Investigators have found a string of cases where women disappear from the same stretch of road, including Morgan Harrington in 2009, Samantha Clarke in 2010, and Dashad Smith in 2012. Although she tried to run, he caught her. According to NBC News 12, the Route 29 Stalker had a pattern: he'd pull up alongside or behind women who were driving, and if they stopped, he'd try to convince them there was something wrong with their vehicle. Most of the cases remain unsolved, and sometimes, families get horrible closure. LA, Stanley Williams was one of the early leaders in the West Side Crips, an American Street Gang in South Central Los Angeles. Belgian officials came up empty when they tried to prove he was in Mons during the rash of very similar killings. Settling in New Orleans in the 1870s, Matranga founded the New Orleans mafia, building his reputation by shooting and killing New Orleans police chief David Hennessy in his own home in 1890. His tactics in capturing, sometimes raping then murdering the men was simple. Sometimes, they simply disappear. Gillis was back in North Baton Route on Oct. 9, 2003, where he picked up his friend Johnnie Mae Williams, a mother of three. According to the LA Times, police honed in on Bobby Joe Maxwell after discovering two pieces of evidence: his handprint on a bench near one crime scene, and the fact that he owned a knife that could have made the wounds in some of the stabbings. Vice adds that it was weeks before all the bodies were uncovered and another year before the women were identified, and 10 of the 11 women were on Detective Ida Lopez's list of missing women with ties to the city's high-crime, Central Avenue area (pictured). Combined, the men were responsible for the deaths of at least 36 women. Due to his confession, he avoided the death penalty and was convicted in 2008, receiving eight life sentences. That was in 1998, and shockingly, it wasn't until 2010 that Maxwell's conviction as the Skid Row Stabber would be overturned, and it still wasn't over. Ronald J. Dominique of Houma, LA has confessed to murdering 23 men over the course of nine years and dumping their bodies in sugarcane fields, ditches and small bayous in six southeast Louisiana parishes. Why wasn't the trend of missing DNA evidence discovered sooner? Richardsons body was found March 18 near the bank of the Mississippi River in Hester in St. James Parish, Louisiana, ABC News-affiliate WBRZ2 reported. He would lure homeless men with the promise of sex in exchange for money. Jesse Matthew Jr. was convicted in 2016 of Harrington's murder and is serving four consecutive life sentences. Between 1994 and 2004, Sean Vincent Gillis reportedly killed eight women ranging in age from 30 to 82. The two sets of killings were never officially linked by law enforcement, but to some, the coincidence could seem like just too much to be just a coincidence. He had a clear view of a retirement complex across the street from the convenience store where he worked, and his mind sorted through scenarios about how to break in. Three days after Dominique's arrest for killing Mitchell and Pierre, investigators said Dominique confessed to 21 other murders, giving details only the killer would know. Are people seeing patterns that aren't there? They found knives, a hacksaw, a bayonet, a machete and an assortment of plastic zip ties, along with photographs of Williams. Gillis seemed to adjust, developing a close relationship with his father in his teens for about a year until he discovered his father was gay. And as always, let us know if we forgot anyone important! An image shared on Facebook claims there is an active serial killer targeting women in Baton Rouge. Investigations have uncovered several connections between the women and there has been some suggestion the perpetrator works as a police officer or has close ties to local law enforcement. Here are the 12Most Notorious Serial Killers In Louisiana History, research published by CrimeCapsule shows that Louisiana has the 5th most serial killers, Five Murder Movies Tied To The Ark-La-Tex, Louisiana City Named Serial Killer Capital in TV Series, How A Shreveport Native Inspired The Scream Movie Franchise, The 14 Most Notorious Serial Killers In Texas History, Tornado Watch in Effect in Shreveport and Northwest Louisiana, Madonna Announces New Global Tour: Includes Dallas, North Louisiana School Employee Out After Racist MLK Day Text, Postal Service Offers Reward in Shreveport Mail Carrier Robbery, Man Fell Through Shreveport Truck-Stop Ceiling in Burglary Arrest. A coherent account of his motives has never come to light, aside from the obvious he liked to stalk women. Protests kicked off again in 2020 after the murder of Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre, who was shot in the head as she rode her bicycle home one night. 