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American Morning

Interview with Don Kelly

Aired August 01, 2002 - 07:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Baton Rouge, Louisiana now, police there warning women to be more cautious. They warn of a serial killer on the loose. Three women, all murdered in different ways over the past 10 months, violent ways, too. Police say DNA evidence does link the killings, but at this point, there is not much else to go on, and that fact has many local women frightened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAWN CAHILL, RESIDENT: It is scary, because you just don't know. I know we have somebody, a friend of ours, that she is scared to death. She went and got a dog.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Billboards also going up, offering a reward for information, this one with a picture of the latest victim, Pam Kinamore. She was found two weeks ago by the side of an interstate with her throat slit. That was back on the 16th of July. Another victim was strangled inside of her home.

A short time ago, I talked with Corporal Don Kelly of the Baton Rouge Police Department.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER (on camera): Corporal Kelly, good morning to you. We appreciate your time on this Thursday morning.

CPL. DON KELLY, BATON ROUGE POLICE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: There has been no public description given of the suspect. I'm curious to know how difficult does that make things for you right now?

KELLY: I think it makes it very difficult when you don't know exactly what you're looking for, but we've got to play the hand that's dealt with us from an investigative standpoint, and at the moment, we really don't have much of a description.

Short of what was offered and released by the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's office in the past week, which was the one witness that they heard from on their case, the Pam Kinamore homicide, who is very credible, whom they hypnotized and were able to provide a description of a vehicle and a somewhat less detailed description of a suspect driving that vehicle, who was seen transporting her body prior to it being dumped. And that was of a white '96 or '97 Chevrolet pickup truck, full-size, fleet-side. And there were some other details released about the paint job on the bumper and some other little details to try to differentiate it between every other white pickup truck out there. And the description in that case was of a white male driver, but not much more.

HEMMER: It sounds like a mammoth task there. Does this tell you that the killer is that good, or is it simply a lack of eyewitnesses that's really hampering you right now?

KELLY: Well, certainly it's a lack of eyewitnesses right now. This individual has managed, whether it's through planning or luck or a combination of the two, to avoid being seen entering or leaving the residences where these crimes have occurred, at least as far as we know.

We are not totally convinced that there is still not someone out there who does know something, who did see something and perhaps doesn't regard it as significant and hasn't called us. Or that perhaps among the hundreds of telephone leads we have received at this point that we have just not hit upon that one lead that's going to lead us to break in the case.

We do think probably there is more planning involved with this type of killer than most who kill, where it's a rather impulsive, spontaneous type of action that sometimes even the person involved in it doesn't realize they are going to commit it until a few seconds before. But I think it is also fair to say that we believe he has somewhat had luck on his side at this point. He has been luckier than we have, and we're hopeful that will change.

HEMMER: Based on your answer, I take it you think he is going to strike again, the suspect.

KELLY: We certainly hope not, and we are doing everything we can to try to make sure that that does not occur.

HEMMER: The DNA results were put out this week. Is there something other than the DNA which tells you that you can link the murders over the past 10 months between these three women, the most recent just two weeks ago?

KELLY: Not really. There were surface similarities, but it certainly was not something you would take to the bank and jump to the conclusion that the cases were related, until we were able to prove so very conclusively through scientific testing. And that's an important step investigatively speaking, because that allows basically those three cases to be treated as one in terms of the follow-up investigation. It expands the universe of evidence. It gives you more crime scene analysis that can be done.

And so our investigators are actually somewhat encouraged from a purely investigative standpoint that they have more to work with now, and that this ultimately will lead us to be able to identify the person responsible.

HEMMER: Go over the past 10 years right now. It's my understanding in Baton Rouge about 36 unsolved murder cases. How much will you go back in history to try and find some sort of similarity that may apply to the current case now?

KELLY: Well, we certainly are doing that, and I think it is somewhat misleading and it has been widely reported the 36 or 37 unsolved homicides we're working, to say that there is any indication at all that those are related. There certainly is not. That is absolutely not true.

That is not to say that there are not a few cases among those 36 or 37 or whatever number we want to use, that do have some surface similarities to the cases we have seen. So clearly, we're going back and reviewing those cases. If there is scientific testing that can be done to tell us for sure one way or another whether they are linked to the current cases, I can assure you that's being done.

But our primary focus at this point is not to speculate or jump to conclusions or make assumptions on past cases or cases outside of our jurisdiction. It's to focus on what we know, and what we know right now is that these three cases are linked. There is a wealth of information in those three cases that we're following up on. And we are trying to make sure our investigators don't lose focus on that, because that's concrete. We can take to the bank. And if we can link other cases, you know, that's great. But at the moment, the focus is on the ones that we know about that have been committed by the same person.

HEMMER: Absolute brutal murders, too, and it appears the crimes have escalated one by one by one, the three we are talking about today.

Corporal, good luck, OK?

KELLY: Thank you very much.

HEMMER: Corporal Don Kelly, Baton Rouge Police Department with us this morning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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