Mother of Victim Reacts to Lee Arrest

May 28, 2003 -- The arrest of suspected Louisiana serial killer Derrick Todd Lee brings one victim's family little comfort after months of fear, anguish and confusion.

"It was shocking beyond belief," said Ann Pace, the mother of victim Charlotte Murray Pace.

"I was at a friend's house and they called me to the television.and it felt like I had been slammed," Pace told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

Police say Charlotte Murray Pace, 22, was one of at least five southern Louisiana women who fell victim to 34-year-old Lee in a killing spree which began in September 2001.

Pace, who at was the youngest person to graduate from Louisiana State University's business school just days before her death, was stabbed to death in her townhouse a year ago.

Ann Pace says her daughter's life could have been spared if the justice system didn't fail her.

"I was just baffled … when I read through his [Lee's] rap sheet and saw that he actually had three felony convictions by the year 2000," said Pace of Jackson, Miss.

"This need not have happened had the judicial system performed as it should have," she said.

Suspect in Trouble With the Law for 20 Years

Police and court records indicate Lee has been in trouble with the law for the last 20 years. He has been arrested and charged on various occasions with being a peeping Tom, trespassing, stalking, aggravated battery, attempted first-degree murder, criminal damage to property and attempted flight from an officer.

Ann Pace is worried that Lee's arrest will focus attention away from the memory of the young women who he is suspected of killing.

"It's a component of human nature that we are curious about the unknown and the bizarre and, certainly, this man falls in that category," Pace said.

"He'll be the focus of all the attention and the women will be incidental," she said.

Lee is a suspect in the murders of Pace, Gina Wilson Green, Pam Kinamore, Tineisha Dene Colomb and Carrie Lynn Yoder, according to the Baton Rouge police department.

Yoder was the most recent victim. The 26-year-old LSU graduate student was abducted from her home March 3 and found strangled March 13.

DNA evidence has linked her killer to the slayings of the four other women.

Ed White, brother-in-law of Pam Kinamore, the serial killer'sthird victim, said his family is relieved by Lee's arrest.

"We're ecstatic. This part of the nightmare is over," White said Tuesday night.

Lee's arrest in Atlanta Tuesday ended the manhunt in a case that triggered a 10-month DNA dragnet in which police took mouth swabbings from more than 1,000 men.