10 Serial Killers That Are Still Active Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 Serial Killers That Are Still Active. According to The Guardian, 13 men in total were killed and dumped in the park against the backdrop of Brazil's gay pride march, leading police chief Paulo Fernando Fortunato to explain, "He doesn't like homosexuals, he hates them.". Thats 67 (victims) between five killers.. Born in Baton Rouge in 1962, Mr. Gillis began killing individuals in the Baton Rouge Metro area in 1994. Ronald Joseph Dominique is one of the most notorious serial killers in Louisiana. This is not the first time a baseless rumor about a serial killer has gone viral. These were some of the cases L.A. homicide investigators were frantically trying to solve, and later they learned more than 20 serial killers were stalking the L.A. streets at the same time in the . ). The Jennings Killer is the only one of the five serial killers of southern Louisiana who remains at large and has been linked to a string of unsolved murders. Known as the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, Mr. Lee was convicted through DNA evidence in 2004 for the deaths of seven women in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette area. In early 2004, Gillis picked her up and tried to put a zip tie around her neck. The entire country of Belize has a population of about 230,000 people, and for reference, that's about the same population as the city of Boise, Idaho. The phenomenon is now receiving national attention in America, at least among devotees of Discoverys new crime documentary Killing Fields, which tracks the reinvestigation of the 20-year-old unsolved murder of Eugenie Boisfontaine in the parish of Iberville, just outside Baton Rouge. When news spread about her crimes, an angry mob attacked her mansion and stripped her of all of her things. By then, Maxwell was hospitalized and comatose following a severe heart attack. Johnstons body had tire tracks next to it, and they were an unusual brand. As the years went on, he got into minor scrapes for drug possession, traffic charges, and contempt of court, according to murderpedia.org. Then, he was immediately sent back to his native Colombia and put on trial for the murders committed there. This would put the number of unidentified serial killers operating in the U.S. somewhere around 2,100. But the Courier & Press says that's not the end of the story. Victims were killed between October 1986 and September 1989, they were all young couples killed at the same time, in the same area, and each set of victims seemed to have been reaching for identification or registration information when they were taken from their cars. Residents of the home described Dominique as odd, but no one suspected he was a killer.. After his arrest, police discovered another serial killer, Sean Vincent Gillis (see below) had been operating at the same time and area as Lee, muddying the waters of the investigation to this day. It's possible former FBI agent Bryanna Fox explains that sometimes, it's easier to believe in a serial killer than in our individual vulnerability to tragedy. They showed up on the doorstep of the home his mom left for him on Burgin Avenue, a little after lunchtime. Intending to rape her, he admitted to not knowing what to do, so he stabbed her 47 times, nearly decapitating her. Louisiana has been the birth place of multiple serial killers, and also a location for other serial killers to call home. ), The Department is aware of these allegations that are being spread online about the viral social media post, a spokesperson for the department told Check Your Fact in a direct message on Facebook. He was convicted and sentenced to death in Illinois for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of a 15-year-old. Though it's easy to think that nothing bad like that has happened in Louisiana, the Pelican State has seen plenty of heinous crimes through its history. Ms Boisfontaine was last seen June 13, 1997 by an exterminator at her home. He was eventually caught and convicted in 2007 and was sentenced to life in prison. A task force called E-PANA was assembled in 2005 to investigate disappearances, but since, the number of people assigned to the task force has dropped from 70 to just eight. most notorious criminals and serial killers. Ms Mustafa said there was merit to the theory explored in Killing Fields that Ms Boisfontaine was one of Derrick Todd Lees victims and said it would be interesting to see how his January 21 death would affect the investigation. Gillis nearly always mutilated his victims, some of whom he stabbed, others he strangled, and frequently took body parts as trophies. Earlier this year, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt . The Jeff Davis 8. They used crime-scene DNA from the victims, but they couldnt make headway until they cleared up a problem with race. Gillis chased her town and knocked her unconscious with a piece of rebar, according to Mustafa, and killed her as hed planned with a zip tie around her throat. They quickly began testing likely suspects who were Black and found a positive match in Lee. Lee and Gillis prowled Baton Rouge for a decade, from 1994 to 2004. He was convicted of killing Williams, Nevils, and Johnston but eventually admitted to murdering eight women. Discuss in the comments below! Which appears to not be going well for the Biden Administration, and big tech companies. Serial killer in Baton Rouge, reads text in the post. