Susan D. Mustafa - Ive Been Watching You ; The South Louisiana Serial Killer

2006 Susan D. Mustafa and Special Prosecutor Tony

Clayton with Sue Israel. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 6/12/2006

ISBN: 1-4259-1327-X (sc)

ISBN: 1-4259-1326-1 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-1102-6 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Cover design by Cathy Bond

Music Central Management

118 16th Avenue South Suite 208

Nashville TN 37203

Phone: (615) 256-0392

Fax: (615) 256-0397

Contact: Mike or

www.ivebeenwatchingyou.net

www.derricktoddlee.com

So expertly written and reportedIt scared the bejesus out of me!

Alanna Nash, author of The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley

Ive Been Watching You is just as ominous as the title sounds. It takes us into the mentally bizarre world of a real serial killer as he stalks and defiles beautiful and talented women whom he hates for being too good for him. While clearly sympathetic with the victims, the authors are never preachy or academic in their account of the long and frustrating hunt that finally brought him to justice. With its combination of first-rate reporting on actual police procedures and its novelistic eye for detail, this story is a healthy antidote to the unrealistically infallible CSI school of crime solving.

Edward Morris, reviewer for BookPage and ForeWord magazines

If you were at all affected by the terror Derrick Todd Lee brought to our beautiful city and lives, this book is a must read. The authors do not waste your time and do not waste words. Ive Been Watching You does not just tell you the story, but takes you on the journey.

Derrick Todd Lee will go down in history as one of the most difficult serial killers to catch, much less profile. This book lays all of that on the table for you. There were certain parts I read without breathing.

Jodi Carson, Clear Channel Radio, 96.1 The River

Mustafa invited horror into her home, looked it in the eye and squashed it with a creative energy used to produce a book that touches the soul.

Dave Moormann, Southeast News

Mustafas journalism background shines in this true crime book as she answers the questions for readers before they must ask. She tells the story as if she hovered overhead while it was happening, helpless as we all were to stop it. It was obvious that Mustafa walked the steps of the killer and the victims. With descriptions that could map the area, Mustafa draws pictures with her words of the terror, the crime scenes and the aftermath of each murder while keeping the victims in mind. The book holds readers by capturing their hearts, truly allowing them to know the victims and their family members. Mustafa showed that these women were wives, mothers, daughters, friends, aunts and pillars of the community in which they lived and died.

Two other authors contributed their expertise to the book so much that they share the front cover with Mustafa. Tony Clayton, who supplied the insight and tactics used to convict Lee of murdering Geralyn DeSoto, was the special prosecutor in the case of the same. And Sue Israel brought 20 years of writing and editing experience to the book. Together, this dream team created a piece of history, detailing the horror that trapped Louisiana women for months, and unbeknownst to them, years on end. This chilling sequence of events will have women locking their doors and looking around corners for days upon its completion.

Amber Reetz Narro, Ph.D., University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Contents

For the victims

On November 5, 1968, deep in the heart of bayou country, a monster was born.

In late summer 1992, Louisiana residents were busily preparing for Hurricane Andrew, which had come through Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico only a few days before. Theres nothing that can raise tensions in the middle of a humid Louisiana summer faster than a strong approaching hurricane, and residents of Baton Rouge and its suburbs hurried to stock up on last minute supplieswater, gasoline, non-perishables, and plywood and tape to protect vulnerable windows. Andrew had carved a destructive path over the Bahamas and through the lower parts of Florida and was lurking in the gulf, carefully choosing its next victims.

The townspeople in Zachary, a small town about fourteen miles northeast of Baton Rouge, were not as concerned as those who lived in lower lying areas closer to the coastlines.

Connie Lynn Warner was a bit concerned, though not about the hurricane. She was worried about the black man she had seen peeping into the windows of her home in Oak Shadows subdivision. Connie had made a report to the police and had not seen the man since, but still, she worried.

Connie had moved to the subdivision only four years before, attracted to the pretty rows of starter homes that lined the streets of the neighborhoodstreets named Job and Saul and Eli, Leviticus and Numbers, their names taken from the Bible. Connie lived on Job Avenue, on the corner, in a pretty pale brick home with a single carport and large yard. A privacy fence ran along the back edge of her property, separating her home from the backyards of those on the next street.

After many years of living with her parents, Jack and Betty Brooks, Connie was excited that she was finally making it on her own. She had divorced her husband when her daughter, Tracy, was only a baby. Zachary was the perfect place to raise the child around whom Connie had built her world.

In 1992, Zachary was much smaller than it is today, quiet and charming with old family homes situated on large properties in neighborhoods that lined country roads. There were not many commercial structures to be found beyond the towns small business sector. The Zachary Police Department sat amidst a few businesses on the main road in the center of town. As Baton Rouge experienced the exodus of many middle- to high-income families searching for better schools in which to educate their children, the town experienced a boom, and construction accelerated. But in August of 1992, Zachary still retained its small town appeal, complete with low crime rates and friendly neighbors who enjoyed easy accessibility to Baton Rouge when things became too monotonous.

Connie was unaware that the safe neighborhood filled with other single mothers and families just starting out had already become fodder for a man who lived just down Highway 964 in St. Francisville, a man who liked to watch light-skinned women with dark hair.

Oak Shadows subdivision runs alongside Azalea Rest Cemetery, whose majestic oaks proudly cast shadows over the edge of the subdivision when the sun is positioned in the west. With huge roots sprawling above ground, these expansive oaks also provide shade for those buried in rows beneath their branches. Flowers and toys surround graves whose markers denote timelines back through the 1800s. While the dead peacefully rested, young mothers in Oak Shadows subdivision hurried about their lives in blissful ignorance of the danger that lurked in the shadows of the cemetery.