Unspeakable: A True Crime Podcast By Kelly Jennings · Envision Podcast Productions

DTL - Part 14: The Final Victim

·34 min·1 clip

Louisiana bayous hide a serial killer: Derek Todd Lee, charming mask concealing monstrosity.

This episode details the investigation into the Baton Rouge serial killer, Derek Todd Lee, focusing on the disappearance and murder of LSU graduate student Carrie Lynn Yoder. Host Kelly Jennings narrates this true crime story, emphasizing the terror in South Louisiana and the investigative hurdles. The episode chronicles the frantic police work and the killer's escalating boldness. Detectives Boyd and Sonny Stutes investigated possible links between attacks on Black women, diverging from the white victim profile. In January 2003, the task force released details of an Adidas basketball shoe, a size 10-11, sold at stores like Academy Sports, hoping to find the killer. Manual checks of cash register tapes revealed only 20 pairs were sold locally, with four cash buyers remaining unidentified. The task force conducted a DNA dragnet, swabbing white men in white trucks based on an erroneous FBI profile, which drew criticism from the ACLU. A crucial tip from a woman who named Derek Todd Lee as a stalker in July 2002 was dismissed because Lee was Black and didn't fit the profile. Carrie Yoder, a 26-year-old ecology Ph.D. student with a 3.8 GPA, was reported missing by her boyfriend, Lee Stanton, on March 5, 2003, after he found her apartment unlocked with her purse and keys inside. Investigators traced her last known movements to a Winn-Dixie grocery store on March 3rd and confirmed she was home for a 4:30 PM phone call. Her body was discovered ten days later, nude from the waist down, floating under the Whiskey Bay Bridge where another victim was found. The autopsy revealed she was manually strangled, beaten, had broken ribs, and a rape kit confirmed the presence of semen. Her identification was confirmed by a Celtic knot tattoo on her lower back and the clothing she wore. Cell phone data placed the killer's burner phone near the Whiskey Bay Bridge around 10 PM on the night of her abduction. The investigative focus on a specific Adidas shoe model, which led to only 20 local sales, highlights a meticulous but ultimately fruitless pre-digital detective process. The episode reveals a staggering oversight: a tip specifically naming Derek Todd Lee was ignored due to the racial inaccuracy of the FBI's profile. Carrie Yoder's case demonstrated the killer's changing methods, as he threw her body from a busy bridge instead of hiding it. The narrative reconstructs Carrie's final hours with chilling detail, suggesting the killer watched her through a gap in her curtains before using a ruse to get her to unlock her door. The DNA evidence, while conclusive, was useless without a match in the CODIS database, which contained only 1.7 million profiles in 2003. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, noting that a scientific breakthrough was needed to finally identify the killer. The tone is narrative and suspenseful, blending detailed factual reporting with atmospheric, almost novelistic descriptions of Louisiana. The style is educational yet emotionally engaging, aiming to convey both the investigative details and the human tragedy. True crime listeners fascinated by forensic investigations, police procedure, and the psychology of serial killers will be captivated by this detailed account. Listeners sensitive to graphic descriptions of violence against women or frustrated by systemic investigative failures might find this episode particularly distressing.

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