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/serial-killer-ronald-dominique-973118. He hasn't been seen since, but he has been connected to still more killings. Over the next year-and-a-half, Gillis targeted three more victims and go entirely undetected by authorities. Born in Shreveport, LA, Stanley Williams was one of the early leaders in the West Side Crips, an American Street Gang in South Central Los Angeles. After testing thousands of white men, the trail went cold and they went back to the drawing board, examining the DNA evidence more closely. Ronald Dominique spent much of his youth in the small bayou community of Thibodaux, LA. When she got into his car, she was intoxicated and in no state to fend off an attack. According to the US Department of Justice, the closure rate on 2017 murder cases was only at 62 percent. His description would later match evidence authorities collected about a serial killer stalking their city. Baton Rouge serial killer Jeffrey Guillory has been linked to nine murders but is suspected in the slayings of at least three others. A serial killer never stops killing.". From mass shootings to serial killers, the country has some of the most prolific and brutal killers ever recorded. One of the revelations to emerge from the series is that the investigation both then and now has been complicated by the fact that multiple serial killers were operating in the area at the time of the 34-year-old graduate students 1997 murder. That's not just an opinion, research published by CrimeCapsule shows that Louisiana has the 5th most serial killers in the United States. Shockingly, they've found some 335 cases considered suspicious enough to be linked with the potential Smiley Face Killers back in 2019. Was he not sleeping at all? It's not clear just how many women have died in the city of Juarez since the 1990s, but NPR says that the numbers are in the hundreds. Did you realize so many of these infamous men and women were from Louisiana? According to a 1999 issue of Texas Monthly, the Killing Fields the name given to a strip of abandoned oil fields near Interstate 45 have long been known as a favorite dump site for killers. Unsolved murders along Highway 18 go all the way back to 1969, and in 2016, RCMP Staff Sgt. "Louisiana Serial Killer Ronald Dominique." Now, fast forward to 2006. He has killed eight or nine women and has not yet been caught," Ms Mustafa told news.com.au. The bodies of Ms Edwards and Ms Cobb, both 36, and Ms Newman were found in 1999, 2001 and 2002, respectively. He only had a connection to one of the women he brutally murdered. Her killer picked her up on Nov. 12, 1999. Now we're not going to get into a discussion of why Louisiana has so many serial killers, but weare going to talk about them. Take the Golden State Killer, a serial killer linked to crimes that spanned decades. Some suspect the family grew uncomfortable by the 24-hour police surveillance and Dominique, knowing he was soon to be caught, moved away to avoid getting his family involved in his arrest. The body of 20-year-old Gary Pierre was found in St. Charles Parish six months later. In July 1998, the body of 38-year-old Larry Ranson was found in St. Charles Parish. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. Abel was around 60-years-old when the murders and more disappearances happened, and the same law enforcement officials who considered him a suspect were also forced to admit that they had absolutely no evidence that he had anything to do with the killings. Gordon Stewart Northcott (3+ victims) Between 1926 and '28, Gordon Stewart Northcott, a pedophile, abducted and murdered at least three young boys in Los Angeles and Riverside County. All of these horrific crimes really make my spine tingle! Starting in September 1997, there were a series of killings in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal's Pietermaritzburg area (via i0L). He attended Thibodaux High School where he was in the glee club and sang in the chorus. He has killed eight or nine women and has not yet been caught, Ms Mustafa told news.com.au. In 1991 Ray and Faye Copeland become, at the ages of 76 and 69, the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the USA. The last victim and one who would send Gillis to jail was Donna Bennett Johnston. One prosecutor compared Gillis to notorious serial Ted Bundy, calling him a "narcissistic" serial killer who brutally attacked women and believed he was "playing a game of chess" with the FBI. In this instance, Gillis first tried cannibalism. Neither world embracedhim, and among the gay community, many remember him as someone who was not particularly well-liked. Born in Baton Rouge in 1960, he was executed by lethal injection in 2009. Mr. Willie was convicted and executed