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Derrick Todd Lee was born on November 5, 1968, the second of four children in St. Francisville, Louisiana, to Samuel Ruth and Florence Lee. His father, who suffered from mental illness, left Florence soon after Derrick was born .and ended up in a mental institution after being charged with the attempted murder of his ex-wife. Florence later married Coleman Barrow who raised Derrick and his sisters.
Lee's IQ was calculated from below 70 to 75 and was placed in special education classes. By the time he turned 11, he had been caught peeping into the windows of girls in his neighborhood, which he continued to do as an adult. He also liked to torture dogs and cats. At 13, Lee was arrested for simple burglary. He was known to the local police because of his voyeurism, but at age 16, he pulled a knife on a boy during a fight and was charged with attempted second-degree murder. At age 17, Lee was arrested for being a Peeping Tom, but even though he was a high school dropout with multiple complaints and arrests, he was not incarcerated.
In 1988, Lee met and married Jacqueline Denise Sims. They had three children, a boy named after his father, Derrick Todd Lee, Jr., and in 1992 a girl, Dorris Lee and a son named Dedrick Lee, in 1999. Soon after their marriage, Lee pleaded guilty to unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. Over the next few years, he worked hard at his construction job and took his family on weekend outings. However, he also cruised local bars, drinking and having extramarital affairs. He was arguing a lot with Casandra and in February 2000, she started proceedings to get a protective order prohibiting Lee from getting near her. Three days later, he caught up with her in a bar parking lot and violently assaulted her. Casandra pressed charges, and his probation was revoked. He spent the following year in prison until his release in February 2001. He was placed under house arrest and required to wear monitoring equipment.
It is unknown when Lee committed his first or last rape and murder. But he is believed to have bludgeoned Connie Warner to death with a hammer in Zachary, Louisiana in August 1992.
Lee's crime spree lasted 10 years after that attack, with DNA evidence eventually linking him to seven murder victims. Lee stayed on the move. In the 10 years it is suspected that he committed rape and murder, he was constantly changing jobs, moving between south Louisiana cities, and going in and out of prison. DNA was being collected in parishes where unsolved murders of women had occurred. At the time Lee was living in West Feliciana Parish and was asked to give a swab for DNA testing. Lee's DNA matched samples taken from five victims.
Lee and his family fled Louisiana on the day that he provided his DNA. He was caught in Atlanta, Georgia, and returned to Louisiana a day after his arrest warrant was issued.
In August 2004 he was found guilty of the second-degree murder of one of his victims and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. In October 2004 Lee was found guilty of rape and murder of another of his victims and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. In 2008, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence. Lee remained on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.
On January 16, 2016, Lee was transferred to Lane Memorial Hospital in Zachary, Louisiana, for emergency treatment and died of heart disease on January 21st.
