Serial Killer May Be Behind Louisiana Slayings of young black men
freakout
Thursday October 28 07:00 PM EDT
Serial Killer May Be Behind Louisiana Slayings
KENNER, La. (APBnews.com)-- In what may be an emerging serial killer
pattern, the bodies of young black men are piling up in a small area of
rural Louisiana, the victims asphyxiated, dumped in remote areas and, in
an odd twist, most left shoeless.
There are at least eight victims in all, though it isn't clear how many
may be linked to the same killer. A ninth death is considered accidental
by police but not by the deceased's family.
There is no hard evidence connecting the killings, but common threads
tie them together loosely. Aside from being young and black, the victims
were from poor neighborhoods. Three knew one another. Some had a history
of either taking or selling drugs. Most were killed in one place and
dumped elsewhere. Seven were found either shoeless or missing one shoe.
But the most telling feature is that each died of asphyxiation -- a
somewhat unusual way to kill, especially when the victims are men.
The bodies are surfacing just as New Orleans-area law enforcement
authorities regroup after a five-year spate of serial killings. The
crime wave left in its wake a multi-agency task force, now disbanded,
plagued by charges of corruption and mismanagement; the conviction this
year of a man for only one murder; and the still-unsolved slayings of at
least 25 women. And now, more bodies.
The Kenner killings
The most prominent cluster is in Kenner, a town in Jefferson Parish,
home to the New Orleans International Airport, strip malls and a faux
riverboat casino docked a few miles from police headquarters. Between
October 1998 and June of this year, the bodies of three young men were
found, their corpses deposited within a one-mile radius around the
outskirts of the airport, stuffed in or next to Dumpsters. All three
were shoeless, dumped in their socks.
"Our three could very well have been committed by the same person, based
on the similarities," said Lt. Steve Caraway of the Kenner Police
Department.
Police said the killer apparently removed the victims' shoes
intentionally. "It's baffling," Caraway said. "There's a lot of theories
-- maybe that's his trademark or maybe they were inside a house."
The first of the Kenner three to die was 16-year-old Joseph Brown, whose
body was found Oct. 20, 1998, across a small bridge on a dead-end road.
Brown was in gym shorts and shirtless. He'd been struck on the head
several times but died of suffocation. Police said he had cocaine in his
system. A plastic bag was found next to his head, covered with his
blood. Caraway was not sure whether the bag was used to suffocate him or
keep his blood from staining the car that presumably carried his body.
But he did know this: Whoever disposed of the body was familiar with the
area.
Rose Sparks, Brown's grandmother, said her grandson was in her trailer
watching wrestling on television the night he died. She recalled running
him out of the bedroom sometime after 10 p.m. Sparks said he was with
two boys that night and believes they know something because they won't
look her in the eye.
Selling drugs?
Police said that Brown had been recently released from a juvenile
rehabilitation facility and that he sold drugs.
"Was he into drugs?" Sparks asked rhetorically. "I don't know."
"When dark comes, I'm in the house. I don't know what they're doing. I'm
scared of the dark," she said in resignation, acknowledging that at 16,
without parents and three blocks from the projects, her grandson was
doing whatever he wanted to do.
Not much is known about the second Kenner victim. On May 30, Manuel
Reed, 20, of New Orleans was found stuffed inside a Dumpster near an
industrial strip about a mile from where Brown's body was recovered. He,
too, was suffocated and without his shirt and shoes. He also had cocaine
in his system, police said. On his right shoulder was a 5-inch tattoo of
an ankh -- the Egyptian symbol of life.
Corpse unidentified for two months
Though found within eight hours of his death, Reed's body remained
unidentified for about two months. Reed had disappeared from his
family's home, though it wasn't the first time. After he'd been missing
for 2 1/2 weeks, relatives filed a missing person's report -- two days
after his corpse surfaced.
The last of the Kenner victims was 21-year-old Angel Mejia, found June
20, about seven blocks from the Reed crime scene. Mejia, who was
strangled, was lying next to a trash bin on a dingy commercial strip
lined with engine repair shops and an adult bookstore. Caraway believes
the killer intended to throw Mejia's body in the Dumpster, but the
Dumpster was full. Ligature marks on his legs have led police to
speculate that restraints were used to move him.
Mejia had been arrested on drug-related charges, Caraway said. And like
the other two victims, he had drugs in his system, though in his case it
was marijuana rather than cocaine.
Associates said he had been living the street life, sleeping all day,
going to clubs at night and smoking marijuana. His relatives live in the
Boutte projects, but Mejia had no permanent address and stayed with
girlfriends or whomever would put him up for the night. His sister,
Andrea, said he was a good brother, sweet and upbeat.
Brian Brashear, a friend of Mejia's, said he can't believe one person
alone could have killed Mejia, who was small but "had hands" and would
fight anybody.
Brashear said Mejia did no other drugs besides marijuana, but added that
a couple of months before Mejia was killed, he showed Brashear five bags
of powder cocaine that he was trying to sell.
"Me and my boys sat down for a long time, wracked our brains trying to
think of who would've killed him," Brashear said.
Kenner police are awaiting a psychological profile of the predator from
the FBI.
Asphyxiation a signature?
Caraway noted that asphyxiation, which for the most part refers to
strangulation or suffocation, is generally not a killer's preferred
method of slaying. His comment is borne out by FBI statistics, which
show that of 15,289 murders nationwide in 1997, only 2 percent were by
strangulation or suffocation. In the 17-to-24 age group, which accounted
for 4,410 of the deaths, 34 victims were strangled and five suffocated.