in 1984 for the kidnap, rape, and murder of 18-year-old Faith Hathaway. Investigators knew the 23 victims were mostly homeless men, many who led high-risk lifestyles, which included drug use and prostitution. The end of the trial saw him committed to a psychiatric institution, and he remained there for four years until 1998. She loved to dance, they said, and was a fierce protector of her younger siblings. The 30+ young women who have been killed or gone missing over the course of decades are sometimes collectively referred to as the I-45 killings, and according to The Washington Post, a few perpetrators have been caught, but most cases including the killing of those four women are still open. In a letter, he wrote: "I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time. Gillis lived with his mother until he was 30 years old and later admitted to wishing he could have sex with her. His crime was one that often marks the starting point for a later career in home invasion, rape and murder he was loosely classified by the Baton Rouge police as a peeping Tom. I would greatly appreciate it since I make. Two of Lees victims, including Charlotte Pace (above), lived on the same street as Ms Boisfontaine. After taking a shower with her body, he drove her to a levee near the Mississippi River and left her there. However, former police detective and author of a dozen books on serial murder, Michael Arntfield, suspects that number to be closer to double that around 4,000 currently active serial killers. Between 1989 and 1990, Rolling reportedly killed eight victims, ages 8 to 55, but was known for killing four University of Florida students in their apartments. If there's anything that's more terrifying than a serial killer stalking the streets, it's the possibility that one might be hiding in the shadows but, no one's sure. In 1997, authorities found 19-year-old David Levron Mitchell's murdered body near Hahnville. As the killer has been active for many years, his techniques have evolved as he gains confidence. The fact is that serial killers are creatures of habit. In his confession, Dominique claimed he frequented gay bars and targeted men he thought would be willing to have sex for money. She lived on Stanford Ave in Baton Rouge. In 2004 he was convicted of the murders of Ms DeSoto and Ms Pace and sentenced to death. Prosecuting him would be difficult, and it turns out that it's possible for the story to get even more disturbing. In 2008, he was convicted of murdering 8 men, aged between 16-46, over a 9-year period, but he is suspected in over 20 crimes. Lopez served 14 years of a 16-year sentence in Ecuador when he was released early for good behavior. The Jennings Killer is the only one of the five serial killers of southern Louisiana who remains at large and has been linked to a string of unsolved murders. Lee had a history of spying into bedroom windows; his first arrest at 17 years old got him a slap on the wrist. Donald Waterhouse was originally on the suspect list he'd reportedly killed his mother and stepfather with the same caliber rifle not long before the I-70 killer struck but in 1993 and 1994, Texas experienced a similar set of murders while Waterhouse was behind bars. Gillis was transported to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on April 29, 2004, and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and ritualistic acts relating to mutilation. In North Baton Rouge, many of the street workers faded out of sight in a deafening silence while Gillis killed and mutilated. She was found floating in a bayou on the road to New Orleans, her body mutilated. On May 27, 2003, law enforcement captured Lee in Atlanta, extradited him, and charged him with second-degree murder in the death of Geralyn DeSoto, a 21-year-old graduate student at Louisiana State University. At a glance, Oxygen says there's a lot of evidence that seems to suggest the eight murders were the work of the same person. He was killed on July 4, 2007, then dumped in Sao Paulo's Paturis Park and he wasn't the last. In Baton Rouge, the murder rate is still six times higher than the average American city, the 14th highest murder rate of any US city. According to the FBI, a murderer becomes serial when they kill two or more people in separate events. Eight women, now known as the Jeff Davis 8, were killed and dumped . Then there was the Dominique who cross-dressed and did bad impersonations of Patti LaBelle at the local gay club. When suspect Michael Williams was in custody, for example, 9-year-old Erica Williams went missing. Richardson died from an apparent gunshot wound, and her boyfriend was later arrested as a suspect in the killing, according to The Advocate. Then, in 2007, the killings seemed to start again. In late October 2000, Gillis picked up Marilyn Nevils and attempted to put a zip tie around her neck. Gillis got caught in the net meant for Lee, but eluded police for just as long, perhaps because he, too, chose his victims randomly based on opportunity. On April 28, 2004, police