why because he
couldn't keep a damned job. His marriage started out with
no work ethic and a lack of income. So rather
than assess the situation and make changes that would warrant
(21:49):
better job opportunities, he instead took to his traditional route
of blaming others for his shortcomings. Documentation shows that in
February of nineteen eighty nine, he began harassing none other
than his own mother. He wanted her to pay. He
wanted her to know just how bad of a job
she did at raising him, and that she was the
(22:11):
root of all of his problems, and specifically, he wanted
her to know that his childhood relationship with his stepfather
was a lot to blame. Now, this harassment wasn't just
like phone calls or drop him by the house. No,
this was really, really bad, and this harassment got to
the point that law enforcement had to intervene. So charges
(22:33):
were pressed upon him, and he faced multiple charges, but
they were all classified as misdemeanors, the lowest of crimes.
He went to court and he pled guilty to trespassing.
So what was he sentenced to for this? Well, he
was sentenced to therapy. I guess so far everything that
(22:55):
was in his record told the judge that maybe he
just needed to talk about it. I'm not sure why
it was therapy. Maybe the judge thought we could therapize
his demons right out of him. Well could that have worked?
Maybe he needed to hug a teddy bear. We don't know.
And the fact is were never gonna know because he
never showed up to therapy. And this is where I wonder,
(23:19):
where is the follow up? He blatantly disregarded and ignored
a judge's orders, yet no accountability. It was never followed
up on you and me, we would be under the jail.
But Derek, Nope, he just kept being free doing what
he did. The only encounter he would have with law
(23:40):
enforcement would be a month and a half later when
his wife called nine one one pleading for help. So
what was the emergency? I mean, they were newlyweds. They
were newlyweds and already nine one one is already having
to intervene. Well, yes, they had to show up after
Derek had slapped her around and really her up during
(24:00):
an argument. See, women, they're no match for the solid,
twenty year old muscle of Derreck Lee and he knew it.
Basic biology gave him the upper hand automatically. But now
insert his father in law, and things shifted during this
event because once his father in law came into the
(24:24):
scuffle to defend his daughter. Now it became a man
on man situation, and Derek showed that he would dominate
no matter what. He wasn't going to do hand to
hand combat with another man. No, he pulled out a
gun and he threatened his father in law within an
inch of his life. So when the police got there again,
(24:44):
he was arrested and he was charged. What was he
charged with? Disturbing the peace? So how much jail time
did that give him? None? Y'all. If you pull a
gun on somebody that is not just disturbing the piece,
I hope we can all agree on that. Well, five
(25:05):
months later, still free and out doing what he wanted,
Derek went to a place he loved, and this was
the local bar Saint Francisville, Louisiana. Y'all. It has so
much charm and character, but like any other place, it
also has its pain in the ass. Locals the ones
that cops know by name and they have watched grow up,
(25:27):
and Derek was one of them, those frequent flyers that
law enforcement deal with all the time. It's the same
twenty percent of the population committing one hundred percent of
the crimes. After all, well, Price's Bar was a local
watering hole that Derek frequented, and that's where he ended
up in a fistfight with another patron. Bad tempers and alcohol.
(25:49):
We all know how that's gonna go. So it got
bad enough that police were called and he was again
arrested for disturbing the peace. The reality of Derek's life
at this point was that he was an adult who
did basically whatever he wanted. He had a wife and
two children by now, but husband and father, those were
(26:10):
only really half of his gig. He was also filling
a lot of his time searching for women to rendezvous
with and to spark up new love interests with. While
his wife and his kids were back at home, he
would get all dolled up. He would go hit the bars,
drinking and flirting. He was known to have numerous affairs.
While Jacqueline remained devoted to him as a wife, she
(26:32):
also knew that he had a propensity for being arrested,
and she just dealt with that every time that had happened.
But things took a turn when in nineteen ninety six,
Jacqueline's dad was killed in a plant explosion. As a result,
she and Derek were awarded a quarter of a million
dollars in damages. Never being accustomed to having such finances
(26:53):
at his fingertips, Derek really lost control and went on
spending sprees. He bought cars, he bought nice clothes, and
he also spent a lot of his wife's award money
on his side chick. Her name was Cassandra Green. While
this is unacceptable where I come from, Jacqueline pretty much
just stomached his disgusting behavior. As you can imagine, he
(27:17):
blew through all the money and they were back broke
in no time. But now there was an added pressure
because Derek had a third mouth defeed, not with his wife,
though with his side chick. Yes, Cassandra got pregnant and
gave birth to a son, who they named Dedrick Lee
in nineteen ninety nine. So there you have it. From
(27:40):
birth to nineteen ninety nine. Derek Lee is now a
full grown man, and he has his eyes set on
bigger goals like murder, feeling like he's capable of making
his own sick mark on the world and knowing that
consequences thus far are a total joke, Derek decides South Louisiana,
They're gonna remember his name, because why remain a petty
criminal who abuses just your woman when you could potentially
(28:03):
instill fear in an entire community. Coming up on the
next episode of DTL, the TV hummed on as Connie
(28:23):
focused on her cross stitch when she heard something. Was
that a knock at the door or was that a
car door shutting? She decided to investigate. They went through
the open doorway and the sight of the mattress was unsettling.
It was pushed off the bed frame as if someone
(28:45):
had bumped into it, but hard, and her clothing was
dumped on the floor. Brown hair was what was found
on the hood of Connie's car, and the hair was
consistent with hers, and it looked to a forcibly pulled
out by the route. The trucker had parked and was
(29:08):
getting out when something in the distance caught his eye.
He couldn't make it out, but something was weird about it,
so he decided to go and check it out. He
exited his truck and as he got closer, he slowed
up a bit. He stepped up cautiously, and he leaned in,
and he realized the horror that he had just stumbled upon.
(29:33):
She had suffered an absolutely tragic and brutal beating. There
was extensive head trauma, and it was insanely violent. This
wasn't a fistfight or a struggle. This was a murder
in every sense of the word.
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