But serial killers seem to have a certain attachment to strangulation.
According to a study by Tom Petee, director of criminology and criminal
justice at Auburn University, at least 25 percent of serial killers
strangle their victims. "It's kind of an intimate form of killing, hands
on, and it's a control type of killing," he said.
Petee speculates that the victims may have known the killer or were
relaxed enough -- possibly due to drug use -- to let him get close.
Kenner connection?
On Dec. 14, 1997, nearly a year before the Kenner slayings, the body of
20-year-old Gary Pierre was found along the shoulder of a road in a
remote area of nearby St. Charles Parish. Pierre was neatly dressed and
fully clothed, including his shoes. He had been asphyxiated, but there
was no evidence of trauma or drug use.
St. Charles Parish sheriff's officials acknowledge similarities to the
Kenner killings and are sharing information with police there, but say
there's nothing at this time to connect the deaths.
Mary Ann Pierre last saw her son on a Saturday morning -- the day before
his body was found -- when he was on his way to a new job at Taco Bell.
She described him as sweet, full of life, a good son, and not into gangs
or drugs, though he did have one arrest -- coincidentally for his role
as a middleman in a drug transaction for Mejia in 1997. She noted that
her son was killed before he had the chance to pick up his first
paycheck from work.
Pierre's mother is haunted by this memory: Two weeks before his death,
"He was saying, 'I love you, mom' so much it was frightening." She also
said he was drinking a lot at the time. When she asked if anything was
wrong, he said no. He was trying to join the Marines and hoping the
district attorney would lift his probation for that one arrest.
The victim's uncle, Alex Pierre, said police assertions that the killing
was drug-related are unfounded because Pierre didn't do drugs.
"They're not even trying to find out who did this," he said.
Three of the four victims -- Pierre, Brown and Mejia -- were
acquaintances and lived within walking distance of each other's homes in
or around the Boutte housing projects, about 10 miles from the Kenner
dumpsites.
Killings in nearby parishes
In addition to these four slayings, investigators are looking into at
least one more in St. Charles Parish and another three in Jefferson
Parish that bear similarities.
On July 31, 1998, Murray Ranson's body was found on Highway 3160, a
dark, desolate stretch of road lined with canals in the St. Charles town
of Hahnville. Ranson was fully clothed and badly beaten, said Capt.
Patrick Yoes of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. Ranson was
asphyxiated and died with his shoes on.
In nearby Jefferson Parish on Oct. 5, 1998, the body of Oliver Le Banks,
26, was discovered on the edge of a road about three miles from the
Kenner dumpsites. He was shirtless and wearing shorts and socks. One
shoe was off, the other nearby. Cocaine and alcohol were found in his
body, said Bill Duncan, an investigator with the Jefferson Parish
Coroner's Office. The cause of death was strangulation.
The following month, on Nov. 27, 1998, 18-year-old Bruce Williams turned
up in a ditch in Metairie, also in Jefferson Parish, about eight miles
from the Kenner victims. He had been suffocated. Williams was partially
clothed, and his shoes were found about 15 feet from his body, said Col.
John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.
Given the similarities, Fortunato said, investigators in Jefferson are
working with police in Kenner and St. Charles in an attempt to determine
whether they may all be after the same predator.
The latest victim turned up Sept. 1, lying face down in the weeds, only
a few feet from where Le Banks' corpse was discovered. Mitchell Johnson,
of Kenner, was the only victim to be found nude. At 34, Johnson was
older than the others. The cause of Johnson's death is undetermined, but
some type of suffocation or asphyxiation may have been involved,
according to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office. Cocaine and
methadone were also found in Johnson's system.
Fortunato said the three Jefferson Parish killings were "very close in
terms of similarities" and may be connected. The death has been
classified a homicide.
Homicide or accident?
Five months before the first of the bodies was recovered, 19-year-old
David Levon Mitchell was already dead and buried. As far as police are
concerned, he died of asphyxiation by drowning. There was no evidence of
a struggle or foul play and no drugs in his system. Police have closed
the case, though this was news to Mitchell's parents, who don't believe
their son died a natural death and assumed the investigation was still
ongoing.
Police didn't return calls seeking a response to complaints from the
Mitchell family.
Mitchell's body was found July 14, 1997, in a canal off highway 3160 --
a highly unusual place to swim. His parents said he was a good swimmer,
was never in trouble with the law and had a job at an area hospital.
"It was not no damn accidental death -- somebody threw him in there,"
said his mother, Leatrice Mitchell, who spent nine years as a deputy
sheriff with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Department.
Yoes would say only that Mitchell accidentally drowned. Mitchell's
parents said police believe he may have gone down the road to relieve
himself, slipped into the canal, got stuck in the mud and drowned, a
theory his mother dismisses. She also said her son was too
safety-conscious to go to such a remote area.
Two days before he was killed, Mitchell attended a party in Killona,
about five miles from where his body was found. His parents said he left
the party on foot after getting into a dispute with a man there. He was
found with his pants partially pulled down, his wallet in his trouser
pocket and wearing one shoe. A year later, his other shoe was found when
police were investigating a killing in the area.
His mom hears things on the street, including a story about the man who
got into a dispute with her son at the party and allegedly bragged about
killing him. But she doesn't bother calling police anymore, she says,
because "it goes in one damn ear and out the other."
By Kevin Heldman, an APBnews.com staff writer
(kevin....@apbnews.com).