went to Gilliss home and took a DNA swab. So, who are some of the most notorious criminals and serial killers in Louisiana history? List of serial killers active in the 2020s This is a list of serial killers who were active between 2020 and the present. Seemingly keeping his word, no murders were reported that night. Do you remember when any of these crimes happened? The latter is the theory of former NYPD detective Anthony Duarte, retired Boston detective Kevin Gannon, and professor of criminal justice Lee Gilbertson. Kezia Kamenetz is a native to southern Louisiana and lives in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans currently. Gillis was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 for the rape and murder of eight women aged between 29 and 82 in the Baton Rouge area. According to Aamodt's data, there was a proliferation of serial killers in the USA between the 70s and 90s, with 104 active serial killers operating in 1974, 147 in . According to Rolling Stone, Lopez's predilection for assault and murder started when he was young. It wasn't until six months after Henrique's body was discovered that police even announced they knew they were dealing with a serial killer they'd linked not only to the Paturis park killings, but to three more murders in a nearby city. After hed strangled her to death, he threw her body in his car trunk and took 45 photos, according to Mustafa, before dismembering her and cannibalizing her remains. Ronald Dominique aka The Bayou Serial Killer, Ronald Dominique pleaded guilty to the murders of eight men but later confessed to having murdered 23. Louisiana is no stranger to horrific crimes. Sign up to receive breakingFront Page Detectivesnews and exclusive investigations. The months of October and November, 1978, had been a terrifying time, when 10 homeless men were brutally murdered in the streets. Classmates who remember Dominique say he was ridiculed for being homosexual during his teen years, but at the time he never admitted he was gay. There is no evidence that the two were killed by a serial killer or that their deaths are connected in any way. His first victim, Lynn Lewis, 28, was found floating in a river by a fisherman on May 20, 2005. Known as the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, Lee would be convicted for first-degree murder and receive the death penalty for killing 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace on May 31, 2002. He died last weekend in hospital while on Death Row. Get more stories delivered right to your email. In 1984, news went national with the discovery of four naked, carefully posed, female murder victims. Love Louisiana? Abel insisted that he was innocent, but it's undeniable that some killer was at work along this lonely stretch of highway. They recovered snuff films from his hard drive and books about serial killers on his bookshelves, according to murderpedia.org. In a statement released Monday, Nungesser notes that his tenure as Lt. Louisiana Serial Killer Ronald Dominique. The Baton Rouge police called in the SWAT team the next day. Dominique confessed to the rape and murder of at least 23 men over a 10 year period starting in 1997 throughout Louisiana. Gillis later confessed that hed killed Williams with a zip tie that night, took her back to his house and dismembered her. Police determined Ms Patterson and Ms Brown had their throats slit but the other bodies were too decomposed to determine the cause of death, although strangulation was strongly suspected in several. Penn State says there were a whole bunch of problems with the case, beginning with law enforcement's complete denial of the connections between the victims. She was his second victim. He would later write Murder in the Bayou based on his findings, and the gist of the accusations is this: Brown found that all eight victims had some sort of relationship some sexual, some as informants with local law enforcement. He'd offer to give them a ride, and that's how he killed Alicia Showalter Reynolds. In a five-house radius, three women are killed., True crime author Susan D Mustafa, who has written books about Baton Rouge serial killers Derrick Todd Lee and Sean Vincent Gillis, THE SERIAL KILLERS HAUNTING BATON ROUGE AND SOUTHERN LOUISIANA. Because of the FBI profile and eyewitness account, authorities focused on finding a Caucasian killer. Kezia Kamenetz is a native to southern Louisiana and lives in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans currently. There have been multiple serial killers who have come to Louisiana, where they have committed crimes. She was attacked in her upscale, secure apartment. In fact Lee is one of at least five serial killers who have operated in the area independently of each other since 1995. In 2008, Dominique pleaded guilty to the rapes and murders of eight men aged between 16 and 46 and received eight life sentences. The state of Louisiana produces a lot of serial killers. He notoriously masturbated with the severed leg of one of his victims. His