Louisiana serial killer Derrick Todd Lee dies, official says

Convicted murderer and serial killer Derrick Todd Lee died this morning at a local hospital.

Lee was on death row for a conviction in the murder of 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace.

He died shortly before 9 a.m. on Thursday, five days after he was hospitalized.

A spokeswoman for Coroner Chaillie Daniel said the “remains of Mr. Lee are now under review by a forensic pathologist”.

Lee figured prominently in an early episode of the DISCOVERY true-crime docuseries KILLING FIELDS as a suspect in the murder of Eugenie Boisfontaine, who disappeared in 1997 and turned up dead three months later.

Derrick Todd Lee’s cause of death was not immediately released.

Lee was rushed to the hospital with a medical issue, officials said earlier this week. Ann Pace says it’s good that Lee “is not on the planet”, but his death also means she can no longer fight for her daughter, Charlotte Murray Pace. The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected his bid in September, putting him one step closer to execution. She heard from one Wednesday, just keeping in touch, she said, and from others after Lee’s death was announced.

The timing of her murder and the geographic location of both her residence and where her body was found made Derrick Todd Lee a prime suspect. Jurors voted 11-1 to convict him of first-degree murder, which can bring a death sentence. But it is what it is.

This story corrects the spelling of DeSoto’s first name from Gerilyn to Geralyn.