Coming Up Empty In Serial Search
Investigators looking for a woman's body at a house once occupied by a man suspected in the serial killings of five women came up empty after digging up a driveway.
Sheriff Austin Daniel said police planned to examine two more concrete slabs Friday.
He said both sites were connected to serial killings suspect Derrick Todd Lee, but declined to elaborate. Lee once worked for a concrete company.
Authorities said Thursday they were looking for the body of Randi Mebruer, 28, who disappeared in 1998. A one-time neighbor of Lee's told investigators that the slab was poured in the middle of the night about the time Mebruer disappeared.
At that time of Mebruer's disappearance, Lee worked for a concrete company and stayed at the house with a girlfriend. Investigators uncovered a 4-inch bone fragment from beneath the concrete slab Thursday, but it turned out to be an animal bone, authorities said.
Lee, 34, was arrested in Atlanta on Tuesday and was named as the suspect responsible for five murders in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. He is being held without bond.
The public defender's office, headed by Michael Mitchell, was appointed Thursday to represent Lee.
"We haven't handled a case that has involved the national press the way it has," he told the CBS News Early Show Friday morning, but said he's confident his office can handle it.
"You begin to defend this case as you would any other case. This is a capital murder case. I've handled capital murder cases before. And I start my investigation on this case just like any other case."
Mitchell told CBS Radio affiliate WWL-AM he is not sure yet whether he will handle the case personally or if it will be a team effort by his office.
Lee could face charges for murder and rape of the five women in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the attempted murder and attempted rape of a sixth woman in St. Martin Parish, and kidnapping and burglary.
"Mr. Lee has only been charged by law enforcement with having committed these offenses. He has not been indicted," said Mitchell. He said the state could go to the grand jury in the next three or four weeks.
Investigators were looking into other cases in at least a half dozen parishes.
Daniel said he's interested in talking to Lee about the December 2002 disappearance of Glenn Tankersley, 67. Baton Rouge police are also investigating a possible link to the murder of Christine Moore, 23, whose family has said they believe Moore was a victim of the serial killer.
Attorney General Richard Ieyoub told a local TV station that his office got warrants to search Lee's home outside of St. Francisville in the disappearance of Mari Ann Fowler, 65, and the murder of Geralyn DeSoto, 21.
Fowler, the wife of imprisoned former state Elections Commissioner Jerry Fowler, was abducted on Christmas Eve from a Port Allen sandwich shop.
DeSoto, of Addis, was beaten and stabbed to death. Her neck was slashed and her body found in January 2002.
Police in St. Martin Parish were also reviewing all cases that could fit Lee's profile, Capt. Audrey Thibodaux said.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Doug Moreau said prosecutors would seek the death penalty. He said he expected evidence would be presented to a grand jury within a few weeks.