lengthy cooling off periods between kills, particularly at first, challenged what FBI profilers had become accustomed to seeing in such killers and may have significantly contributed to him remaining free for so long. Over the past two decades, the citizens of Baton Rouge and its outskirts have been hunted by no less than five serial killers. What set this string of attacks apart is that the attacker sent a letter to local newspapers saying he would go on a killing spree in New Orleans on a specific night but would spare anyone who was playing jazz music. He swung a harvesting scythe at them, but another car drove up, interrupting the attack. He later picked up Lilian Robinson, 52, in North Baton Rouge and strangled her with a zip tie. Having a serial killer active in your own backyard is a terrifying prospect, and between 1985 and 1990, that's exactly what was going on in Philadelphia. Let us know what you think in the comments below! He cut her ears in half and stabbed her 83 times. George Walker is a private investigator who had been working the case, and he's stressed that there's a very real possibility that the killer was never caught because he's no longer in the area. But not of being the Butcher of Mons, in spite of law enforcement's best efforts. Only, it definitely shouldn't have been. Authorities say that while the three women who were killed in 2007 were "burned beyond recognition," they also shared characteristics with the original 13 victims they were found around the N3 highway, and the method of killing was the same. According to the Los Angeles Times, the bodies of seven girls were recovered in the span of just one year and there was a pattern. A more in-depth genetic profile revealed the serial killer was 85% Black and the rest of his background was Native American. https://www.thoughtco.com/serial-killer-ronald-dominique-973118 (accessed January 18, 2023). Soon after his arrest, Dominique confessed to murdering 23 southeast Louisiana men. The sniper who famously assassinated John F. Kennedy in 1963, Oswald was born in New Orleans. Another potential suspect disappeared before he could be arrested and investigated. Once imprisoned for his crimes, he turned over a new leaf and became a leading activist against gangs. Gillis and Lee were snared when technology and old-fashioned detective work caught up with them, but bodies piled up in the ensuing years. Accusations still abound that he was not the lone gunman and was actually part of a bigger conspiracy to murder the president. Reynolds was killed on March 2, 1996 and that's also when appearances of the Route 29 stalker stopped. Gilbert an escort had just been dropped off at a client's home when, three hours later, she fled that home, ran to a neighbor, asked for help, then disappeared. Gina Wilson Green, who lived two houses down from Eugenies home, is killed by Lee in 2001, and then Charlotte Murray Pace, who had just moved from her home on Stanford Avenue, lived three houses down from where Eugenie lived in the opposite direction from Gina Wilson Green. The Most Dangerous Active Serial Killers In 2021. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. He started killing in 1976, and was only identified and arrested in 2018. America has a dark and checkered past. Louisiana is no stranger to those who may see themselves above the law. But, their families pushed police to find the killer. Those bodies included Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who had been missing for three years, and Megan Waterman, who left behind a three-year-old daughter. He joined the Lions Club just months before his arrest and spent Sunday afternoons calling out Bingo numbers to senior citizens. He had already established a pattern of returning to the same area to kill. In the 17 years since both Baton Rouge serial killers went to prison, DNA methods and analysis have taken law enforcement into new territory. At the turn of the century, an African-american laborer named Robert Charles shot a white police officer. A couple that had some notoriety after riding out Katrina in the French quarter, this Iraq War veteran committed suicide after strangling his girlfriend Addie Hall, dismembering her body, and cooking it on the stove. His wife, Cassandra, sought a protective order against her husband after shed had enough of the violence at home. Clary says that in many of the still-open cases, the years have not been kind. Louisiana: Coffman, Cynthia: 1986 4 4 . Lets see, Ive put Derrick Todd Lee at a possible 17, Sean Gillis at least eight, Jeffrey Guillory at a possible 12 but it could be more, Ronald Dominique at 21, I believe, and the Jennings killer at nine or so. In January of 1973, Mr. Essex entered the Downtown Howard Johnsons Motor Lodge and began sniping from the roof the hotel. His father abandoned him in early childhood after the man struggled with alcohol addiction and mental illness. There is no evidence of an active serial killer bumping womens cars in the city, according to the Baton Rouge Police Department.